Brigid Bergin: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin, senior reporter in the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom, filling in for Brian these next couple of days. Good morning, everybody. Coming up on today's show, robotaxis are hitting the city's streets. My colleague, Stephen Nessen, will explain what Waymo is up to here in the city. Then President Trump has deployed the National Guard in the nation's capital. A conversation about what's happening now and what may be coming. Finally, have you ever lost something precious on the subway and then actually got it back? We want to hear your lost-and-found stories, so get ready to call in at the end of the show.

We're going to start things off today with our regular update from City Hall and the campaign trail. My friend and colleague, Elizabeth Kim, is out this week, so joining me this morning is another great city politics reporter, the one and only Katie Honan, who works for the nonprofit news website, THE CITY, and is co-host of the FAQ NYC podcast.

Katie, so great to see you as always.

Katie Honan: Thanks so much for having me on.

Brigid Bergin: Now, Katie, I was out last week on a trip with my family in Disney World. It's really magical, as you might imagine. Characters come to life. You become totally immersed in this fictional reality. I was with my family, and truly the only thing that could tear my attention away from all of that news was something that was so bizarre that I feel like if I saw it in a Law & Order episode, I might say, "Too much. Not believable."

Katie, without belaboring it, the big wind-up is a close ally of Mayor Adams gave you a bag of potato chips with an envelope of cash?

Katie Honan: Right. I guess the Disney equivalent is like a Dole Whip or a turkey leg with money inside. Yes, Winnie Greco, who THE CITY, my news outlet, we've reported extensively on and investigating her, and she spent time in a city-owned and city-funded hotel room that was a homeless shelter. She seemed to travel with the mayor's son. She might have been implicated in straw donation schemes. All the stuff that we've investigated.

I see her at every Eric Adams' reelection campaign event because she is clearly- she's a volunteer, she was a volunteer, but she was clearly involved heavily in this campaign, and I would just speak with her, and she'd be very friendly with me and I'd be friendly with her. That's what happened after a Harlem campaign office opening. She texted me to meet her across the street after I saw her from across Lenox Avenue, and I guess I was across 124th Street, and we walked into a Whole Foods, and she handed me a bag of her Sour Cream & Onion Ridge potato chips. The bag was open, but it was crumpled closed. Insisted. I refused it a few times. We spoke. I tried to give it back to her again afterwards. She insisted I keep it. Then right by the subway station is when I noticed that there was a red envelope with money.

Brigid Bergin: Katie, you and I are both proud alumni of the CUNY Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. We took Ethics in Journalism. It was a required course. I just think that that training that those things that we studied, those scenarios that we heard about must have kicked in in that moment. Can you talk about what was racing through your mind in terms of your responsibility as a journalist?

Katie Honan: It was an immediate panic. I tease my editor because when I called him, he didn't pick up right away. I was like, "Hasani, where were you?" He did call me within two minutes, but I just really panicked, and I just didn't know her intention, and I still don't know her full intention. Obviously, her lawyer told my colleague, Greg Smith, who co-wrote the story with Yoav Gonen, our other colleague, that it was a gesture of friendship and that she just wanted to be my friend, which made me feel very sad because I don't-- that's not how you do that sort of thing.

Clearly, you're not supposed to take money in a bag of chips. I'm familiar with Chinese tradition of red envelopes during Lunar New Year or other celebrations. This was none of that. It's August. I look at it more broadly because the other big news last week from the Adams administration, which I'm sure we'll get to, is Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the mayor's former top aide, getting indicted four more times, or named in four additional indictments after being indicted in December. It's a lot of questions about what's going on in the Adams administration and who he has surrounded himself with.

Brigid Bergin: We are definitely going to move on to that, but has there been any fallout? I know you talked to Brian about this particular incident just last week. In the few days since, has anything happened in terms of your involvement with that particular incident?

