Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on WNYC

February 17, 2017

Brian Lehrer: It’s the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. And we begin as we usually do on Fridays with our weekly Ask the Mayor segment with Mayor Bill de Blasio. Mr. Mayor, welcome back to WNYC.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you, Brian.

Lehrer: And I’m going to ask you most of the questions today relating to your State of the City address this week. And listeners, you can ask whatever you want at 2-1-2-4-3-3-W-N-Y-C, 2-1-2-4-3-3-9-6-9-2. Or as always, you can also tweet a question using the hashtag #AsktheMayor.

So, let me start here: the proposal from your State of the City address probably getting the most attention and also with the most blanks to fill in is the promise to create 10,000 new middle-class jobs a year – jobs that pay at least $50,000 a year and come with skills training. And I wonder if you could talk first about the underlying condition for that, which is the private company is creating lots of jobs these days in New York, but too many of them are low-wage jobs. So what’s the skew in the market compared to the past that you feel government needs to address?

Mayor: Well, I think you hit the nail on the head, Brian. We, need to understand that left to its own devices, the free market has been creating jobs, but not enough good-paying jobs. And I think the way to contextualize this – what I tried to do in the speech is say – for years now, a lot of us have been fighting to lift the force as they get to things like a $15 minimum wage, paid family leave, paid sick leave. Those were pre-requisites to New Yorkers being able to live a decent life. We’ve achieved those things. They’re all happening now. But that’s not the same thing as living a life where you really can make ends meet and invest in your family, invest in your future. You know, too many people even at a better minimum wage are still struggling to pay all their bills.

So the goal now is to increase the number of good-paying jobs for people from the five boroughs, give them – as you mentioned – the training that allows them to have a career for a long term, so the things we talked about in the State of the City: retrofitting, which is going to be a huge area going forward in this city as we address climate change; film and TV technology; life sciences; advanced manufacturing. And all of these are areas where the public sector can spark and catalyze job growth with stipulations, and this is part of the power. We went the day after the State of the City to Sunset Park to the Bush Terminal. And that’s a place where we’re going to create 1,500 such jobs over the coming years. And it’s – because we are investing in the physical capacity to get, for example, more of our garment manufacturing to stay in New York City, to get more of our film and TV work to be done in New York City – we’re stipulating in that plan that the companies in that complex have to first and foremost hire not only people from the five boroughs, but people from the surrounding communities, like Sunset Park.

Lehrer: So the question becomes – and a lot of people are asking this – how and at what cost? Is it subsidies to individual industries or companies? Is it tax credits? And how is it accounted for in the preliminary budget that you released for the next fiscal year?

Mayor: As you know, we have – in this administration – we have not used subsidies to individual companies except for some very rare occasions. The goal and the approach we use is to foster whole economic sectors. So for example, look at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; look at the Brooklyn Army Terminal. These are examples where we invested in the physical space. We invested in the space to create growth in the industry. That’s what we’re going to do with life sciences as well. We took the model that I think worked well in the Bloomberg administration with Roosevelt Island and Cornell Technion, creating more ability of our technology sector to attract talent, to develop talent here that will stay here, that will build companies here. These are foundational investments. It’s not the notion of subsidizing direct companies. It’s the notion of creating an infrastructure that supports the development of sectors that we want to keep growing. We want technology to keep growing, advanced manufacturing, film and TV, life sciences – these are all potential growth areas for New York City, all of which come consistently with good-paying jobs. And we want those jobs to go to young people who come out of our City public schools, come out of CUNY. We want to make sure that it’s not just that we create better-paying jobs, but to the maximum extent possible, we direct them to people from the five boroughs. And that’s where things like the tech talent pipeline come in that specifically train and prepare young people to go into the technology sector. What we’re doing today – announcing a very exciting center we’re going to have in Union Square for the technology ecosystem to encourage New Yorkers to get these jobs in this growing sector. This is how you build a different kind of economy and make sure that people from all five boroughs, all different backgrounds have access to these good-paying jobs.

Lehrer: So is there enough already in the pipeline of the kinds of things – I realize here you talk about supply-side and demand-side, so you’re helping education, so that there’s a supply of people who can qualify for better-paying jobs; and Brooklyn Navy Yard and other infrastructure like that. But if your goal is 100,000 additional in ten years or 10,000 a year, then is there going to be a major new initiative that we’re going to hear? And what’s it going to cost?

