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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. There are 14 ways to get from LaGuardia Airport to Manhattan. Pick one. That's the job for Governor Hochul and the Port Authority, which runs the airport. Choices include light rail to Jamaica or Woodside or Astoria or Willets Point or extending the N & W subway lines or various kinds of bus rapid transit. Then there's the one the Queensborough president likes, a shuttle bus to a nearby ferry which then makes several stops on Manhattan's east side ending in the financial district. Are you ready to take the plane to the bus to the boat?

That's one topic we're about to discuss with the Queens and Manhattan Borough presidents right now. Also, the ways in which Mayor Adams' crackdowns on crime and homeless people's encampments are colliding in places like Penn Station and Jamaica Station. There's the mask mandate for two to four-year-olds that was supposed to be lifted today in schools and daycares, but is being extended for at least a week by Mayor Adams as the new Omicron variant spreads in the city.

It's being fought over in court at the same time, but Adams is still allowing Kyrie Irving and some baseball players to take the mayor's new special exemption from the vaccine mandate that applies to every other working person for every other New York business. That's been brought to court too by various unions who also want their people to be able to opt out. How is that playing on Broadway and Fifth Avenue and on Broadway near City Field.

Then there's a borough president's initiative for a permanent remote option for being an engaged New Yorker. They'll explain that one and more as we welcome Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. Two presidents on the same show. President Levine and President Richards, welcome back to WNYC.

President Mark Levine: Thank you so much, Brian.

President Donovan Richards: Thank you for having us. Great to be on.

Brian Lehrer: President of Queens Richards can we start with how do you get to Carnegie Hall from LaGuardia Airport besides practice?

President Donovan Richards: [laughs] Well, Brian, I often joke that it's probably easier to get to get to Florida by plane as it is to get to Manhattan by bus and train if you're in Queens, so I am really excited about many of the proposals that the Port Authority put forth. Let me start with the low-hanging fruit which is, obviously, free bus service for Q70 and M60. They also had some proposals for bus rapid transit. Then also, we've never really leveraged our waterways as much as I think we should as a city.

Ferries are probably the most environmentally friendly option we can use. For a city that has been on the front lines of the climate change crisis for the last few years this has to be a part of the calculus. I think it's an innovative way to get folks to the airport, but to also use our waterways and to give communities of color specifically access to their waterways which is something that largely doesn't exist in our city as much as I want it to.

Brian Lehrer: How would it actually work? I'll admit it strikes me as a little bit inconvenient on first blush. It's a shuttle bus from the airport terminals to a ferry terminal nearby, and then down the east side of Manhattan. How does that work?

President Donovan Richards: Well, there is already infrastructure in place. You have the flushing promenade, so you could get on there. Let me say, this is not some experiment that hasn't worked. You can look to the Rockaways where there are shuttle buses that run, and that was something I worked with Mayor Bill de Blasio on from local communities into the ferry landing in the Rockaway. This is not something that doesn't exist currently. Then you would get off at LaGuardia or get on at LaGuardia and then head up the East River.

To be determined. I think, once again this was a very innovative proposal put forward by the port and we look forward to working with the residents of both Astoria and East Elmhurst because, obviously, as a government official I don't want to dictate all of the terms, but where I see things that can be done better in our city I'm going to speak up on it.

Brian Lehrer: All right, President of Manhattan Levine, have you perused these 14 options the state is considering, and do you have an opinion as the receiving borough?

President Mark Levine: Well, I'm first glad that we're not fixated on the solution that Governor Cuomo had been pushing which would've required Manhattanites to take the subway all the way out into Eastern Queens and then get an air train back. It actually would not have shaved hardly any travel time off and would've cost billions of dollars. I'll defer to my colleague in Queens on the best alternative, but from the Manhattan perspective it's certainly much easier if we're going to build an air train to have it originate closer to the East River.

