Mayor Eric Adams appeared live on PIX11’s “PIX11 Morning News” on January 10, 2025, to discuss various initiatives in his administration. He outlined his $650 million plan to address homelessness and mental health, emphasizing the importance of a multi-faceted approach and increased support from state and legislative partners. The mayor also touched on subway safety, acknowledging the need for subway barriers and improvements in response to congestion pricing. On the topic of housing, Adams shared plans for building 100,000 new homes over the next decade, including converting office spaces into housing. Additionally, he addressed the closure of Rikers Island, clarifying his stance on the construction of new jails, and briefly discussed his upcoming legal challenges related to the federal corruption trial. Lastly, he mentioned the possibility of attending President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, depending on his schedule.
Transcript: Mayor Adams Appears Live on PIX11’S “PIX11 Morning News”
Dan Mannarino: He is joining us this morning live from Gracie mansion to share more details on his plan. So Mr. Mayor, great to see you this morning. Thanks for being here and let’s get right into this plan. Can you hear us?
Mayor Eric Adams: Great to see both of you.
Mannarino: Yes. Alright, so you announce these plans for this–
Mayor Adams: Yes I can, and can you hear me?
Mannarino: Yes, we can. This $650 investment right into mental health and homeless services And a big part of that as you’ve talked about in the past is this involuntary removal. You said you need Albany’s help. So I spoke to Governor Hochul about it and she said she wants to get it done. So, what does that look like in your plan? You kind of touched upon it yesterday, but who is tasked with the removal, and how long is the treatment for?
Mayor Adams: Well, it’s a combination and you know I say all the time there are many rivers that feed to the sea of homelessness and we have to damn each river. There’s not a one-shot, just involuntary removal. We have to change the mindset of health care professionals who believe we should not hold people for several days to make a full analysis and assessment of their mental health.
We have to stop the revolving door system of mental health and we need to put more individuals on the streets on our trains to identify those who can’t take care of themselves and are in danger to themselves and others.
In addition to that, what we’re doing with Dr. Katz at H&H, we’re building a new facility that is going to address those who are homeless and are dealing with severe mental health illnesses. And so the job of our healthcare professionals, our law enforcement when people get violent and those who are part of our SCOUT and PATH teams, they are all part of how we get those with severe mental health illness off our streets.
Hazel Sanchez: Yeah, I mean that is the big question. Will there be enough beds, and then once the treatment is done, where do they go from there?
Mayor Adams: Yeah, so true and when you look at what we have done as a city, we removed 8,000 individuals who are homeless off our system and into what’s called safe haven beds. We put we open a thousand more of the beds that were closed previously. We put the SCOUT and PATH program in place.
But what we must realize is that the homeless crisis that we’re facing not only in the city in this nation is going to need a multifaceted multi-agency, multi-level government approach. It can’t be the city alone. We’re doing our job now. We need the assistance from our partners that are in the other forms of the legislative bodies.
Mannarino: Yeah, again, I spoke to the governor, that interview airing tonight on PIX on Politics where she says she wants this to get done. So I want to talk about subway safety because it continues to be this major concern for commuters, especially now with congestion pricing right?
And again you touched upon this yesterday during your State of the City about overall safety in the subways and the governor said she spoke to you about these subway barriers that she wants to get it done in 2025. So do you think it will get done in 2025? And how do you kind of pick and target which subway stations get them? Is there a plan? Who gets it first?
Mayor Adams: That’s a great question, you know, many people don’t know New York City, we do not control the MTA. The MTA is controlled by Albany and the Governor’s Office. It is not controlled by New York City.
So the determination of the time frame of rolling out these barriers, something I was talking about ever since I was in the Brooklyn Borough President’s office. We have to do that. I know when you add to these crowded stations from my days as a transit police officer, that these barriers can save lives and it’s important to get them done. You’re not going to do all of them in one year, it takes a while to build out, but we should identify those crowded stations so we can start the process of doing them.
Sanchez: Yeah, and those stations could get even more crowded because of congestion pricing, if folks, hopefully start using the train tracks. So we are at the end of the first week of congestion pricing. How do you think the first week went?
Mayor Adams: Well, we’re going to look at the analysis I spoke with Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi and they’re doing daily analysis to make the determination of where’s the success? What do you tinker with the exact program? What changes you should make and so there’s a real analysis. It can’t be just, what we visually see, let’s see what the numbers say and how successful we are and how do we move forward?
Mannarino: You know, we are at the end of the first week, right? And again go back to your message yesterday a lot of it was about affordability and you rolled out a number of plans about affordability, right?