Mayor: We’re going to keep building every step of the way. We have two that immediately are on the table right now. The initiative to develop the life sciences sector here in this city. We announced that $150 million plan over multiple years. We announced the plan to keep building up the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I don’t have the exact dollar figure in front of me. We’ll get that to you. But the Brooklyn Navy Yard – we’re on track to add 10,000 jobs in the coming year. So those are two big chunks right away. The goal – I mentioned the 1,500 jobs we’ll do at the Made in NY facility, Bush Terminal, Sunset Park. We’re just going to keep adding them up. And look, this administration – I’m very proud of the fact that the team I’ve put together has excelled at taking on difficult goals and achieving them – the affordable housing plan, the pre-K plan. These were things where there were strong, tight numerical goals, and they achieved them.

But you said one other thing that’s very important. You build up a strong economy with the basics – a safer city, which we’ve been able to achieve; a better education system, which we’re in the process of creating; more affordable housing, obviously a crucial priority of this administration. Those are the foundations of a better economy, more diverse economy. But if you really want to grow these sectors that we want to be stronger than ever. We want life sciences to eventually be 100,000 jobs in this city. We want the technology sector to add another 100,000 or more jobs. We want – we think advanced manufacturing has tremendous growth potential. We know film and TV right now – studio space is maxed out right not in New York City, and the film and TV industry wants more ability to film in New York City. So we need to keep stoking the situation and building the foundation so we can create a lot more good-paying jobs.

Lehrer: Let’s take a phone call. Andy in the Bronx – Andy, you’re on WNYC with the Mayor. Hi, Andy.

Question: Morning, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor: Good morning.

Question: My situation – and I do want to change the topic for a minute.

Mayor: Sure.

Question: I work with the City [inaudible] Department of Finance. And I got laid off, but I found out everybody has gotten rehired. And I was hoping you might be able to assist me. I was on the 55-a program, but they let that program go too.

Lehrer: You told the screener you wanted to ask about an affordable housing program. Is that also part of your question?

Question: Yes, it is sir.

Lehrer: Go ahead.

Mayor: Go ahead. On the first point, if you’ll let the folks at WNYC know how to contact you, I’ll have my folks follow up and we can see what we can do. What’s the affordable housing question, though?

Question: Right, because I really need to get my job back because I’m really struggling, Mr. Mayor. I got laid off for no reason. I’m sorry that I keep telling you this.

Mayor: Well, Andy, I guarantee you someone is going to follow up with you today, and we will find out what happened. I’m not guaranteeing you – 

Question: I really appreciate it Mr. Mayor.

Mayor: Andy, listen to me. I’m concerned, obviously, because I don’t want to see anyone in a bad situation. We’re going to follow up with you today. I’m not guaranteeing you an outcome, but I will guarantee you we’ll follow up and we’ll get down to the bottom of it today.

Lehrer: And do you have a specific affordable housing application question?

Question: Yes, I do. [Inaudible] I have applied in the past for low-income housing, but the situation is with that is – they go obviously by your income, but it’s either too high or too low – in between. For instance, if it’s $18,000 a year, it has to be like $21,000 so you’re not qualified.

Mayor: Yeah, Andy, let me speak to that because we made a major announcement in the last few days that we are within our affordable housing plan – it’s 200,000 apartments. It’s 120,000 that will be preserved and subsidized in place. It’s 80,000 that will be built new over the next now eight years. And I announced that within that plan, we’re shifting and adding resources so that 10,000 of the apartments within the plan will now go to folks who make up to $40,000. So in addition to the apartments already for folks in that income level, we’ve added more for the range of New Yorkers who make up to $40,000 – mainly people make in the $20,000s, in the $30,000s. In that, we also included a special allotment for seniors and for veterans. So we’re continuing to refine and improve the affordable housing plan to meet the different parts of the city that need help.

But I want to assure you, I hear a lot from people – oh you know, so many people are either too-high, too-low. I think that’s not accurate in light of our plan. Maybe that’s true in terms of the past. Our plan is 200,000 apartments, and if you look at the original document – the Housing New York Plan – it was published; it’s online. It delineates how many are going to each income area and it covers a wide range of people who are middle class, working class, folks who are lower income. There’s options for everyone. The problem is there’s just so many people who need affordable housing, and it is a lottery system and people have to keep getting into that lottery. And I’ve met people who’ve won but it does take time.

Lehrer: So, to that point, to some degree, in your State of the City you also announced new housing initiatives for lower-income people, as you just said, those making up to $40,000 a year. How much will you acknowledge that that was a response to so much pushback – I’m guessing more than you anticipated on your original affordable housing plan, ambitious as it is, along the lines of affordable for whom?

