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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC. Good morning everyone on the final day of our fall membership drive. Thanks for standing up for independent journalism. Let's get right to some of that journalism this morning. Brigid Bergin and Elizabeth Kim have been leading the political coverage in this New York City election year for WNYC and our local news website Gothamist. The first televised debate between Eric Adams and Curtis Sliwa was held on Channel 4 last night. Also yesterday, Mayor de Blasio issued a vaccine mandate for the NYPD and certain other agencies.

The police union is taking him to court over it, and there's that video. Did you see it of two cops kicking a guy out of a subway station after the guy confronted them for not wearing their masks? Masks in the subway are the law and the police are there for law enforcement. Last time I looked, they could set an example, you would think. Police commissioner Shea says they will not be suspended. In the video, the officers are in fact not wearing their masks. The guy they ejected from the station is wearing his. Let's talk about these things and more with WNYC’s Brigid Bergin and Elizabeth Kim. Good morning, Brigid. Good morning, Liz.

Bridget Bergen: Good morning, Brian.

Elizabeth Kim: Good morning, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Brigid, what's with cops not wearing their masks in places they're supposed to. This is hardly the first news story like this. This time, though we happen to have a video. What is this not enforced by the NYPD Brass?

Brigid Bergin: It's a great question Brian and it's one that certainly Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner Shea have been asked repeatedly. I think a good thing in this particular incident, unlike many times when the Mayor gets asked about these types of situations that have been recorded. He acknowledged that he had seen the video. That's a plus and took issue with the behavior. This has been something that has been a problem for much of the pandemic and it sends this conflicting message when our law enforcement officers are not modeling the behavior that the rest of us are supposed to be following.

Just to bring it back into my wheelhouse most directly, we're about to have poll sites open up across the city as people are often used to seeing. NYPD officers will be at those poll sites as they always are. Board of Elections employees are expected to wear masks. Again, I think we will be watching to see if those officers who are at those election sites will have their masks on. Many of those sites are in schools. It's a problem and it reinforces that disconnect between the de Blasio administration and this agency that he oversees but has a real problem with his leadership.

Brian Lehrer: There's the mask mandate for the NYPD being variously followed, and not followed. Can you explain the mayor's latest vaccine mandate for the NYPD and certain other city workers? It was already the case for teachers and public hospital employees. Now, the NYPD and who else and why now?

Brigid Bergin: This is a new initiative that the mayor announced bright and early yesterday morning. Just so happen to be the same day that the people seeking to replace him were having a big debate where they were going to be talking about public safety. The mayor made this announcement that his health commissioner was issuing an order. City workers will not Now need to be vaccinated and that all of them except correctional officers need to have that first vaccination in by October 29th. This is part of the city's effort to increase those numbers.

As Liz has done a great job reporting, we've seen that certain city agencies, particularly among some of the uniform agencies. The percentage of vaccinated workers has been middling and they want to see those numbers go up. Now the city is moving away from a option of testing to saying, you need to get this vaccination. It's part of I think what the mayor hopes will help get the city back on track so that when he leaves office at the end of this year. He is leaving with the city’s an upward trajectory. Of course, that leads us to the inevitable conversation of what the mayor's next steps are.

The rumored run for governor. To lay a foundation for a next step, you need to have the city at a certain state of stability. I think they would prefer an upward trajectory in getting these city workers vaccinated getting the city moving in that direction. I think is very much part of that plan.

Brian Lehrer: Liz Kim, in the Eric Adams, Curtis Sliwa mayoral debate last night, maybe the most interesting contrast to follow up on what Bridget was just saying. We're not between the two of them since the election is not expected to be at all close, but between atoms and some of Mayor de Blasio's current policies that Adams might change. Here in this clip, Adams claims he could have gotten to yes on city worker vaccines without any lawsuits against the mandate by the unions.

