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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. We begin this hour as usual on Fridays with our weekly Ask The Mayor call-in my questions in yours for Mayor Bill de Blasio 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280, or tweet a question. Just use the #AskTheMayor. Thanks as always, Mr. Mayor, welcome back to WNYC.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you very much, Brian, how are you doing today?

Brian: I'm doing all right. Thank you. There was so much publicity around whether the city would pass the 3% average positivity rate last month because that was the school closing threshold. Did I see Mr. Mayor that now the city is about 5%?

Mayor de Blasio: You're right about that, Brian. It's something we should all be very concerned about. I want to take this opportunity to really remind people what our health commissioner Dave Chokshi said earlier in a week if you are over 65 years old, and/or have those serious pre-existing conditions like diabetes and heart disease, we are really imploring folks to just stay in, not go out, not engage other folks except for absolutely essential purposes, like a medical appointment. As a real serious situation, and we're working with the state now to figure out additional measures, we have to take.

The one thing I would say just to talk about today's indicators. The one thing we still see thank God is the hospital admission situation in the intensive care unit situation is different than one would have expected and better than one would have expected here in the city. 134 hospital admissions today. We've been constantly monitoring. The hospital system is holding very well right now. ICU still have a substantial capacity.

Hospital treatments for folks with COVID are definitely greatly improved from the spring, we're seeing many fewer people need ventilators. We're seeing more people on the ventilator come through okay. Thank God, many fewer people passing away. Qualitatively a very different situation, but the numbers certainly are cause for real concern.

Brian: I read that Los Angeles County is now above 12% positivity up from 7%, just a week earlier. They're doing things like roping off playgrounds again and closing even outdoor dining like back in the spring because they've passed a threshold of less than 15% ICU capacity. Are you considering anything like that for New York? I certainly heard you say that our ICU capacity, thank goodness is okay, right now.

Mayor de Blasio: Right. I've been talking to the governor repeatedly about the challenges, and they're real here in the city. In fact, even more profound in some other parts of the state. We're talking about what measures need to be taken. Obviously, we will do whatever it takes to keep people safe. At the same time, we're very much focused. The governor talked a lot earlier in the week about hospitalizations and that being the key thing to watch. We're balancing what measures we need to take.

Obviously, real concern for folks livelihoods too given that for so many working people, now, they have lost all the positive benefits that came from those stimulus checks earlier in the year, those checks have run out, there's no guarantee of a new stimulus yet. A lot of people desperately need whatever work they can to keep their families going. We're trying to balance all those factors, but this is literally a daily and sometimes multiple times a day conversation that I'm having with the governor, my staff is having with his staff to work out what steps need to be taken.

Brian: You're not ruling out something as severe in a few weeks maybe as rubbing off the playgrounds, again, which the city did do not just Los Angeles earlier this year, right?

Mayor de Blasio: I want to be very careful on how I word it. Again, we have a very different situation than the one we had in the spring. We're going to look at a variety of measures. I don't want to rule in or rule out anything because we are having those conversations with the state. Obviously, ultimately, they make the decision on most of this. Let me get through those conversations a little more, and I'll have more to say when we solidify the planning. Look, I think it's fair to say what I'm hearing from my health leadership, I know the governor's hearing from his, this is a very serious situation, and we're going to work together to figure out the measures we have to take.

Brian: Let's take a phone call, Angelina, in Brooklyn, a pre-k teacher. You're on WNYC with the Mayor. Hello, Angelina.

Angelina: Hi, how are you? This is very exciting. Hi, Mr. Mayor. Hi, Brian.

Mayor de Blasio: Hey, Angelina. How are you doing?

Angelina: Good. I'm Okay. I'm a pre-K for all teacher in Queens, Jamaica. My question is why haven't you been totally clear with the public, with the press that the 3-K, Pre-K, Kindergarten, and District 75 students do not get tested?

Mayor de Blasio: Angelina, it is a difference there. I appreciate the question. It's important question. Pre-K, 3-K kids, three-year-olds, four-year-olds, obviously we have seen the least problem with the Coronavirus. Obviously, we're concerned about that age level and what it takes to do testing and all. That's not what we've been doing. We have not seen a problem with that. We do test, and this is part of the new protocol going back into schools Monday, we will be testing K to five kids, we will be testing a District 75 kids, every parent needs to have a consent form on file or have their child bring it with them next week to be able to attend school.

On top of that, there's of course, appetite for a medical exemption of a family believes there's a valid reason, and it's confirmed by the DOE. We from the beginning believe in our health care team as a firm this that the three-year-olds and four-year-olds were not the groups of kids who needed to be tested.