Katie Honan: The only, I guess, fallout is Winnie Greco is no longer on the campaign in a volunteer capacity. The mayor has said a few times when he's been asked about it that obviously, this is not something the campaign does. For the record, for listeners, he had said, "I don't know what kind of conversation that reporter had with Winnie Greco." We were not talking about money. I think he's the one asking people for money, not me. It's a question of there was nothing in our conversation that would lead us to anything that would suggest I would take anything. Again, I didn't even want the chips. We don't know. Beyond that, we did call the Department of Investigation, and we do know that there are still investigations into her activity when she was a city employee.

Brigid Bergin: Sure.

Katie Honan: One other story that we broke was there was a staffer for a city agency who actually worked on the mayor's election campaign, and Winnie got him a job, and then according to what he told us, had her oversee renovations at one of her homes in the Bronx, which I would guess is not in the job description for working for the city. There's a lot of stuff we've investigated in her requests for money from people to get to Gracie Mansion. There was a lot of that.

Last fall, my colleague, Alyssa Katz, unearthed this YouTube video. We'd written about a fundraiser from an owner of a supermarket in Flushing – actually, there's three supermarkets in New York City – and questions about how all of these cashiers gave $250 or around $250 to the campaign as donations. Then she unearthed video from this event, this lavish party at his home on Long Island. Winnie was there. The mayor's current schedulers were there. Again, I think Mayor Eric Adams tries to distance himself from these things, but there's lots of evidence of clear connections.

Brigid Bergin: You started to bring up that other only in New York kind of moment, given that your story was not the strangest thing to emerge from City Hall last week. On Thursday, former senior adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who has remained involved in the mayor's reelection campaign, was indicted on a new set of charges, that she and her son took bribes in connection with some high-profile city projects, expediting building approvals, thwarting a Brooklyn bike lane, directing city contracts to a preferred vendor. There's a lot there, but what stood out to you most about these latest charges? I say that because we should note that Lewis-Martin was already under indictment.

Katie Honan: The newer charges, it's just further evidence. Again, these are all allegations, and she has not been convicted of anything. However, if you read the allegations, it just seems that City Hall was for sale, depending on who you knew and how much money you had. Mayor Adams, since he's been elected, he has tried to contrast himself with who he views as the elite media, that the reporters who write mean stories about him or stories that he finds mean, that we're the elites and we're allowed to get this blue-collar, working-class mayor, and he's for the people. Then you read these allegations of high-profile studio executives, the owners of Broadway Stages, the Argentos, sending money via Zelle to block changes to the McGuinness Boulevard adding a bike lane, and these are safety renovations to the street.

I will note that this week, I tried to ask DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, who was attending a midday campaign event at City Hall – again, maybe that's a question for other people of how city staffers always seem to make time for Mayor Adams' reelection events – he would not answer if he'd spoken to Ingrid Lewis-Martin about this project. When I asked him specific questions – I was there with two other journalists, Jeff Colton and Josie Stratman – he just was reciting facts about the DOT. There's a lot of confusion, I find. Even though we have these in-depth indictments, there's still so many questions that I have and other people have from them of just how pervasive this may have been within the administration.

Brigid Bergin: Listeners, if you're just joining us, I'm Brigid Bergin, filling in for Brian today on The Brian Lehrer Show. My guest is Katie Honan, reporter for THE CITY, covers Mayor Adams, City Hall and of course, this upcoming mayor's race. We want to know, what do you make of some of the late summer antics in the New York City mayoral race? Has anything changed your perspective since the primary election in June? What about you independent voters? You haven't had a chance to weigh in yet. What candidate resonates with you and why? Or do you have another question for my guest, Katie Honan, reporter at the nonprofit news site THE CITY? You can give us a call at 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. You can call or text that number.

Katie, the mayor has a whole cadre of defenders, of course. On Friday, he held a press conference in City Hall and at the rotunda with First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, former federal prosecutor, where there were a lot of questions about this indictment. Mastro framed it all as ancient history. Here's a little bit of what he said at that event.

First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro: I'm not going to remain silent when ancient conduct of people who are no longer in government are being used to smear a government and a city hall and an administration which is producing every day for New Yorkers. I've stood by this mayor's side for the past five months. We talk every day. We talk about how to resolve issues, how to address questions. There's not a single time when he's given me a direction that wasn't in the best interests of the city.

