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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, it's time to speak with the speaker, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams about big city issues like subway crime and policing, housing, of course, what services get cut, or fully funded, and more. Speaker Adams delivered her annual State of the City address. Yes, the speaker as well, as the mayor gets to deliver one of those. Hers was at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Wednesday night, outlining her priorities and legislative goals this year.

She touched on pressing concerns of many New Yorkers, including housing, also education, mental health, migrants, to name a few, and offered up quite a few proposals that intersect with these issues that she hopes will offer solutions. There's a lot to cover. Let's jump in. Speaker Adams, always good to have you. Welcome back to WNYC.

Adrienne Adams: Great to be here again, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, speak to the speaker. Your calls for New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams on anything relevant to her, and City Council. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. I saw a story yesterday, census statistics that show 78,000 New Yorkers net, left the city last year, and the population decline has now hit 500,000 since the start of the pandemic four years ago.

I see the mayor's offices disputing that a little saying that it doesn't take into account people in homeless shelters, or the recent asylum seeker arrivals. Nevertheless, you highlighted a statistic of over 200,000 Black New Yorkers moving out due to the increasingly affordable cost of living in the city. Would you start there and describe what you see, with respect to who is struggling the most with housing, and the effect so far?

Adrienne Adams: Yes, thank you so much for the question, Brian. Part of my thought in my speech came from personal experience. I mean, I can look in my own community. I can look in the community that I grew up in, and Black New Yorkers are gone. I can look to folks that I've spoken with. I mentioned something yesterday on a program that I was on in an event that I was at last month.

One event during one week, and a second event during the same week, where I spoke to two different individuals. These were women, and they were very, very honest. Their stories were almost identical, and they were saying that they were most likely going to be leaving New York, because they couldn't afford to live here anymore. These were working women, family women, married women with children, and they were expressing to me the fact that, this city has become unaffordable to live in.

What I'm looking at, and I know a lot of people are looking at this, working in middle class families are getting squeezed out by the lack of affordable housing, and home ownership opportunities. Primarily though, we're looking at folks with families. Childcare is such a major, major challenge, and we know the full picture includes even more challenges than that, mental health, safety, more and more and more. In my estimation, especially, in speaking with parents, I think childcare is a big, big deal in New York City.

Brian Lehrer: There's a movement in City Council that called City of Yes. That's to try to get, I think, more members of City Council to say, "Yes", to housing construction, including especially affordable housing construction in their neighborhoods, because I've said on the show before, there are two givens about the housing crisis in New York City. One, everybody says, "We need a lot more affordable housing." Two, everyone says, "Just not in my neighborhood." Are you dealing with that, and how are you dealing with that?

Adrienne Adams: Well, to clarify, the City of Yes is a proposal that the Mayor--

Brian Lehrer: That's from the Mayor--[crosstalk] Sorry.

Adrienne Adams: -that the administration, yes, has put forth, not towards the City Council to move one way or the other. We haven't even gotten the full proposal, actually, from the administration. In dealing with the City of Yes, just to back up a little bit, we're looking forward to working with the administration, obviously, our communities and all stakeholders. When this proposal actually does come before the Council, we know that we have to confront the housing crisis to address the lack of affordability in our city.

Of course, my fair housing framework law was one way to do that when we have now taken a look at, or we must make sure that we are taking a look at equitable home building, housing in every single district, because we know that in the past, this has not been the case, certainly, in New York City, and that's why we're so far away from any kind of mark of people having affordable places to live.

The 1960s era, going back to the City of Yes, the Mayor's proposal, those 1960s era zoning laws have structurally maintained racial segregation, and have impeded housing creation. We really are up against a lot of obstacles when it comes to creating affordable housing, where it belongs, where it, "Doesn't belong," which in our estimation and the Council, it belongs everywhere. It took us a long time to get here. It's going to take all of us to get out of this.

Brian Lehrer: What are you saying? Are you saying that Council members from more affluent parts of the city need to start saying, "Yes", to more affordable housing in their neighborhoods?

