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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Every Tuesday, Mayor Adams holds his only news conference of the week where reporters can ask questions on topics of their choosing. The rest of the week reporters have to stick to the topics that the mayor specifies. This just started this fall, this restriction. One thing we've started to do on Wednesdays on this show is hear some clips from that Tuesday news conference as well as some analysis from WNYC and Gothamist lead Eric Adams reporter Liz Kim. Let's get into it again. Hi, Liz.

Liz Kim: Hi, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Mayor Adams started his news conference yesterday with a 2023 self-evaluation and some promises for 2024. Here's 22 seconds of that.

Mayor Adams: I'm excited about 2024. I said 2023 was going to be my Aaron Judge year, and it darn sure was. We hit it out the park. There was a number of records that we were able to break. Now I'm looking towards 2024. I don't know if I'm going to do a Steph Curry or LeBron James, haven't figured out yet, but it's going to be a real year to win some real championship for the people of this city.

Brian Lehrer: An Aaron Judge year. As I recall, Aaron Judge was injured a lot in 2023 and the Yankees didn't make the playoffs, but that's quite a boast for somebody with so much going on right now.

Liz Kim: Right. There's no shortage of bravado from Mayor Adams. Well, I'll start with the policy wins that the mayor wants the public to focus on. Crime is in fact lower, particularly shootings, although I will note that that's a nationwide trend. The city has recovered all of its jobs lost during the pandemic, and it continues to see more people gradually come back into its business districts.

He has followed through on some important promises to working class New Yorkers; namely, an earned income tax credit that puts money directly into the pockets of poor working New Yorkers. Also, much needed funding for the city's public housing developments, but on the whole, 2023 was not an easy year for the mayor. I think some political observers would call it disastrous. I would point to a pair of polls that came out toward the end of last year. They showed dismal approval ratings for the mayor. One of the polls, the Quinnipiac poll saw the mayor get the lowest approval rating, that's 28%, and that's in the history of the survey. What's driving that?

The Quinnipiac poll asked those surveyed these questions, and what they saw is one thing. There is the ongoing federal investigation into the mayor's campaign. Now, it doesn't accuse the mayor of any wrongdoing, but it's clearly affected the way New Yorkers perceive the mayor and his trustworthiness. There are also the budget cuts, the mayor has imposed some very deep cuts in popular areas like universal pre-K, libraries, and sanitation, just to name a few examples.

Brian Lehrer: Right. To the mayor's point, I saw most of that news conference yesterday, and at one point, he summed up the argument in the clip we just played by saying, "I ran on reducing crime and bringing back jobs." All the jobs lost at the beginning of the pandemic are back in terms of total numbers and crime is way down, especially shootings and murders, which are the two biggest things that people are always concerned about with respect to crime.

If we look past the investigation which, as you say, hasn't accused him of any crime at least at this point, if we don't hold him responsible for the influx of migrants, which we're going to talk about next as a major topic from the news conference yesterday, he has accomplished his main two goals.

Liz Kim: That's correct, Brian, but I would also argue that-- He had these two goals, and I would say with respect to crime, crime is down, but it's not at historic lows that it was before the pandemic. I don't know whether it's fair to say how fast the mayor needs to bring down crime. Crime is multifaceted, and there are many factors that go into bringing down crime, but yes, he could certainly notch that as a win.

I think at the end of the day, for him to have come out and say that these were my two goals, I don't know that for New Yorkers that was ever necessarily going to be enough. I remember at the beginning when he first started there was this question of, not just Adams at that time but also the other mayoral candidates, were these candidates bringing big ideas to the table?

When you think about big ideas, one example that is often brought up with Adams's predecessor Mayor Bill de Blasio was his big idea was universal pre-K. Have we seen something the likes of that? You could argue in a pandemic recovery, perhaps it's more difficult for the mayor to finance a big idea like that. This is a city where there's a lot of big expectations. The city is thought of being a trailblazer in terms of policy for the nation. I think that's where New Yorkers' expectations are in terms of areas like transit, education, public safety even.

That's how the mayor is ultimately going to be measured. If you throw in-- there are always other things that you will throw in, that the mayors will face numerous crises over their term. The migrant crisis has been a big focus for New Yorkers. I don't know that just meeting those two goals that he had set out for himself would ever have been enough to raise his standing or raise his approval rating in the eyes of New Yorkers, and that came out in the poll, because even though crime is down, having an approval rating halfway through his term that's the lowest in the history of the Quinnipiac poll, that says something. It wasn't just low, it was low by historic standards.

