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Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. April is Ask the Mayor tryouts month here on the Brian Lehrer Show. Just like we do Ask the Mayor every Friday with my questions and yours for Mayor Bill de Blasio, we've invited the eight leading candidates for the June primary to join us this month to do an Ask the Mayor segment with my questions and yours for them. All eight have accepted, we've done six already. Now, we welcome back to the show candidate Dianne Morales. Still relatively new to most voters, Morales' website bio page starts by describing her as a Bed-Stuy native, single mother, and proud daughter of Puerto Rican parents.

It says as a girl she shared a room with her Abuela, her grandmother, for whom she often acted as a translator. It adds that she's the only former New York City public school teacher in the race. The usual shorthand for describing her in the media is former non-profit executive. More specifically, she was Executive Director of The Door, where her bio says she launched a street outreach program on the Christopher Street Pier, West Village, for homeless LGBTQ youth. It says her most recent position was Executive Director and CEO of Phipps Neighborhoods for almost a decade.

We'll pick it up there as it's my questions and yours now for our candidate Dianne Morales at 646-435-7280, or you can tweet a question. Just use the same hashtag that we do on Fridays, #AsktheMayor, and just let me remind you of the ground rules that we have established on these. We want these to be policy questions, not got-you questions or negative attacks. If you get on the air and we think you're a plant from a rival campaign just trying to make any of our guests in this series look bad, we will give you a very short shrift and with all of that as prelude, Ms. Morales, welcome back to WNYC and thanks for doing an Ask the Mayor tryout.

Dianne Morales: Good morning, Brian. Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be back.

Brian: I know you've all done about 1.5 million Zoom forums. Is there are most common ask the candidate question that members of the public tend to ask you?

Dianne Morales: Yes. It's, "Who's your number two on your ranking?"

Brian: I happen to know you have an answer to that question. I guess you might as well give it.

Dianne Morales: [laughs] My answer is really that it's been fascinating. There's a lot of candidates in this race and I have been able to see some candidates move their positions a little bit closer to mine. I think there's two months to go and I'm anxious to see how close I can get one of them to be. Then I will make that decision a little bit closer to the primary.

Brian: Do you have what you would like the listeners to think of as your signature policy, like, "She's the one who plans to do the such and such?" Would you label anything of yours that way?

Dianne Morales: I know that that is actually what people are drawn to, but the reality of it is that there are not single-issue human beings. I don't believe that there are single-issue solutions. I think we have to recognize actually that the state that we're in right now is as a result of a variety of complex issues that have plagued our city. We need comprehensive responses to that. I think if people want a headline and thinking about me and my candidacy, it would be one that is focused on equity and justice and centering the voices of those that have been left behind historically.

Brian: You're often described in the media as the most progressive candidate in the race. Is that a label that you're comfortable with or striving for?

Dianne Morales: It's not something that I'm striving for. I spent my entire life actually trying to not fit into the boxes as a black woman, a black Latina, as a single mom, to not fit into the boxes that people want to ascribe us to. I haven't particularly sought that, but I think that if my policies and my values are reflective of that, I certainly don't shun it. It isn't something that I've been looking, actively working to achieve.

Brian: I see the priorities page of your website has a list of things that begins with, "Guaranteed housing for all." How would you guarantee housing for all?

Dianne Morales: I think we need to recognize housing is a human right and prioritize the provision of housing for everyone. That means really scouring our city for all the existing vacant spaces, particularly post-pandemic or mid-pandemic, including vacant hotel rooms, commercial spaces, office spaces, and really prioritizing making those spaces, converting those spaces into housing that can be provided for both the homeless people in the city and those that might be housing insecure. We can't separate public health or public safety from access to housing and we've got to recognize that and prioritize providing that for everyone.

Brian: Do you want, as a matter of providing housing for everyone, a lot more of all kinds of development in New York City? I think both Mayor de Blasio and Mayor Bloomberg, though they had very specific affordable housing pieces of their housing program, were also for just a lot more housing, meaning allow a lot more market-rate housing to go up as well because we seem to be headed toward 9 million New Yorkers if we go back to pre-pandemic growth rates. We need just more housing, housing, housing, housing. Where are you on that scale?