Which brings the question of congestion pricing and if this was the right time and you and I have spoken about Democrats missing the mark in the election about zeroing in on affordability and folks who said I just can’t afford the cost of goods. So was this the right time for congestion pricing to go along with your affordability message?
Mayor Adams: Well, this is what we have been doing since day one of this administration, leaning into working-class people. When you look at our Money in Your Pocket series, 30 billion dollars back in the pockets of every day New Yorkers, everything from Fair Futures to reduce fare MetroCard to retiring medical debt— billions of dollars in doing so.
When you look at what we have been doing in this city, it has been about affordability. The timing of congestion prices or not doing congestion pricing, that is not just on my list of things that I have control of. And that is so important to acknowledge–
Mannarino: You can speak about it. You can speak out against it.
[Crosstalk.]
Mayor Adams: You’re doing a great interview you said with the governor, that’s the question you should present to the governor and our state lawmakers. I am the mayor of the City of New York. Do I want to control the decision[s] in MTA? Yes, I do, but I do not do that. And I think that that’s a question you should give to the governor and our state lawmakers.
Sanchez: We also wanted to talk to you about something you did not touch on in your speech yesterday, the closure of Rikers Island. It’s expected to happen in two years, so what’s your plan right now to meet that goal over the next year?
Mayor Adams: Yeah, actually I did touch on it a little bit but you know you only have a few topics you can touch on when you’re giving a speech. Listen, you know, I believe that we should close Rikers Island, I made it clear. Are we going to be able to do it in 2027? No, we’re not. When you look at the layout, we’re going to go back to the City Council, and those who advocate and give a realistic plan, but I’ve been very clear on this.
We’re building four more new jails. Those are four smaller Rikers. That is not results oriented. We need to build one facility of a professional state-of-the-art mental health facility. I’ve been saying this to advocates over and over again. 51 percent of the inmates at Rikers are dealing with mental health issues, 20 percent are dealing with severe mental health issues. Building the smaller Rikers is not a solution
Mannarino: Okay, and Mr. Mayor a few off topics not related to the State of the City. You know, obviously you have the federal corruption trial set to begin in April and the FBI said this week that they’re looking at more criminal conduct by you. You’ve pointed to your attorney, but you did say this during your media address this week that you said even Ray Charles can see what’s going on here. So what did you mean by that? What is going on here?
Mayor Adams: Well, listen, all the leaks, all the actions, how this came about, I think it speaks volumes and as I stated before, my feeling is that I was targeted after my voice on what was happening to our city with over 200,000 migrants and asylum seekers arriving here without any support on the federal level. I think that my attorney is going to do the job to present our case and that is why I have him and he’s going to continue to do the job that he’s doing.
Sanchez: Okay, Mr. Mayor and before we let you go, you did mention this idea of building a hundred thousand new homes over the next decade. You may not even be in office for that goal to be achieved. So is there really space in the city for that? Are you talking about taking offices and turning them into apartments?
Mayor Adams: Great question, running [a] city is about a marathon. You hand the baton to the next administration, and you lay out real plans so they could be successful. It’s not in a four or eight year block, that’s not how we run this city.
And yes when I put the executive order out to my administration, we’re going to look at every city property where we could build. We were successful In Albany getting changes with our zoning and other forms of building like converting office space into housing, that was a real success.
Then we came to the city with our partners here in the city. We were able to get City of Yes passed, when you do a combination of both those things and start thinking about building on libraries, building next to other office buildings like what we’re doing now on Gold Street, which is only an office building. We’re going to turn it into housing. We’re thinking differently about how we build housing, we come with that energy of yes, and we’re going to reach those hundred thousand units. But we have done an amazing job thus far year one into year two. We broke records in housing.
Mannarino: Mayor, just news of the day, president-elect Donald Trump is in court today. We’re 10 days away from the inauguration. I did ask you this last time I spoke to you if you were going to be going to the inauguration, any update? You said you didn’t know your plans. Will you be attending?
Mayor Adams: I look forward to, if it’s possible to go and watch the incoming president. Right now, the team is looking at what my schedule is that weekend, as you know, January 19th is also Dr. King’s birthday acknowledgement. And so once we determine what I’m doing, we will release the schedule.
Mannarino: Alright, Mr. Mayor, always appreciate you making the time for us here on PIX 11. Good to see you.
Mayor Adams: Thank you
January 10, 2025 Manhattan, New York
Sources: NY.gov, Midtown Tribune news
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