Brigid Bergin: Katie, I'd love to get your reaction to those comments, but also if you could talk a little bit about this role that Mastro is playing in City Hall now.

Katie Honan: Randy Mastro, around this time last year, he was exposed-- I don't know why he subjected himself to this, but he was trying to be in the mayor's council that requires City Council approval, not just for the mayor, but for the whole city. He went through this hours-long humiliation of just no one wanted him. The council said from the start-- as soon as the story leaked months earlier that it was going to be him, they said we're not going to appoint him, but he went through it anyway. I think it ended at- it was like 12 hours long. He went through it, and then he withdrew his name. Then in March, he was officially appointed as first deputy mayor after many of the mayor's deputy mayors had stepped down.

He's actually the mayor's fourth first deputy mayor. He has this position that I think even in speaking to people within City Hall, he has the experience, and he's come in and sort of righted or at least steadied the ship a bit since the winter was so tumultuous with the departure of four deputy mayors. Mind you, Sheena Wright, the other first deputy mayor, had stepped down in the fall after her home was raided in September.

I think sitting in the rotunda and listening to the first deputy mayor use the word ancient to imply allegations that run through 2024, and Jesse Hamilton, who was a deputy commissioner at DCAS, appointed by the mayor, a longtime ally of the mayor, he was a city employee up until Thursday. To stand there and say that someone who was an employee of your administration 24 hours previously and call it ancient, I laughed when I heard the clip again because it's funny. That's what it is, and I said this to him.

I said, "You're not just misleading the public. You're lying to the public about how ancient this is." If they want to maybe delude themselves into thinking that the public can separate these things from the man who's still the mayor, I think that's difficult because this all happened, allegedly, while Mayor Eric Adams was still the mayor. This all happened not only in City Hall, but allegedly, inside Gracie Mansion, where he allegedly lives. These are all the things that connect them to him. It almost struck me as a bit of a savior complex, where the first deputy mayor can say, "Well, I'm here, so don't worry, everything's fine."

Brigid Bergin: In addition to just Mastro's pushback defense and sort of, I think, trying to give this veil of being above board, was there any comment from the mayor that condemned anything that appeared in the indictment, or even what happened with you and Winnie Greco?

Katie Honan: It is split there. Last week, he praised Ingrid, his longtime ally. He still is close with Ingrid's husband, although I haven't really-- no one's seen her husband in a while. I'm not implying anything, but he's not as public as Ingrid is. He said that he loved her and that she was a sister to him. He didn't even say so much as if the allegations are true, they are serious allegations. He praised her years in government. She was a teacher previously. Before she worked in a state senate campaign, she worked in education.

I will say, with Winnie Greco, he immediately-- she was taken off the campaign, and said that we don't give money to reporters and that kind of thing, but we've tried all week, and I say week because there's been many reporters who've tried to confirm if Ingrid is still in his campaign. The mayor had a rally earlier this week on the steps of City Hall. It was a small business supporters rally. He could not and would not answer whether or not Ingrid is still involved in the campaign. It seems like a simple question.

Then when you contrast the fact that Ingrid has had multiple indictments; Winnie Greco hasn't been charged with anything, and what she did to me, that's not even illegal. She could give money to whoever she pleases. I think it's questionable as to why he is so defensive and protective of Ingrid and then not even just say, "Yes, I've asked that she no longer work in the campaign."

Again, I'm not a PR specialist. I just deal with PR people. I think the mayor, someone should be telling the mayor that it doesn't look good when you repeatedly decline to answer these questions, and then you walk off your press conference and you storm off, and then he started railing against for-profit media. To which I said, I haven't gotten a response from his press secretary, call me, you have my number. I guess you just want to talk to all the nonprofit outlets like mine, like Brigid's, like City Limits, Documented, New York's Focus.

I don't think that's what he meant, but again, his defensiveness, even in the larger campaign, seeing how he and his campaign have freaked out over Zohran Mamdani's Sunday scavenger hunt around the city and their reaction and response to it, I think voters do look at people's energies. Not to sound too woo-woo on the radio, but they look at who seems angry and super-defensive, and who seems to organize fun things for people to do on a Sunday afternoon in New York City.

