Ask the Mayor: Gifted & Talented No More, Rikers Crisis Continues

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC and time now for our weekly Ask the Mayor call in my questions in yours for Mayor Bill de Blasio at 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280 or tweet a question. You never get a busy signal on Twitter just use the #AskTheMayor. It'll be a little shorter than usual today because our membership drive schedule dictates that. Go get your calls and tweets in right away #AskTheMayor or 646-435-7280 and good morning, Mr. Mayor. Welcome back to WNYC.

Mayor de Blasio: Thank you so much, Brian. Brian, some quick very good news for you. Official news, breaking news, city-wide hospitalization rates as of today are half of the levels they were as recently as August, and specifically at our public clinics, our public hospitals the places hardest hit by COVID this whole time. The hospitalization rates are now it says amazing hospitalization in public hospitals, lowest since the beginning of the pandemic from the very beginning to now we are now at the lowest point in our public hospitals.

Brian Lehrer: That is great and I presume you credit vaccination for that largely.

Mayor de Blasio: Unquestionably and Dr. Mitch Katz spoke about this reality that we're not we're now at 6 million New Yorkers who have had at least one dose of the vaccine and climbing Dr. Katz has done an amazing job running the public hospitals. He said this has been the difference-maker. As you've asked about many times, are we reaching deeper into the communities most affected deeper into immigrant communities, communities of color?

Now how the vaccination rate among Latinos higher than among the white population and the vaccination rate for African-Americans is growing steadily now because of the incentives and mandate. Something very powerful is happening and we're seeing it profoundly at our public hospitals.

Brian Lehrer: Let me ask you about one case on the downside of that and not to say this represents what's going on overall, but according to the city health department data on your department, so that the COVID death toll for New York City children rose this week by one child. Now, pediatric COVID deaths in the city are rare. For context and this is the 30th recorded, however, by the city since the pandemic began. I'm curious what if anything about this incident, did the child die this week or is it an earlier pediatric death that wasn't confirmed until now?

Mayor de Blasio: Well, you'll understand, Brian, regarding a specific case, it's very, very important to respect confidentiality for that family so I'm not going to go into any detail. I want to say, every situation, we look at very closely. What our healthcare leadership says is that vaccination overall is changing the entire environment for all families, all ages. Thank God, our youngest kids have been the least effected by COVID throughout, and the big news, the extraordinary news will be. We really believe in just a few weeks we'll be able to reach five to 11-year-olds with the vaccine, and we'll be ready to do that as the second we get authorization from Washington. I think that's the bigger reality.

Brian Lehrer: Now, I believe you said you're against a mandate for the kids in that age group, is that because it would be difficult to implement because some parents hearing a statistic like, 30th if I saw that number right, child deaths in the city since the pandemic began might want a vaccine mandate for kids.

Mayor de Blasio: The issue that's been raised so many times is should there be a mandate for a child to be able to go to our schools and I feel very strongly. Our healthcare team feels strongly. Our chancellor, Michelle Ross Porter Porterfield's very strongly. Our kids need to be in school. It is absolutely crucial for all elements of health physical health, mental health educationally our kids need to be in school and school has been incredibly safe.

I'm not ready, nor is the chancellor to exclude children who are unvaccinated because their parent won't let them be vaccinated. That's the reality a child doesn't get to the side. The parents have to give consent. Now, 75% of the teenagers already are vaccinated. That's a really promising sign. I think the younger children will be even a higher percentage ultimately. I'm not going to certainly not at this point, I'm not going to say a child can't come to school if they're un-vaccinated because they've been excluded from education for too long.

Brian Lehrer: Julia in Woodside, you're on WNYC with the mayor. Hello, Julia.