Brian Lehrer: All right, listeners, this can be one of your topics for calls to the borough presidents right now. How do you get home from LaGuardia or JFK, or if you're involved with business travelers heading from Manhattan, how do you advise them to get into town? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Only in New York could we call a place as crowded as Queens as not in town, but you know what I mean. 212-433-9692. We'll leave Newark Airport out of it for now, because that's a different set of options, so just for the Queens airports how do you get wherever your destination usually is after you land, and what would you prefer if they're going to build something new or build out something that exists?

A light rail to what mass transit hub or what kind of bus or boat route? Weigh in if you would like. 212-433-WNYC or anything else for the president of Manhattan and the president of Queens. Borough presidents Mark Levine and Donovan Richards, 212-433-9692 or, of course, you can always tweet @BrianLehrer, and we'll watch our Twitter feeds go by and pick out some interesting ones to read on the air. President Richards, I will note that all of this talk usually revolves around getting into Manhattan from the airports, but what about everywhere else? Listen to this call that we got on Friday's show. It was Molly in Brighton Beach.

Molly: Today I'm trying to get to JFK Airport and my options are either an 18-minute car ride, and I don't have a car, or two hours on public transportation. I'd have to go to Atlantic Avenue and then take the LIRR, and all told it would extend my commute to the airport by two hours. Having some connection from Queens to Southern Brooklyn, I think, would be wonderful.

Brian Lehrer: Unbelievable call, and so my producer Mary looked it up on Google Maps after that call, and confirmed what Molly said. Just to get from Brighton Beach to JFK, LaGuardia is even further, but JFK it's said using public transportation from Brighton Beach it's the B train to the LIRR at Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn. Then the LIRR to Jamaica to catch the air train to the airport 1 hour and 24 minutes according to Google Maps. That compares to just a 20 minute car ride via the Belt Parkway if you can afford a cab. She said 18 minutes. Is there anything the state is considering, or that you advocate for getting from the airports to other parts of your Borough of Queens or down to the neighborhoods of Brooklyn or anywhere else that's not Manhattan?

President Donovan Richards: Well, Brian, just I think two months ago I stood with Governor Hochul on her interborough express plan which does create a lot of points of connectivity between Queens and Brooklyn. Actually, just as of last week I think the Port Authority had acknowledged that they were exploring an option to LaGuardia through the interborough express proposal as well. Listen, everything she's describing is the life of a Southeast Queens resident who tries to get to Manhattan, and every day it takes an hour and a half. By the way, she said 18 minutes on the Parkway. Folks are not taking the trains as much, so I would probably add double the time [chuckles] in this moment even getting in a car from Brooklyn to come into Queens.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, 18 minutes on the Belt Parkway maybe in the middle of the night, but, President Levine, on the same topic, by the way, when it comes to Manhattan or anywhere else what's wrong with just buses from the airport to various points? I've taken those buses, maybe they're private buses, I'm not sure, from the airports nonstop to Port Authority, and then take the subway from there if we're just talking about getting into Manhattan. Why not just enable that fleet?

President Mark Levine: Buses are an excellent option. Brian, coming from uptown you may have taken the M60 which is now a select bus or express bus going across 125th Street which has been a very popular way to get to LaGuardia. The challenge is congestion. You talked about the congestion on the Belt Parkway. Obviously, in the core of Manhattan it's even worse. There's a solution which is to create bus-only lanes that really are enforced, so that the buses can speed through traffic. That is cheaper and faster and easier than building new train lines. Buses aren't really as sexy perhaps, but they are a really prudent solution that could get us to the airports from Manhattan much faster and could get us everywhere in the city much faster and, of course, we're pushing for more bus lanes and I know Donovan agrees. It's been an underappreciated form of mass transit and we really need to double down in investment in bus infrastructure.

