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Brian Lehrer: It's Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Now it's time for our Friday Ask the Mayor Call-in, my questions and yours for Mayor Bill de Blasio at 212-433-WNYC, or you can tweet a question, just use the #AsktheMayor. You'll never get a busy signal on Twitter #AsktheMayor. He joins us today from Puerto Rico where he's attending the Annual SOMOS Conference, held to draw attention to issues on the island and for Puerto Ricans living in New York. Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Welcome back to WNYC.

Mayor de Blasio: Good morning, Brian, and Brian, I have some good breaking news for you now. Just spoke earlier with our Fire Commissioner Dan Nigro, and I want to let you know that the Fire Department as of today, all fire units, fully operational, there are none out of service and the level of vaccination in the fire department has gone up. It is now 80% among the firefighters, 90% among the EMS workers.

We've also seen the numbers in the sanitation department and NYPD go up again in the last 24 hours. Really good progress on the vaccine mandate and on making sure that New Yorkers are being served and protected. Also very important, 15 unions, 15 municipal unions signed an agreement yesterday on how to implement the vaccine mandate. We're seeing a high level of working together and moving things forward from the vast majority of our unions, and that's really good news.

Brian Lehrer: That all sounds like good news. I think we can say that the mandate is, no doubt, a success in terms of driving the overall vaccination rate to over 90% of city workers. Can you say, though, when you say no Fire Department units are out of service as of today-- I think there had been some confusion earlier in the week when there was reporting that some fire companies were out of service. Some people understood that to mean the firehouses were closed, physical firehouses in some neighborhoods, but that was never the case. It was some fire companies, which are groups of firefighters within those houses. Are you saying now when you say no units out of service that there are no fire companies that are not together?

Mayor de Blasio: Correct. You said exactly right, Brian. Throughout the firehouses have been open, and you're right, within firehouses, there are multiple different kinds of units. Now what I'm saying, in addition to all the firehouses being opened, all units are operational. That's actually a stronger position than we are in normal times when typically some units are out to service for either training or maintenance. All of our 350 Fire Department units are operational, working. We've had great response times in addressing different challenges.

It's really striking, and I want to tell you if you want evidence that mandates work since the mandate was announced, it was just on October 20, since then, well over 26,000 city workers have been vaccinated. Interestingly, since Monday, which is when it had already gone into effect, 4,000 more have come forward who originally didn't meet the deadline but then decided to after the fact, so 4,000 more. We expect a lot more of that.

This is really, really a good new story for the whole city because right now New Yorkers have voted with their feet, if anything, there was the case of that. 86% of New York City adults have now had at least one dose of the vaccine. That's a kind of majority and agreement that we almost never see in this city on anything. That's unbelievable ratification that people do believe in the vaccine. They believe in the science and they believe in the mandates as a way to make sure we all get there together.

Brian Lehrer: On EMS, you said the response times are normal, but our news department is reporting, I believe, that they have acknowledged that they've had to send fewer crews out to each emergency that would ordinarily require multiple crews. Is that your understanding, and has that put people in danger this week?

Mayor de Blasio: No, people are safe because the response time has been very, very good and the outcomes have been very good meeting as we've looked at, both fire and EMS, the impact of the response has been very, very effective. We had, on the fireside, we had a five-alarm fire. I think it was yesterday, was handled exactly right.

Look, there's a huge amount of redundancy. Let's be clear, there's a pretty known fact. In our Fire Department, there's a lot of redundancy. In this instance, what Commissioner Nigro and his team have done is they very smartly move people around as needed and used the resources they have to get the impact and protect people.

We did see a very, very inappropriate action by a number of individuals to call in sick when they weren't really sick from the firefighters. Now let's be clear, most firefighters, most EMS folks absolutely did the right thing. It is a few who called in sick wrongly, falsely, and endangered everyone else in the process, but what the Fire Department has done is really make great adjustments to keep the service levels high. Now we're seeing the sick time going down the last couple of days and people coming back.

Brian Lehrer: Mr. Mayor, let me ask you a question about the SOMOS Conference where you are before we go to the phones for you, and I was just starting to tell our listeners about this issue while we were getting the phone hooked back up. That is the so-called vulture hedge funds which make big profits by buying up debt on the cheap from governments facing default like Puerto Rico and then using a loophole in New York State Law to sue those same governments for full repayment.