Angelina: I have two questions, but this is just a continuation on the first because I know a lot of Pre-K teachers are concerned, their students are coming back five days a week, we'll have about 13 students, the room capacity hold it, will have 13 students. What do you say to the pre-K teachers to make them actually feel better? This is also going to be another question for the UST what are our protections now because we're going back to school five days a week with more kids, and our kids aren't being tested, and we're in a red zone area.

Mayor de Blasio: Yes, Angelina a couple of things, I would not start with the assumption of more kids. We believe that because we're going to say very consistently, that everyone in the school system has to claim their seats now once and for all, and that's next week. I've been real blunt about this, and the chancellor has too. Any family that their child is signed up for in-person learning and the child doesn't show up next week, we're telling the family we're about to move them then to remote learning unless they give us a clear explanation why and a commitment that their child is going to start attending immediately.

I think, Angelina, we have had a certain, substantial number 10s of thousands of families who have been basically trying to hold a place for the future. We don't want that anymore. We can't have that we need to get to five days a week for as many families as possible or at least more days. That's going to reduce the numbers I think meaningfully.

The other thing to remember, Angelina, is that the amount of precautions in a New York City Schools. This is literally the highest standard in the world, including everyone wearing a mask all the time and constant cleaning, all the measures, social distancing. We have facts now for two straight months of extraordinarily low levels of transmission in our schools. Our schools are clearly safer. This is what our healthcare leaders say, our schools are safer than pretty much anyplace else in New York City. I really think everyone in the school community can feel secure because so many measures are in place to protect everyone.

Brian: Angelina, thank you so much for your call, please call us again. A follow up. You've said that with a relatively small number of in-person learners, it's less than a third of all the kids in the system who've opted in. Some schools might even be able to go five days a week and keep social distancing. I've read that some principals are telling parents, even if they have the space, they don't have the budgets to hire enough teachers, they would need more teachers, I guess for the in-person plus remote. Is that a concern you're aware of?

Mayor de Blasio: I've heard those rumors and I want to make very clear to everyone in the department of education, to all our principals, to all our educators. This is a decision that the chancellor and I have made it's not up for debate. We need to provide the most in-person instruction possible to our children. Our children have gone through so much this year. Those whose families choose to have children in the classroom deserve the maximum number of days.

We're prioritizing in any school where there are not enough seats for every child to go five days, the priority will go to special needs kids, to kids who are in shelter and temporary housing, to kids who are in public housing, it will be prioritized by the economic and educational need. This is something that has to happen. It can happen. The numbers speak for themselves. We already know there are schools that right now will come back Monday

with five day a week for all their students. In the course of the next few weeks, it'll be more and more. Brian, the crucial thing to recognize is, once you take out the students who really haven't been attending and their parents are just in effect holding a seat or just not communicating with DOE at all. When you take those kids out of the equation the numbers will go down. I wish they wouldn't, but they will, we know this.

Again, I say very clear to parents, "You have to give us that consent form to test or a medical excuse." Otherwise, we can't see their child who doesn't have one or the other of those things. The numbers will go down, and we will have the opportunity because of the sheer numbers to see kids five days a week.

If a classroom was 24 kids and now the classroom is eight or nine or 10 kids because of social distancing. The number of kids that you have in your school is 25%, 30%, 35% of what you had before. You can make that equation work, the math is straightforward. If we need to get some schools additional teachers, we will. We've been very clear and we can move substitutes including substitutes who were previously working in middle and high school who now are freed up for a period of time. We'll fill those needs but we have to get this done. Parents need it, kids need it.

Brian: Let's stay on the schools bit and talk to Fazin calling from Astoria. Fazin, you’re on WNYC with the mayor. Hi there.

Fazin: Hi, good morning Mayor, and Brian Lehrer. I have been an avid listener to your show and I do have a question for the mayor. In just regards to the consent form. The children returning on Monday must have this consent. My concern with the consent form is there is no alternative provided for a child to be tested through their doctor or through pediatrician or for the parent to be present at the time of the test. How come this alternative is not being presented? Otherwise, what you now have will-- More children who are currently in blended will now be removed from blended and switch to strictly online.

Mayor de Blasio: It's a fair question and what I'd say is this. We're happy to work with any parent to see if we can accommodate. The bottom line, of course, is we have to protect the health and safety of the whole school community. The testing has been quintessential to how we've been able to keep our schools safe. This is one of the reasons why New York City public schools are considered among the safest in the country right now. As I said our healthier-ship will tell you our school buildings are some of the safest places to be for anyone in New York City right now. Testing has been crucial to that. What I'd say is if a parent says, “Look, I think there's a medical reason why my child shouldn't be tested.”

