February 26, 2025
Curt Menefee: All right. Thank you, Mike. Well, yesterday, City Hall announced its closing the Roosevelt Hotel migrant intake center. The hotel is where the vast majority of migrants applied for shelter. It also became a symbol of the city’s migrant crisis.
Rosanna Scotto: The city says the hotel is no longer needed as the number of migrants arriving has dropped dramatically. Here with more on the closing and other topics that affect all of us, Mayor Eric Adams from Gracie Mansion. Nice to have you back on Good Day, mayor.
Mayor Eric Adams: Great to be on. And as you stated, a major milestone. It was during the time we opened the site when we were receiving 4,000 migrants and asylum seekers a week. 8,000 in two weeks. 16,000 a month.
Scotto: I know you’re going to close it down. But a lot of people are also upset because you’ve opened up another migrant shelter for over 2,000 single men in the Bronx. And it seems like everybody from the borough president to the people who live in that community are very upset that, you know, maybe you’re closing one place down, but you’re moving them somewhere else.
Mayor Adams: Actually, we closed 53 shelters in a year. And if you go throughout this city and ask who’s going to take a shelter, show me one who raised their hand and say, bring it here. We have to use smart policies. How do we bring people into locations where we could get them services and move them out? When you think about it, out of those 230,000 that we’ve had, 70 percent are out of care on to their next step. Great job on the part of this administration to handling the largest humanitarian crisis we’ve had in this city’s history.
Scotto: I know that we’re speaking about policy, your cooperation with President Trump on the migrant crisis. He has now basically said they’re going to launch a mandatory online registry of illegal immigrants with names, fingerprints, and home addresses. Would you cooperate?
Mayor Adams: Well, if the federal government who’s in charge of immigration, and that’s what people need to be clear on, they are in charge of immigration. We do not collaborate based on city law and any form of deportation based just on a deportation strategy because of civil enforcement.
Scotto: So are you saying this is out of your hands? Are you saying this is out of your hands?
Mayor Adams: What I’m sharing with you is that I’m allowed under city law to collaborate with any criminal enforcement. And that is what I’ve been calling for for two years. And I’m happy there’s an administration that heard me and they’re willing to collaborate. The new order that came down, the corporation counsel will look at it and make sure we’re in compliance with both federal and city law.
Menefee: Okay, so there’s a mayoral campaign that’s about to kick off. The petitioning started yesterday. I want to get back to an event you had at the Gracie Mansion last night where you spoke about Black History Month and in it you said, quote, all these Negroes who were asking me to step down, God forgive them. Are you implying that if you’re Black, you have to support you?
Mayor Adams: No, not at all. I’m asking for all New Yorkers to support me.
Menefee: So who are you specifically talking to when you say Negroes?
Mayor Adams: Well, who has stepped down? Who has asked me to step down? If you look at that whole speech, the speech talked about the continuation of lighting your flame and continuing to light and shine. And that’s what we’ve done in this administration with our team. So those who have called for me to allow my flame to prematurely be extinguished, that’s what I’m talking about.
Menefee: So you’re saying all New Yorkers are Negroes?
Mayor Adams: I thought I was very clear in my definition of what I said. All New Yorkers. We’ve got 8.3 million New Yorkers, 8.3 million people didn’t call for me to step down. I get just the opposite when I’m in the streets.
Menefee: So anybody who’s Black who calls for you to step down, they need help from God. I’m focusing on this because your use of the word Negro has come up repeatedly over the last couple of weeks, and I think some people actually have an issue with that term. So explain who you’re talking to when you use that term specifically.
Mayor Adams: I didn’t say you need help from God. I said, pray for them. Wasn’t that what I said? You said, quote, God forgive them. Exactly. Let’s pray for them. And so let’s focus on this for a moment. Isn’t our democracy based on who the people of the city elect? Why are we trying to disrupt and take the power away from the people of the city who elected me to be the mayor and then ask the question, what have I done that we’re going to usurp that power from the people? I have not been convicted of a crime. I’ve moved the city forward. I’ve done the job that New York is asking me to do. And so when you have those that are trying to usurp the power of the voting rights of the people, that is not democracy and God forgive them.
Menefee: Okay, when you take a look at it, then you look at the polls right now. The latest poll that came out yesterday had you among Democrats at 10 percent support. Andrew Cuomo is not even in the race at 38 percent right now. When you look at the polling numbers, you can’t get matching funds. What is your path forward to get reelected as mayor in your eyes?
