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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and now we continue interviewing the candidates for mayor of New York. The primary will come up fast this year. It's in June for the first time in a mayoral election. Of course, it's a big decision with lots of candidates and so much at stake right now for the city's future.

With me now is Andrew Yang, who, as most of you know, ran in the Democratic presidential primary, and is now running in this one. Andrew, great to have you back on the show. For people who don't know this yet, why do you want to be mayor of New York of all things?

Andrew Yang: Brian, it's great to be back with you. I'm running for mayor because we are in the midst of an historic crisis and I believe I can accelerate our recovery. We need to not just get the vaccine out to people but also give people the ability to very quickly signal that they've been vaccinated or tested negatively very recently so that we'll be able to reconvene. I think I can be the solutions-oriented leader that the city needs to help get us out of this mess.

Brian: Listeners, we can take your questions for Andrew Yang as a mayoral candidate as we always invite your questions for the candidates. 646-435-7280. If you have a mayoral candidate question for Andrew Yang, 646-435-7280, or you can tweet a question @BrianLehrer, we'll let your Twitter thread go by as well. I see you're unveiling a set of policy proposals today that you call racial equity in health care. Want to tell people the key things you're calling for?

Andrew: I would love to. First, I just want to give a shout out to your last guest, Mondaire Jones, what a great member of Congress he's going to be. Also, just throw a shout-out to Ranked Choice Voting, which I think can actually help address the polarization around the country. New York City, as usual, is taking the lead, so I hope Ranked Choice Voting becomes more popular around the country.

As you said, today, we are unveiling a plan to help reduce and hopefully end racial health disparities here in New York City. If you look at the numbers, I'm a numbers guy, they are heartbreaking. You have life expectancy is a full decade shorter in Brownsville versus parts of Manhattan. You have Black mothers dying at eight times the rate of white mothers during childbirth.

This has been going on even since before the pandemic and we have to do everything we can to end it. Under my administration, we're going to amend the city charter to include ending racial health disparities as the primary mandates of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. We're going to require racial equity competency as part of the training at all H&H hospitals. We're going to have measurements so that we see how we're fairing.

This is something personal for me. I want to try and address the heartbreaking rates of maternal mortality among Black moms by expanding New York State's doula pilot program. I think that women who are giving birth with doulas will have their concerns better represented to the medical professionals.

Brian: For 10 years, you were an executive with a test prep company, Manhattan Prep, I think it was called. Many people are concerned with racial equity, as you were just making a case for in your healthcare proposal, might consider that a decade in the inequality business considering the role that test prep has played and who has had access to it. Is that a Black mark on your record?

Andrew: We're really proud of the fact that we helped people. Our customers were young adults who were trying to get into professional schools. What we helped do is really just help people fulfill their goals. I'd be the first to agree that right now, our high schools, particularly the selective high schools do not represent the diversity of New York City to the extent that they need to.

I'm a parent, I've got two boys, and I think it's ridiculous that we think that a single test could possibly determine where a child should go to school. Our children are not widgets, our children have multiple dimensions, and so to me, the goal should be to include things like grades, background, interviews, essays, certainly at the high school level and even earlier to try to make sure our schools actually reflect our city.

Brian: Would you seek to do away with the SHSAT for the specialized high schools as Mayor de Blasio is trying to do, and would you do away with the gifted and talented programs as some advocates are calling for now if you're elected mayor?

Andrew: I would not get rid of the SHSAT or the middle school screening, but I would consider it as one data point in a more holistic set of data points to try to find the right schools and programs for our children.

I would also initiate two new selective high schools in each borough. We're a school system of over a million children. We should not be playing some strange zero-sum game with our children. We have kids who are commuting an hour or more each day, one way to get to schools. That makes no sense. We should have high schools that people are excited to go to right in their own borough.

Brian: Renée in Manhattan, you're on WNYC with Andrew Yang. Hi, Renée.

Renée: Good morning. Mr. Lehrer, please, I'm a little nervous so my questions may be a little bit off, but this is something I would love for you to ask every candidate that comes on. My question is police, police, police. I'm an African American woman, and obviously, the present mayor that we have has lost his backbone, it's turned into jelly. I think it's a document to the city that our tax dollars are going to all these settlements.

Wouldn't it be better that most of the settlements come out of the pension of the police that are committing these crimes against its citizens, especially when they're found guilty, and they get away with it?

We also need a different type of police chief that is more community-oriented, and to have more police living in the community they serve, not just a few. The last thing is it would be amazing if these police would not come from high school to being policemen but to actually have a background in college, maybe traveling, so they'll be able to commute and commune with the citizens that they're serving. Sorry about the choppiness of my question.