Brian Lehrer: Let's take some phone calls on this then we'll move on to some other topics as well with the Borough President of Manhattan Mark Levine and the Borough President of Queens Donovan Richards, as we're talking about things that affect both of their boroughs, the city as a whole, the region as a whole, as we've started with how do you get anywhere from LaGuardia or JFK airports as Governor Hochul and the Port Authority are considering 14 different, most of them new options for LaGuardia links in particular. Steve in Bridgewater, New Jersey, you're on WNYC. Hi, Steve.

Steve: Hi. I just did this a couple weeks ago and it's so easy. You take the N or the W to Astoria Boulevard and then Uber from there it's a 10-minute Uber.

Brian Lehrer: You have to get to the N or the W first though. You're going to the airport. You take it to Astoria and then an Uber ride, but, Borough President Richards, not everybody can afford an Uber.

President Donovan Richards: Exactly. We've been having a real conversation around Queens on ensuring that transit equity is centered. There are many workers in these neighborhoods who don't have access or don't have the means to get in an Uber. Your socioeconomic status shouldn't be a determinant on whether you have good transportation, so looking at several different options that the port has provided is definitely a welcoming step in the right direction.

Brian Lehrer: It's close though. If you can't afford it that's a pretty short hop from Astoria there over to the airport, but that's not the public transportation option that everybody is looking for. Michelle in the Bronx who says she's a pilot. Hi, Michelle. You're on WNYC.

Michelle: Good morning. I have to travel to the airport weekly and if I go by car it's 20 minutes from my door to the airport. If I take the public transport I've got to take a train into Manhattan to 125th Street to catch the bus, and it takes upwards of almost an hour and a half. I'm wondering if you guys would consider reaching out to the Bronx Borough president and putting a ferry stop in the Bronx or maybe even a direct to the Bronx and there again from LaGuardia to JFK. I'm sure a million people would love that one.

Brian Lehrer: Do you ever think, Michelle-- I don't know where you fly. I assume if you said you're a pilot you're a commercial pilot for an airline, is that right?

Michelle: Yes, sir.

Brian Lehrer: Did you ever stop to think at an hour and a half it takes you longer to get from the Bronx to LaGuardia which as the crow flies would take about five minutes?

President Donovan Richards: Brian, I don't want to cut in, but I do want say that we have actually gotten some outreach from elected officials from the Bronx actually for the same consideration as she brought up. We're looking at it and look forward to looking to [inaudible 00:13:23]

Michelle: Thinking about that everybody should have this public transport and the Bronx is one of those areas where we could really use it.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, and Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson will definitely be in the next rotation next time we match up some borough presidents. Do you ever think about the irony, Michelle, that it takes you longer to get from the Bronx to LaGuardia than it probably takes you to fly from LaGuardia to Columbus, Ohio or something like that?

Michelle: It is not lost on me. I often wish I had a jet pack.

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Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Maybe one of those Amazon drones will get you from there or maybe not. Amazon, however, let me say will be our next segment. We're going to talk about the historic vote that happened Friday after the show. We didn't get to talk about it on Friday, except that we were anticipating the final result. What will it mean that an Amazon warehouse right here in New York City has become the first in the nation to form a union? We're going to talk about that after we're done with the presidents of Queens and Manhattan. Taking calls from all over the region on this. We got a New Jersey call-in. We got a Bronx call-in. Here's Dimitri in Hartford. Dimitri, you're on WNYC. Thank you for calling up.

Dimitri: Hi, Brian. Hi, borough presidents. First time caller, long time listener. I just wanted to point out that over the past couple of years, they've spent millions and millions of dollars reconfiguring the roadway network that reaches the drop offs pickups area and they reconfigure in a way that still prioritizes cars when they could have dedicated a bus lane to accommodate a bus rapid transit. I just wanted to point that out that they didn't really put any long term thinking in the millions and million of dollars that they would be investing with this new airport.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Francesca in Queens, you're on WNYC. Hi, Francesca, you want to react to the ferry idea, right?