Brian Lehrer: All right, listeners, did Mayor Adams have an Aaron Judge year in 2023 or did he have more of a Josh Donaldson year? That's an inside Yankees' question, Josh who? He had a terrible year. 212-433-WNYC, or anything you want to say or ask Liz Kim, our lead Eric Adams reporter, on issues that the mayor raised and reporters raised at his weekly news conference yesterday. We're going to get more into the migrants and the busing from Texas next and anything else you want to comment on or ask about, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, call or text.

All right, Liz, the first question for the mayor was about migrants being sent into the city by train. That was after the mayor signed an executive order to try to restrict the number of migrants bused in from Texas. The mayor put certain parameters on when the buses could arrive. It has to be between 8:30 in the morning and noon, only those hours, and there has to be a number of days' notice before the buses arrive.

Now, apparently, Governor Abbott is sending buses where people decamp at Secaucus mostly and some other places in nearby Jersey where they can then get on trains and come into the city. What is the mayor's recourse in this situation given that workaround I just described?

Liz Kim: It's not really clear. Governor Abbott has been sending migrants in buses since April 2022. So far what we've heard are just a lot of back and forth recriminations between the two individuals. Mayor Adams accuses Governor Abbott of using migrants as pawns. Governor Abbott responds by saying that he is simply trying to expose or draw attention to what he considers President Biden's failed border policies.

The executive order is a new wrinkle though because it suggests that the city is looking into legal strategies of thwarting Governor Abbott. It's modeled after one that was used in Chicago. What Adams said yesterday is that he's calling on other nearby cities to follow New York's lead in hopes that if everyone implements a similar executive order which is, as you said, these restrictions, that that somehow by forming this sort of unified front, that they can somehow slow or try to control the flow of the buses.

Brian Lehrer: On the whole, is it too soon to know whether Adams' executive order about when the buses can come in has either backfired or meaningfully aided New York's strategy. Again, it requires 32 hours, to be specific, advance notice about the buses coming into New York City, and those hours only in the morning, 8:30 to noon, when the buses are allowed to arrive. Is there even a practical way, and the mayor is railing against Governor Abbott's workaround with dropping off in Secaucus and around there, I get that, but can you tell a bus when not to drive into the city?

Liz Kim: We're about a week into the executive order, and clearly, it's not working. Legal Aid told me this morning that 10 buses arrived in New Jersey, and the assumption is that most, if not all of those, are migrant passengers who will ultimately be headed into New York. The mayor's chief counsel yesterday, Lisa Zornberg, said that no Texas bus company has complied with the order, so they're not getting advance notice.

They also wanted to know certain things about the passengers like how many families are on board, how many children are on board, how many should we expect will need shelter. The city has been getting none of that. This idea of banding together, that could make it more difficult for bus companies, but I would point out that one reporter asked the mayor yesterday, what's the ultimate cost of this strategy? Meaning that migrants have already traveled a very long way to come to the city, and by doing this, are city officials effectively just prolonging their journey and prolonging their discomfort?

Brian Lehrer: Is New Jersey willing to play ball with Mayor Adams in the way that he's asking? He's saying, "Yes, Secaucus should also have the same executive order. You can't drop off here except at certain times." Trenton, which I gather is another drop-off point for some of the buses, should have the same executive order, et cetera. Are New Jersey mayors or county executives or the governor interested in teaming up with Mayor Adams on this?

Liz Kim: That's unclear yet. The mayor obviously made a very public call yesterday for other municipalities to do similar executive orders. He said he was going to have a conversation with Governor Murphy. I guess the question is, though, for these mayors, if they see the ultimate destination for the migrants to be New York City, do they feel the need to intervene in this way with the bus companies?

I mean, they would ultimately be helping New York City, of course, but Governor Murphy himself has rejected the idea of building an emergency shelter in Atlantic City. He was asked about that last year, whether he would consider doing that, and he has rejected that. That was a question, actually, that I put to the mayor yesterday, was whether he was disappointed that the governor of New Jersey would not, in fact, step in. The mayor talks a lot about, "We need a decompression strategy." Well, there is one right there across our border, is-- he could step up and also accept some migrants.

Brian Lehrer: Lee on Staten Island, you're on WNYC. Hi, Lee.

Lee: Hi, Brian. So happy to talk with you. I'm a long-time listener. A thought has occurred to me. Has any public official considered charging Governor Abbott with human trafficking because it seems to me that's what he's doing?