Brian: No, not choppy at all, very, very clear. Andrew, what's your response?

Andrew: She is so spot-on on every front. We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to settle lawsuits against police officers. Talk about the worst possible way you could be spending city money. Hundreds of millions of dollars that could be going to schools or essential workers, or keeping people healthy instead is going to settle lawsuits against abusive officers.

She's 100% correct that we need to curtail that level of expense, and to the extent that that cost does exist, it should be borne by the folks who are actually doing wrong, not the city. She is right that we need a civilian police commissioner who is independent of the culture of the NYPD. That's the only way you can change a culture is from the top, and we can actually learn from what we do at a national level where the military is run by a civilian. We should do the same thing right here in New York.

She is correct that new officers should be required to live in the city, hopefully, in the neighborhoods that they're actually policing because talk about being able to understand the community better, you should be of the community, certainly, when you start on the force. That I believe could fundamentally change the dynamic because instead of seeing folks as strangers or potential perpetrators, you see them as your neighbors.

Brian: Do you support Attorney General Letitia James's lawsuit that would impose a federal monitor over NYPD protest responses?

Andrew: I think that the need is clear, and I think that a federal monitor could make a lot of sense and be very helpful because, at this point, we can see that the NYPD could use some kind of check or monitor.

Brian: George in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC with Andrew Yang running for mayor. Hi, George.

George: Hi, Brian. Hi, Andrew. Quick question, Andrew. If the UBI goes through for the-- last I heard is the 500,000 poorest New Yorkers.

Brian: Just let me bring listeners who don't know the term into it. UBI is Universal Basic Income. Many of you know Andrew Yang ran for president in part on a proposal to give a universal basic income to every American to smooth out income inequality and low wages. $1,000 a month was his proposal in the federal context. Andrew, I'll ask you in a minute to say how much of that you think is doable at the city level with the city budget. George, go ahead with that background continue in your question.

George: Yes. How do we know that that money is not going to go into the pocket of landlords or Jeff Bezos?

Andrew: Wow, very specific with the Jeff Bezos reference. Brian, you're 100% right. I did run for president on our platform of universal basic income. In a city context, it's quite different. Unfortunately, the city does not have the resources to be able to put money into everyone's pockets at that level.

I believe that we should be doing that at the federal level. I championed stimulus checks of $2,000 for everyone, and in my view, that should be recurring. The majority of New Yorkers agree with me at this point. We're in the midst of an historic pandemic, and we have the resources at a national level to do much, much more for our people.

Now, at the city level, we have to make the budget work, and so I'm planning to alleviate extreme poverty in New York City among the half a million poorest New Yorkers. This question is asking, how do we know that that money won't all go to landlords or Amazon? The mechanics of New York City make it so that by putting money into the hands of some of the poorest New Yorkers, we're likely to keep them in a home, in a situation, not on our streets, where frankly, in some cases, we're spending tens of thousands of dollars per individual per year.

It's an investment in our people that actually will end up paying for itself in some measure. If that money does go to a landlord, and it keeps a roof over that person's head, I don't see that as intrinsically a bad thing. Hopefully, it's not that the landlord is absorbing all of their income. I have plans to try to help keep more money in people's hands by reducing the 12% of New Yorkers who are unbanked.

Right now, they're spending up to $3,000 a year on check cashers, moneylenders, pawnshops, and the rest of it. I have a plan to try and get them bank accounts by making financial institutions accept IDNYC, which would reduce that proportion. We have a comprehensive anti-poverty plan. This kind of cash relief in the hands of the poorest New Yorkers is a big part of it, but it's not all of it.

Brian: To be clear, how much cash in the hands of people, making up to what income?

Andrew: It's extreme poverty, we're allocating $1 billion a year in the hands of about half a million the poorest New Yorkers, so it would average out to about $2,000 a year, in some cases, more, in some cases, less. The goal is to augment that with philanthropy and other resources, but we're committing a billion dollars a year to alleviate extreme poverty.

Brian: We'll continue in a minute with Andrew Yang and more of your calls, as he runs for mayor of New York in the Democratic primary. Stay with us.

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Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, as we continue to talk to Andrew Yang, the latest of our New York City mayoral hopefuls. With that June primary more right around the corner than it probably feels right now, and with so many candidates, it's going to take up a lot of airtime. 646-435-7280, our phone number. Omar in Riverdale, you're on WNYC with Andrew Yang. Hi, Omar.

Omar: Hi, Brian. Hi, Andrew. Andrew Yang wrote a op-ed recently where he compared the BDS movement to Nazi fascism. I was wondering if you could clarify the statement or even retract it?