Brooklyn Congresswoman, Nydia Velazquez, has a proposal to cancel that debt. There are other things. Do you have a position on that, or is it an issue you focused on the implications of down there?

Mayor de Blasio: Yes, absolutely. This has not only been an issue this year at the SOMOS Conference, but in past years as well, and I agree with Congress member Velazquez the vulture hedge funds, that's not just a phrase, it's a real thing. There's been an absolutely cynical effort by folks who already are quite wealthy to make more money off the backs of the Puerto Rican people.

Remember, the reason the Puerto Rican economy went into a tailspin was decisions by the United States government, Washington, that changed the very nature of the Puerto Rican economy that actually undermined the industries that were here and time and time again, Puerto Rico did not get the support it needed as it went into a healthcare crisis. It did not get the support it needed, of course, not surprisingly, from the Trump administration nor after the hurricanes, the earthquakes.

It's cynical. It's cynical, it's neo-colonial as to what we're seeing here and it has to be stopped. I agree with Congress member Velazquez, the Puerto Rican people cannot be held responsible for the very cynical actions of some very rapacious hedge fund folks.

Brian Lehrer: Let's take a phone call. Samir around Union Square, you're on WNYC with Mayor de Blasio. Hello, Samir.

Samir: Hi, how's it going? Thank you for taking my call. I wanted to ask about the Fifth Avenue busway that was recently put on hold. You came in the office vowing to take on the Tale of Two Cities. You launched Vision Zero and however, this past few weeks, you chose to kill the busway and protected bike lanes of this avenue. We faced a climate crisis. We faced the deadliest year on our streets since you took office, more than 220 individuals killed in crashes.

Why are you siding with wealthy real estate developers and turning your back on everyday bus and bike riders who need their fast commutes and safety on our streets? Will you complete this project before you leave office so we can save lives and save our climate? Thank you.

Mayor de Blasio: Samir, respectfully, I'm sure your intentions are good, but I think your facts are fundamentally wrong. The fact is, not only did I institute Vision Zero, and have we propelled it forward for eight straight years, including during the pandemic, but I'm the person who put busways in place, starting with 14th Street and then we've expanded them around the borough.

I don't understand the memory problem some people have. If someone comes in, there was no Vision Zero before me, respectfully, there was no busways before I did this. I'm very proud of it. It's making a huge impact. The decision on Fifth Avenue is a very temporary one. The point was, during the holidays, there's a huge amount of people around Fifth Avenue. We also need to bring back our economy and jobs. It's a place where tourists go and tourists are coming back. It's a pivotal place during the holiday season.

It was simply a decision to get through the holidays for a few weeks and then implement the busway. The busway is 100% happening and that's been very clear publicly. I would ask people, you can ask whatever you want. You can say whatever you want, but I really wish for folks who believe in these type of approaches rather than start with, bluntly, a conspiracy theory, start with the fact that we have moved this agenda profoundly and it's going to keep growing. There's a lot more protected bikeways coming, a lot more busways and select bus service coming. That's where the city is going.

Brian Lehrer: Mr. Mayor, here I think is a very different kind of bus question from Andy in Astoria. Andy, you're on WNYC with the Mayor. Hello?

Andy: Hello. I'm on the air?

Brian Lehrer: Yes, sir.

Andy: Mr. Mayor. I've worked in tourism for 23 years and it means I'm barely working now, but this is not about me. The double-decker industry has been allowed to reopen without his tour guides. They fired all their tour guides. This is not bringing those jobs back.

In place, they're running tapes, and you just talk about Vision Zero, but the drivers have to run these machines while driving. Meanwhile, the tourists are up on the top levels with no one supervising them. This is always something, and we never get credit for the accidents we've prevented, but we've been preventing potentially dangerous accidents for years on top of these buses.

We want to know what the city is going to do about it. We've been trying to get a bill Intro 289A out of committee and it's someone's blocking it. I don't know who, but this would actually guarantee that for the safety of the passengers that the licensed tour guides, and we're licensed by the city and the city is doing nothing to protect those licenses. What are we going to do about getting these tour guides back on the buses? What are we going to do about Intro 289A?

Brian Lehrer: Andy, thank you very much. Familiar with this issue, Mr. Mayor?