Brigid Bergin: We're going to get to that fun thing coming up in a moment, but just to put a fine point on this particular press conference. The other piece of it, besides what was said, there were props involved, as I understand. I saw on social media that there were whistles on the reporters' chairs for this press conference. This is what Mayor Adams said about that.

Mayor Eric Adams: Let me answer your first part about the whistle. Many of these women here are interviewing Andrew Cuomo and they feel unsafe. They're going to have a whistle to help them through it, okay?

Brigid Bergin: Okay, I understand that Cuomo had a press conference last week as well, and he gave out bags of chips. A lot of political theater going back and forth here. How are the other mayoral candidates, Republican Curtis Sliwa, Democrat Zohran Mamdani, responding to all of this? Are they also engaging in this kind of one-upmanship, so to speak?

Katie Honan: I will say, on the whistles, they were on our chairs, and I said, "Whistleblowers? Are you encouraging other city employees to perhaps come forward?" He had to be asked by another reporter what the point was, which you shouldn't have to-- you should just come out and say why. You shouldn't have to be asked about it. I found it, I guess, tacky because making a rape whistle joke, especially when the mayor has been accused of sexual assault and it's an active case, and it seemed to minimize the real fear that women feel in a lot of situations. I thought that was bizarre.

I will say, with Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa, they seem to be taking a little bit of the high road. The response Curtis gave to me because the mayor said-- I think he called him- was a circus act. Curtis Sliwa's response when I asked him for comment was, "Everyone's laughing at you, Eric." Looking at the response, again, it's what voters will respond to. I don't even know who paid for the whistles. I don't know if that was a campaign or a city-funded prop.

Brigid Bergin: We have a lot more to talk about and more of your calls. We're going to take a short break. More with my guest Katie Honan of the nonprofit news site THE CITY in just a moment.

It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Brigid Bergin, filling in for Brian today. My guest is Katie Honan of the nonprofit news site THE CITY. We're catching up on all the happenings at City Hall and on the campaign trail. Katie, we started to get into some of the other things that candidates are doing in this race. This past weekend, Zohran Mamdani had a pretty significant event. He's restarted his canvassing operation, and he sent people out on a New York City scavenger hunt this weekend. That does not feel like a particularly traditional campaign move. What was that all about, and how did it go?

Katie Honan: He announced it, I believe, just the day before or if not Friday. As I saw the clues from social media, it was mayoral themed, and there were just thousands of people who attended. It ended at Little Flower Cafe in Astoria, which was also a nickname for Mayor La Guardia. He frequented this coffee shop a lot. The feedback I heard from people who attended was it was a beautiful day in New York City. You get out and you see different parts of the city and you work with other people, and obviously there was a canvassing element of it too. His ground game that helped propel him to victory in the primary, he's continuing it for the general.

Mayor Adams kept calling it a treasure hunt in a video, which I'm like, isn't that different? A scavenger hunt and a treasure hunt are similar but different. Again, it's a contrast to he's now the-- Mamdani is the front-runner. He won the Democratic primary big, and he's just continuing to gain more support. There's lots more to report on him and some of his proposals that don't have as many ideas or perhaps as much detail to them, but the bottom line is in terms of engaging voters and getting people out to vote and getting people excited about not just him, but about New York City, he's really excelling a lot more than the other candidates.

Brigid Bergin: One of the things that strikes me is he takes a step, whether it's this sort of unconventional scavenger hunt or some of his social media videos, and you see it force the other candidates to try and respond to him. Even in those responses; this weekend, I felt like we just hit peak silly season with the whole bench press issue. Zohran Mamdani was at a street festival. He tried to bench press a certain weight [crosstalk]--

Katie Honan: 135 or something [crosstalk]--

Brigid Bergin: Something like that. It seemed like-- He's not a weightlifter. He's a campaigner. Then there were responses from the candidates. Where are we at this point? I really think we're ending this summer in that space. It's got to get more serious come September, right?

