Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live On Soul City Network’s “Urbanology”

April 16, 2024

Tony Rogers: Mayor of New York, Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Hey, brother. How are you, man?

Rogers: I'm doing well. I'm doing well. Every time I turn on the news, I say, "God, I'm glad somebody like him can do that, to handle that." I had a talk with Regina Wilson yesterday, she was the first Black head of the Vulcans, and she was telling me about her struggles. I said, "Yes, between the Fire Department and the Police Department, you've seen a number of things." I have to congratulate you, sir, for how you're handling it. You're doing us proud. One of the things I would like to do is, you usually are talking about controversy and issues that you get hit more so than other mayors get hit.

Nevertheless, I would like for this time that we have for you to focus on some of the things that you feel have improved the quality of life, not only for Black and Brown people but for New Yorkers as a whole, because I don't think you get a chance to talk about that as much.

Mayor Adams: Yes, thank you so much, brother. Let me say this. I was sitting down with Joe and my son, we were having breakfast and he said, "Dad, we got to deal with some of the problems in the city and have some victories." We started engaging, and I started giving him a list of our victories. What I hear all the time is he was like, "Wow, I didn't know that." Because what has happened is that three things are happening in the city that basically has taken all the oxygen out of the room and reshaped the narrative. One is the mental health crisis, the severe mental health crisis.

The other is this thing called recidivism of small number of people that are repeatedly committing crimes, particularly in the Black and Brown community. Thirdly, the severe or the random acts of violence.

Because of those three things, it has created this feeling of that all of the stuff that we have been successful on has become mute. It has taken away the narrative. When you start looking down at the W list, brother, it is unbelievable in two years, what we have accomplished. I inherited the city that crime was moving at a 40 percent increase in crime. Those who are the independent observers of how we're doing financially, did not want to invest in the city.

People were not back on our subway system. We were dealing with unemployment issue that was at a dismal level. Children were not being educated at the level that they ought to be. Just so much. Look where we are two years later, brother, two years later. We have more private sector jobs than the history of the city. We covered all the jobs from the pandemic. The independent financial observers raised our bond rating because of how I'm making tough decisions in managing the city.

We have the fourth largest tourism back in the history of the city. We did more housing in one year in the history of the city. More people got housing through FHEPS vouchers in the history of the program. More people went from homeless shelter to permanent housing in the history of the city. We've placed more young people from foster care that are enrolling in college because of our fair future and giving them life coaches and mentors until they're 21 instead of abandoning them at 18.

When you look at all of these numbers, outpacing the entire state in reading and math and writing, closing the equity gap among Black and Brown children in the city, decreasing homicides, double-digit shootings, brought down five of the major states, seven major crimes, crime is down, jobs are up. We got the World Cup coming here, what we're doing around housing, we have the largest housing project in Willets Point in over 40 years. You just keep looking and checking off.

Brothers, I want to be real honest with you and candid with you. People didn't think I could do it. They saw this young man grew up in South Jamaica, Queens, dyslexia, struggling from a single-parent household. They said, "How is this guy, former cop, 100 Blacks in law enforcement, who care, how is he going to come in and run a city of this magnitude?" Here's the secret. One, I dealt with the abandonment and the betrayal by government from the time I was a little boy and I knew how we could fix and make cities run.

Two, my computer technology background showed me how to put systems in place. I was a programmer in my early years as a police officer. Three, I'm going to work hard. I'm not going to beat you with brilliance, I'm going to beat you with endurance. Nobody is going to out-broke me and I'm never going to surrender, never going to give up. The accumulation of all of that has created this 110th mayor. Learn from David Dinkins, and I'm going to move this city forward.

Rogers: Well, again one of the things that I am happy to be able to do is present a forum. Again, these types of things can be said. What's dear to me, Mr. Mayor, is one, I learned when I was at City College as a junior that I suffered from dyslexia. I never knew it, but I was able to survive and I wrote an article about it, my cousin was the publisher of the Harlem Community News, which I know you know because you're into that.

I wrote an article about that and indicated how happy I was that Chancellor Banks and the Department of Education was beginning to focus on that because I really believe that so many young individuals who don't have the endurance of parents to push them feel that they're dumb or feel that they can't compete and they drop out without knowing that there's some other issues.