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Lee. It's a good question. I think part of Abbott's position on this, whether it's confirmed or not by reporting, maybe you know, Liz, I don't know, is that he's not forcing any migrants to come to New York. He's only putting migrants on buses who say they would rather come to New York than stay in Texas. Do we know if that's true?

Liz Kim: That's correct, Brian. I mean, largely, what we're hearing from advocates is it's not just the governor that's funding these buses, but it's also a lot of nonprofit groups are paying for tickets, and there are migrants who themselves are paying for their own, either bus fare or airfare, to come to New York City. We've talked about the many reasons why they want to come to New York City. It's a big international city. There are jobs. There's a promise of jobs here. There's a good safety net.

There's also, which includes the city's right to shelter law, which obliges the city to provide a bed to anyone who asks for one.

Brian Lehrer: Trey in The Bronx, you're on WNYC. Hi, Trey.

Trey: Hey, how are you doing? Good morning, everybody.

Brian Lehrer: Good to hear from you, Trey. What you got?

Trey: I don't know why he couldn't have stayed out of it. Look, we're all New Yorkers, right? If you're a native New Yorker, you know rule number one. Rule number one is mind your business. He got on TV because he is a TV [unintelligible 00:15:51], and he loves the light. Okay, you love to go to the clubs. Okay, you love to party, okay, and you did it all year one. Hey, and we've been watching. We're New Yorkers. He couldn't mind his business. They were not getting in buses before he got on the TV and started with the blah, blah, blah, and it was none of his business.

He goes, "Oh, we're going to get things done." Oh, yes, thank you. Closing the library? Great, you got that done. You got that done. "Oh, we're going to cut the sanitation." Wonderful. Wonderful. Tell the rats that, they love it. You're going to get that done with the new rat czar? How much is she? Is she working for free? Because I see more rats. Okay, yes, his numbers aren't good. They're not great, they're not nice, and they're not going to be, and he deserves his numbers.

Brian Lehrer: Trey, thank you very much. Just on where we start the clock on the Eric Adams, Greg Abbott thing. Did he bait Governor Abbott in any way, or was Abbott just trying to make a political point out of his own initiative that, "Oh, yes, Biden administration, you're not going to close the border enough, and my state is being flooded with asylum seekers. I'm going to send them to Northern Democratic mayor-controlled cities that call themselves sanctuary cities and launch my own decompression strategy by not having people all concentrate in one place in my state," and then Adams reacted? Maybe that second version would be more fair.

Liz Kim: Yes, that's correct, Brian, but I would point out that, actually, in the beginning, what Adams did was Adams actually showed up at Port Authority and he personally welcomed migrants. He pointed out that this was Abbott being cruel, but he wanted to present himself as a counterpoint to this Republican governor. He was the Democratic mayor of the biggest city in the country and he was welcoming migrants with open arms.

Brian Lehrer: It kind of gave Abbott an opening there. Say, "Okay, you welcome them with opening arms, here they come."

Liz Kim: Yes, but I would point out that this was also before the mayor truly understood the magnitude of the crisis, and how many people were crossing the border, and how long this would continue.

Brian Lehrer: Another listener picking up on Adams saying he had an Aaron Judge year. Listener writes, "No, Adams has had an errant judgment year." [laughs] The caller brought up rats. I do have a text message from a listener who is writing, "Daniel in Manhattan here. What about the mayor's progress or lack thereof on New York's rat population the city came out with a far-reaching plan?" Do we know?

Liz Kim: Well, the mayor does say that rat complaints are down, although there are always questions about how much the number of complaints, whether that is a true barometer for whether the rat population is in fact down. Again, that's similar to crime. I would say that it's kind of a very intractable issue in New York City and a lot of it depends on perception. Right?

Brian Lehrer: Absolutely. All right. After answering the questions about Greg Abbott, the mayor pivoted to the Brooklyn Bridge story that's in the news today. The number of vendors that he believes contributes to its bottleneck, and new rules have just taken effect barring all kinds of vendors, many of whom have been there selling food and other things for years from the Brooklyn Bridge, and I think other bridges has too. Here's part of what Adams said in his statement at yesterday's news conference about the Brooklyn Bridge.

Mayor Adams: We're going to clean up the bridge. If other forms of our legislative body decides we don't want the bridge cleaned up, we can only do what's in our power, and I'm saying to New Yorkers that the policies that are being implemented by some, a small numerical minority of electeds in this city, they are implementing policies that have been implemented in other cities, and we are witnessing the just dismantling of public safety in those cities.