Mayor de Blasio: I actually, am happy Andy is familiarizing me with it, Brian. I think Andy has got a good point. I did not know that the tour buses had so systematically taken the human element out. I think that's a problem for not only the reason that Andy's raising in terms of safety impact, but also its jobs. The tour guides, I've heard them do their thing going by, bring a lot of New York color and flavor and energy, and it's not the same thing to have it on a tape.

I'm very sympathetic to Andy's point. Andy, I'm going to have our Transportation Commissioner Hank Gutman speak to you. I'll have our team look into what's going on with that City Council legislation because you've gotten my attention. I think you're making a really good point.

Brian Lehrer: We'll follow up too. I hadn't heard about it either. Andy, hang on. We'll take your contact.

Mayor de Blasio: Andy, give us your, give us your contact, right. You got it, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Mr. Mayor, I want to ask you about the deal announced yesterday for yellow cab owners' debt relief that many drivers and their union are hailing as a lifesaver. On more favorable terms for them from your original plan, it will cap debt for any small owner at $200,000, cap monthly payments around $1,100 a month, rather than $2,000, and set up the City as the guarantor of the loans, if I've got these details right.

My question is, we've talked about this before, when you came out with the original plan, why did it take a hunger strike the last two weeks to get the City to his latest version?

Mayor de Blasio: Well, what really happened was several things. One, Senator Schumer got involved and helped both sides to understand there was a different approach. Because as you see, Brian, the approach that was achieved takes what we started and which a lot of drivers were benefiting from, and adds on it. So, it turned out that our basic approach to providing the help for the drivers, the $65 million program we passed with the City Council in June was an effective approach.

It's also fair to say the drivers needed more help. The original plan we heard from the drivers, I think was very, very well-intentioned, but there were problems that we thought both legally and ultimate potential cost problems. We needed a different approach, and Senator Schumer helped us find, in effect, a third way. I want to give a lot of credit to the Transit Workers Alliance. They fought very hard for the members and then they were willing to come to--

Brian Lehrer: Taxi Workers Alliance.

Mayor de Blasio: I'm sorry. You're right. My apology, you caught me. That's a-- I'm thinking of a different organization, Taxi Workers Alliance. Well done, Brian. Taxi Workers Alliance. I want to give a lot of credit to the Taxi Workers Alliance. They fought well and with energy for their members. When everyone got back in the room after thinking about different alternatives and seeing what our initial plan had done and how it could be improved. We actually, within a matter of days, found another approach and agreed to it and announced it yesterday.

We're adding $50 million more to the program and it's going to really, as you said, it's going to reduce what the drivers have to pay. They still do have debt, but it's going to make it much, much more manageable for them. This is one of these situations-- I've talked to a lot of people involved where, unfortunately, we couldn't find common ground earlier, but over time, people started finding a way to each other and finding shared values and approaches and actually worked in the end.

Brian Lehrer: Is there a lesson in a couple of stories that we've talked about already, for how quickly you or any other mayor involves unions in certain kinds of conversations? So for example, you've gotten criticized on the vaccine mandate for issuing the mandate before you've started talking to the unions. I think even Eric Adams has set a version of that, and in this case, the Bhairavi Desai and the Taxi Workers Alliance was so opposed, she came on the show, and she was really upset for her workers with a proposed solution that you had originally come to. Now, you had to go back and come to yes on a second pass. Is there a lesson in that?

Mayor de Blasio: I think they're very different situations. I think the Taxi Workers Alliance had a plan from the beginning that we looked at thoroughly. There've been lots of discussion with them over time. We looked at it, we thought, again, there were legal problems, and there was exposure for the city that wasn't going to work in the end. Our plan did pass the City Council, was helping hundreds of drivers and a thousand more were signed up to be helped.

What we needed was basically a hybrid of the two, and we got there and there was always a willingness to find a path, but honestly, for a long time, people couldn't think of another alternative. That's why I give Senator Schumer a lot of credit. He called me up and said, "Why don't you try doing it this way? Why don't you modify this? Why don't you try this? Why don't you put this in place?"

He was right. There was an entirely different way of thinking about it. He's obviously a masterful legislative strategist. He really helped us think through how to do it. With the vaccine mandate, very different scenario because we've been talking throughout the labor. We've been talking before the mandate, since the mandate. In fact, as you heard, we had unions sign on in large numbers. 15 major unions signed an agreement yesterday with us after a lot of dialogue and all the previous unions in the earlier elements of the mandate did as well.

