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Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. One presidential election result that's never been in dispute. Donovan Richards is the new president of Queens. Technically it was a special election to replace Melinda Katz who became the Queens' DA. Donovan Richards was immediately sworn in. No waiting until January for him, though he will have to run for a full term as Queens Borough president next year.

Richards was a city council member from Southeast Queens, the Rockaways, and Laurelton and around there, and he was chairman of the Public Safety Committee. With rising crime rates, rising coronavirus rates, rising unemployment rates, and restaurant and other small business failure rates right now. These are intense times in Queens like everywhere in the city, and Donald Trump got a few more points in the presidential election in Queens than he did in 2016. Up from about 22% then to 27% of the vote now. Let's welcome that other president, Donovan Richards. Mr. President, welcome back to WNYC and first time in your new role. Congratulations.

Donovan: Thank you, Brian. Always great to be on your show.

Brian: Did you see the breaking news this morning. That this first person to get the Coronavirus vaccine in the United States outside of a clinical trial was an intensive care nurse this morning at the LIJ, Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens?

Donovan: Absolutely. [laughs]

Brian: Your borough has the first vaccinated person.

Donovan: Queens is the future. I thought it was a powerful moment, Brian, to see a Black doctor give a Black nurse the first vaccination in the country. It speaks to where we need to go as a country, as a city, as we talk about these inequities that have long impacted communities of color. One of the reasons certain portions of Queens were certainly the epicenter of the virus. Very powerful moment this morning.

Brian: I remember the tragic irony of Corona, Queens, being the epicenter of the first wave in the spring. Coronavirus, hitting Corona harder than anywhere else in America, Corona, and Elmhurst, Elmhurst hospital. Also, your area in the Rockaways was very hard hit, first hotspots. Is it at least more equal this time around even if its bad, have steps been taken to prevent such glaring disparities as we saw in the spring?

Donovan: Well, yes, and no. First off, I've gotten around to about the three hospitals, including Elmhurst and St. John's out and Far Rockaway over the course of the last few days just to check-in. I do want to say that our hospitals are certainly better prepared. While we are seeing somewhat of a surge. I think that there has been a lot more education on getting testing. We've seen testing increase across the borough.

We've also seen people becoming more responsible. I think that that's been something leaders such as myself have urged people to do to socially distance, to stop the gatherings, to wear your mask. When you think long term, I meant the inequities that really made these particular communities which will have a common denominator. Communities with a high concentration of immigrants, low-wage workers, people who are spending more than 50% of their income on rent.

They are the common denominator when you look at these communities. This city has to look itself in the face and say, "We're going to address those disparities in the long term, so we're never back here again."

Brian: Let's talk about some of the economic impact of the virus. Do you support indoor dining closures starting today and other nonessential "small business closures" that may be coming down the pike. What impact do you think that will have economically on Queens residents?

Donovan: Well, yes, I do support the closures but the caveat is we need to ensure that there's real assistance for these small businesses. Shame on the players in Washington, Mitch McConnell who've held up the stimulus package. It's projected that many of these businesses will not reopen. When I go out, and I'm speaking to business owners, they really are just barely holding on. We're talking about putting people out of work, for Black businesses it's projected 50% of them will not reopen due to this pandemic.

We need to make sure that there's real assistance. This is why even as the conversation around taxing the richest has come up, how are we going to generate this revenue to ensure that these small businesses can remain open. Obviously, we have to put public health first because without public health, you can't have a healthy economy. The bottom line is we need to make sure that there's a stimulus package that really reaches Main Street and not just Wall Street, as we've seen.

Even when you speak to small businesses, when you talk about access to PPP. Some of the regulatory framework that surrounds the stimulus package that came out the last time precludes a lot of these businesses from even gaining access. We're working very closely with the new Commissioner of the Department of small business services, Jonnel and we want to make sure there's an equity framework here as funds are being distributed. Especially for the communities hardest hit.

Brian: Listeners, we can take a few phone calls for Donovan Richards, the new Queens Borough President. 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280, or tweet a question @BrianLehrer. You were chair of the Public Safety Committee in City Council, the last time you were on it was largely to talk about that. Is Queens like other boroughs in terms of rising shootings this year?

Donovan: Oh, absolutely. I've seen tremendous upticks in even the council district that I represent. I actually had a murder a block away from my house just a few weeks ago. I had detectives knocking on my door to look at camera footage. It's really been an unsettling time. One of the reasons we've seen this is when you look at these disparities. When you look at people who need food, when you look at the need for rental assistance, and then you look at the police reforms that some have deemed irresponsible, which I don't.