That's very clear you can get an exemption, but DOE has to approve it, but that's a very available path. Obviously, the virtue of the consent form is it means that we can do the in-school testing as needed, and it's done and we know what happens. If you're dealing with a parent's personal pediatrician, for example, how and when does that happen-- Becomes difficult unwieldy, we can't have people not getting tested. If a parent says, "I have a particular need." We, of course, will try and work with that parent to see how we can address that need. That's a conversation that should be heard with the school, with a principal system, principal-parent coordinator at the school to see how we can work on that.

Brian: Fazin, I hope that answers your question. Let me follow up just on this notion that, I mean it's new. It's real that schools are reopening for pre-K, 3-K, through 5-K, plus District 75 special ed on Monday. I've been told that at the Manhattan District 2 meeting on Wednesday, chancellor Carranza said schools in the state-designated red and orange zones, will not be part of Monday's reopening plan so that would be South Shore of Staten Island, and the only red or orange zone. I think at the moment in the city is that. Can you confirm this?

Mayor de Blasio: There's a little bit of a telephone game here I think Brian because I don't know what happened at that meeting, I can tell you what the chancellor and I said at the press conference on Sunday when we announced this plan which really should be the reference point. Next week, we intend to open schools in that orange zone area of Staten Island. We have some additional work to do. We haven't fixed the day yet we will do that very quickly, obviously. We still intend to move forward for next week.

Brian: All right. How about, Blair in Manhattan, you’re on WNYC with the Mayor. Hi, Blair.

Blair: Hello there, Mr. Mayor. A question with so many more people now driving to work to avoid mass transit, plus the dire need for revenue enhancement, along with it, we need to deal with the fact that 30% of New York car owners register their car elsewhere. Isn't it time to have resident-only parking in New York City? As we find in so many, many others in the United States cities?

Brian: Resident-only parking.

Mayor de Blasio: Blair, it’s a good question. Yes, residential parking permits. It’s a very good question. First, I'd say I appreciate you raising the point about folks who register out of state which is really something people should not do. We obviously have a pandemic going on, but this is something I would love to work with the state to break through once and for all because it's just not fair to everyone else and deprives us off revenue we need. It's obviously an attempt to evade New York state regulations.

On the parking permits, we've looked at this several times in the last seven years, Blair. So far, it seems to be complicated enough and there's enough unintended consequences, that certainly our transportation leadership and planners have not believed it ultimately works for New York City. It may be different now, so you raise an important point. I grew up with it, actually in Massachusetts and it worked well. I do think scale matters here in the context of New York City. It's harder to implement at this scale. I'm going to go back and talk it through in light of the impact of the pandemic and see if our transportation team thinks it's time to evaluate that again.

Brian: Blair, thank you for your call. I want to ask you about crime in the city. The last number I saw for shootings is up 94% compared to last year. There have been more stories in the press about random attacks like pushing people onto the subway tracks more than in recent years. After years of success at getting those numbers, especially shootings down. Why can't the city do any better this year despite the pandemic?

Mayor de Blasio: I think it's not fair to suggest that it's been a static situation, Brian. Actually, what we've seen over the last months from the end of the summer till now, is a steady increase in the thing we need the most which is gun arrests and more and more success by the NYPD in getting guns off the street.

The challenge has been I've talked about the perfect storm that is literally, we've never seen anything like this and we will not see it again thank God. We know 2021 will by definition be better than 2020, every way for all of our society, including our ability to fight crime. Because everything came unglued when there weren't jobs, there wasn't school, there weren't houses of worship, everything came unglued. We know that led to a much tougher situation for the NYPD to handle.

Over the course of the summer into the fall, NYPD reinvigorated its neighborhood policing efforts, got tighter with community residents and groups to help fight crime. That helped, gun arrest went up, that's helping. What we are seeing now is going to be a lot better poised next year from the beginning of the year address a situation without multiple hands tied behind our back of a total pandemic situation plus so many officers who were out sick, it really got very, very difficult. We're going to go into next year, I think in a much better position and really double down on neighborhood policing because that was the strategy that worked.

Brian: How much is their attention now if any between wanting to cut down on mass incarceration and the risk of police violence, which has been so much in the news this year, of course, versus wanting to cut down on shootings by civilians in the short run?

Mayor de Blasio: It's an important question. What I'd say is, we have to understand for the vast majority of New Yorkers their concern is they need safety in their lives. They want it to be fair, they want police to be respectful. Obviously, act in an unbiased fashion, but they need police presence to keep their communities safe. That's what I hear. All over the city, I've been hearing at town hall meetings for seven years. It's quite clear and consistent.