Julia: Hello, Mr. Mayor. I have a question for you, sir. In September 6, you were in my pleather basement with AOC and Mr. Schumer and you hugged me and told me that FEMA would take care of everything. Unfortunately, FEMA didn't give up to 34,000 to anybody and all Woodside homes. The lease amount was under 5,000 and I can't replace a water heater, a boiler, or replace all the walls, which you were in my basement and saw I had the more walls we had to remove everything because the bowl and mildew and the smell was horrific.

We finally got the smell out and I just had a refinance get money for $11,000 for a hot water heater and the boiler. I still have to replace everything. My washer, dryer refrigerator and there's no retires as I told you and you told me your wife was retired and didn't get her pension. How does this work for everybody in the community of Woodside, Queens, who were flooded from Ida?

Brian Lehrer: Mr. Mayor?

Mayor de Blasio: Julia, I remember you really, really well and we had a great conversation under a tough circumstance, but I appreciate you and I know you serve this city and I want to thank you for that. Just one factual point, my wife's not retired. It was about my mom actually, may she rest in peace? She had a pension and it was taken away. No, she had a pension from a private company, and then it was canceled while she was in retirement. I'll never forget that. Julia, look we've got to get you more help as the bottom line. I want you to give your information to WNYC I saw the destruction in your basement.

It's clearly a lot of money. We got to get you back on your feet. I'm surprised and very disappointed if FEMA is only giving people that small amount of money, we've got to fight back on that and we have other sources of funding as well. Everything from grants to no-interest loans, very low-interest loans is a variety of things obviously, most people need grants. Julia, let's get back to work, getting you more help. You need it, you deserve it. My team will follow up with you today and I think we can help you and definitely do better than what FEMA did.

Brian Lehrer: Julia, we're going to put you on hold, leave your contact information and it sounds like you're going to get some follow-up health so that's good. Cassius in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC with the mayor. Hello, Cassius.

Cassius: Hey, good morning guys. There's this ongoing crisis at Rikers is what I want to speak about. Mayor, even by your own plan, you say that, of course, the ultimate solution is to just shut it completely down and get off that island, but your own plan, doesn't call for that for like five or six years from now. We keep hearing about his reports of just this hellhole environment in there, where people are desiccating and urinating on themselves or in the space they're in because the plumbing is all screwed up and not getting enough food.

We want to hear about these practicalities being addressed today, there's still close to 6,000 or 5,000 people in there today. Can we hear about teams of plumbers being sent in there just to start improving the practicality is a bird living situation in there.

Brian Lehrer: Mr. Mayor.

Mayor de Blasio: Cassius, I can tell you're speaking from the heart and I appreciate it and for real concern, for folks whose life ended up in a bad situation and look, first, the whole approach that I tried to take is to see anyone who ends up incarcerated someone that we can help and rehabilitate. The previous administration did not do that. We now provide training and education five days a week. We provide transitional jobs when people come out of Rikers, we ended solitary confinement which was horrible and really set people back in terms of mental health and we are getting off Rikers.

I am frustrated as you are, that takes so long to build new facilities, but the good news is they will be new, modern rehabilitation oriented, safe, clean facilities. That's what has been needed for years Rikers in some parts, 85 years old, it just shouldn't exist. In terms of your question, the here and now, a lot of work has happened last few months. It's a very different reality. The plumbers have been in folks have been cleaning, painting a whole host of things, but most importantly, reducing population and we needed the state government to help us and they have population now is around 5,500.

If I get it under 5,000 for the whole correction system and then keep going down. This is the bottom line, getting people out stopping people from coming in, who shouldn't come in to begin with, like the technical parole violators, which is why the law passed in Albany was so important on that front improving the conditions, bringing the officers back. This was a big part of what went wrong.

Officers claiming to be sick, who weren't we're now being very tough on that and people are coming back by the hundreds and that's helping us change the reality. A lot of work to do, but the last thing I'd say, Cassius, is the sad reality is, I understand why the media pays attention at times and the public, but the larger reality of Rikers has been deeply troubled for decades, has never been the place that we want to be in, and this is something we've got to end once and for all. I wish it could be faster. I don't think, honestly, that's the core issue. The core issue right now is making sure that everything that happens after, we leave office, that people stay on the current schedule, and don't let it lag.