Francesca: Yes. I'm in Queens right now, but I'll be moving back to Marble Hill. Reflecting what the other woman said, it would be a dream to have a ferry going all the way down from Marble Hill down. It could stop by Yankee Stadium, whatever, but you could get access all the way down East River and get us to the airport. You do need light rail or something from Astoria. The M60 I've commuted on can be a nightmare. You can wait 50 minutes if there's a problem with traffic on the bridge or something or on 125th Street. You can wait all day for that. You need a light rail there, but the ferry will be spectacular.

President Mark Levine: Brian, can I jump in since we have a call from my fellow Manhattanite in Marble Hill on this. Manhattan has largely been left out of the very successful NYC ferry network other than the east side and the lower tip of Manhattan. We need to expand those networks to include uptown Manhattan and certainly Marble Hill, but also the west side and not only north south links from everywhere from Riverdale to [unintelligible 00:16:43] Street down to the west side, but we need a ferry cross the Hudson River from 125th Street to New Jersey.

There used to be service there. It's an eight minute ride versus an hour it can take to cross the bridge. I agree with what Donovan had said earlier. This really should be seen as an emerging and more environmental form of transit and there's many, many, many places we need to fill in so that people can really ditch their cars and hop onto ferries.

Brian Lehrer: One more, thank you, Francesca. Scott from Soho who says he's at Newark Airport right now. Is that right, Scott?

Scott: Yes, I am, and that's a very loud luggage carrier. Sorry.

Brian Lehrer: That's right. That's what luggage carriers do. What you got?

Scott: Yes, it is. I took a Lyft here. I'm lucky enough that my work reimburses me for it. New York City's one of the greatest cities in the world. It's one of the most amazing places I've ever been and it has arguably the worst transport to the airport that I've ever experienced, all three. From my point of view, someone needs to call up Elon Musk, get the Boring Company to dig some tunnels to the heart of Manhattan from all three airports in the most logical route that covers as much of all the boroughs that can be covered by that as possible, charge a mid level fee, not $2.50 or $2.75, whatever the subway is, but $12, $15 to get to the airport. It should be a one way ticket. If you hop on in Brooklyn or you hop on in Queens, it only lets you off at the airport. A brand new system, light rail or something along these lines, express trains to and from the airports, all three.

Brian Lehrer: Scott, thank you very much. Borough President Levine, do you want to react to that idea? There's option number 15.

President Mark Levine: I am all for creating new train lengths to all three of the airports. We're one of the only global capitals that doesn't have a direct train link from the airports to downtown. It's really unacceptable. Scott is right. I think that we're talking about many years and many billions of dollars to create new tunnels. It's very difficult. We also need to look at quicker solutions that use existing rail network and that you activate buses and even use ferries. I think while we look at long term aggressive plans, let's not take our eye off the short term wins that can actually improve speed quickly and more affordably.

Brian Lehrer: He said Elon Musk. I don't know if this is too out of your portfolio Borough President Levine at this point, but did you see the news this morning that Musk apparently bought a 9% stake in Twitter making him Twitter's largest shareholder saying he wants to do something about their squelching of free speech?

President Mark Levine: I actually missed that. I guess I got to start following Elon Musk on Twitter. I am a little worried to hear that rhetoric. I think that Twitter has been responsible in removing content, for example, that question the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. When people post lives like that, it actually impacts the health and safety of Americans. I'm worried to hear that talking point and I hope that social media platforms more generally begin to take their responsibility to control content so that this toxic messaging often fed by the far-right, promoting conspiracy theories, no longer flourishes on platforms like Twitter and Facebook. I'm hoping Elon Marks doesn't undermine that.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, and I didn't get that from Elon Musk's Twitter feed, just for the record. It's multiple news organizations reporting that this morning. Probably, producers, heads up, we'll take a closer look this afternoon and maybe that'll be one of the segments on the show tomorrow. We're going to continue with the borough presidents of Queens and Manhattan. We're going to turn the page from how you get to and from the airports and talk about other things and take more of your calls right after this.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC with one of our occasional presidential summits, the presidents of the boroughs of New York City, that is. Today with Donovan Richards, the borough president of Queens, and Mark Levine, the borough president Manhattan. All right, new topic and more urgent topic than airport transportation. Really, two topics, huge ones in the city right now, Mayor Adams cracking down on crime and also on encampments where people experiencing homelessness live.

