Transcript: Mayor Adams Calls In For Live Interview On 107.5 WBLS-FM “Caribbean Fever Radio”

October 29, 2023

Dahved Levy: Dahved Levy rocking you, Caribbean Fever 107.5 WBLS. I don't believe what they're telling me, but I'm going to stick with what my staff says. Mayor Adams, are you there?

Mayor Eric Adams: Yes, sir, brother, rocking you. Rocking you.

Levy: Sir, I haven't seen you, spoken to you… As I was saying at the Caribbean, in years, in dunk years.

Mayor Adams: That's because the dunking was out of the country. He just got back.

Levy: You got jokes [inaudible]. You got jokes! So, how you doin'? How you doin', sir, how you feelin'?

Mayor Adams: Quite well, brother. And listen, man, I just want to really thank you and the station, the concerts over the summer were just amazing.

Levy: Wow.

Mayor Adams: And it just allowed people to, you know, just get some of that stress off their backs. And you just, you know, did your thing as always. Man, you were… You're a legend and we just appreciate you.

Levy: Thank you very much, sir. I do appreciate that. So, I know, we don't have a lot of time and you have been busy, man. You have been busy. You know, with all the things that are going on in the world, what was the first thing you thought about last Wednesday when you were briefed about the Lewiston, Maine, shootings at which reportedly about 18 people were shot, 20 people shot, 18 people killed. What was the first thing that went through your mind when you got that news and information.

Mayor Adams: Well, first of all, and he took his own life, it appears. And I've been saying this and people have been criticizing me for saying it, but you know, I'm only going to speak the truth. There's just a demonic energy that's all over our globe, and I just think we need to recognize it and see… Call it for what it is.

But this level of darkness, depression, hatred, violence, it's just playing out all over the globe, and it just was really personified by the actions of the shooter in Maine. You have an over proliferation of guns in this country. People are dealing with real mental health illness. No one wants to deal with how do we give care to them in a real way. This person was able to buy a gun, you know, and saying that he was hearing voices talking to him in his head. We just have to really get a grip and ask ourselves where are we headed as a country and even as the city that we're not taking this mental health issue as seriously as I believe we should be taking it.

Levy: Mayor Adams, it has been reported now that you have made an announcement on Tuesday that the asylum seekers crisis is so severe that you were seeking open space for them. What spaces will you be utilizing? Also, are government officials there for you, or they are coming against you?

Mayor Adams: Well, you know, the first thing I want to do, because it's so important, because I heard this over and over again, we must dispel four myths. One, that New York City is telling everyone and anyone to come to our city. That is not true. Asylum seekers and migrants have been sent to our city. It started out from Governor Abbott, and he's continuing to do this to really four of the big cities in America: Chicago, Houston, New York and California, Los Angeles.

Second, that people are getting things that everyday New Yorkers are not getting. That's just not true. They're living on cots. They get basic meals. And some, I believe, we've reached the point where some people are going to be living outdoors, unfortunately, because we just don't have the room.

And third, people are always saying, well, why don't you just send people back to Texas, et cetera. It's against the law. I can't do that. The law does not allow me to deport people or to tell people they have to leave the city. And so I'm handcuffed by the laws that are in place. We are not getting the help that I believe we should be getting from the federal government. This is going to cost us $5 billion. This is unfair for the migrant and asylum seekers and it's unfair for struggling New Yorkers that these resources that we are going to lose.

So, by me raising this, I pushed back and I'm totally appalled that anyone states because I'm fighting on behalf of New Yorkers that its' an anti-immigrant posture, that is just not true. People know my relationship with all of my immigrant communities. This is just unfair to New Yorkers and migrants and asylum seekers in this city.

Levy: Sir, you and Commissioner Kim at the start of the year announced the opening of applications for an historic $75 million opportunity fund to help small businesses lead a pandemic recovery. I'd like to know where do things stand with those endeavors? Also, are the funding available for the Caribbean African American and small business owners?

Mayor Adams: Oh, without a doubt. And listen, let me tell you something, brother. We are going to be doing some amazing stuff around MWBEs. And all of my fellow brothers and sisters from the Caribbean, I want them to look at this opportunity. Even in devastating moments there are moments of opportunity.

We're going to spend $5 billion on migrant and asylum seekers. We're going to need people that can feed asylum seekers, we're going to have procurement contracts for that, cleaning contracts, contracts for mental health services. All of these services, we're going to need people to deliver those services.

So, all these entrepreneurs that are out there from the Caribbean diaspora, the African diaspora, Central America, DR, Puerto Rico, this is an opportunity for us to come and provide some of these services that we have to put in place. We're doing some amazing stuff around small businesses. We're reaching our MWBE numbers, and we're going to go even further.

We also just rolled out our new MyCity…

Levy: First off, listen, what does MWBE stand for?

Mayor Adams: Oh, thank you. We use these acronyms all the time. Woman and Minority Owned Businesses. Women and minority owned businesses. We want to elevate how much we're spending on our women and minority owned businesses. Thanks to Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, we were able to get the discretionary dollar amount increased to one million dollars. That means our agencies can give contracts on a discretionary level to women and minority owned businesses.

Because remember, the city procures over 20-something billion dollars in goods and services, so everyone should get their fair share. And we want people who live in the city to have an operation to do so. So, the program you were talking about - the $75 million opportunity fund - was extremely successful. We were able to get it to many of our small businesses in the city. We want to continue to do initiatives like that so that we can do business right here in the city.