Brian Lehrer: Rory and Queens, you're on WNYC with the mayor. Hello, Rory.

Rory: Hi. I'm calling on behalf of instances that I know when I was on the board of education. Really, my question is a lot of the students and even before the pandemic were having issues when they would enter middle school, they were not getting what they needed in elementary school. What's happening is, they're entering middle school not knowing how to read and this applies more to the specialized self-contained classes, but every year they've been getting lower and lower because they not going to work in elementary school.

I was wondering if you had any plans before you leave, to try and address that or help that because for example, the District 30, cultural diversity grant, yes, that's great. No install is put into cultural diversity, but if the students can't read and they're not getting the support, I think that little more important because they're not going to be able to proceed--

Brian Lehrer: Rory, if I understand you correctly, you're talking about kids in special Ed programs in particular, is there a certain kind of additional support that you or a group of parents or teachers you know is asking for?

Rory: Basically, what happening is when the students are in elementary school, they're just not getting the reading intervention programs that they need. Even in middle schools, they're not getting the reading intervention programs that they need. They come into middle school not knowing how to read because they weren't helped the reading in elementary school, and then because the middle school doesn't have the funds for reading intervention programs. This is all of the cities, the school I have this knowledge from is a [unintelligible 00:12:18] School. They're getting students from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, name it, they come to the school. Every year the students come in lower and lower, and not knowing how to read.

Brian Lehrer: Rory, I'm going to leave it there and get you a response. Well, for all the talk about gifted and talented recently, here's the other end of the spectrum. It sounds like that Rory says at least needs a lot more attention.

Mayor de Blasio: Well, Rory is right that this is the crux of the matter, literacy. What I focus on is literacy by third grade because that's a very widely held standard among educators nationally that if a child is able to read on grade level by third grade is a great predictor of academic success going forward. If they're not, they're in trouble. This is why we did Pre-K for all, this is why we are well on the road now to Universal 3-K.

When we have every three-year-old and every four-year-old, in a classroom, getting the support they need for free in the city, you're going to the literacy dynamics change profoundly. We've already seen it. I'm not a big fan of standardized testing, but to the extent, it tells us anything, we saw that since the universal Pre-K reality came into play, readings levels are going up. We're now going to double down to Rory's point, on kindergarten, first-grade, second grade.

With a lot more reading coaches, doing everything from helping teachers to focus on literacy and focus on the kids who need help to literally tutoring and pulling out kids and giving them extra help, and that's true of Gen Ed and special Ed kids.

What Chancellor Porter is focused on is reorienting the whole school system earlier. I started it with Pre-K, now 3-K, she wants to fill in rightfully that gap kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and we front-load all of our efforts and a lot more personnel, particularly the districts that need it most to get kids on grade level by third grade. I think this is exactly where we need to focus more going forward. If you get this foundation right in a child's life, then everything else is possible.

Brian Lehrer: When you were on last week, it was the day you announced the end of gifted and talented tests and classes were elementary school, and reactions are varying depending on people's politics. I see there have been a couple of demonstrations at City Hall this week by G&T supporters. One of the things they've been arguing is that both your kids went to a G&T Middle School in Brooklyn, MS 51, I think, and the selective high schools speaking in Stuyvesant.

They see you as at least having been willing to benefit from the system you now say is discriminatory and at worst as they characterize it, pulling up an opportunity ladder after your kids benefited from it. How would you respond to those critiques?

Mayor de Blasio: I want to respond, I want to also correct the record that Dante went to--

Brian Lehrer: Oh, Brooklyn Tech. Sorry, I said Stuyvesant.