Adrienne Adams: Oh, they already have. The answer to that question is certainly, "Yes". Specific neighborhoods that have basically just taking care of the brunt of housing, the biggest district is Council member Salamanca's district in the Bronx, who has seen more housing coming up over these past years, as other neighborhoods have seen zero. We have to take a look at this unfortunate experience, but opportunity to gain affordable housing, giving people places to live, keeping people in the city of New York, and not retreating to other places.

We have to all take a part of making sure that housing happens in every single district. Yes, my members have heard my clarion cry, and for the most part, they absolutely support my fair housing framework to accomplish it.

Brian Lehrer: My guest, if you're just joining us, is New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. Callers will get to some of you in just a second, and a few lines are available, if you have a question for Speaker Adams about housing or anything else, 212-433-WNYC. Drummond in Queens, we see you. You'll be first up in a minute about subway crime. 212-433-9692 to speak to the speaker today.

Before we get to phones, I want to connect housing, or acknowledge that you connected housing in your State of the City speech Wednesday night at BAM to another issue that New Yorkers are deeply passionate about, and that is funding our public libraries, which, of course, have recently seen those cuts that resulted in their closure on Sundays. You connected the issue of funding libraries and housing in a novel way. Want to do it for our listeners?

Adrienne Adams: Sure. It's not really that novel. It's a bold idea actually. Housing development paired with library renovations, it's actually proven to be successful. In 2016, the Brooklyn Public Library actually partnered to rebuild its Sunset Park Branch with affordable housing. It's one of the most heavily used branches in Brooklyn. It was totally rebuilt and expanded to be nearly double the size.

There's also city-owned land we should be exploring for housing development. In other areas, or on other city-owned properties where libraries stand, we're not now Brian callers, we are not unilaterally saying to develop here, or develop there, but planning and partnership and support can absolutely yield positive outcomes for housing production, and community amenities like our library systems. That's an idea. It's a bold idea. There's something that we need to take a look at.

Brian Lehrer: This is WNYC FMHD NAM New York, WNJT-FM 88.1 Trenton, WNJP 88.5 Sussex, WNJY 89.3 Netcong, and WNJO 90.3 Toms River. We are New York and New Jersey Public Radio, and live streaming at wnyc.org with New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, and Drummond in Queens, you're on WNYC with the speaker. Hi, Drummond.

Drummond: How are you doing, Brian? Good morning, Speaker.

Adrienne Adams: Good morning.

Drummond: I like to, first of all-- Good morning. I think the City Council has been an impediment to the Mayor's fight on crime, and I just like to ask the Speaker, what is the City Council doing to combat the surge of violence on the subways and buses? [unintelligible 00:10:13] [crosstalk] It's one of my coworkers are perceived with violence and assault, and they are legitimately-- Most-- A lot of New Yorkers when they ride New York City Transit buses and subways, are literally scared for their lives. There was a shooting on a train just yesterday. Thank you for your time.

Brian Lehrer: Drummond, thank you very much. Speaker Adams?

Adrienne Adams: Yes, thank you, Drummond, for the call. Obviously, I have a difference of opinion when it comes to the City Council impeding the work of a Mayor. I completely disagree with that, but I understand your sentiment. I understand your feelings. So many New Yorkers are absolutely on edge when it comes to traveling in our public transit systems right now.

This surge definitely puts a lot of us in a place of pause. It's difficult. It's a difficult space that we are right now in the city of New York. Before we do, I want to express my sympathy for the passengers on the train yesterday, who experienced, of course, every New Yorker's worst nightmare. The videos were horrible to watch, and my heart really does go out to everybody that had to witness that altercation.

I also do want to thank our law enforcement officers. They are the best on the planet. I always say that as well. They rushed onto the scene to prevent further violence from taking place. Listen, I believe that for the instances, the surges that we're having right now in the transit system, we absolutely do respect the presence of our officers in the subways. I believe that whatever it takes to make New Yorkers feel safer, that is absolutely what needs to happen.