We had a police department that stayed put for a little while and did not necessarily, in my opinion, be as aggressive as we've seen them in the past when it comes to addressing a lot of the gang violence. I think the cat was let out of the bag, and it took a long time for the police department to finally settle in. There's an old saying when the giants fight, the ants get trampled on. That's what we saw throughout this summer leading up to now what we see this spike in gun violence.

Now, there are some things that need to obviously be done and in the long term. We need to see programs like the Cure Violence programs that we know, historically have helped in communities like Far Rockaway, expanded across Queens. We need to make sure that we're dealing with just the basics of keeping people in their homes. Making sure that community centers at one point or another can be opened again.

As they say, idle time is a devil's playground. Being that a lot of these centers and the schools are closed, this is a natural breeding ground for the gangs. That's what we're seeing on the streets.

Brian: Listeners, I will say, as a talk show host sometimes we see this. The calls that are coming in are some people with their usual, let's say, generic, ongoing national politics concerns. We're going to limit the calls for this section to people from Queens who want to ask something of the Queens Borough President relevant to Queens. So, Queens heads up. You're up.

The phones are open for you. 646-435-7280. About the quality of life in Queens, or what you can expect, or what you would like to ask of the new Queens borough president in terms of being as effective as he can for you as a resident of Queens. 646-435-7280. Of course, these are a lot of the same issues that affect the whole city, that affect the whole region. We're not talking about Donald Trump here let me say. 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280 or tweet a question from Queens @BrianLehrer.

Although, I will ask you just one question. Why in your opinion, did Trump get five more points than he did in 2016 in the borough of Queens? He went up from 22% to 27%. I don't want to overstate what that means. That still means that what? 73% of Queens, which is a landslide in anybody's book, did not vote for Donald Trump, but despite everything, he picked up a few points.

Donovan: Well, I think fear-mongering had a lot to do with it. Especially his messaging around public safety. There were a lot of people-- Even one of my opponents painted me as, I remember she sent the Halloween piece out that Queens would be less safe with Donovan Richards. It would be a scary, spooky extravaganza if I was the borough president. We looked at this and for those who don't know my story, I got started in politics because of my childhood friend who was murdered at 19-years-old, so public safety. Mind you, the people who murdered him have never been arrested by the way.

His parents and his grandmother, folks that I remain close to still live with this every day. I think he really utilized that. Then I think the Democratic Party has to do better at messaging. What do we stand for? Right. I think that that's been a challenge that the party has had. Yes, we did overwhelmingly, like you said, Biden carried 73% of the borough, but naturally, we need to do a better job at messaging. I think that was one of the challenges throughout this election. It was a nail biter at one point, although Biden pulled away.

We need to speak to the people, we need to speak to the issues. We need to let them know that we are a party that does not shy away from a fight, that we want to address food insecurity that we want to ensure that these inequities that have crept up are being addressed. That public safety is number one, but we need fair policing. It doesn't mean that we don't need police but we want to ensure that there's fairness and equity in the system as well. I think that those are the three things we need to do a better job speaking to and that's one of the reasons we might've seen somewhat of an uptake in votes for Trump in Queens.

Brian: Do you think there's any risk with crime on the rise, or at least shootings on the rise of electing let's say a next-generation, Rudy Giuliani mayor next year, as a backlash? With the De Blasio, of course, he's term-limited out, so it won't be him, but seen as not an effective manager. Is this 1993 all over again, potentially?

Donovan: No, this is not 93. I think that there's a broad image, the coalition has really broadened, right? We have a lot of young people who are fired up and engaged. I refuse to believe that our city wants to back to one, a city that was crime ridden. Even when you look at the numbers and one shooting is too much, let me be clear. The numbers are still drastically not as bad as they were going back to even when Giuliani was in office. But the bottom line is whoever comes up, has to be able to work with all sides.

That's one of the things I prided myself with as the public safety chairman. I was very tough on the NYPD, but it didn't mean that I didn't work with my local commanders. It didn't mean that I wouldn't work with my community affairs officers. It didn't mean I didn't work with my neighborhood coordinating officers. I think we're living in a polarizing time when there those who are out there and either you're far far to the left or either you're far far to the right, and there's no middle ground and really sitting at a table and trying to figure this out.