Eric Adams: I would have sat down with my union members and I would have sat down with those who are involved and we would have worked out a way. We could come to an agreement.

Brian Lehrer: Easier said than done or was Adams able to back that up, Liz?

Elizabeth Kim: That's a lot easier said than done. At this point, there's really no way for him to really prove it because the mayor has already gone ahead and issued a full vaccine mandate. Now, the lawsuit will be filed and this will already be in process by the time if he is elected and when he takes office.

Brian Lehrer: You wrote a comprehensive article on our local news website Gothamist called from G&T To Vaccine Mandate. Here are some de Blasio policies Eric Adams will likely change. On vaccine mandates, he wants to go further than de Blasio particularly, when it comes to children in school, right?

Elizabeth Kim: Exactly. He's saying that once federal regulators approve the vaccine for children that he would be willing to consider a vaccine mandate for public school students. That's someplace that de Blasio has not been willing to go because the mayor has said he wants to prioritize students coming back, and he does not want to penalize a student whose parent does not want him or her to be vaccinated. Eric Adams is saying, "Listen, there's a precedence for this. We already have children who are required to get vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella."

He says that this shouldn't be that hard. The fact is it's possible that by the time we get to January and if we have that FDA approval and as more people get vaccinated and as more parents want their children back in school. It could be the prime time for him to do that and not have a huge number of students opt out.

Brian Lehrer: Does he have a solution for those whose families would because this vaccine remains? Whether it's right or not for it to but it remains more controversial than the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, or other traditional childhood vaccine. When the mayor raises a legitimate issue that barriing kids from school might be worse than having unvaccinated kids in school. Does Adams have a solution to no vaccine equals no education?

Elizabeth Kim: He does. He unlike the mayor is willing to consider a remote option. Now, the Mayor has been very clear from the beginning that he did not want to have a remote option, and there is no remote option. That's a way it was a carrot to get people to send their kids back to school. Basically, if you're not sending them back, there's no way they can learn remotely.

Adams is willing to consider that and that's going to be interesting. I think the experience from a lot of families was that remote was not as good as in person. How will that work? Which are the teachers are going to be assigned to teach remote versus in person? It could get it back and get a little hairy, but we'll see what happens.

Brian Lehrer: By the way, we just got a tweet from I guess it's from the teacher that says the cops and firefighters are being offered $500 to get vaccinated by the end of next week. The teachers only got $100. Where's the equity? Maybe we'll get that phone call on Ask The Mayor on Friday from a teacher who wants their $400. Brigid, in the debate last night, some of the going analysis is that Sliwa was right on policy specifics, concentrating more on personal and symbolic attacks on Eric Adams. Here's one example after Sliwa acknowledge that as head of the Guardian Angels, he used to make up fake crimes so his Guardian Angels people could look like heroes.

Curtis Sliwa: I'll continue to apologize for it but I've earned the trust of New Yorkers. Just follow me in the streets and subways. I'm there. I'm the people's choice. Eric Adams is with the Elites in this sweets, the TikTok girls.

Brian Lehrer: Brigid, you got a good laugh out of it at very least. That is the context of what happened in that WNBC televised debate last night?

Brigid Bergin: Absolutely, all credit to politico's Sally Goldenberg, who asked some important questions of both candidates around why voters should trust them. In that particular question, she was asking Curtis Sliwa to explain why voters should trust someone who has in his time, with the Guardian Angels, a history of making up some stories, including one about his own kidnapping. He did apologize.

He said, "I apologize. I apologize, and I'll keep apologizing." Then he made that interesting pivot. A reminder that Curtis Sliwa is pretty media savvy, has been on television, knows how to land a sound bite. That particular comment was trying to talk about how he has remained someone who is on the streets, in the subways, trying to attend to the needs of people with their most vulnerable issues and criticizing Eric Adams, who has been seen throughout the summer, particularly in the post-primary season at fundraisers. He took a vacation to Monaco. He has been out in the Hamptons.