Matter of fact, most of the people with dyslexia are even more intelligent than those who can see the numbers and spell the words better. That was one thing. The other is being a vegetarian, healthy at last.

Even though I know that the forum is to talk about politics and education and housing and all of those types of things, but our health, as you know, which is another story about health and hospitals, but you in your book was able to overcome some barriers, which is why you're such a strong mayor, I'm sure, to be able to function with high blood pressure, almost going blind, and to be able to take a move that helped me also to allow for yourself to be healthy, which allows for yourself to help others.

Those are the things I like to be able to have people be aware about you that I'm sure that they're not.

Mayor Adams: No, that's powerful what you stated. Let me tell you something. First the dyslexia aspect of it. When I sit down with young gang members, people who have went on the wrong path, and I ask them the question, do you have a learning disability? 80 percent of the time they do, because people don't realize that 30 percent to 40 percent of the people who are in Rikers Island right now are dyslexic, 30 percent to 40 percent. If you don't give people the services they need as Archbishop Desmond Tutu stated, we can spend a lifetime pulling people out of the river, no one goes upstream and prevent[s] them from falling in the first place.

We have a government across the globe, if not the country. That is a downstream mindset. Let's pull people out of the river. We need to stop them from falling in the river. That's what Chancellor Banks did with dyslexia screening and making sure that we can give young people the services so they can provide, so they don't end up like you and I learning when they're in college, but learning early in life. Then you deal with the other aspect. Aspect that's a downstream mindset.

We don't have a healthcare system, we have a sick care system. We wait for people to get sick, and then we want to give them pills and injections and other things. Why not go upstream, show the power of food? When I had to make the real decision that was I going to be on insulin the rest of my life, Metformin, statin drugs, and those other drugs, when really people was telling me, doctors were telling me, "Eric, you inherited this from your mother. Your mother's diabetic, your dad is dealing with health issues."

It was never my DNA, it was my dinner. It was in a poisonous food that we've been eating, and that is what we must do. You turn pain into purpose. I think that's my life story and all those dark places, I saw that they were not burials, they were planters and they took me to another place. I hope your listeners know every dark moment, don't see yourself as being buried. See yourself as being planted to be the new person that you can be if you just seek beyond the traditional pathways, and of course, if you tune into 90.3 FM and listen to Tony Rogers [inaudible].

Rogers: Soul City. Listen, again, I've followed you. My colleague who you know very well, Lloyd Williams, we co-founded Harlem Week. This is the 50th year. We've been interacting a long time. You're one of the few Brooklyn guys that we figured would be part of our family down here.

When you were campaigning, John Palmer and a number of us said, "Hey, look, we got to have to help this guy do what he needs to do." We've been with you for a long period of time, Mr. Mayor, and we'll continue to do that. It's just that again with Soul City and WHCR 90.3 FM, Harlem Community News, it gives us a chance to tell our story rather than his story.

We sometimes don't always like to brag about ourselves or our-- You have done. It would take two more shows and hopefully I can get more JD or someone to get you back on, but it would take two more to talk about all of the positive things. I wanted to just to bring out a few things that was selfishly to my heart, because I can relate to it. Improving the quality of life for the New Yorkers, I think that job is the only job that's harder than that as president of the United States.

The way some work, the President of the United States might not give us a lot. They got a bigger budget. Nevertheless, you have done that. I think that we need to support you and give you the opportunity to make that case because obviously, if anything happens that's not good, that's going to be headline news.

Mayor Adams: Without a doubt, brother.

Rogers: All of the W's, all of the wins, that's not there. One of the things that I also would like to commend you with is having Michael Garner being in charge of MWBEs and creating that pathway, because that's an important focus as it relates to that whole concept that Governor David- well, I guess I should put it this way, there's a lot of things that have been done with MWBEs, but Mike Garner has led that path for so long with the MTA. When David Patterson did the research and had the study that we all knew about the inequities as far as Blacks and Browns and women with state and city finance issues, we needed to have someone like a Mike Garner-

Mayor Adams: That's right.

