( AP )
Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President and 2021 Democratic candidate for NYC mayor, makes his pitch to voters to elect him mayor, ahead of the November general election.
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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. With me now is the Brooklyn Borough President and Democratic nominee for mayor, Eric Adams. As you know, Borough President Adams won the Democratic primary in June and is now running in the general election. Those of you who signed up for mail-in ballots earlier in the year have now started receiving them and you can mail them back whenever you want. In reality, election day has now begun in New York City.
We had the Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa with us yesterday. Today, we'll ask Borough President Adams to compare and contrast with some of the things Mr. Sliwa said yesterday on topics including white privilege, affordable housing, gun violence, and more. As we do listeners, we're opening the phones for some candidate questions from you for Eric Adams at (646) 435-7280, (646) 435-7280, or tweet a question @BrianLehrer. Hi, Borough President. Thanks for doing a general election candidate segment. Welcome back to WNYC.
Eric Adams: Hey Brian, how are you? If I would have followed through on my singing lessons, I would sing happy birthday to you but I don't want to lose votes by being off-key.
Brian: Eric Adams pays attention to the fine print in the press that mentions people's birthdays. Thank you very much. You got nominated in no small part because of your positions on both fighting crime and fighting racism in the NYPD. I'll mention some specific things that Mr. Sliwa said yesterday and ask for your positions. He said on the show he advocated lowering the age of charging someone as an adult, in a violent crime like a shooting, down to age 16. He said the rise in shootings recently largely involved shootings by teenage gang members who know they don't face many consequences as juveniles. Do you agree or disagree with that analysis of the shootings increase? Do you agree or disagree with, to lower the age proposal for charging teens as adults?
Eric Adams: I think that what we have fought for on the state level and many have pushed throughout the years about lowering the age is the right direction to go. We should continue to do that. The goal is a multifaceted approach. I've stated this several times when I was campaigning, it's about intervention and prevention. Everyone wants to talk about one aspect of that.
We have to stop the flow of guns in our community by having a joint task force, federal state, and city levels. Then we have to look at why do we have so many guns on our streets and why are children participating in violence as a holistic approach to it. Clearly, Curtis has not looked into this. He has not sat down with experts, he has not partnered with people who have been in this space a long time. It's easy to just run on a sound bite but there needs to be some substance to dealing with violence in our city.
Brian: Does that include a no from you to the idea of lowering the age for charging somebody, as an adult, to 16?
Eric Adams: Yes, it does. We've been there before. We've already done that. That space has already been talked about and debated. There's a reason we are dealing with how we're responding to violence right now in the city.
Brian: Mr. Sliwa's most pointed criticism of you on gun violence was that you've said as mayor, you would personally carry a gun. He said that's the wrong message to send to many young men in the city who think a gun is part of their road to manhood, and then that winds up in more shootings. Does he have a point?
Eric Adams: No, he doesn't. One of the most challenging aspects of this campaign Brian, in the general election from the primary, is that I came off a primary with some well thoughtful individuals who had a good healthy debate. It's challenging for me to engage in the conversation with a person who acknowledged that they made up stories about crime so they can get popularity that is doing antics every day during the [unintelligible 00:04:30].
My message was clear. During the shootings in churches and synagogues and mosques that off-duty police officers who are licensed to carry every day when they attend their houses of worship, they should coordinate with the clergy leaders and be there to safeguard those who are attending. I still stand by that position, but we're going to have to endure the antics of a person that thinks that this is a circus for the next four weeks. I'm going to tolerate it because that's the process, but can we take Curtis Sliwa serious on anything based on his history in this city.
Brian: On that, you are trusting that young men in the city will be able to distinguish between a former police officer who carries a gun for legitimate public safety reasons and the idea that guys carry guns. You're trusting that, right?
Eric Adams: Without a doubt. People may not be aware, for the New York City Police Department, retired or active is licensed to carry a gun 24 hours a day as I stated during the debate. I was able to stop a very violent robbery while off duty because I was carrying my firearms. Every day men and women of the law enforcement agencies in the city, they are able to protect the public based on what the state has determined on who should carry a firearm or not. Well-trained police officers that understand how to use their guns appropriately are allowed to carry 24 hours of the day. It does not send a message to young men that your manhood is attached to a firearm. That is silly, I don't buy that and I'm not going to buy that.
Brian: Jorge in Sunset Park, you're on WNYC with Eric Adams. Hello Jorge.
Jorge: Hey Brian, how's it going? Mr. Adams, you recently came down to my neighborhood, and we're talking about a plan to turn hotels into affordable housing, working-class housing. Obviously, that's something that a lot of my neighbors care a lot about. It's a neighborhood that's experienced a lot of gentrification. I'd like to hear more of the details about it and particularly how it might differ from some of the plans that the current mayor has put forward which unfortunately for our neighborhood really hasn't resulted in much affordable housing for us. Like to hear a little bit more about that plan.