This is not to say most people experiencing homelessness are high risk for committing crimes, but Borough President Richards, again, you first, because I see you've spoken about the need to deal with both things around the Jamaica Center transit hub. It connects to our previous transit conversation in that respect. Could you first just describe the situation there as you see it to start this stretch of the conversation?

President Donovan Richards: Jamaica Center is a major hub in Queens. In Southeast Queens, pretty much thousands of people go through Jamaica Center to get on a bus or get on a bus to the train. What we've seen there over the years has just been unacceptable. We just took a shooting up there, I think, last week again, and really my point in doing the tour was to just be proactive in what we're seeing down there. Some of the drug dealing. To the 103rd's Precinct's credit, they have taken a number of guns off the streets around there but there's just not a steady enough amount of presence of police officers there.

Then you add to the homeless crisis in which I was very clear we want to deal with our homeless population with compassion. Most people are just arriving to this conversation on homelessness and the trains but I can tell you in Jamaica, going back 10 years, 12 years that we've always had an issue with people sleeping on the trains. Part of the problem is these shelters are just not safe enough. The services they're supposed to give to people, they're not providing. There seems to be a real breakdown in communication with DHS and a lack of oversight of these organizations who are supposed to provide services to our most vulnerable populations.

I just, for instance, toured Phoenix House in Long Island City last week, I toured Creedmoor last week, and it was startling to hear from many of those men in Phoenix House. They spoke passionately about how they want a better life. They want housing, housing, housing, housing. Some of them slept on the subways but Phoenix House gave them a lifeline because they're providing the services they need. They have a bed, they're actually working with them on employment. Those are the things that we need to see the mayor invest in, we need to see the city of New York invest in, but it all starts with safety and then investment in housing, mental health services, wraparound services. If we don't do these things, we're just spinning our wheels.

Brian Lehrer: Borough President Levine. Do you have any similar scenes you'd like to describe in Manhattan to what Borough President Richards just described there to make center?

President Mark Levine: Well, I'm afraid we do, Brian. Homelessness is definitely a crisis in New York City and in particular Manhattan where there's the largest concentration of people living unsheltered. Often it's particularly intense around major transit hubs like Penn Station. I really want to echo some points that Donovan made. We have a shortage of the right kinds of beds that will bring people in off the street. Many of the people sleeping in subways and on the street have made a rational choice to stay out of congregate shelters because they've been there and they've felt unsafe and they feel less unsafe on the street. We know what the better options are. We need more low barrier to entry shelters like safe-havens.

We need more respite beds for people coming out of the hospital. We need more inpatient psychiatric beds. Manhattan has lost over 500 in the past decade and even more throughout COVID. Of course, we need more supportive housing. If we don't create those kinds of shelter and housing options, then mostly we're just going to be moving homeless people around on the street. You can clear out an encampment, but the likelihood is that those individuals will find somewhere else to set up or even come back to the same place. We just need to urgently invest in the right kinds of beds and homes and shelters. That is the proven strategy that actually brings people in off the street.

Brian Lehrer: Two part question, President Levine, how much do you think Mayor Adams is on the right or wrong tracks? Why do we have this conversation year after year after year? There's an article in the Times, I think it's a Ginia Bellafante column, that talks about how we were having the same conversation in New York City in 1989 when Ed Kotch was mayor and they did a sweep of an encampment at Tomkin Square Park. 1989 and here we still are.

