NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- As Mayor Eric Adams’ 100th day in office arrives this Sunday, the mayor spoke with 1010 WINS on Friday about some of the top issues on New Yorkers’ minds, including crime, homelessness and recovering from the pandemic.
Below are excerpts from the interview on 1010 WINS’ Newsline with Brigitte Quinn. You can listen to the full interview here:
ON CLEARING OF HOMELESS ENCAMPMENTS:
I’m not open to continuing to allow people to live in an inhumane environment. When you looked at some of those tents inside. Human waste. Drug paraphernalia. Needles. No access to showers, change of clothing. This is unacceptable. And I am really reaching out to my homeless advocates and saying, “Please come and join me.” To convince our fellow New Yorkers that living in a tent, living in a cardboard box is inhumane and we have better conditions that they can live in. And that is why I need my homeless advocates. We can do this together.
ON VISITING HOMELESS PEOPLE:
14th Street in Manhattan in the subway system. A gentleman was living all the way at the far end of the track. I sat down with him, talked with him, found out that he was actually a person who lost his job. He was afraid of the shelters. And I showed him one of our brochures and said, “This is what the shelters look like now.”
And again in Manhattan, down in the Bowery area. A young lady was there walking the streets. She was living in a cardboard box. I engaged in a conversation with her and told her. And she was surprised. She says, “I can’t believe the mayor is here speaking with me.” This was 4 a.m. in the morning. And you know what, I don’t see others who are stating that people should be able to live in the street—I don’t see them out there doing this.
I know we have to get on the ground to resolve this problem and give those with mental health illnesses the wraparound services they deserve. These are our fellow New Yorkers. I’m not going to continue to walk by and ignore the fact that they should not be living in this environment.
ON CRIME & NYPD ANTI-CRIME UNITS:
I grade myself in a very harsh way, because I’m hard on myself, because this job calls for us to get results. I think we have an "I" in progress—not incomplete, but in progress. These are generational problems that are finally materializing across our country, not only in New York. You’re seeing the over proliferation of guns, the failure of the education system, the impact of COVID, particularly on mental health. This is impacting our nation and New York is going to show how we can turn it around.
What does that look like? NYPD has removed over 1,000 guns off the streets in the last 90-something days. My anti-gun unit in the first few weeks out they removed close to 30 guns and made over 100 arrests. So it’s about stop the normalization of the quality of life and crime in this city. So we need help from Albany and Washington D.C. I commend the lawmakers in some of the decisions that they have made in public safety, which many people thought it was not possible to get done. But we have more to do. There’s more to do to make sure that we make our city safe, as well as dealing with the mayoral control issue that we believe is important.
ON ALBANY’S CHANGES TO BAIL REFORM:
There’s more to do. And remember several weeks ago when I went to Albany, people thought it was impossible. And I knew New Yorkers sent me with a mission to talk with state lawmakers, because New Yorkers knew we had to deal with some of the criminal justice reform. Not to go backwards to the over-abuse of criminal justice. But also not to go backwards to 2,000 homicides a year in our city.
So we have more to do in the next couple of months. I’m hoping lawmakers will look at this issue as well as the important issues that’s facing New Yorkers. Now in the bail, if the items that are emerging are true, there’s also a real victory for New York City. My "people plan" talked about childcare dollars, talked about earned income tax credit, tax rebate for citizens. So we do have some wins there, but as I commend the lawmakers on public safety, I want to be clear that there’s more to be done because New Yorkers must be safe.
ON DROPPING MASKS FOR KIDS 5 AND UNDER:
I want to drop it. I feel more urgent about dropping that mandate more than others. Trust me when I tell you that I want to see the faces of our children. But as I stated, I must move with the science and my healthcare team that I speak with every morning. We were going to announce it on the Monday that passed, but as you know, this new variant is increasing a little. We believe it's going to stabilize, and we’ll be able to remove the masks for those under 5. This is important for me to do, but I must do the right thing, so we don’t go backwards in our city.
I’m totally at the mercy of my health team. They stated that we’ll continue to look at the numbers. Once they are comfortable and give me the orders, I’m chomping at the bit to get it done. I’m hoping that we can do it within a week or so, but it’s really dependent on how this new variant responds.
ON BEING CONFRONTED IN THE STREETS:
What’s interesting is I’m an ex-cop. I’m confronted all the time. I’ve been booed, I’ve been yelled at, I’ve had things thrown at me. I think it’s all part of New York. People are expressing their emotions. As long as they do it in a peaceful, respectful way we should be prepared to do that every day.
As I ride the trains or walk the streets, New Yorkers are extremely opinionated, and they share their emotions sometimes. I understand that, because these are emotional times. I don’t take it personal. If someone is outside a Broadway theater, a restaurant, or see me on the train and they give me their opinion, overwhelmingly you know what I receive? I receive a thumbs up. That’s what I receive the majority of times on the street. People know my passion and love for New York City and if every once in a while somebody wants to call me a name because they disagree with me, that’s part of the job. And I have a thick skin because this is where New Yorkers expect to have a thick skin.
ON WHAT’S MOST SURPRISING ABOUT THE JOB:
How much New Yorkers love their city and how much I love New York. I think we are resilient, and you are watching the greatest comeback. When you look at a few years ago, we were shut down, there was a level of uncertainty. A question mark lingered over the potentiality of New York recovering. That question mark has now straightened to an exclamation point. That we are going to recover, and the result and evidence of that we see every day. And I just love the resiliency of New Yorkers.
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