Eric Adams: Thank you very much. Yes, we stood in front of a boarded-up hotel. According to one study, we have about 25,000 rooms that are available for affordable housing in the city, and particularly in the outer boroughs. We know that many of these hotels are not going to rebound after tourism return in the outer boroughs. Instead of turning them into homeless shelters which you know from your community many of these hotels were built to be homeless shelters. Instead of doing that, we want to move away from this homeless shelter model to giving people real affordable housing. My first apartment was a kitchenette. It was small but it was mine. It was something that gave me the pride to move into eventually a co-op and then into a multi-family building.
That is what we want to do. We want to buy these hotels, retrofit them, turn them into single apartments so that people can have apartments to live in, permanent housing at affordable rate. It's cheaper to retrofit a hotel than building from ground up, and it takes a shorter period of time to accomplish that task. I believe it's a real win. Many of the housing advocates that sat with me, they stated it was a real win also because we got it from our housing advocates.
Brian: All right. Here's a homelessness question from Marty in Lakewood. Marty, you're on WNYC with Eric Adams. Hello.
Marty: Hello. Good morning Mr. Mayor and Brian. I've been working with the shelters for the last 10 years as far as placing some of the infirm people, people with diabetes, asthma into assisted living facilities. I am a referral and placement counselor, and I talk to the people face to face, and then find out what area they would like to move into. I help place them. Some of the people that are-
Brian: Marty, forgive me because we have limited time with Eric Adams. I noticed by the way you called him Mayor Adams, I'm sure he would like to jump right ahead to January 1st where that's likely to be the case, but he's Candidate Adams at the moment. Marty, what's your specific question?
Marty: I would like to find out if the mayor can help me work more directly with the people at the shelters to help place the infirm people into assisted living.
Brian: Thank you very much. If you are elected mayor, could you help Marty to help people do that?
Eric Adams: First of all, and I agree with you Brian, you don't win a baseball game in the eighth inning. The ninth inning is November 2nd and I'm focused on that and I concur. Second, I think what Marty has raised is something that we have failed to examine. I believe and my team is looking at the fact that there may be federal dollars that we can use by placing people in assisted living facilities, particularly those with long-term comorbidities.
If you were to do an analysis of those who are in many of our shelters, they have long-term ailments such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension. I believe we can not only use the adult daycare facilities but also assisted living facilities. I think there are new dollars out there if we think differently about attaching this problem. The homeless population are also dealing with other crises that the federal government can assist us in addressing our homeless issue.
Brian: Mr. Sliwa yesterday said one of his solutions to street homelessness would be to improve the quality of services delivered at shelters, therefore providing incentives for people to get off the streets voluntarily. He said it would be compassionate to have better shelter specifically for the sake of people with mental illness or substance abuse issues who could get proper treatment. I'm curious how much you're saying the same thing in your last answer or if you think that's a bad idea.
Eric Adams: Well, of course, we must deal with the services that are needed in our shelter, but we also need to understand what street homelessness looks like. If you don't sit down and speak with the advocates, people who have spent their entire lives looking at this issue then you're going to walk away with, again, just sound bite. Street homelessness is dealing with a large population that are experiencing mental health issues. To get that person off the street, it comes with trust, it comes with building that trust, it comes with partnering with institutions like Fountain House and others, understanding the system of wraparound services, how do you get a person off the street.
Many men and women who are in shelters, or who are doing street homelessness and don't want to go to shelters, there's a reason for that. You can't just look at it and come up with an idea without talking to those who have been in this space for a long time. I just have to keep highlighting, Brian, I spent three and a half years of sitting down, speaking with experts in this field because they understand how to fix these problems.
Brian: I asked Mr. Sliwa yesterday if he thinks white privilege exists especially in the economy and if so, what would he do to combat it? He singled out as his main way to combat white privilege in the economy, charter schools, parochial schools, and vocational schools. Let me ask you the same question, do you say white privilege exists in the economy and what would you emphasize as the road to more economic equality in the city?
Eric Adams: Well, I think we have, what's in our city, a systemic racism that's built into how our agency performs and carry out the delivery of goods and services. That is what we must focus on. At the heart of ending the inequalities that we see in our city and really across the country is dealing with education. Education is crucial in so many different levels. We're in a city where 65% of Black and brown children are not meeting proficiency every year in the Department of Education. It's our largest budget. 30% of our budget goes on the Department of Education yet we keep producing an inferior product, that's not acceptable.
The goal is how do we really examine education to change the pathway of our children? Number one, we need to reintroduce CTE programming. Those technical skills that can allow certificates so that people can be gainfully employed, we need to do so. Return the joy of learning, we have amazing teachers in our schools that are not getting the resources and support on the ground level. Stop the conversation that education is K–12, education is pregnancy to profession.