Dianne Morales: I think that we've got quite a few luxury housing developments that are sitting largely vacant. We really need to prioritize affordable and deeply affordable housing. That's where the sweet spot and the real need is here in New York City. I think that means really prioritizing our resources in a targeted way so that that is what we're focused on and moving away from those practice of selling vacant land, city-owned property, and vacant land to private developers. I think we need to focus on and make a commitment that we're going to use that to provide affordable housing for the New Yorkers that need it the most.

Brian: It's an Ask the Mayor Tryout for our candidate Dianne Morales at 646-435-7280. Who has a question? 646-435-7280, or tweet a question @BrianLehrer, or use the #AsktheMayor. Kiarra in Brooklyn, your own WNYC. Hi, Kiarra. Thanks for calling in.

Kiarra: Hi. Oh my gosh. Here I am. Sorry. I really, really value your platform. Recently, as a Brooklyn resident, there've been a lot of issues with needing alternatives for people who are currently homeless to have immediate mental health resources, especially when there is some situation where police would normally be called. I know de Blasio, the Cahoots project or something similar had been in the works for a while, but what is your plan to address immediate emergency resources?

Dianne Morales: I think that's a spot on priority. You know why? I held a press conference just last week announcing our plan to create and establish a community first responders department with part of the money that I would divest from policing. I think we have to recognize that, as you mentioned, a significant percentage of the calls that the NYPD respond to are actually the result of social issues. Housing, homelessness, substance abuse, mental health. The community first responders department would be staffed by people who are trained and skilled at intervention and deescalation so that they can support the person in crisis.

They would also work as part of a larger ecosystem that's connected to human service organizations, mental health providers, medical centers, so that they can actually connect that person in crisis to what they need to actually break that cycle. Whereas we know right now in the best case scenario when the NYPD responds to those issues, the person might get locked up for the night and released the next day back to the very same circumstance, in the best-case scenario. In the worst-case scenario, that person is harmed or killed. This is intended to provide interventions that actually address the need in the moment and actually break the cycle by providing people with things that will help them actually move forward.

Brian: As a follow-up on that, I saw that the priorities page of your website includes the words, "Defund the police, fund the people." Now, most or maybe all of the other candidates are shying away from the actual phrase defund the police. Why do you embrace it?

Dianne Morales: I am the only one that's embracing that phrase. I think it is what it is. We need to recognize that for decades we've been defunding housing, we've been defunding education, we've been defunding healthcare. Those are actually the critical foundational pillars of creating safe communities. We need to defund this overmilitarized, loaded budget of the NYPD and actually invest in the kinds of things that are going to help create safer communities. I think it's important for us to really confront and reconcile and reckon with the things that we have done historically, so that we do not continue to repeat those mistakes and actually build a new New York City in a way that helps to provide dignity for everybody and keep us all safe.

Brian: Mamti in Manhattan, you're on WNYC with Dianne Morales running for mayor. Hello, Mamti.

Mamti: Good morning, Ms. Morales. I have a question actually in two parts that I wish ask every candidate, but I didn't manage to get through. Number one is, why do you want to become a mayor? Number two, in case you don't win the primaries for whom you would support or for whom you would vote? Thank you.

Brian: There's that most common question again.

Dianne Morales: There you go.

Brian: How about this first one? Why do you really want to be mayor?

Dianne Morales: Sure. I spent my career actually supporting people in crisis, people who have been struggling, people who have been marginalized and vulnerable. I think there's something unique about that experience when combined and specific with my personal experience as a first-generation college graduate, single mother, Black Latina born and raised here in New York City that separates me and distinguishes me from any other candidate in this race. As successful as I was in providing support to people to access academic or economic opportunity, you also become aware of these deeply-rooted, systemic and structural issues that actually perpetuate those conditions.

I want to bring those experiences and that perspective to bear on a citywide level, folks, so that I can work with communities to dismantle those structures and systems, and also begin to bring real equity and justice to New Yorkers. That's what we need to do. We have an opportunity right now to make a moral and political commitment that we're not going to continue the cycles that have led to this, the last 14 months, and that we're going to do something different. I think that I have something to offer New York that no other candidate in this race does.