Rogers: Especially for the city, so I commend you with that. He's done a wonderful job. There are many other things, but tell us what, in your view, are some of the things that you really want to be remembered by?

Mayor Adams: One of them is what you just mentioned. When you look at the amount of money we spend for goods and procurement in this city, Mike Garner did a record [$6 billion] in MWBEs. We've had these programs in place that really talked about diversifying how we spend on goods and services, but we didn't live up to it. It was a dismal number. We want to turn that around. Then just being known as an upstream mayor, making sure that we allow every child the opportunity they deserve. It really warms my heart to know what Chancellor Banks has done.

We're outpacing the state in reading and math, what he's doing around dyslexia screening, healthy food in our schools, teaching our children breathing exercises so they can develop their full personhood because we can't just have them being academically smart and not emotionally intelligent, and they need to deal with this pain that they are experiencing. Social media has put them in a dark place, and we need to help them get out of that place with some of these algorithms that has led to the feeling of suicidal thoughts depression, and some of the actions that they are mimicking from what they see on social media, riding on top of the subway trains and losing the lives of young people from subway surfing, to some of the gangs that are fighting each other because they're assaulted on social media.

This is the modern-day plantation where people are making profits off of the disruptive behavior that our young people are experiencing. I want to make a mark in that. I want to show people how they can live healthy, how they can be healthy, not only physically, but emotionally at the same time, and then be rooted in faith. I don't shy away from my belief in faith, my belief in God, no matter how much it defines itself. Our spirit and our ancestors are greater than who we are. If you stay close to them and your beliefs, you're going to survive this turbulent time.

There was a reason I went to Ghana, Accra, and went to synagogue, the door of no return, before taking office and running for office because I knew that at the root of what we must do, we must have a spiritual connection to God and our ancestors.

Rogers: I'm the president of the Harlem Tourism Board, and actually, we had a crew, Soul City. We went to Senegal right after you left. Matter of fact, they thought that you had sent us. They said, "Wow, the mayor sent you guys down with cameras." I said, "Well, the mayor is a good friend, but no, we just wanted to come because we wanted to begin to create this opportunity for people of color, the diaspora, to begin to wake up." As you know, there are beaches just as nice as Senegal in there as there are any place else.

The same powers that be who had us down in Gorée Island don't really want that connection to take place. I was really happy to see that. A lot of people didn't know it, but I knew it because they were telling me about how you were looking at those things, which is why we have to support you because a lot of people don't like that.

Mayor Adams: Well said. Well said.

Rogers: A lot of people don't like that.

Mayor Adams: That's a significant place on Gorée Island. Really, I think it should be a great investment from those of us who are part of the African diaspora to go in and turn that into a first-rate location because there's a lot of significance there. There's a lot of opportunities that I believe that we could develop it to be a real welcoming, man, for those that are part of the diaspora that went to Cuba, that went to the West Indians, that went to the Americas, that went to Brazil. That's a real rites of passage that we should reflect on and I think we should develop it to its full potential.

Rogers: It's the sleeping giant, that's what I call, the African diaspora is the sleeping giant, because if we all wake up all around the world and realize where home is and who we are, no one could really stop us, which is why there's much division. You mentioned tourism, again, as the president of the Harlem Tourism Board, is hard for me not to talk about the Harlem Tourism and hospitality industry that's growing. Matter of fact, on the second half of the show, I have Jean Philippe, who's the manager of the New Harlem Renaissance Hotel. Hopefully, if you haven't stopped by.

Mayor Adams: Yes, your brother.

Rogers: There's another reason, my other guest is Mel Johnson. The head of the biscuit- what is it? He has a business dealing with biscuits, the Harlem Biscuit Company, and now he's the chef at the hotel and he has a vegetarian curry.

Mayor Adams: Interesting.

Rogers: Because people like myself, we all said, "This is great, but there are more people that are vegans and vegetarians." Then I said, "Matter of fact, the mayor's a vegetarian. If you want him to come up and eat, you're going to have to have something that he can eat with." They have that now. Since they're coming on right after we leave you, we just wanted to make sure that at some point, please come up whether it's during Harlem Week or doing some of the other activities, and try some of that that curry vegan.