We must ensure that every level of education is supported and connected so we could have the continuation of how we educate our children, prepare them for the future. Do things like dyslexia screening. 30% of the prison population in this country according to one report is dyslexic. 55% of Rikers Island inmates have learning disabilities. We're setting our children up for failure by not giving children and families the support that they need.
Brian: On systemic racism, I asked Mr. Sliwa about the nine suspensions in the fire department recently revealed for racist acts after the police killing of George Floyd last year and he saw that as a case of individual bad apples who needed to be dealt with. I'm curious if you see it as a sign of a more systemic problem of racism in the FDNY or for that matter in the uniformed services in general including the NYPD.
Eric Adams: Well, I dedicated my life as a police officer for 22 years fighting against the systemic racism that exists and just really how we perceive everyday New Yorkers. It's difficult for Curtis to talk about the systemic racism because he has been a leading voice of being a racist. It's a challenge for him to address something that's systemic. I'm not afraid to point out where systemic racism exists.
We have a problem on how we treat not only uniformed services but how do we treat employees in the city of New York? Black and brown women were paid less than their male counterparts for doing the same services? When you look at the discipline that is handed down in all of these agencies, you have a larger number of disciplines that's handed down with Black and browns promotion where our managerial positions in the city of New York. We have a problem of dealing with how we treat various ethnic groups and we have to be honest about it in order to correct our course.
Brian: You just call Mr. Sliwa racist. I asked him yesterday about his various character issues like having fake crimes and Guardian Angel's heroics around those fake crimes and getting suspended from NY1, for sexual comments about city council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and the racism that he was forced to acknowledge in his wearing a sombrero to depict Latino immigrants on NY1 segments. His response was that he's apologized for all those things. To ask you about the five years in which you said only positive things about Louis Farrakhan, that somebody who's considered antisemitic, anti-white, and anti-LGBTQ as Sliwa would describe him. What would you say about your relationship at any time Farrakhan or the Nation of Islam?
Eric Adams: Well, number one, I was endorsed by The Jewish Press, the Jewish Voice. I received the largest voting population from the Jewish community than any candidate that was in the race, from Williamsburg to Borough Park to Flatbush to Rockaway. My record on LGBTQ issues is outstanding. My coalition of various ethnic groups speaks for themselves. People know Eric, and that is why I was able to bring together an amazing coalition that everyone has acknowledged.
When you talk about Louis Farrakhan, I was never a member of the Nation of Islam. I believed in the crime-fighting methods that they use and that's what I attempted to get the city to look at how do we want to ground and deal with public safety during those periods of times when we were dealing with real violence in our city. I do not subscribe to any of the hate speech that anyone of any group will put out and Curtis knows that. He's aware of what I have done in this city for so many years, even fighting to allow the Guardian Angels to patrol our subway system. They came to me when they were being denied the right to do so and I stood up in defense of them because I defend mistreated in this city.
Brian: One more call. I know, we're almost out of time. Daniel in Manhattan, we have 20 seconds for a quick question from you for Eric Adams. Hi, Daniel.
Daniel: Hi. Thank you. Mr. Adams, you had a very, very, very close election in your primary and you had promised to move forward and unify your democrats in your party. How did you plan on unifying while you're out raising money? How do you unify all of us to come and vote for you and give you a mandate? I'll take the answer off here. Thank you.
Brian: Thank you.
Eric Adams: I hate the fact that Brian, and you heard me say this over and over again, that we have to raise money to run for office. That is the greatest blemish on politics in this country. I'm the only candidate that calls for a 100% public finance election. I stated from the beginning, I will give back every dollar I had to raise of making hundreds of thousands of calls, doing fundraisers. No one enjoys this in politics.
I am going to push if I'm fortunate enough to be the mayor, to have our city become one of the few places where you don't have dollars in politics. No more calling to raise money. Right now, you do have to go up on television which costs millions of dollars, radio ads, paying for staffs and teams, that's part of the process. While doing so, I have been all over the city dealing with the important issue of the [sound cut] office and holding my current office.
Yes, there is a unification of the parties. You witness many of the rallies that we've had with my other electorates that may have philosophical disagreements in certain areas with me, but they mobilized around me. They stated that "Eric is the person we're going to work together with to bring our city in a place where inequalities, become a safe place to raise children and families and grow our business."
I'm excited about that. I'm excited about the support from Carlos Menchaca and the Sunset Park area, to my colleagues up in Washington Heights throughout in Queens. The party has come around my candidacy, and I appreciate them doing so because they know my history.
Brian: Borough President Eric Adams, thanks for another candidate segment. We really appreciate it. In what is looking like the very likely event that you are elected, we look forward to having you on as mayor.
Eric Adams: I look forward to it as well. Enjoy yourself a nice vegan birthday cake. Happy birthday to you.
Brian: Maybe next time we'll talk about how you became a vegan. Thank you very, very much.
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