I don't think there's a lack of dialogue at all. I think most unions we've come to agreement with. I think we're having one union in particular, the UFA, the firefighters, different from the other unions in their own department. I don't know if you saw it, Brian, but Vincent Verali of one of the EMS unions put out a powerful appeal to his members to get vaccinated.

They said we don't necessarily have to agree on the mandate, but it's time to get vaccinated. We've seen other union leaders actually step up and say to people, this is now the law. It was challenged in court, the city won consistently, the city is the employer, the city has this right to protect people, get vaccinated. One union right now is standing apart. There's no lack of dialogue. They just don't want to follow the law, and we're telling them they have to. In fact, they're members now. 80% of the Fire Department on the firefighting side is now vaccinated. I think that speaks for itself.

Brian Lehrer: Here's a call from a vaccinated city worker, Terrell in Manhattan. You're on WNYC with the mayor. Hello.

Hi, good morning, Brian. Good morning to the Mayor. I am a City employee. I got vaccinated July 30th. During that time, you were given out the incentive for the $100. So, I decided to get my shot at Metropolitan Hospital, which is a City, you know, hospital is run by the City. So, when I did get my first shot, I had asked about the $100. They told me that they weren't included in the incentives. So, I made a couple of phone calls, eventually found out that hospitals were never included in the vaccine sites, which doesn't really make any sense since it's a City-operated site run by the City. So, my question is, how can I still get my $100 even though I did get my shot when you know, that incentives first rolled out?

Terrell: Hi. Good morning, Brian. Good morning, Mayor. I am a City employee. I got vaccinated July 30th. During that time, you were given out incentive for the $100, so I decided to get my shot at Metropolitan Hospital, which is a hospital run by the City. When I did get my first shot, I had asked about the $100, they told me that they weren't included in the incentives. I made a couple of phone calls, eventually found out that hospitals were never included in the vaccine sites, which doesn't really make any sense since it's a City-operated site run by the City. My question is, how can I still get my $100 even though I did get my shot when that incentives first rolled out?

Mayor de Blasio: Yes, Terrell. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Where is my $100, Mr. Mayor? You know we've had some teachers call and ask, where's my $500 because they got $100, but now you offered $500 in the last couple of weeks to the new city employees covered by the mandate. What do you say to Terrell and by extension others as well?

Mayor de Blasio: I think there's two-- I think Terrell's question is one and I'll answer the other piece. Terrell, first for you. Your story makes total sense to me, and I don't understand why you wouldn't have gotten it because at city-run sites, we were providing. I'm going to have a member of my team call you and fix that. Please give your information to WNYC. From everything you just told me, you deserve that $100. We should give it to you. Thank you for going and getting vaccinated way back in July.

To the bigger question, Brian, look, the people of this city employ me to keep them healthy and keep them safe. We have now lowered COVID levels in the city to the point that we're one of the safest places in America, and we have one of the highest rates of vaccination anywhere in this country, and we're getting better all the time.

Originally where there was no incentive, a huge number of people got vaccinated because they just wanted to get vaccinated and be safe. At a certain point, we saw it was lagging, we put an incentive in place, the $100, it had a huge impact. President Biden actually picked up on it and told people around the country do the same.

This last piece we thought we need a supercharge, we need to get this last piece done. We decided to do a short time $500 incentive. It helped because now you see these numbers in these agencies and you do things like this if you think there's a way to get something done for people and finish the mission in terms of fighting COVID. That incentive lapsed now, but it worked, it helped us get to 92% of our workforce vaccinated, and that's of people ultimately care about, how we're going to be safe.

Brian Lehrer: Let's talk about COVID vaccines for school kids now that they've begun for ages five through 11. I see they're going to be offered at schools, at least on one day per school and maybe more. My question for you is, is there any plan to offer the second doses at schools when they ripe in a few weeks when the children are ready for them according to the timeline? I know there's concern about drop-off from completing the set without that.

Mayor de Blasio: It's an excellent question, Brian. Here's what we found, we did school vaccination for the 12 to 17-year-olds and we had a good experience with that, but we didn't have a huge response from parents. Mainly we saw people going, and pediatricians to local centers. We saw, typically, parents choosing to go to other places they get healthcare rather than do it in the school. We're now doing one day per school for the five to 11-year-olds.