Katie Honan: Well, I don't know. I wouldn't hold my breath that it's going to get more serious. The contrast was it was Men's Day in Brooklyn, and the same spotter, Mayor Adams had lifted and lifted, I guess, the same amount. Again, now I see all these people-- people I've never seen before across the country are now taking it as an example of, "Look at how much I can lift." To me, I asked a very fit person I know, who bench presses and weight lifts and does lifting, I'm like, is it really a big contrast? I thought the spotter involved maybe was assisting either-- maybe he was the one leading all that, how slow or how fast the candidates were going.

In terms of the silly season, yes, when I look at the ground game of these candidates, you're right. Especially Adams and Cuomo are just responding to Mamdani, which is what we saw the primary candidates do to Cuomo back before the primary. It was just whatever Cuomo did or said, they had a daily response to it. I'll say again, Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate, he seems to be on his own and not responding as much. Even when you had Adams and Cuomo very critical of Mamdani after The New York Times story about what he put on his college application for Columbia University, Curtis Sliwa seemed to have the most balanced response of, "His SAT scores seemed pretty good to me," or that was a separate story of his SAT scores. "I'm not really focused on that. I'm focused on the city and the people." At least of the two candidates going out there and engaging with people and not just reacting to the person who's in the lead-- that's not to say Curtis Sliwa isn't critical of Zohran Mamdani, but it's a different approach.

Brigid Bergin: Right. Of course, that Times story was a report about how when he filled out his college application, applying to Columbia University, checking the box, saying that he was African American along with Asian or South Asian and what that meant. Did he know what he was doing at the time?

We're getting some responses from listeners who are keying in on some of the silliness. One listener writes, "Scavenger hunt. As a progressive Democrat, this unserious, almost juvenile stunt only reinforces my view of Mamdani as an under-experienced lightweight. I'm afraid I can't vote for any of them." Another listener writes, "I'll vote for Sliwa if he gives out cats," which of course is a joke because we know that Sliwa and his wife take in a lot of feral cats in their home. At the same time, we know that there are some very serious issues that are facing New York City. I want to bring in one of our callers. Jeff from Inwood, you're on WNYC.

Jeff: Yes, hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I participated in the scavenger hunt, and I thought it was great. 4,000 people showed up. That's just incredible. My question is how-- and this is to the reporters as well. Are you challenging the candidates on how they're going to respond to the inevitability of Trump sending the National Guard to New York City? What's the plan? I'm getting very nervous by Trump's ramping up of his rhetoric, and I think it's going to happen, that he's going to send the National Guard. The timeliness of it, I think, will probably be to interrupt the mayoral election or day one when Mamdani assumes office, if he's elected. I'd like to know what the candidates are planning or talking about this because it's going to happen. Thank you.

Brigid Bergin: Katie, what do you think?

Katie Honan: That's a great question, and it is a concern I hear from voters. People, they see what happened in DC, they see the threats made to Chicago and obviously to New York City. The response from the candidates, particularly Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Eric Adams, is, well, he won't do that if I'm mayor, he won't do that, but under Mamdani, I think the former governor's line about Mamdani is he'll cut through him like a hot knife through butter. I think they've used that as a don't put this far-left Democratic socialist in office because then it'll be the time for Trump to seize.

I think what voters do want to hear is, yes, what the plan is. We haven't heard a real major plan of a reaction to what-- okay, if the National Guard comes to the city on January 1st, 2026, and you're mayor, what would you actually do? Instead, it's been a lot of denouncing it. Mamdani has denounced this, what they're calling the rhetoric from the President, but it's not rhetoric for DC because the National Guard is there. I know that there's different legalities of where he can put people in what cities, but yes, that is a great question because that is a concern for a lot of people. Again, when it comes to, particularly, the Cuomo and Adams' response, it's, because of what Trump could do, you have to keep put me in office, or in Adams' case, keep me in office.