Mayor Adams: Well, go back and look at February of 2021. I was behind Andrew Yang by double digits. People stated that he was going to be the next mayor. We’re not calling the mayor Andrew Yang. We’re calling the mayor Mayor Adams. This is going to be a long, competitive race. And I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to showing how well we’ve done for the city and get our message out. That’s what campaigning is like. No one that’s running for mayor right now has ever won a mayor race but Eric Adams. I know how to win. I know how to get to New Yorkers. And that’s what I’m going to do.
Scotto: Are you disappointed that Congressman Richie Torres has already thrown his support behind Andrew Cuomo?
Mayor Adams: There was another Andrew in the race in 2021. He supported that Andrew as well. And so I think he has a special appeal for Andrews. You know, I hope that he understands Adams is going to be the mayor because I’m going to show New Yorkers what we have done over the last three years.
Scotto: Can we talk about your criminal case for a second? Because your lawyer, Alex Spiro, has submitted papers. It’s making news right now. Apparently, one of the reasons why he says your case should be dismissed entirely is because of leaked letters from the prosecutor, including Danielle Sassoon’s letter, where she also basically came out and said that the charges would stick, that she has more charges against you and they were confident that they would convict you. How do you feel about what your lawyer is saying right now and Danielle Sassoon’s letter?
Mayor Adams: Well, I have a great deal of confidence in my legal team. I stated from the start that I’ve done nothing wrong. The former president, President Biden, stated that his Justice Department was weaponized. President Trump stated it was weaponized. I stated it was weaponized. Family members who are on FBI watchlists for doing nothing wrong, they felt it was weaponized. I think Alex has done a great job of really lifting up what our arguments have been. And the current attorney general has been clear that these were weak at best. We knew what happened here when I stood up for New Yorkers. This was a byproduct of that. And we’re going to let the justice system continue its process.
Menefee: So let me ask you once again here, you have the resignations, announced resignations, of four deputy mayors. How is City Hall functioning on a day-to-day basis?
Mayor Adams: Look at our results. They said the same thing when the indictment came down and what happened after that. We passed City of Yes. Crime continues to decrease in the city. More jobs in the city’s history continues to grow. We broke another record. It is functioning every day. We have a deep bench and this is a city with a deep level of talent. And we’re going to continue to do what we have to do. We have replacements for those four deputy mayors. In fact, many people reached out and said they want to be a part of the administration and we will be announcing them in the next few days. We will continue to move forward like New Yorkers often do. That is the way we do it in this city.
Menefee: Are you having trouble finding quality people, because of everything being in the air right now?
Mayor Adams: Just the opposite. I just shared with you. We have for each person of the four DMs that we saw resign, we have at least two to three candidates that are looking forward to going through the vetting system. There’s a system and a process when you bring people on. They’re going through the vetting system, and we’ll be announcing them in the next few days.
Scotto: So former deputy Randy Mastro, who was under, I believe, Giuliani, his name has been bandied about. Is he already being vetted right now?
Mayor Adams: Well, you know how we do when it’s time to make an announcement or appointment. We do so. We don’t do it prematurely. And we’ll be rolling out. And I’m excited about the vision that the new incoming deputy mayors are going to bring.
Scotto: Congestion pricing, before you go we have to talk about congestion pricing. Definitely less traffic in the city, but I’m hearing from business owners there’s also less traffic in their stores and restaurants. What are you hearing, mayor?
Mayor Adams: I think the data is still being processed. You know, the system is still on after the federal government made an announcement, so it’s still being processed, and we’ll make a determination if it’s a W or a L or did we win, did we lose? Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi and her team is doing an analysis to come away with the exact data. We can turn that data over, how it’s impacting the economy and how it’s impacting traffic as well.
Menefee: And that’s one of the deputy mayors who has announced that she’s resigning as well though, so how does her resignation affect your data processing?
Mayor Adams: Well when you speak to all four of them, they were clear. These are excellent public servants. They were all clear they want a smooth transition and they would be here to ensure we have that smooth transition, they did not walk out the door. They want a smooth transition and we’re gonna do that. We’ve lost DMs before we’ve lost senior leadership before, and the transition was smooth. I’d like to remind you, someone sent me an article when in the Koch administration, when he lost five senior leaders in one day. And so these transitions happen, but again this is a resilient city and we will continue to move forward. Success is in the numbers, and the numbers show how successful we have been.
Scotto: All right well good luck tonight, you’re facing off against the other people who want your job. Are you gonna meditate?
Mayor Adams: This is the greatest job. Being the mayor of the City of New York is the greatest job you could have.
Scotto: Are you going to meditate, how are you going to stay focused tonight? They’re going to try to get under your skin, mayor.
Mayor Adams: Everybody tries to get under my skin, that’s what’s called [being] mayor.
Menefee: Well we appreciate you taking the hits this morning and joining us, thanks a lot.
Mayor Adams: Thank you, take care.
Source: https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news; midtowntribune.com