The issue with this though, Brian, is that the people closest to the pain are the ones who get hurt the most through this rhetoric and through the division. At the end of the day, when I have senior citizens who can't sit outside their public housing development like they were able to do a year ago. When I've got young teenagers who have guns in their hands who are gunning down other people. We've got a broader bigger issue to address here.

I think the rhetoric has certainly been taken to new levels. It's going to really take leadership that's able to bring people together to really move us out of this moment, and resources, that's the bottom line. There was a good Times article the other day, Brian, on young people who are carrying guns. Many of those young people were the same young people I grew up with and they were let down, their families were torn apart due to incarceration. They didn't have food in the table. They didn't have someone to tell them they loved them.

We as a society has failed these young people. Until we start to address many of the systematic failures that have gotten these young people to pick up guns, we're going to continue to see the uptake in shootings. I'll end with this Brian on this, there are no gun manufacturers in Southeast Queens or East New York, or Far Rockaway. How are these guns getting in? There needs to be a real, and I'm hoping the Biden administration will really focusing on gun reform.

These guns are coming into these communities. It's easier to get a gun than a textbook in communities these days. We need to make sure that we are stopping the 1-95 pipeline and stopping these Southern States with these lax gun laws from bringing these guns up to our city and into our communities.

Brian: Just to complete this thread, what's your relationship with the phrase defund the police?

Donovan: Listen, defund the police has many different meanings to many different individuals. I personally will use re-imagining police and it's not that I'm trying to water it down. It means something different to each and every person you speak to, but the bottom line is what are we doing as a society? We have to look ourselves in the mirror and say, should we be funding billions of dollars towards the NYPD budget? Or should we be taking some of that money and reallocating it back into, especially the communities that were impacted the most during this pandemic.

Should the police department be involved in every facet of our lives? I think the police department, and I remember commissioner O'Neill at the time I chaired agreed with us on this. Why are they involved in mental health services? We should have mental health professionals involved with mental health services. Why are the police department the first answer to a kid getting in a fight in the schoolyard? Could we use school counselors and others to address these issues?

I go back to my personal time. Brian, I was a teenager. I was a troubled young man, a runaway. Personally, I went to Jamaica High School, I had a lot of different challenges. One of the reasons I made it was because of the support of the village. When we say that, that means having the support services, having people there for me is what got me through high school and now to the borough presidency. If I can do it, anybody can do it, but it really takes the village and support to really get people like me there.

Brian: This is WNYC FM HDN AM New York WNJTFM 88.1 Trenton, WNJP 88.5 Sussex, WNJY 89.3 Netcong, and WNJO 90.3 Toms River. We are in New York in New Jersey public radio, a few minutes left with the newly elected Queens borough President Donovan, Richards. Marley in Flushing your on WNYC. Hello, Marley.

Marley: Hello.

Donovan: Hi, Marley.

Marley: Hi, thank you so much for taking my call, and congratulations on winning the election.

Donovan: Thank you.

Marley: I just wanted to ask, because I remember when you were running you said that one of your main goals was to create more affordable housing. I'm curious as to what are the steps you want to take to make sure that that happens? Because I think that's a very important issue for people.

Donovan: I was born to teenage parents and had to move around 20 times as a young man. There was no one neighborhood I probably have not lived in. You look to some of the work I've done in Far Rockaway, for instance, where we are building out 10,000 units of affordable housing, real, truly affordable housing. I also was the author of the bill, which enabled the city to create community land trust now. We're working very closely with HPD on that and hope to see that model incorporated in a lot of development across Queens.

Then the other thing we need to do is identify sites. A lot of times, planning is done very top-down instead of done organically. One of the things I want to work with community boards and community stakeholders on and coming up with our own plan. Identifying sites and our own communities that can be developed, but also we should ensure that even as we do that, we're looking at the things our communities are missing. We can't just build housing.

We have to make sure parks are built, schools are built, our libraries, our infrastructure is invested in. I think we need to come up with our own plan rather than waiting for city planning or private developers to come up with a plan for us. I'm hoping to do that, to roll out some task force in the near future where we are doing some organic planning from the ground up and then introducing a plan to the city. That's going to be one of the first things that we focus on, as we move forward.

Also, I launched a transition team with a lot of experts from different backgrounds, a lot of diverse stakeholders on it. Who are also going to work with us on implementing and coming up with the blueprint for the borough, but there's a lot of work to be done. We shouldn't wait for city hall to dictate to us where and what should happen in our communities. We should be doing some pre-planning ourselves.