Brian: Kate in Queens. You're on WNYC with Dianne Morales. Hi, Kate.

Kate: Hi, thank you. Dianne, thank you for running and bringing out your voice to the New York City race. I heard you before talk about defending the police and that they have a very bloated budget, but they're not the only department in New York City municipal life that has a very bloated overdone budget. New York City is still the number one terrorism target in the world. Last week, there was a young man who was sentenced finally for trying to blow himself up in the Times Square subway station a couple of years ago. How do we keep the city safe, because we still are that terrorism target, and make the city budget more fiscally responsible?

Dianne Morales: Sure. You are absolutely right that it's more than just the police department that are bloated in terms of city budgets. I think one of the first things that is critical is actually taking doing a real deep audit of the city budget and controlling the dollars that we can control and reinvesting and reallocating those dollars in ways that most directly benefit as many New Yorkers as possible. That is something that I am absolutely committed to. In so far as safety, I think that there's a difference between the threats against New York City as a target for terrorism versus the terrorization of New Yorkers on a daily basis by the NYPD.

I think we have to make those distinctions. My focus would be on the local policing in terms of reducing that strategy or that threat to New Yorkers. I think you you're right around the international issue and I haven't spoken about reducing anti-terrorism activities and would instead focus on what's happening locally on the ground in terms of New Yorkers and what New Yorkers need to be safe in their day-to-day lives.

Brian: Let me follow-up on that need to keep New Yorkers safe in their day-to-day lives. If you're running on defund the police, and sounds like fewer police in what are now highly policed neighborhoods, for people concerned about the current increase in shootings, what could they expect from you short-term to make a difference on that if these longer-term crime reduction strategies are your centerpiece?

Dianne Morales: Sure. The first thing I was saying in response to that is that we've got to recognize that police don't actually prevent crime, they respond to crime in the best case scenario. We also can't decouple what has happened over the last 12 months. We're talking about this increase in violence, but the increase in violence also corresponds to a time where the insecurity of New Yorkers has increased dramatically, insecurity around housing, around access to food, the lack of access to healthcare in the midst of a pandemic. These are things that have actually dramatically impacted the day-to-day lives of New Yorkers.

I don't think we can separate that from what we've seen in terms of the increase in violence. Rather than throw more policing at the issue, I think we need to actually address some of the root causes. The root causes to that are related to people, lack of security and lack of ability to access the things that they need to live in dignity. We should prioritize that if we really want to keep New Yorkers safe.

Brian: On your statement that police don't prevent crime, they respond to crime. I imagine people in police leadership would say, no, they do both and point to the CompStat system, for example, and say that's been successful in figuring out, block by block, where there are clusters of violent crime and concentrating policing on breaking up gangs that have histories of violence, or whatever the crime cluster is, and that crime rates have gone down in a lot of neighborhoods based on that style of policing. Would you dispute that and would you use CompStat in a different way if you're mayor, or dismantle it?

Dianne Morales: A couple of things in response to that, Brian, I think we've seen this increase in violence despite police. I think that speaks to my claim about police not really preventing things and instead responding to it. In terms of CompStat and the way it's been used to target certain neighborhoods and communities. I'm not sure how we separate or distinguish that from the racial profiling, the broken windows policing, the disproportionate impact that has had on low-income Black and brown communities. It's a bit of a double-edged sword, I would say. I think that we really need to focus on and prioritize the things that I believe create safe communities.

We have consistently divested from low-income Black and brown communities' access to basic dignity at the same time that we have ratcheted up policing in those communities. I'd like to see us invert those investments and then talk about what our needs might look like after we've taken care of those basic human needs.

Brian: A few minutes left, in today's Ask the Mayor try out with candidate Dianne Morales and Cynthia in Manhattan you're on WNYC I see you have an education question. Hi.