Brigid Bergin: Mamdani reportedly met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Congress Member Yvette Clarke in Brooklyn yesterday. Neither of them have endorsed him yet. How important do you think those endorsements are at this point? Is it something you hear voters talking about? To me, it's interesting looking at their districts, maybe it's something ahead of the West Indian Day Parade this weekend, which of course runs along Eastern Parkway, which goes through parts of both of their districts. Huge event for the West Indian community in New York and just a huge marker in New York City politics. Used to be a huge event, when the primary was in September, all the candidates would be there. What's your sense? What are you hearing about what happened in that meeting?

Katie Honan: Just what was reported. I saw Ayana Harry from NY1, spoke to them before the event, just briefly. I think Hakeem Jeffries' reluctance-- and he was critical of some people of his district, seemed dismissive of people he referred to as gentrifiers. I think the endorsement of those two people in Congress, Yvette Clarke and Hakeem Jeffries, I think it might matter more for them than for Zohran Mamdani.

I've seen from voters who are lifelong Democrats, or since they've turned 18, really upset with their Party, stemming from the presidential election last year, and just this idea of, "Blue no matter who," except when it's this person. They've been very critical of the more mainstream Democrats in looking at the severity of what's happening with President Trump in office. For them, they're very concerned by it, and they just are critical of what they don't-- they don't think there's enough being done by the people who are elected. Then here's this person who wins the Democratic primary in New York City by 13 points, and they still haven't endorsed him. I've heard lots of criticism from voters, just, why are they dragging their feet on this?

Brigid Bergin: I've seen all the candidates really try to adjust their approach for the general election. Andrew Cuomo overhauled his campaign this summer: new logo, talking about things like free childcare, attacking Mamdani's rent-stabilized apartment. What's your sense of how voters are responding to the relaunch of Cuomo?

Katie Honan: I think for voters who- especially for voters who voted for him in the primary, you saw – and we saw it in the weeks after, before Cuomo officially said he was running in the general – real concern from people because they do not want Zohran Mamdani in office for any number of reasons. These backers were looking for, really, anybody. Again, before Cuomo even said he was officially running, there were people looking to raise money just to defeat Mamdani.

Whether or not the new-and-improved Cuomo, the Cuomo 2.0 will get people to flip towards him or people who voted for Mamdani, I don't think that will happen. I think he's counting on-- and there's been plenty of reporting about this. He was encouraging voters who are registered on Long Island to come and switch it to Manhattan, or not just Manhattan, within the five boroughs. He's likely hoping for Republican and independent voters to vote for him in November, but I think there's more Democratic voters than Republican and independent.

Brigid Bergin: I want to go to Kanani in Harlem. Kanani, you're on WNYC.

Kanani: Hi, good morning. So thrilled. I'm literally across the street from the Whole Foods, which I call now the grave site for the end of the Eric Adams campaign, officially. I have to get some art supplies to do something, some type of ceremony around that. I work from home, so I don't know how I missed this. [laughs] I'm like, what? Like, literally, I can see Whole Foods right now. I'm on my balcony.

I think one thing is the specter of toxic masculinity in the New York mayoral race in 2025, I think that this showcase of manhood, brute strength in terms of push-ups, I'm like, well, Eric, and all these other ones, it's like, well, no, it's not about lifting weights. It's about lifting people out of poverty, lifting people out of abysmal hopelessness around affordable housing and healthcare, and making these trains run on time. It's not just about cops. It's not just flooding cops. It's also flooding more trains into the system, and what can they do to advocate that to Albany and do that?

I think that the other caller, someone else had mentioned, oh, Mamdani is a kid and is childlike. No, the system that has resulted in the systematic outpricing of people from food, to healthcare, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, that, but you're going to say that Mamdani is a kid and a joke? No, there's grown, unfortunately, too often, men that have created these policies that over time, instead of trickle-down economics, it's trickling down actual poverty in this city so that we're literally the working poor.