If the presence of police officers makes our citizens, residents feel safer, we absolutely need to make that happen. Again, I don't agree that the Council's been an impediment to the work of the Mayor, and the work of public safety. I think that the Council is actually trying to be an enhancement for all New Yorkers, number one, to gain transparency when it comes to law enforcement, to get answers, and to be as safe as we possibly can be. You know where we are right now in the city, it's not a good feeling, but we are all striving for the same thing, and that is public safety in New York.

Brian Lehrer: The Mayor would argue, I guess as I've heard him do that, when there was a surge of police officers through overtime in the subways last year, the crime rate went down, when there was a pause in that in January, the crime rate went up, when there was another surge in February, the crime rate went down again. He argues there's a relationship. How would you counter it?

Adrienne Adams: A relationship between police presence and--

Brian Lehrer: And a decline in crime. Yes.

Adrienne Adams: You're not saying anything that I just didn't say. When New Yorkers feel safe, I think that, that is the best avenue for us to take.

Brian Lehrer: There's also a quote from the Mayor today on the incident on the A train at Hoyt-Schermerhorn yesterday. He says, "When people look at public safety, they look at the police aspect of it, but there are other connections that must be filled in that are not, such as we're attempting to do an Albany around those with severe mental health illnesses, involuntary removals." He said that on New York 1 last night.

He continued, "When you look at many of these random acts of violence that you're seeing, you're seeing that it's dealing with people who are dealing with some real severe mental health illness." In fact, The Post had an article with a statistic, let's see if I could find it. I had it a minute ago. Here it is. They're citing city records, "Half of the nearly 40 perpetrators busted for attacking MTA employees in the subway system last year have histories of mental illness, along with lengthy rap sheets."

It says, "Of the 38 people charged with 41 separate assaults on trained drivers, conductors, token booth clerks, and other staffers underground, of those 38 people, 20 of them had at least 5 arrests to their names, and documented psychological problems." According to documents obtained by The Post. Assuming The Post is reporting accurately, is there something additional to current policies that needs to be done to address the concentration of people with diagnosed mental illness of certain kinds, and with at least five arrests?

Adrienne Adams: There is definitely a correlation, and I believe that. We've spoken about it several times. We can even take a look at Rikers Island, which I've spoken about several times, of course, where the Rikers Island is the biggest mental health facility in the city, probably, in the state. Half of the population on Rikers have mental illnesses. When we take a look at that correlation, there's no surprise to anyone that the instances of crimes that are taking place on the subway is a direct correlation with mental illness.

We need to take a look at, which I said the other day also, the root causes of what is causing our jails to fill up, and for crimes to continue to be prevalent, particularly now with this surge on the subways. It is a mental health issue, it is a mental health crisis, and we really, really need more. We can start in one place. We need more mental health specialists, and that's something that we're not good at either.

We are at a loss right now, and at a lessening, and our numbers of mental health specialists, we need to do that also. The Council is actually taking a look at a pipeline, particularly, through CUNY to gain more mental health specialists to get into the field of mental health, to help combat this challenge. It is an extreme challenge. It is an extreme crisis.

Brian Lehrer: Kaneni in Harlem, you are on WNYC with Speaker Adrienne Adams. Hi, Kaneni.

Kaneni: Hi, Brian. Good morning, Adrienne. Thank you so much for all the work that you're doing. I'll keep it very brief.

Adrienne Adams: Oh, thank you.

Kaneni: Oh, yes. I think one of the contaminant issues just like COVID had comorbidities, I think the housing issue in New York City also exacerbates people mental health issues. I used to be an educator, so my classroom is filled with students who don't sleep, because there's no heat, who are hungry, because there's a bunch of mice or roaches running around in the kitchen.

Like the housing issues then impact people's productivity, people's ability to be fully who they are when they're at work, or at school. These landlords are charging sky-high rocket rents, and they're getting away with it. They're getting away sometimes with murder, there's mold. There's a East Harlem complex that has to sue their landlord. I pay city, state, and federal taxes, so I'm wondering when is this 100 worst landlord list that has been published year-after-year, decade-after-decade, like these landlords continue year-after-year to allow people to suffer.