And I just want to point this out also: 94 percent of New York City businesses are small businesses. They employ one million workers and generate over $250 billion in direct economic impact. So, we need to make sure our small businesses are sustained and they're going to hire locally and they're going to produce the products that we want.

Levy: So, how do you respond to some people who say, well, you know what, certain people have not been trained in this way shape or form to handle business. So, no matter if they get a million dollars, one million, two million, three million, in the end of the day they're going to misuse it and abuse it. How do you...what do you say to people who have that thought?

Mayor Adams: Well, I say, number one, don't be pessimistic, be optimistic, because optimism gets us to the destination we're looking for. And that's what Michael Gardner, my new MWBE officer, my chief diversity officer that I have, that is his role. We want to give people the proper training and support.

We had a major MWBE summit at Barclays Center, a couple of thousand people showed up. They're learning how to do business with the city and how to really have good business practices so they can be prepared to sustain and to grow their business in the city.

Levy: And not be scared of getting some money.

Mayor Adams: Right.

Levy: Sir, you know, every time that you've been on with me, sometimes we have made fun about this, we talked about it, but I want to talk to you about these rats again, sir.

It's about the rats. Sir, you have been on with me many times, we have discussed the rats and even joked about them. You've hired now the first director of rodent mitigation, Kathleen Corradi. Can you please update the audience on what is being done to eliminate the rats in New York City?

Mayor Adams: Well, first, in order to get rid of a problem you have to properly define the problem, and that's what my rat czar did. And because of the actions that we put in place with the commissioner of Department of Sanitation, we have witnessed a decrease in rat complaints in our city in the rat mitigation zones for one area but also city wide. So, we're seeing our analysis and our implementation, we are paying off.

And you're starting to see the decrease of it. But let's be clear. You're not going to get rid of the rat problem as long as you have an all-night buffet out there on our streets in the plastic bags, the garbage bags. And so we're taking immediate action. We're doing something that people said was not possible to do.

Levy: And what is that, sir?

Mayor Adams: By fall 2024 all commercial trash and all residential trash from buildings with nine or fewer units will be in a secure bin. We're going to containerize our garbage. This is an unbelievable game changer in our city. No one thought it could be done in such a short period of time. We're already doing containers for garbage for food services, and we're now peeling back and adding a new level.

By fall of 2024, you're not going to see those garbage bags on our streets. You're not going to see the rodents flying out from chewing into those garbage bags. This is a major shift and making sure our city is the cleanest city in America.

Levy: Sir, I can't believe what I'm hearing. Today I was coming through the airport and a person stopped me and says, Dahved, you know that you can...that the city spent $350 to leave the city [laughter] the city is paying you $350 to move. Is there any facts to that or that's just jokes?

Mayor Adams: No, we call it reticketing. Think about that for a moment. Tell me if this makes sense.

Levy: Okay, let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let me hear.

Mayor Adams: We have people who have come here in the city from all over the globe. And we're saying to them instead of having to pay for your food, your cleaning, your housing, everything, we will pay you and reticket you to allow you to go to anyplace else you want to go to. That person even...some people have gone back to the country that they came from, because they realized the streets are not paved with gold.

Some people say, hey, I've got family members in another state, I like the warmer weather. So, we are now allowing them to be reticketed, because we've run out of room, and this is allowing them to go on with their lives, if it's going back to the place that they came from…

Levy: Wow.

Mayor Adams: ...or if it's going to another family or loved one in another place. Because they were compelled, in many cases, to come here because Governor Abbott in many incidents placed them on buses and said we're sending you to New York. So, this is an economically smart way by saying instead of us paying hundreds of dollars a day to house people and feed them, we will pay a one-time ticket to let you go where you want to go. Anyone that understands basic economics will tell you that's a smart decision. That's a smart way to do it.

Levy: Sir. Sir. Sir, can I say something to you, sir?

Mayor Adams: Yes.

Levy: That was a smart decision.

Mayor Adams: And think about this for a moment, Dahved. There are two schools of thought in the city right now. One school of thought is that people could come from anywhere on the globe- anywhere on the globe...

Levy: Like I did. Like I did. Like I did.

Mayor Adams: ...and come to New York...

Levy: I came from...

Mayor Adams: Right.

Levy: ...anywhere on the globe, I landed in New York City.

Mayor Adams: Right. But the difference between you coming on the globe and landing in New York City and other immigrants that have come to our city, you had the right to work. You had the right to provide for yourself. Right now, the federal government is saying that people can come from anywhere on the globe, stay as long as they want on the taxpayers' dime. That's just not right. It's not right to New York City taxpayers and it's not right to the migrant and asylum seekers.

And so if we don't change that, then we're going to have a major problem in our city, and I need to, I am going to be honest with New Yorkers on what we're faced with. This is going to be extremely painful and it's going to hurt a lot for the everyday services in our city, such as, we couldn't put in a new class of school safety agents because the cost that this is costing New Yorkers for the basic services that we have to deliver to New Yorkers.

Levy: Wow. Well, sir, I thank you very much for taking time to spend with us this evening.

Mayor Adams: Always good to hear from you.

Levy: Dahved Levy, the number one Caribbean show in the world, Caribbean Fever. Mayor Adams in the house. Sir, you've got the last words.

Mayor Adams: Listen, there's only words you can say, brother. Rocking You. Rocking You. Rocking You. You've been rocking us for a long time, brother. And let's keep doing what you're doing, man. You bring hope and prosperity to so many. It's always good speaking with you.

Levy: Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mayor Adams.

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