Brigid Bergin: Kanani, thank you so much for that. I want to thank Kanani. I know you're a regular listener and caller to the show. We really appreciate you. Please call again. Katie, I'd love to get your reaction to that. I think it's easy to look at some of what we have seen over the past week, week and a half in terms of the mayoral campaign, and really there are punchlines, there are jokes, but at the end of the day, we're talking about a very serious role, and some of the ways these candidates are engaging about it, the toxic masculinity piece that Kanani referred to in reference to the bench-press-off that we saw, there is something more serious and much deeper than some of what can be boiled down to a joke.

Katie Honan: Yes, I agree. I guess she's going to Blick. I did notice there was a Blick art supplies by the Whole Foods when I was there last week. When I speak to voters, there's a real concern. I think even the former governor's attacks on Mamdani's rent-stabilized apartment; first, he seemed to confuse rent control and rent-stabilized, and he didn't seem to understand that-- Yes, I think a lot of people-- I was arguing with Mayor Adams' staffers about this. No one seemed to believe that there are people who are in rent-stabilized apartments without knowing it.

I know so many people who've had that experience. It's such a pervasive issue that the City Council passed a bill to publicize it. Whether or not that'll help things remains to be seen, but for a building to actually publish in the lobby, how many of the units in that building are rent-stabilized. There seemed to be a real gap between what Governor Cuomo saw as a real home run in criticizing Zohran Mamdani, but where a lot of voters said, no, no, no, no, this is actually a real issue. What he's paying for rent in Astoria is actually not that much cheaper. Then his proposals Mamdani's [unintelligible 00:33:11] would be to basically remove-- make a lot more people rent-burdened, over 30% of their income to rent, and then also remove over a million apartments from being able to be rented by most New Yorkers. It seemed to just be not a well thought out policy, but just to take a swing at the front-runner.

Again, the toxic masculinity. Again, there's no main women running for mayor. Who knows if that would change, but it is an issue when it comes down to a bench-pressing contest. Again, it's the response. I think if Adams and Cuomo had a more positive message for people in their campaigns-- The Adams campaign posted a video yesterday that was clearly AI-generated – they hadn't even put that it was AI-generated as a disclaimer, which is required – making fun of the scavenger hunt with this weird apocalyptic view of New York City. I don't know who that video was for, because the comments were pretty brutal towards Adams, but again, they don't seem to be in touch, in many ways, with the average New Yorker and what that day-to-day struggle is.

Brigid Bergin: One of the things that I find so striking about this race compared to 2021 was public safety was the dominant issue in 2021. While you still hear the candidates talking about it, there's no cohesive narrative, there's no cohesive argument. I think the one who is trying to make a clearer argument is Curtis Sliwa, the Republican, who's up in the Bronx today bringing attention to these issues, talking about the impact of gang-related violence and shootings. What do you think is different about how candidates are talking about public safety this time around? That was the signature issue for Eric Adams.

Katie Honan: I think when you have someone like Zohran Mamdani as a front-runner now, who has a way-far-left response to policing, and he has been critical of the police. He's watered down some of his criticism of the- especially, his support of defund the police and his tweets criticizing the police. He's appeared with some police officers. He's really been tested that way to there's ways you speak when you are running for assembly, and then there's ways you speak when you're running for mayor. It's a lot different.

I think what the last caller had just said, people's approach to public safety really varies person by person. Some people feel safe with lots of police officers, some people don't. It all goes down to who they are, their prior experience, maybe where they live, and their own interactions with police, whether it be individually or collectively within their community, so it's very complicated. Mayor Adams, his message that he's been trying to get across, that he always says the press doesn't get across, but I think it gets across plenty, is that crime is down under his tenure. Of course, there's nationwide trends to look at as well, but there's just lots of questions about it. When you talk to anyone individually, again, people have lots of opinions on police.

I think too when you look at the police department under Mayor Eric Adams, he's on his fourth police commissioner. Commissioner Tisch is well-liked by many people, and a lot of people would say that she's righted the issues within the police department, but when you look at four police commissioners, what happened to two of them? His first police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, left. My colleagues at THE CITY reported that it was in part because she requested more punishment for Jeff Maddrey. That didn't happen. Then you had Edward Caban, whose home was raided, accused of his twin brother running some sort of kickback scheme with bars who were getting violations. The next interim, Donlon, his home was raided as well. He recently sued the city, including the mayor, and named a bunch of people, saying that it was like a crime operation that was being run out of the NYPD.