Brian Lehrer: Help me understand that clip. The mayor sees the number of vendors on the Brooklyn Bridge not just as sort of a traffic issue but as a public safety issue?

Liz Kim: That's right, Brian. That's a very interesting clip because the mayor is also using it to express his law and order platform and he's also trying to draw out a contrast between himself and progressive members on the council. That's something he often does. He often uses progressives as a kind of political foil, that can work to his advantage, but it's interesting, because in this case, there isn't any opposition from the council members. The mayor nevertheless sort of sees this opportunity to talk about it as if there was.

Brian Lehrer: I want to come back to one other thing about the migrants before we run out of time. I don't know if this is supposed to be provocative on purpose by the mayor, but I think it kind of came out that way. He was asked whether he believed migrants coming to New York were committing crimes, because that's one of the right-wing criticisms we always hear, right? That's the Trump thing. "They're bringing crime, they're bringing drugs."

Some of them are nice people, but it makes it sound like these are criminals launching a crime wave and that's the heart of the issue. The mayor was asked about that and what data his administration was using to back up a claim that some migrants are committing some crimes. Here's how the mayor responded.

Mayor Adams: Do I believe that there are some migrants who are committing crimes in the city? Yes. Yes. There are people who are committing crimes in all walks of life. It's not just migrants and asylum seekers. I think that we have a number of migrants who have committed crimes. We have a number of non-migrants who have committed crimes, so I do not want to walk away with anyone saying that the GLA increase we saw in the city was just migrants. No, it was not.

It was long-term New Yorkers who committed GLAs also, but are there some crimes that migrants have committed? Yes, there are, but remember what I said last week. You place a person in an environment where they can't work, can't provide for themselves, they have to just sit around all day, that's not a good scenario.

Brian Lehrer: First to clear up, Liz, what those initials meant that he was using there. "Some migrants are committing GLAs, but a lot of non-migrants are committing GLAs." What are GLAs?

Liz Kim: Grand larceny.

Brian Lehrer: Ah. Is that like the-

Liz Kim: Robberies, yes.

Brian Lehrer: -shoplifting?

Liz Kim: Correct.

Brian Lehrer: That kind of thing. I guess if there's a data point that's relevant, I don't know if he said it or if they know it, are new people coming to New York committing crimes at any higher rates than people who are already here? If not, then it's just adding more New Yorkers like other New Yorkers, but why did this come up in the first place?

Liz Kim: This came up because hours earlier he had given-- it was a pre-taped interview on FOX 5, but he suggested, like he's doing here, that there were migrants who were committing crimes, and during the press conference, he was asked by a reporter whether he specifically had any data to back that claim up, and he gave that answer. He then said something about there have been a pattern of robberies and that some of those robberies have been linked to migrants.

What's interesting about the mayor's comment there and the way he's talking about migrants and crime is that his rhetoric on migrants often seesaws almost in a whiplash way. On the one hand, as I mentioned, he went to Port Authority back in 2022 when the first buses started arriving, and he was welcoming migrants, but also as recently as last summer, he held a rally in which he was lobbying the Biden administration to help expedite work permits for migrants.

He often speaks very eloquently about the immigrant dream and how New York City is the home of immigrants, but as he's grown increasingly frustrated with the crisis, you do hear him lean into this more sort of right-leaning type of rhetoric. That is what opens him up to criticism. He has been criticized by those on the left and also immigrant advocates for fearmongering, and that these kinds of statements about linking migrants to crime but also his other statements he said, "The crisis is destroying New York City."

Brian Lehrer: Right.

Liz Kim: Often citing the migrant crisis as a reason why New Yorkers have to experience all of these service cuts. That is creating an environment that will ultimately hurt migrants. It will result in xenophobia, for example.

Brian Lehrer: I'll just note because we don't have time to go to them, that a number of people are calling in to support the mayor on the vendors on the Brooklyn Bridge. One listener says, "Totally agree with the mayor. I was there over the holiday. It was so dangerous. It was so crowded."

Another listener, if we had time to put him on the air, would say, "Regular Brooklyn to Manhattan cyclist commuter, agree with the mayor. The guy has a bar there. Some pedestrians use lower-level bike path instead, I guess meaning business is being taken away from the brick-and-mortar owners who pay rent." Just to say there are various people on various sides of that issue, and guess what? We haven't solved every New York City issue in this conversation. Liz, what are you doing next Wednesday after the mayor's next Tuesday news conference?

Liz Kim: I'll be here, Brian. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: Oh, good. [laughs] Talk to you then.

Liz Kim: Okay. Thank you.

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