Brian: Again, just let me, so people know what you're talking about, just like I did with UBI, I'm going to do with BDS. That's, boycott, divest, and sanction. In this case, Israel, boycott, divest, and sanction Israel because of its treatment of the Palestinians. Omar, go ahead.

Omar: I was wondering if you were to be able to retract that statement, or does he actually believe that the BDS movement, which is a nonviolent peaceful movement to end the occupation of Palestine, where he actually believes it is fascist.

Brian: Andrew.

Andrew: Thank you for the question, Omar. I have deep respect for folks who are trying to call attention to and stop what they see as the oppression of Palestinians in the Middle East.

When I looked at the BDS movement, the thing that really, to me, made it so that it was difficult to not frankly come out against it is that the BDS movement has refused to condemn violence against Israel, including groups that are regarded as terrorist groups by various government organizations, including our own.

To me, if you're not able to condemn violence, then that's a non-starter. While I recognize that there are many folks that have very legitimate grievances with Israel's treatment of Palestinians, if you can't condemn those who would conduct violent actions against Israel, that is not appropriate and does not have a place.

Brian: Supporters of the BDS movement say it's specifically economic and non-violent, that it's putting economic pressure on Israel as the title of it itself suggests, boycott, divest, and sanction.

Andrew: Well, to me then, they should have no trouble condemning those who would advocate violence against Israel, and then to me, that would be a much better argument, but right now, they refuse to do so.

Brian: Here's a follow up from a listener who tweeted at us to an answer that you gave before when I asked you about whether you would abolish the SHSAT for admission to the specialized high schools and the gifted and talented programs, and you said, no, you would contextualize them into a larger program of evaluating students for those schools. Listener writes, "Please ask how he will address segregation across New York City Schools. Adding a couple of more specialized high school crumbs," this listener rights, "won't cut it."

Andrew: I agree as someone who has a child in public school that we pay way too much attention to a handful of selective high schools that just get more press, when the vast majority of parents just want their kid to go to a school that works for them or works for their child.

We need to be investing in the integration of our schools at every level. Certainly, very early on, is in many ways more crucial, even though the high schools are more visible. I agree with this questioner. There's a lot of work to do. I understand 100% that the concerns are more in the day to day of folks who are showing up to kindergarten, first grade, second grade, because my child is doing the same thing.

Brian: Sam in Windsor, Terrace, you're on WNYC. Well, let me just ask you to follow up one more time on that because was that an answer to the question about a broad desegregation plan?

Andrew: The frustration that a lot of people feel right now, Brian, is that there are certain communities where the schools, the teachers don't necessarily reflect the community. The student bodies are segregated to an historic degree, really, even in the context of New York City. We need to do more to change both of those things, and that should start at the grade school level.

Brian: Sam in Windsor, Terrace, you're on WNYC with Andrew Yang. Hi, Sam.

Sam Terrace: Hi, Brian. Good morning, Mr. Yang. I'm a housing attorney. As you're aware, millions and millions of New Yorkers live in rent-stabilized, rent-subsidized, rent-regulated, and government-owned housing. We're facing a looming eviction crisis, which the government seems to just be postponing, but not dealing with in any meaningful way.

I have a multi-layered question. What would you do to prevent this looming eviction crisis or to address it? Are you taking money from big real estate, which in the eyes of the tenant movement is a non-starter because it creates the appearance that you're in their pocket, and what would you do to fix New York City Housing Authority, the horrendous conditions that Housing Authority tenants are living in?

Andrew: Well, thank you for the work that you do every day. This is front and center in the minds of the majority of New Yorkers, is that we have an affordable housing crisis. NYCHA facilities would require $40 billion in order to be modernized and invested in appropriately. I was just at a NYCHA housing facility the other day, and there were leaks. There were problems. There was a community center that hadn't been used in years that was decrepit.

The problems are very, very clear. We need to get an appropriate level of federal resources to try to reinvest in our existing housing stock, particularly in NYCHA, and then we need to try to address the affordable housing crisis that has been going on for years and decades in the city. Everyone is for affordable housing until it's in their neighborhood, and then all of a sudden, they don't like it. That's the reality of what we've been facing and why we have such a shortage.

I believe that this may be one of the only silver linings of this pandemic, is that we can actually convert some of these presently, completely unutilized hotel properties, and eventually even some of the commercial real estate properties that, to Brian's conversation tomorrow, it sounds like may end up with a different purpose over time. That has to be one of the goals. There was a hotel operator the other day who actually just turned in their keys and said, "I've had it". They just turned it into the lender because-- and that hotel is going dark. There is an opportunity here to address an historic need in affordable housing and we should be moving aggressively in that direction, but thank you for the work you do on behalf of tenants every day.

