Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears on 94.7 The Block's 'Jonesy In The Morning'

May 1, 2024

Tarsha Jones: Mayor Eric Adams is on the line. He didn't make the funeral yesterday because he got sidetracked. The protesting that's been going on in the Ivy Leagues. It was a lot going on, but we needed you where you were at the - wait, good morning.

Mayor Eric Adams: Good morning. How are you, sister?

Jones: Not bad. I'm doing all right. Thank you for the wonderful, the lovely note that you sent on your behalf of Mister Cee's family. It was read, and there was not a dry face in the place. Thank You.

Mayor Adams: Yes, I know. Real loss for all of us. It's when you lose someone that makes a major impact on your life both professionally and personally, it just impacts us. It just gives us a real strength to go on, because they did their part. We are here for a reason, not a season. He did his reason, and we need to move on and celebrate his life.

Jones: And keep him with us. I agree. Thank you for that again. Between the last time we spoke to you, callers call and sometimes they ask if they can ask you questions. One of the questions that came up was about the disparity in the parking in wealthier neighborhoods. If people don't move their cars, they're penalized. In the less affluent, in the hood, people's cars, it's like the cops don't care, and the cars get ticketed, and they get stickers on them. I guess there's a parking disparity based on the economics. Can you speak to that, why that happens?

Mayor Adams: I'm not sure where that caller got it from, but they should definitely reach out to me at City Hall if there's [an] area where there's a problem. A sister reached out to me at one of the town halls where she stated, "People are not moving their cars because of the alternate side of the street rules and you're unable to clean the street." We took a trip over there later in the week, and she was right, that cars were not being moved, and we took appropriate action.

You could have rules in place, but remember humans enforce rules. Sometimes humans have their own agenda, but we have one rule, you got to move your vehicle so the streets can be clean. It doesn't matter what community you are in. One rule, one consistency. If they have a problem in an area, please reach out. We follow up on all of these items whenever we hear about them.

Jones: Thank you for addressing, acknowledging it, and not downplaying it. Moving on. I saw you on an airplane being approached by a person that acted like she was a fan, and she said, "Oh, are you the mayor?" Then she went on to blame you for - What was she blaming you for? I forgot, but I want to say, first of all, thank you for not being in first class because that would've been the headline.

Mayor Adams: Listen, that happens all the time, when people will step to you and you just have to maintain a lot of discipline. I don't know if she was intoxicated or what. She just went on this rant. When you hear it all the time, you just sit back, enjoy your ride. I said, "I don't want my plane ride to be delayed or postponed." They wanted to throw her off the plane, and I said, "No, I'm trying to get back to the city."

You know what I understand, so just that I'm clear on, it's not about Eric. It's about people are hurting, and they push their pain off on whoever is the symbol of authority. I'm the mayor of the largest city in the country. 8.3 million people, 35 million opinions. Everybody has an opinion in this city. I've just got to do my thing and enjoy the role of saving the lives of people that make this city continue to recover.

Jones: I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Your role got a little complex yesterday when the cops pulled up and locked up the Columbia University students, the pro-Palestine protesters. What was that like for you? Got to be careful.

Mayor Adams: First, this has been brewing for some time. I was updated a few days ago with clear evidence that professional agitators have co-opted this entire movement. My intelligence division, we have a part of the Police Department that gathers intelligence. When they sat down with me and gave me concrete evidence that there were outside agitators, professionals that were on the ground really co-opted this entire movement. The school started to identify that a substantial number of people on the campus did not even attend the school.

Then we saw the breaking-in of the Hamilton Hall and destruction of property. They reached out to us and said, "Listen, we need you to come in and help us." I remember they first said they did not want the police, but once they understood the significance of the moment, they called us, and we moved in and eradicated what we believe was a threat not only to those students, the faculty as well, not only on Columbia, but also CUNY.

Listen, protest is good. I protested before. I protested against apartheid as a young man. I protested when Amadou Diallo was shot and killed, and so many other times. This is not about protesting. This is about hatred and not allowing our young people to be radicalized. There's a radicalization movement taking place across the globe of young people. We can not allow that to happen. That's a real problem if it takes root here.

Jones: We're on the phone with Mayor Eric Adams. We're going to take a quick break and come back, because you've got some celebrating happening over there, and we'll talk about why when we return to Jonesy on 94.7 The Block.

[Music break.]

With Mayor Eric Adams, aka Eazy-E. I wanted you to talk about the new initiative you just kicked off concerning hate since we're talking about the protesting and the involvement of the police on Columbia University. Other campuses are doing this as well, but can you speak to that?

Mayor Adams: Yes, and I'm sure you know, sister, coming out of COVID, there has been just a real painful moment for young people. I can only imagine two years of your life that was hijacked, social isolation, unable to interact with your friends. We're seeing a high level of suicidal ideations, a high level of depression, a high level of really just destructive actions. What Chancellor Banks is doing, we are putting in place a real initiative to look at all forms of hate.

It's not just antisemitism, it's attacks on LGBTQ+ community, attacks on our Sikh community, African Americans, our Asian population, AAPI community. We want to go into our schools and target our young people so that they can start understanding what is these -isms, how people feel when we attack each other, criticize, and harmful to each other. We don't understand that school is not just academics, it's emotional intelligence. That needs to be part of the development of the full personhood of children. Chancellor Banks is kicking this off. We're looking forward to really engaging our students to use the classroom as a place to develop their personhoods.

Jones: I appreciate that. Oftentimes, the political powers to be don't get that deeply involved in that and breaking down where the pain or where the behavior stems from. I applaud you for that.

Also, for stepping in where the protesting is concerned, because I believe the graduating college class now was the COVID class that didn't see a graduation years ago. With all the interruption of the protest, with the protesting, a lot of these universities are being forced to cancel their graduation ceremonies or downscale them or make them in a very private setting which is not fair to the kids that missed their graduation four years ago.

Mayor Adams: Well, that is well said.

Jones: Thank you. Every voice deserves hearing, but there's a time and a place, maybe, I guess. I don't know.

Mayor Adams: No, no, that's well said. I didn't even realize that, but you're right. This is the COVID graduating class. Many of them are just really dealing with the trauma of COVID. I could only imagine two years not being able to go to my graduation, not being able to go to my prom, not being able to be with my friends. During that period of time, it was a very impressionable period of time. We want to also make sure they have a well-landing place.

As you know, Black unemployment, when we came into office, was through the roof. We saw a 24 percent decrease in the unemployment rate among Blacks. For the first time since 2019, the numbers dropped under 8 percent because we're doing these NYC jobs and hiring halls.

We're going into the community, and really bringing jobs to people, not waiting for them to try to find a job. When someone is gainfully employed, they can see the promises of tomorrow and the promises of the future for their families.

Jones: Jobs NYC. Jobs NYC. If somebody's out there going now, "Where? Where is this?" A lot of y'all are turning down jobs. You're getting fancy-schmancy and saying, "I won't do that. I don't want to have to leave my house," because COVID got [you] too comfortable on the couch.

I appreciate you, mayor, and your office and your colleagues. Thank you for checking in every week. Ladies and gentlemen, Mayor Eric Adams. Be safe out there.

Mayor Adams: Thank you, sister. Take care.

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