Actually, credit to Jeff Colton from City and State who was at a benefit for the Robin Hood Foundation last night and captured a photo of Eric Adams and Mayor Bloomberg. Certainly, Adams is someone who seems to be enjoying the city's cultural and social scene. That was something that Sliwa was criticizing. Adams also faced a question from the moderators about an issue of trust that has come up for him throughout this campaign. That's related to where he lives.

There's been reporting about his home in Brooklyn that he claims as his primary residence and questions about whether or not he lives there full-time. When he was asked about that and about his taxes, which have also needed to be amended, he offered two somewhat interesting responses, both of which we have heard before. He talked about how his accountant was someone who was struggling with some personal issues. That was part of the reason why there were errors in his tax filings.

In terms of where he lives, he once again talked about how he stays at Brooklyn Borough Hall very late sometimes but claimed that his residence in Brooklyn was his primary residence. He just hadn't kept track of how many nights he slept there. An interesting sort of questions around the transparency of who these candidates are, and who they claim to be to voters.

Brian Lehrer: Liz Kim and Brigid Bergin, our political reporters for another couple of minutes. Then we're going to continue our geography quiz for different parts of our region. We have a special edition today coming up with our puzzle master, Will Shorts, who happens to live in Westchester. He's got a Westchester puzzle coming up. We also have Sean Ono Lennon on today's show to talk about the 50th anniversary of his parents' song, Imagine.

Liz, before you go, I want to touch on the wonderfully deep reporting you've been doing since Hurricane Ida on One City Block, on 183rd Street in Hollis, Queens. It's a great example of our news department's community focus journalism that doesn't just report from City Hall and personally of yours. The point is that the homes on that block have been flooding after heavy rains for years.

Liz Kim: Right, and I had chosen that block because after storms from Hurricane Ida, that block was one of those blocks in which two basement residents drowned. I could have easily plucked another block, like an adjacent block, or even gone to another neighborhood in Southeast Queens. They have the same stories. You can look it up in the clips. You can go back to 1970.

I found a New York Times article where people were complaining about perpetual flooding in Southeast Queens. I just wanted to ask the question, why? I basically went down this rabbit hole, and it's an interesting story because it's a story about the lack of political will to invest in the infrastructure. It's relationship to redlining. It's also a story about our environmental history and basically, what's there? What was there underneath hundreds of years ago?

Unfortunately, this one particular block happens to be built on where there used to be a pond. In part because of that, it has a very unusual topology. That was something that I reached out to an ecologist, and he basically looked it up. We studied the maps. We were like, "Wow." That explains a lot. These residents are now in this position where they understand that the city is saying, "We're investing two billion dollars in Southeast Queens." Yes, there is a sewer that has been installed in their block.

It didn't really do much. It didn't do anything, really, for them, this time around. Although the city says, "It's yet to be complete." They're really not so sure at this point. Is this something that engineering can overcome? How much faith can they put in government? They're not really getting a lot of assistance from FEMA, not enough to cover all of their losses. It's not just this time. It's just the accumulated years of money that they've had to put into restoring their basements.

Brian Lehrer: I'll ask the mayor maybe that, paving over natural things like ponds and doing development everywhere. In our last 30 seconds, Liz, is Ida the news hook that finally gets them the infrastructure attention they deserve?

Liz Kim: I think it could be because definitely, that is now an issue that's being put to the two candidates running for mayor. Immediately afterwards, Adams put out a climate change proposal. Adams has interestingly said that he was open to buy out something that the mayor has been very skeptical about. We'll see whether he would actually follow through on something like that. It wouldn't be the first time, but it would be unusual because this is not a coastal community.

Brian Lehrer: WNYC political reporters, Elizabeth Kim and Brigid Bergin. Great work, you two. Thank you. Keep it up.

Brigid Bergin: Thanks, Brian.

Liz Kim: Thanks, Brian.

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