Mayor de Blasio: They call themselves Tech Knights. Very proud, not Stuyvesant. Listen, I understand if people say, "Hey, look at those schools." We want the best for everyone. That's exactly the impulse. That's why I think specialized high schools and I fought for this in Albany and met with incredible resistance. Specialized high schools need to be much more representative of all our kids. We're changing the screen schools, including places like some of the schools my kids went to, we're changing the admissions to bring in a much greater diversity of kids. Gifted and talented, we're saying all 65,000 kindergarteners.

Listen to the fundamental fact right now, Brian, 2500 Kids each year, this was the model I received from the Bloomberg administration. I needed a plan that would actually work as an alternative. Chancellor Porter gave it to me, instead, of 2500 kids a year getting gifted and talented education, we're going to evaluate all 65,000 kindergarteners. These are kids now who more and more will have had Pre-K and 3-K ahead so they'll be in really a stronger academic shape, and we're looking for their gifts. We're looking for all of their gifts.

A lot of kids don't get into a gifted and talented program now because precisely 62,500 don't get in and 2500 do. It's incredibly exclusive and unhelpful. We're valuing every child, one child might be really advanced in math, but no other subjects, great. Let's help them keep playing out that talent math. Some other child might have talent across the board and ability, let's keep working with them to maximize those abilities, but it should be for every child.

The vision we put forward, which now is going to go through a couple of months of parental involvement, engagement community conversations, is to start with everyone, and then over the years as we see kids who really have that opportunity, learn and accelerated fashion, it shouldn't be 2500 a year. We think it's more like 25,000 per year when you get to third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade.

Brian Lehrer: One more call before we run out of time. Crystal in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC with the mayor. Hello, Crystal.

Crystal: Hi, thank you. My landlord son who's the manager of the building I live in Greenpoint, sexually assaulted me in the hallway of the Kings County Housing Court. I've been savagely harassed by my landlord, her son, and their acting agents in many other ways for the past five years as retaliation for filing a rent overcharge claim to which I recently won. I've been reporting all of these incidences to the police from day one. Not only do I receive apathy and negligence, I received full on this conduct.

I'm victim-blamed and gaslit. I was told once by Lieutenant that I was going to be arrested if I kept calling for help. Sorry, I lost, okay. I've reported this to all city and state agencies with oversight to help me and I get no correspondence more apathy and negligence, or well wishes. In 2019, New York State enacted a penal law that defines the harassment of a rent-regulated tenant as the interference or disturbance of comfort, peace and repose, and quiet of such tenant in an effort to get them to vacate their apartment.

Brian Lehrer: Crystal, this obviously sounds horrific. The clocks going to run out on us. Do you have a specific ask of the mayor?

Crystal: Yes, I do. Yes, I don't have access to this law because my precinct has been stonewalling me. Mayor, you and other elected vehemently claim New York has zero tolerance for unscrupulous landlords. If someone like me, a tenacious citizen who speaks English fluently and has zero dependents can't access this law, it's been in effect for two years, would hope to the disabled person, a senior citizen and immigrant, a single parent have been protected and attained justice.

Mayor de Blasio: Crystal, as Brian said, it sounds horrific what you've been through, and really, I'm just very, very pained to hear what you've been through, and we've got to find a way to help. Look, two things, in terms of what we do to protect tenants, we have a very, very aggressive office of tenant protection that provides free legal services and has done a lot to fight back against bad landlords. That's one piece of the answer.

Your situation, there's a lot you've just said, I want our law department to talk to you directly at a senior level. You can expect that call today. Please give your information to WNYC.

Look, if anyone in the police department handled things inappropriately, there will be action taken, but the immediate issue here is to make sure that whatever help and support that you deserve gets to you, so let me have someone senior follow up with you today and hopefully we can help you quickly.

Brian Lehrer: Crystal, hang on, we will take your contact information off the air. That is all the time we have for today, Mayor. Mr. Mayor, thank you as always, talk to you next week.

Mayor de Blasio: Thank you, Brian. Take care.

 

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