If we get a really big pickup on that, we certainly can do more and we certainly can come back on a second dose, but if it tracks where we were pre previously, I think then we're likely to just direct parents to all the other places for that second dose. They really have been picking up. I got to tell you now with the 12 to 17-year-olds, we're at 78% vaccinated, which is an amazing figure, considering these, every single one of them needs a parental consent.

They're not necessarily going to make their own decision. The fact that we have gotten parents now to agree to that level, 78% for the 12 to 17-year-olds is great. I think we're going to even have a higher number ultimately with five to 11, but if we need to do more in schools, if it's working, of course, we will.

Brian Lehrer: Here's a related question from a listener via Twitter. The question is, "When are masks coming off? Kids in school, the writer says it is affecting their education, communication, socialization, and overall, mental health. Parents deserve to know." I guess, the question in this context is, is there a critical mass percentage of vaccinated kids at which point you say the masks can come off?

Mayor de Blasio: It's a great question. In fact, Dr. Chokshi and Dr. Varma were asked this yesterday at my press conference and talked about it. There is not a hard and fast at this point, because first of all, we're going into the colder months and we know that is an important factor vis-a-vis COVID. Second of all, we just have learned a lot from COVID that, until we're really sure, we have to expect the unexpected.

What is good now, which gives me hope about getting masks off, is just the overall level of vaccination in this city. It's huge, it's incredible and it's growing, that gives me a lot of hope. I want those masks off one day, but we cannot tell you yet here's the exact day, or here's the exact standard we're holding because we still need more information. I also want to say kids have done an amazing job, keeping the mask on, as well as the adults in the school. None of us likes it, but it has made the schools literally the safest place to be in New York City and we want to keep it that way until we're really all clear with COVID.

Brian Lehrer: I know you got to go in a couple of minutes. Tell us what you thought of the election results, both here in New York City and also the strength of Republican candidates around the city on Long Island and in New Jersey?

Mayor de Blasio: I think there's a lot of different things happening. You know the phrase "all politics is local". I think we're seeing really interesting, but different things in each place. I think Virginia is different than New Jersey, is different than Long Island, is different than New York City. Obviously, in New York City, Eric Adams won a huge victory.

We saw a couple of council races go to Republicans. I think the last one is outstanding in Bay Ridge, it will still go to the Democrat. I think on Long Island, clearly, the criminal justice issues were very big. It's different in each place is what we're seeing. I think the bottom line is, Democrats still as a broad reality of the Democratic Party nationally need to focus on short clear messages and kitchen-table issues, healthcare, getting working people what they deserve.

This has been an uneven reality for Democrats. A couple of years back, I think it was 2018, there was a really consistent focus on healthcare in those congressional elections and it worked around the country for Democrats because Democrats were speaking with one voice. I think we got to go back to that. Progressive, working people-focused message and when we're not doing that, then Democrats don't turn out to vote. I think that's the real story here. In places where Republicans won, I think the biggest problem was Democrats turnout didn't happen and that's what we got to work on.

Brian Lehrer: Mr. Mayor, as we head toward our final few Fridays of Ask the Mayor, before you leave office now that the election's been held, I'd like to give you some time to talk to our listeners off the news of the week, more than we usually are, on some of the coming Fridays to reflect on your eight years of doing one of the most complicated jobs in the world.

Give some thought to what you might leave people with about things that you expected or didn't expect? Advice for Eric Adams or future Mayors, a sense of perspective for different kinds of New Yorkers, things like that. We'll work out some specific themes in the coming weeks if you're interested. Give that some thought, all right?

Mayor de Blasio: Absolutely, Brian. I would be very happy to. This has been the ultimate learning curve. I have a lot I'd like to share with people and anything that I can share, I hope will be helpful to Mayor-elect, Adams, and the city going forward. I want to thank you also, Brian, now. I'll certainly thank you when our time together ends.

This has been a very, very moving and rewarding experience to have a way to speak to everyday New Yorkers, all out in the open in a way where people really are hearing each other, thinking together, and having a dialogue.

You do something with this show that doesn't happen enough in our society. I want to thank you for that. Yes, I'd like to do a little reflective dialogue before this is over. That would be very good.

Brian Lehrer: That's very nice what you said and thanks as always, Mr. Mayor, talk to you next week.

Mayor de Blasio: Take care now.

Brian Lehrer: Mayor de Blasio from the SOMOS Conference in Puerto Rico today.

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