The balance we have to strike is to pick up where we were pre-pandemic. Maximize neighborhood policing, more respectful policing, more communication between police and community. Keep reducing incarceration overall, which certainly is our plan and that's why we're going to be able to close down Rikers Island once and for all. In the short term, there'll be a problem because the court system is not their fault, but has never been able to sustain themselves over the last 10 months.

You can't move the criminal justice system and move people through trial and determine their outcome without a court system functioning which is a huge X factor in this discussion. I think what's going to happen is as the vaccine is distributed. Let's agree that it's coming in this month to begin. I think we'll start to feel larger effects of it January into February, but maximally feel it as we go into the spring.

Then I think you'll see the court system come back to life fully over time. Then you see the whole process start to move, and we're able to address each case, which will reduce, of course, people waiting for trial. I think we can get back to the strategy that was working, I think it'll just be something we have to do in stages in the course of 2021.

Brian: I've seen the priority list for vaccinations start with frontline medical workers, and go next to people in nursing homes at risk in those congregate care facilities. What about people in jails and prisons? Shouldn't they be also high considering the outbreak rates there?

Mayor de Blasio: We're watching that carefully. I looked at the numbers a couple of days ago. To date, thank God, we have seen a pretty steady situation, but we're concerned because of the physical setting, to say the least. To date, we have not been seeing major problem in our city jails, but certainly, since our correction workers, connection officers are essential workers, they would be in the priority group of-- The city and state are working on the exact delineation, but absolutely the most vulnerable folks are in nursing homes, let's be clear of anybody in our entire population.

Nursing home workers, nursing home residents, crucial as well as every one of the most sensitive health care workers crucial and we got to help and protect the people help all of us, especially when the rates of infection going up. That's where you have to begin. There's a lot more health care workers, first responders that need to get vaccinated, of course, that group would include our correction officers, we got to figure out the inmates in that mix too and then the other big category to be really concerned about is the group of people Dr. Chokshi is giving a due warning to.

That anyone over 65 and folks and/or folks who have those pre-existing conditions have to be high up the list. We're going to work through all those priorities and as quick as we get it in, the vaccine in, we're going to turn it around. I think we'll be able to make a lot of progress on all those priorities December, January into February.

Brian: Joe on Staten Island, you're on w NYC with the mayor. Hi, Joe.

Joe: Yes. Hi, Brian. Hi, Your Honor. You're probably aware of the contentious situation that's happening at Mac's Grill, about being closed down for flouting the COVID restrictions. The other night at a protest, the proud boys showed up, and also at this protest was council member, Joe Borelli, who spoke to the crowd without at all admonishing what is known nationwide as a hate group and potentially a terrorist group. Will there be any censure for Councilmember Joe Borelli for participating in a rally with a known hate group?

Mayor de Blasio: It's important question because that is a hate group. Yes, this is a point where we need to put this era of hatred behind us and obviously the people of this country spoke clearly on election day, that they're ready to put the hatred behind us so no elected official should be supporting or encouraging the proud boys. I don't know the details, so I don't want to speak about the council and specifically.

You're the first person actually to say to me that there may have been that presence at that gathering. We were obviously concerned to make very clear as you stated, that the law has to be followed and that bar needs to be closed, but I will follow up to find out what happened there. I'm concerned and obviously, the bigger point you're raising is right. We should all be depending-- Not dependent at all on party affiliation, everyone should be condemning what the proud boys stand for.

Brian: How much pushback are you in-- Well, not just pushback, but like what we saw at that restaurant, resistance and defiance of indoor dining restrictions are you expecting, are you seeing right now?

Mayor de Blasio: Well, we're generally not and we haven't from the beginning. This individual, this particular site, they obviously wanted to get publicity for themselves, they made a big deal of it, but they're shut down now. Let's be clear. Remember when we first had to-- Sad, but when we first had to put the restrictions on bars and restaurants in the spring, in the days after we had compliance officers out, we thought overwhelming compliance, we've seen it ever since. The times when we've had to shut people down have been very few. I think everyone's watching this situation, looking at these numbers. I expect whatever the rules become that they will overwhelmingly be honored.

Brian: Briah in Manhattan, you're on WNYC with the mayor. Hello, Briar.

Briah: Hi, good morning to both of you. I have a question about land use issues as pertains to lower Manhattan. I'm a resident of the lower east side and I work in Chinatown and my question is, if this SoHo and NoHo rezoning, the upzoning is currently being proposed is really about racial justice and truly affordable housing, then why haven't you listened to the working-class communities of color in Chinatown and the lower east side?