That exacerbates mental health issues because people feel hopeless and helpless, and they know that their money is going down the drain to abusive landlords. I really want to-- To be honest with you, Yusef Salaam lives in my building 60 West, 125th Street that has notoriously for four years had a horrible elevator that has people trapped and dropping down several.

Everything that I've done, I'm an educator, I'm a researcher, I'm-- AI, like I'm doing so much on my plate. I would like to spend my brain power focusing on the research that I'm doing, and not chasing down HPD inspectors, not calling HPD. This is insane.

Brian Lehrer: Kaneni, let me-- [crosstalk]

Kaneni: Can we actually get what we pay for as taxpayers, and actually get the housing and the regulation of housing, and the oversight of housing of these landlords that we need in exchange for our rent? I'll be done. Why don't we have, just like we have restaurants A, B, C, D, it's far more deadly, the issues that we have in our building that we live in, than bad food that we get in a restaurant.

There should be A, B, C, D ratings that these realtors, and that charging sky high, also realty feels to sit there and sign us up for leases, and then we find out how horrible buildings are. I'm so serious about this.

Brian Lehrer: Kaneni, thank--[crosstalk] Let me give you a response. What about that idea? We have A, B, C, D on buildings now, as you know, Speaker Adams, for energy efficiency. What about livable conditions?

Adrienne Adams: I absolutely love that idea, and gosh, do I feel her passion? Thank you so much for that call. Your passion definitely comes through. You have the voice of thousands of New Yorkers that feel exactly the same way you do, the same quality of life issues that they're experiencing, that you are experiencing as well. This is an issue that the public advocate continues to push and stress, suing landlords, calling landlords to task for the deplorable conditions in buildings, and the deplorable conditions that residents are forced to live under.

I saw somewhere where now one of the landlords is actually going to be sued finally, because of the horrible conditions in a building. Now, you mentioned, a Council member that lives in your building, or lives in your area, I would imagine that the situation surrounding the living conditions is going to prompt perhaps, hopefully, some legislation coming from him that we can do on the Council level, to help to defray those conditions, but it's terrible.

We hear about situation like this all the time. We have our oversight hearings at the City Council to hold our agencies responsible for watching the buildings, apartment buildings, HPD, as she mentioned. We are getting those, or holding those agencies accountable, but there's still more that has to be done. I completely agree with her.

Brian Lehrer: Let's end on this, because one of the things that I know you announced in your State of the City speech on Wednesday night was that Council will be conducting its own performance evaluations of city agencies. I imagine this falls under that, but give our listeners a quick sense of what the big new for us is going to be city agency-wide, and what they can expect, or how they can help you evaluate city agencies that affect their lives.

Adrienne Adams: Great question, Brian, and thank you for that. We are looking at implementing a new agency report card initiative, because again, we need our transparency and accountability. It's critical to the health of our city and our democracy, which is something that our last caller just passionately expressed. We know that the Mayor's management report, it does provide important data about agencies, but we really do need the full picture, and we need clear action steps.

The City Council's goal is to provide analysis and recommendations for improvement of city agency performance, while also making evaluations that are more digestible to the public. Things that the public can understand, and take a look at, and help us do this. The Council is going to conduct performance evaluations of city agencies, and issue report cards on their delivery of services with recommended action steps to actually remedy underperformance.

The effort is not going to require legislation at all. That's the good news. It's something that the Council, we can do that on our own with our very own compliance unit, which is already in place. We're going to begin the process of setting this up by engaging our members, our staff, our advocates, our service providers for their input, and it will likely be different for every single agency.

We won't be doing every agency at the same time like the Mayor's management report comes out, we're going to do it more on a rolling basis, and we're going to decide on which particular agency goes first. We're going to take those high-priority agencies, and we will be issuing report cards on performances of those agencies, reporting back to the public. We need your input also just like the input of our last caller.

Brian Lehrer: New York City Council Speaker, Adrienne Adams. We always appreciate when you come on with us and take calls from listeners, and talk about a host of city issues like we grazed through a number of them today. Thank you as always.

Adrienne Adams: Thank you so much, Brian.

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