President Mark Levine: I think it's very tempting to imagine that you can send them sanitation trucks and throw out belongings and that you'll solve the problem. That's not how it works. It's never been how it works. I think that the mayor deserves credit for the fullness of his plan beyond the headlines, because he has called for significant investments in outreach teams, public health professionals and social workers, et cetera. That's critical. He has called for increased investment in facilities like safe haven beds and supportive housing, but we're not moving fast enough on those fronts. Honestly, with the encampments, most of them are in isolated areas.

They are not interfering or impacting safety of most New Yorkers, and particularly in those cases to clear them out when there's no bed to offer is not effective. In fact, we saw with the big push in the last week or two that I think there were 240 individuals who were cleared out of encampments, and only five actually accepted housing. Where do the other 235 end up? Probably they set up another encampment, maybe even at the same spot. This is the cycle that you're referring to that we've been locked in for decades. We need to do the hard work of investing in real solutions, not going for what feels like a quicker fix and just clearing out encampments.

Brian Lehrer: President Richards, same question, but are those solutions anywhere to be seen? We're waiting for the new state budget for the new fiscal year, which started the other day. Everybody's talking about doing something different about people experiencing homelessness for their own sake, and because other people don't want to see encampments or people sleeping on the train in large numbers when they get to Jamaica Center or anywhere else and yet I don't know that those programs are in the budget.

President Donovan Richards: This is a question of political will, and the rhetoric show me your money and I'll show you who you are. Show me what your budget priorities are and that tells me a lot about what your priorities are. I alluded to the fact that I toured Creedmoor last week and Phoenix House. I got to meet with some of the folks who are in these programs and these programs are successful. Well, we have to reimagine where we have been going as a city, but the model is there. It's just a question of investment. Even in the state budget, we've talked a lot about the excluded workers' fund.

These are all things that we need to see replenished otherwise we are just giving rhetoric and the problems are not going to be resolved. What we've seen happening now hasn't worked, and that's partly because we have not had enough investment on the front end so now you're catching it on the back end. You see what's happening on the streets. This is a culmination of us not investing in the things that Borough President Mark Levine said, supportive housing, psychiatric beds, mental health services.

This is not rocket science. If you invest, these programs have shown that they're proven to work. Me speaking to those men last week, I can tell you right now, these are men who want to go to work. Some who work for the MTA perhaps might have had substance abuse issues in the past, but really want to get their lives together. Once again, just alluded to the fact that their number one ask was, "How do we get permanent, safe, affordable housing?" They said, "If we can get that, that puts us on a trajectory of success."

Brian Lehrer: Let me get at least one phone call in here before we run out of time. I think it's Genevieve in Manhattan. Genevieve, you're on WNYC. Hi. Do I have your name right?

Genevieve: Yes, you do. Thank you. [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Genevieve: My issue is that the trains are consistently being addressed is where the problem is with the homeless. That's not the case. I take buses only because of several issues I've had on the train. One was, I'm disabled. Four years ago, I quit the trains, and that's because the elevators didn't work. I had to crawl up the stairway by myself all the way downtown in the battery somewhere because it was ten o'clock at night, and I was doomed. Anyway, I gave up the trains. Then I started taking the buses and of course, the pandemic hit.

One night last June, it was just about getting dark. I was sitting in front of Tiffany's on 57th Street [unintelligible 00:32:06] waiting for the number 31 bus, and I was the only one there. I couldn't walk any further because I'm disabled, I did my best. Anyway, a woman peeks her head around the bus station stop where I was sitting, and says to me, "I'm looking for a job." I said, "But I don't have a computer." I said, "Well, why don't you go to the library in the morning? Do you know where it is?" She said, "No." I directed her to the library. She's still standing there staring at me, and I'm getting a very bad feeling. She said to me, "I want to kill you."