In our demands for the Chinatown Working Group plan which is a community-led rezoning plan designed to protect our neighborhoods, which are just adjacent to the newly proposed upzoning in SoHo and NoHo, which will impact our communities too? We need to protect those from speculative over development and displacement and why is it too ambitious, which are your words, Mr. Mayor, to follow the lead of impacted communities and working people when it comes to city planning?

Mayor de Blasio: Well, Briah, I appreciate the question, obviously, very quickly, SoHo, NoHo is one of the most elite neighborhoods in New York City and the fact that we'll be able to now get upwards of, I think it's 900 to 1000 units of affordable housing in there is exactly the kind of thing we need to do more of in the city and make sure that people have the opportunity to live in every neighborhood and keep our economic diversity. I think in light of the pandemic, I'm very comfortable reviewing the Chinatown plan anew because we have a brand new situation now and the Chinatown community has gone through so much difficulty this year, really, disproportionately.

Previously, I did feel it was taking into account a lot of factors and reaching a lot of places that I thought were too much, but you know what? I'm perfectly comfortable giving it another look, I'm not saying what the outcome will be, but I'm perfectly comfortable giving it another look and seeing what our current evaluation is.

Mayor de Blasio: Briah, thank you very much.

Brian: Here's a question via Twitter, what's the motivation the-- Oh, no, sorry, that's hers. Let me go back to my Twitter. Here it is.

Mayor de Blasio: It's live radio, Brian, live radio, these things happen.

Brian: That's right. Thank you for understanding. Question from Twitter listener asked, please ask the mayor why they haven't considered CUNY campuses as health system testing sites with priority appointments for faculty, staff, and students? 19 practically empty campuses, as we are all working, teaching, learning remotely spread across all five boroughs?

Mayor de Blasio: It's a very good question. We had a lot of conversations with CUNY earlier on and CUNY is controlled by the state of New York and my understanding is they made the decision that they wanted to keep their facilities, the potential to have them open the various points and that's where we left it. In terms of testing sites, it's a great question we obviously over 200 testing sites all over the city, and our problem is much less sites than just pure testing capacity. We are working to get to 100,000 tests a day, but even with that there's so much demand right now all over the city. I'll check and see if we need additional sites in the areas where the CUNY campuses are. I think it's a good question worth another look.

Brian: I've read that the Health and Hospitals Corporation testing sites do not have real-time waiting times on a map like I believe some of the private sites do, is that true and if so can those be established?

Mayor de Blasio: I'm going to get you the exact place to go online, but for our H&H facilities, they now just this week have put up a system so that you can know what the wait time is at each testing site and people can make their plans accordingly and I want to emphasize that I say this to health and hospital sites, the hospitals and the clinics, that's 11 hospitals 70 clinics, have consistently had much less wait time than some of the other sites like city MD and again, we thank the MD for what they're doing.

This is not anything about appreciation for them, but a lot of them have had really, really long lines. H&H tends to have shorter lines and move faster, everything's for free, of course. We're encouraging people to check that you can go to nychealthandhospitals.org and you can get that up-to-date number on what happening at each site and then make your plans accordingly.

Brian: Number meaning estimated waiting time?

Mayor de Blasio: Yes, they will literally show for various sites what the estimated waiting time is.

Brian: Okay. Before you go, as someone who was in the Democratic presidential primaries as a progressive, I'm just curious if you have any comment on the Biden cabinet pick so far, are they progressive enough in your opinion?

Mayor de Blasio: Look, he's obviously put together a group that balances the different wings of the Democratic Party. I will say, I want to give Joe Biden credit. From the beginning, he sent a message of welcome to the progressive wing. He certainly worked with Bernie Sanders to bring Bernie's movement into the election and we saw it happen in terms of the votes around the country and I think he has been responsive aggressively in terms of building a team that reflects a lot of the progressive voices.

Do I want more? I always want more. The party needs to keep moving in a direction that addresses the needs of working people and we have to change things. I honestly believe if we don't change things consistently, it leaves the door open unfortunately for trump and trumpism. Because we saw the frustrations that working people of all races had around this country. When working people feel left out, they will look for other alternatives than the democratic party and we can't let that happen. More progressives are better but he's made an earnest effort to create balance so far.

Brian: Have you been approached or anything in the administration?

Mayor de Blasio: No. I'm focused right here doing this job because we've got 13 months left in this administration. We've got to bring this city back and this is my full focus to get this done and handoff to the new mayor, a city that's well into its recovery.

Brian: There's certainly a lot of work to do. Mr. Mayor. Thanks as always talk to you next week.

Mayor de Blasio: Thank you, Brian.

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