Cynthia: Thank you so much, to begin with, for all your service in all the different ways that you've been helpful. My question is since you're a teacher and you're also from Bed-Stuy, I think you would have a very good perspective on my concern. My daughter lives in Bed-Stuy, she's about to send her child to school, and she's concerned about the schools. I know this is not specifically a Bed-Stuy concern, it's a city-wide concern. I'm wondering what you could do specifically to help improve the schools citywide?

Dianne Morales: Thank you for that. I think there's a lot of things. There's a lot of room for improvement, obviously in our school system. I think we just experienced a win in terms of getting full funding for our school. I'm looking forward to how that gets utilized to begin to level the playing field and build a system of New York City public schools that actually can be a model for the rest of the country, because I do believe that that's what we should aspire to be and become. I think we need to focus on creating quality schools across the board. I am a proponent of moving away from the screens and the things that act as barriers to access for so many of our students.

I think obviously, to go back to the funding, I think it's really important for us to fully fund our schools. I think it's important for us to provide support to our educators, particularly in this moment in time they have been struggling so much. We know that they have lost trust in our leadership. The inconsistency is around the messaging has been highly problematic. The lack of access to resources for our students have been problematic. We've we failed to tap into the strength of our city and I believe that we should have been utilizing community-based organizations, arts and cultural institutions, as alternative sites for our schools to address the infrastructure challenges that our old, dilapidated school buildings have.

As an alternative to teachers, that they could feel like they're being provided with a safe space. Also so we could prioritize the students that we know are most in need, and that cannot go without the in-person instruction throughout this crisis. I could do a small dissertation on this but I think those are some of the critical things that I think we need to do in the immediate. Longer term I think that desegregation and culturally responsive curriculum are two critical steps to moving in the right direction.

Brian: How would you fight segregation in the schools?

Dianne Morales: I think one of the critical things is actually removing the barriers, the admissions barriers. I think we need a truly open system that enables parents and families to select where they want to go, and that really provides access to the vast majority of our low-income Black and brown students to schools citywide, at the same time that we are bolstering both the curriculum and the instruction in neighborhood schools, so that we can reach the levels of quality that we should actually attain for all students.

Brian: Are you ready for a lightning round to wrap it up? Yes or no answers or very short answers. Did you think Amazon headquarters in Queens would have been more good or more bad for the city?

Dianne Morales: As it was, it was more bad.

Brian: Should gifted and talented programs exist at all in the public schools?

Dianne Morales: Every classroom should have the ability to address gifted and talented because every student is gifted and talented.

Brian: Have you ever ridden a city bike?

Dianne Morales: I have.

Brian: Do you own a car?

Dianne Morales: I do not.

Brian: If you're raising children or did raise children, I don't know your family status, do they or did they attend public school the whole time?

Dianne Morales: I have two children, one attended public school the whole time. One started and graduated from public school, but went to private school for a few years in between.

Brian: You have a favorite spectator sport?

Dianne Morales: I like to watch basketball, actually.

Brian: Knicks or Nets?

Dianne Morales: I knew that was coming. I'm a Knicks fan.

Brian: Do you donate as a member to any arts organizations? If so, can you name one?

Dianne Morales: Not over the past year but I used to be a member of the Brooklyn Academy of music.

Brian: Name one thing you do for fun in non pandemic times that has nothing to do with politics.

Dianne Morales: A few things come to mind. Hiking, I love to hike, and I also just love to lounge on a beach somewhere.

Brian: Wow. Finally, this is the last question that I've been asking everybody in this lightning round set. You answered it at the beginning, but I'm going to come back to it. The question is, finally, with rank choice voting is there anyone you would like your supporters to list second? When Maya Wiley was on, in this round I believe she was the only candidate who actually named a name for second and it was you. You don't want to name her?

Dianne Morales: Maya is definitely on my ballot and will probably be up there. I think that, as I mentioned earlier, I think folks are moving a little bit. I've seen them move and that's a good thing. I'm just curious to see where this all lands.

Brian: Diane Morales with an Ask the Mayor tryout. As I say to all the candidates, good luck. I know you've agreed to also come back in May. We're going to have one more interview round with everybody in May. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck on the campaign trail.

Dianne Morales: Thank you so much, Brian. It's been a pleasure, looking forward to it.

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