Brian: Marley is calling from Flushing. Where are you on the Flushing Waterfront Development the council just passed? Opponents have called the show to say it would mean gentrification and less affordable housing?

Donovan: Well, let me start with this. There was definitely room to go further in the Flushing planning to ensure that there was definitely more affordable housing in the plan. That's the bad part of this plan. We need federal stimulus dollars too. Money is not growing on trees these days, we needed an administration who's really going to look at these rezoning's when they happen and Far Rockaway is a prime example of how we can succeed where we set aside out of all of those units, 15% for homeless families, a deep affordability, we got down to 30%.

A majority of units will go to people earning between 30% and 80% AMI but the bottom line is we got to have investment, anybody can give rhetoric. There has to be money that goes down to deepening the affordability in these projects. I am very happy with the Hotel Trades Council on 32BJ are certainly receiving and getting good jobs as we talk about upward mobility. My father is a member of 32BJ, he's a service worker and I know what that meant for him being able to now be on the trajectory of retiring with dignity, with a pension. That's something that was not at his fingertips before.

We need union jobs, we need upward mobility, but we also need to make sure that we're investing in true affordable housing in these communities. This was far from a perfect plan and we're going to drive a hard bargain with any developers who come and sit at the table with us as the borough president.

Brian: Maxine in Jamaica, you're on WNYC with the new borough president Donovan Richards. Hi, Maxine.

Maxine: Hi, good morning, Brian and good morning to your guests.

Donovan: Good morning.

Maxine: I agree with Mr. Richards about the Democrats, do not know how to message. Their messaging is not really that effective. They need to do better with that. My call is about garbage on the street, where I live and the drain on the streets. I see a lot of them covered with trash and garbage and next door to where I lived there two big trucks parked on each side of the street that belonged to the same person. I called 311, my son also emailed 311 and it's dangerous the two trucks, one hasn't moved in two years. I think they were given tickets by the city, but they're still parked there, but my main concern is quality of life. Thank you.

Donovan: Thank you, Maxine. What I'll ask you to do is you can shoot my office an email and I'm learning all my emails, but you can send me a direct email at DRichards@Queensbp.org. Hopefully my staff is not like, wait, you're supposed to send it to another, hopefully. DRichards@Queensbp.org.

Let me just speak of trash and quality of life. Part of my job is to hold city agencies accountable and we also work with organizations like Wildcat and CEO who actually hire formerly incarcerated individuals who are looking for not a handout, but a hand up in life. We can make sure if you get that location to us, that we send them out to look at that site. Then on the drains, I actually Jumaane Williams and I at the council when we were both at the council actually passed a law that requires the DEP to flush out every catch space. They used to do it I think on a three years cycle, they now have to do it on a yearly cycle.

If you get us that catch space, the 311 would have given you a complaint number, if you can get that to us. We can call it into DEP to make sure that it's flushed out, but they should've been doing that anyway. They also are required to report to us every catch space that they cleaned out.

Brian: Can remake that contact for you by taking Maxine's contact information off the air so that she doesn't risk getting lost in the crush of email. We do that sometimes when people call the mayor for example, can we do that from Maxine?

Donovan: Oh, absolutely and I will personally follow-up. Yes.

Brian: All right, Maxine, hang on. We're going to take your contact information for the borough president's office. That's about where we're going to have to leave it but Maxine's call was emblematic people, think it's a lot of glory to be elected something with president in the title like you have, or mayor of New York. It means now people call and say, why aren't you picking up my garbage? Congratulations I guess. Here you again, because this was a special election and if you want to have this job for more than a year, you're going to have to run in 2021, right?

Donovan: Yes, Sir. My model is always do the work and that's how we got here. There was no shortcuts. There was nothing given to us, we worked our behinds of. I'm pretty confident I left my district, left it better than I found it and I want to do it all for Queen. Yes, our job is to be responsive. It's not about the title. It's not about being driven around. It's not about Mr. President. It's about serving our community and serving the broader Queens Borough now as the borough president. We're here to work and we're going to be following-up on a lot of these issues. They're called the bread and butter issues, Brian, that's what we're here to do, to take care of.

Brian: Donovan Richards the new Queens’s borough president keep coming on with us and your new job and thanks a lot for coming on today.

Donovan: Anytime, take care, happy holidays, everyone.

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