Brian: Another affordable housing question, you've done a lot with the tech sector, which in the last few years has caused a lot of conflictedness in the city. People want the good-paying tech sector jobs, but don't want the gentrification, rising housing costs, one of the city's biggest long-term problems as of course you know, that has come with those jobs. Where were you on the Amazon deal for Queens, and how would you address that issue as mayor?

Andrew: I think that anytime a company is going to employ tens of thousands of people in your city, you have to do everything you can to have them create those jobs. Because those jobs are evergreen, they will be there for years and years to come and they create value in multiple ways. It's just not the families themselves, but all of the service providers that then get new business in Long Island City and beyond, in that case.

Were there problems with the tax breaks given to Amazon? Yes. Were there problems with the process? Yes. You cannot develop a reputation as a community that does not want jobs and employment.

I know that Amazon itself is a highly charged employer. I'm not a fan of a lot of Amazon's practices, but in my view, it would have been much better for New York City to have Amazon as part of the city's economy than not. There were certainly issues that people legitimately had with some of the particulars of the development, but you can't let an employer like that walk away.

Brian: We have a few minutes left with mayoral candidate, Andrew Yang. Enough time to take one more phone call and it's Alan in Brooklyn. Alan, you're on WNYC with Andrew Yang. Hi.

Alan: Good morning, Mr. Yang and Brian, thanks very much for the chance. This is a follow up on questions I've raised over the years, but I'll put a different spin on it. We're in a very difficult time in the city right now, and one of the areas suffering the most, not only tenants, but also owners of real estate.

This might be a good time to talk about using real estate more as a source of transit funding because, transit benefit zone assessments, which measure the amount of the value of land that is created by access to transit service, might be easier to baseline at a time when we've been in a low point, like the pandemic. To start as a measure of rising valuation in the future, rather than trying to hypothesize the value before the trend that was put in.

This could also be used to help finance bonds for new extensions of the transit system into the suburban areas, instead of letting all that value created by the system be--

Brian: Let me jump in for time, Alan, but it's a very specific question. I think he's proposing assessing real estate values at higher valuations than they're assessed now around transit, around subway stations and other transit stops, as a way of generating income based on what he sees as the real value of real estate near subway stations. Once people start taking the subway and their former numbers again, is it something you would consider briefly?

Andrew: I love this principle so much because there are so many externalities like access to transit that inform the value of a home or a piece of land. This leads into a larger point, which is that our assessment practices right now are all over the map and they make no sense. They don't correspond to sales price, which would be the intuitive thing.

You have multimillion-dollar homes that sold for that much being assessed at a very small fraction of that value. I love the idea of trying to integrate access to transit into housing values, I think that would be very, very powerful.

I think one of the great opportunities right now in New York City is around trying to rationalize our property tax system. Our property tax system was implemented in 1975. Think about how much has changed in New York City since 1975.

You have people in poor neighborhoods paying seven times the effective property tax of people who own multi-million dollar homes in other parts of the city. We need to rationalize the system and this caller suggestion should be at least one element of that rationalization. It's a great, great question.

Brian: Two quick things before we run out of time in a couple of minutes. One, you've been criticized for running for mayor, while not ever having voted in mayoral or other municipal elections while living in New York. Why should people consider you're serious about local affairs if that's the case?

Andrew: I certainly would put myself in the 85% or so of New Yorkers, who has not been as engaged with local politics as I should be. I did sue New York state to make sure that folks could vote in the primary, which I think is a sign of the fact that I believe it's crucial that we have the right to vote, in something like either the presidential primary or this mayoral election. This is a crisis, many New Yorkers are stepping up in new ways to try and get us out of this hole. I'm one of them, and I think that we need many more.

Brian: Last thing, in 2013, de Blasio got elected, labeling himself the most progressive candidate in the primary that year, and people bought it. In what might be called the progressive wing of this race, Scott Stringer is starting to get endorsements, Maya Wiley is getting a lot of attention, Carlos Menchaca, Diane Miralis. Would you argue that you're more progressive than those candidates or is that not a title you're interested in?

Andrew: I certainly am very proud of the fact that I helped elevate an antipoverty platform nationally and want to make New York City, the antipoverty city. I'm proud of the fact that Martin Luther King's son has endorsed me and is co-chairing my campaign in part because he sees the need to fight poverty at a whole new scale.

I'm not as interested in labels or what someone wants to call me, I'm interested in getting things done and in solutions that will improve the lives of every New Yorker, and if that's the way people want to see me, I would be thrilled.

Brian: Andrew Yang, running for mayor. After we get through the first round with people, we'll figure out how to have people on in a productive way as we get closer to the primary election day on June 22nd, so we look forward to you returning, and as I say to all the candidates, good luck on the trail.

Andrew: Thanks, Brian. Great to be with you again.

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