Again, this is from the pro-cop, crime-is-down mayor. This is what we've seen. My colleague, Reuven Blau, has a story today about someone in the NYPD, and an alleged cover-up of an accident he was in, and he's the head of traffic. There's a lot of questions of the difference between you're the anticrime, pro-cop mayor, but what was going on in your police department when you were in charge of it?

Brigid Bergin: I want to acknowledge we're getting lots of texts in, Katie, from people who are both Mamdani supporters, who talk about how great it is to see someone who wants to make people love New York City, and people who would say that they can't support him, that they support the way where mainstream Democrats are standing, and I think that's a reference to people like Congress Members Jeffries and Clarke, and just will not support him in the upcoming race.

I want to sneak in one more caller. Let's try Lou in Staten Island. Lou says he was an Adams supporter. Lou, you're on WNYC.

Lou: Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I just want to say that I voted for Mr. Adams the first time, the moment I qualify as a US citizen to vote, but this man turn out to show total lack of judgment. In all of the people he appointed to work with him, almost all of them ended up resigning or being inducted. Then Mr. Cuomo, he resigned from the governor's mansion as a disgrace. He should find another job to do. Then my last point is that whether or not Mr. Jeffries endorses any other local candidates, it doesn't matter. All they have to do is when our candidate wins, they work with that person. That's it. It really doesn't matter whether Mr. Jeffries endorses Mr. Mamdani or not.

Brigid Bergin: Lou, thank you. Follow-up question for you, Lou. Do you have a candidate that you're supporting right now?

Lou: For now, I'm still looking closely at Mr. Mamdani. I like the fact that he came here from Uganda, and I too came here from Liberia 40 years ago. We are both immigrants living in the city, and we love the city, so I'm looking at him seriously.

Brigid Bergin: Lou, thank you so much for your call. We appreciate it. Katie, before I let you go, the city's Campaign Finance Board announced another set of dates for debates ahead of the general election. You did a great job as a moderator last time around. This is going to be a different cast of very unique characters on the stage. Are you going to be a moderator again?

Katie Honan: I believe so, yes, alongside Brian Lehrer, your colleague, and Errol Louis from NY1. I think so, yes.

Brigid Bergin: We'd love to hear that. Are you thinking now of some of the most important policy differences that you are hoping to tease out in that debate?

Katie Honan: Yes. I'm always very self-critical of trying to get good answers out of people, and it was difficult for the primary because there were so many people. We had fewer people than the debate that aired on WNBC. It's hard because you're trying to ask people really complex questions, and it's like, "All right, you have one minute," and then they want to respond, and there's always the idea of people attacking.

The prep for the primary debate, I praise everyone, primarily NY1, who was doing a lot of the technicalities and stuff, but I was just trying to figure out how to get answers out of people, and it's complicated. Because I think, oh, there are so many education questions we want to ask, there are so many housing questions we want to ask, there are so many public safety questions we want to ask.

I'm the type of reporter, I like really detailed questions, so I would love to have asked a question focusing on special needs kids, whether they're in District 75 or else, but that's a very- not niche question, because it affects lots of people, but you have to both look at the broad questions, but hope there's some sort of detail within it. It's hard.

I didn't watch back the debate, but I thought a lot about it of, oh, I should have asked this or should have asked that, but again, that's what we're going to-- We have a few weeks. Our debate, I believe, is October 22nd. There's a lot to get and to think about in terms of how to ask things. Then also, just keeping people-- We're looking at people who you can't control what they're going to say or how they're going to act, so there's a lot of [crosstalk]--

Brigid Bergin: People who have answers prepared, anticipating some of those questions, but I'm excited, and I have no doubt that you and Brian and Errol will elicit some important information for us as voters and as an audience. We're going to leave it there for now. My guest has been Katie Honan of the nonprofit news site THE CITY. Katie, thank you so much for coming in.

Katie Honan: Thanks for having me.

 

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