Mayor Adams: I want to do it. Now, where is it located?

Rogers: On 125th Street, right next to Apollo Theater.

Mayor Adams: I will remember that.

Rogers: It's in the hotel, the Harlem-

Mayor Adams: All right. That's a beautiful hotel. I'll be dropping to see you.

Rogers: DJ knows about it. DJ is the one that hooked us up. Ever since he was a little guy, we adopted him.

Mayor Adams: Love it. Love it. Love it.

Rogers: We have a couple of more minutes. Please, just give the listeners things that you want them to be aware of at this point about you, about some of the things you want to accomplish, about some of the things that you see that you need support for.

Mayor Adams: Jobs. Jobs are important. We have initiative jobs in NYC, we're holding hiring halls throughout the city, right in the community. We had one in Harlem. We had one in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

We have thousands of jobs that are available and many people don't really know the entry ramp to employment. We know it's difficult. Sometimes it can seem confusing. We are really encouraging people to come out to the hiring halls in their neighborhood and find out about these jobs. We need everything from backstretch workers, food service workers, delivery workers, nurses, the school safety agents, all of these various jobs that are available.

A job is just a form of dignity, they go hand in hand. We just really want to encourage people. We know that people have been unemployed for a long time, but it's just taking that first step. I stopped with a group of young men who were standing outside of the hiring hall and just engaged in a conversation with them. They said, "You know what, we going to go inside and apply for the jobs and just get our life in order." That's very important.

Then having people have a full understanding of the migrant and asylum seeker issue. At the beginning of this crisis, people were wondering, "Eric, what are you doing to us? You are overwhelming our city. You're giving people more than what you're giving everyday New Yorkers." People didn't know that I had no authorization to stop the buses from coming in. It was against federal law if I try. They didn't know that I had no authorization to say, "I'm not going to give people food, shelter, and clothing." The law required me to do so. They didn't know I did not have any authorization to take people, commit crimes repeatedly to small number of them, and turn them over for deportation federal.

The city law does not allow me to do that. Most importantly, people did not know that I don't have the authority to give people the right to work. Only the federal government can do that. We had 180,000 people dropped in our city, 1.5 the size of Albany, New York. Basically, I was told, "There's nothing you can do. You're not going to get the money." A little over a hundred and something million dollars we got out of a $4 billion price tag. We managed to move forward. Now, one child or family sleeping on our streets. We did it in a humane way.

We are asking all New Yorkers to become knowledgeable on this issue and really tell Washington, DC, particularly the Republican Congress, that we need real immigration reform and we need to make sure we give the support to New Yorkers. We're resilient, brother. We are moving forward. I say to your listeners, let's not do what we did to David Dinkins. They turned his base against him. They attacked him. The city was moving in the right direction.

We becoming safer because what he did with a safe city safe streets, the economy was turning around. David inherited a mess, and he started turning around the city. Mayor Dinkins had his base erode from under him, and they started criticizing, attacking him. You saw what we got after David Dinkins of the different mayor with a different mindset. Let's not do that again. Let's stay focused and continue to see the success that we have been doing.

Rogers: Well, Mr. Mayor, no good deed goes unpunished as they say, but we'll always, whether it's the Harlem Community News, the Soul City Network, or the Harlem media vehicles that we have, we will always try to make sure that we give you the platform because you need support.

We can't have you say the things that you say and do the things that you do without giving you support, because every time you talk the way you just talked in the last couple of minutes, you're making some people say, "This guy got to go. He's upsetting them. Too many people might hear him. This guy got to go." It's up to us to try to make sure we use the media that we have now.

We have this type of vehicle now that we can get to a large number of people. We'll make sure people from the chamber and the tourism board, they can all view this and go back and view it over and over again.

Whenever you need us to help you, I want you to know that we're there for you, brother. The next time we go to the synagogue, we got to go together so that we can bring those kind of connections together. Thank you, sir, for taking your time out of your-

Mayor Adams: Thank you very much, brother. One thing we know for sure, there's a lot of soul in our city.

Rogers: That's all right. Take care.

Mayor Adams: Take care.

Rogers: Thanks again for your time. Thank you.

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