Brian Lehrer: That's a terrible experience, obviously. I know you have to go in about 30 seconds, Borough President Richards. Give me your last thought on this. Obviously, that's an individual experience. It's not necessarily representative, but I think a lot of other people would call in and say those kinds of interactions, verbal or otherwise are getting more frequent.

Donovan Richards: Well, the pandemic exacerbated many issues. You got to think about isolation, the trauma, and no excuse for anybody threatening anybody and saying they're going to kill them, but clearly this person sounds like an individual in distress. What we have to do as a society, as we've alluded to, it's sounding like a broken record at this point, we have to invest in these services on the front end.

Creedmoor site provides a real opportunity, a lot of underutilized land there. Also, when you look at Creedmoor in the condition it's in, the state has not invested. This could be a campus where you have wraparound services, where you have gyms and pools. They actually have a museum there. You just have to see what people can achieve when they have the support systems in place. We need to look to these things, we need to expand bed capacity across the state, and that all starts with Albany passing a budget. That surely is not just about us building back after this pandemic, but surely building back better.

Brian Lehrer: Borough President of Queens Donovan Richards, I know you got to go. Thank you very much for joining us and Borough President of Manhattan, Mark Levine, we'll finish up with you. As I'll throw in one or two other quick topics here, the news headline today about the masked mandate for two to four-year-olds remaining in place, even though it was supposed to come off today because of the new Omicron wave, and, of course, they can't be vaccinated at that age, but some parents are challenging it in court. Do you have a position on that?

President Mark Levine: Well, Brian, I understand just how frustrated parents are with this, and how difficult it's been for many families. I did support the mayor's announcement two weeks ago on this, but there was an important caveat at the time that we needed to watch the numbers. The numbers have been moving in the wrong direction for the last few weeks. Cases have almost tripled since we bottomed out. If you look at what's happened in Europe, we have reason to fear that trend will continue.

My understanding is that the court case hasn't succeeded, but regardless, the mayor is committed to look at this next week. I think this should be reviewed regularly so that we get the right balance between protecting young people as this new variant surges, and also respecting what we hear from families, that they want to have more flexibility in masking for their kids' [unintelligible 00:35:48].

Brian Lehrer: All right, actually President Richards I see you're still with us so I'll circle back to you for one last thing. All five borough presidents I see are backing the idea of learning from the pandemic to create a permanent remote option, for who? For residents who want to attend community board meetings. Do you want to tell us about that briefly?

President Donovan Richards: Of course. The last two years through this pandemic, I think people have really familiarized themselves with the technology in a bigger way. It's actually provided much more participation on community board issues and meetings. We've seen a heightened interest by the public through this pandemic, matter of fact, to the point where we received nearly, I think, 1,800 community board applications the last two years. People are really interested in serving on their community boards. Don't let me give you the math on how many people we actually can appoint because we have to turn down a lot more people because we just don't have the space.

I don't think we need to go back to regular. I think we have to reimagine how we use technology, how public participation is being done across our city, and the community boards have shown over the course of the last two years that they can get it right. We perhaps need to provide a hybrid model. Yes, people can attend in person if they wish, but also to have that option, especially for people who are disabled, people who are working, who have children, who are trying to navigate life and still be engaged, having this option is something that I think is a welcome step.

Just so you know, Brian, within my office we're doing a pilot program in which workers can come up, choose one day a week right now, hope they get the two days soon, where they can work on Zoom virtually twice a week. These are the things we need to do. I think the pandemic has shown that we can get this right. I think it's shown that we need to take care of our mental health, that we need to make sure we have time to do the work, but do it virtually as well.

Brian Lehrer: Our latest presidential summit, the President of Queens Donovan Richards, and the President of Manhattan Mark Levine. We'll continue to rotate other local presidents through as we do these segments during the year. Thank you, borough presidents. We really appreciate your time today.

Mark Levine: Thank you so much, Brian.

Donovan Richards: Thank you, Brian.

 

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