Mayor: Brian, I will more than acknowledge what we experienced because I’m very comfortable with it. We came out with a plan that was the biggest affordable housing plan in the history of the city that had a huge amount of units for lower-income folks but also for working-class folks and middle-class folks. This is something I fundamentally believe in. We needed to serve a whole range of New Yorkers who were struggling to find housing they could afford because we want a city that’s economically diverse. We put that into play. We definitely heard from a lot of Council members, a lot of community members. They wanted to see if we could do more on the lower side of the income scale.

I believe in it. We had to find a way to do is the honest truth. We had to find a way to create the resources to make that happen because it costs more money. And I made the decision this would be an additional budget priority. It’s a substantial new investment in our capital budget.

But we also thought the other pieces of the plan needed to keep going at the same time. So, that’s how it happened. I did hear the voices of the people all over the city. But we honestly did not know if we would have the resources to do it in the beginning and we were able to find them over the course of the three years.

Lehrer: So many questions that come in to you every week, as you know, are about housing. If we just let it go and say, “Ask about anything, every week, all the time,” I think 60, 70 percent of the questions would be about affordable housing. So, let’s take another one.

Rick in Queens, you’re on WNYC with the Mayor. Hello, Rick.

Question: Oh, hi. Thank you so much, Brian and Mayor de Blasio. I’m calling about how you can go further – even further with affordable housing. If working with the real estate agency in New York City, which is the private sector, is not meeting the needs of a majority of the people then it’s up to the public sector, right, the government to step in. So, what we’re proposing is introducing a government run public option into the housing marketplace – the same idea as in healthcare – where the City can itself hire the best architects and contractors, use all union workers for the highest quality and safety, and build beautiful, gorgeous housing without the profit incentive –

Lehrer: It’s called public housing. We have a lot of it in the city, right?

[Laughter]

Mayor: We have a word for that already, Rick.

[Laughter]

Question: This is different because it’s for middle-income people, and of course you can learn from many of the mistakes that were made with NYCHA. But with this idea, the government could build affordable housing that could be 20 percent market rate and 80 percent affordable housing –

Lehrer: Flip the usual requirement. Well, I guess if that was affordable, the City would be doing, right Mr. Mayor?

Mayor: Yeah. I think you hit the nail on the head. Let me say this to Rick – first of all, Brian, I really want to thank you for the comment you made right before the question when you said 60 or 70 percent of your calls would about affordability and affordable housing. I keep saying this everywhere I go and I think a lot of my fellow elected officials have the same experience – when our constituents talk to us, the thing they talk about the most is they’re afraid they’re not going to be able to live in their own city, their own neighborhood. They’re afraid they’re going to be priced out and they want to know what we’re going to do about it. And I would urge on this program and everywhere else that the media is, we need to talk about this all the time because it’s the number one thing that New Yorkers are concerned about.

On Rick’s point – yeah, Rick, I’m sure you’re not talking about the way public housing was done in the past but you are talking about a fully governmental approach. And if I had endless resources, I would be using that kind of approach a lot more. We have to look in the eye – and I think a lot of my brother and sister progressives have to really understand this mathematical reality and come to grips with us with this fact because we’re making tough decision based on it.

The federal government, since the time of Reagan and then the Gingrich Congress, has decreased support for affordable housing constantly. I expect, sadly, a lot more decrease coming up when the tax cuts for the wealthy and for the corporations are put in place by this Congress. Where are they going to make up that revenue? They’re going to cut things like affordable housing, I fear.

So, the notion that we could depend on the federal sector is obviously arcane. The State government has done precious little so far particularly when it relates to public housing. New York City is largely on its own and our existing public housing – our public housing authority, NYCHA, where 400,000 people live had $18 billion in unmet physical needs, capital needs.

So, the notion that we’re going to do fully government financed new low-income housing or even middle class housing misses the fact that we’re in hole economically to begin with. The reason we believe that we can get things done more effectively through regulation of the private sector – that’s why I’m so excited we passed Mandatory Inclusionary Housing. We require private developers who got a rezoning of any kind to provide 25 percent or 30 percent affordable housing in their buildings and with clear income stipulations on affordability. And that’s how we’re going to produce a lot of units quickly.

People want apartments now. They do not want to wait for a government plan that may take affect someday.

So, this is about economics and it’s about the availability of resources. If I had a lot more money, I would be going in the direction – one version of the direction Rick’s talking about.

Lehrer: Also on housing is obviously homelessness. And you referred in the State of the City to new proposals coming to deal with the record homeless shelter population. I’m going to ask if you can give us a preview of any kind.

And I also want to refer to the Post – your favorite paper – which has an editorial today on the rising homeless shelter population that says the reason is that the homeless shelter acceptance rate under you and HRA Commissioner Steven Banks is 50 percent, more than double what it was in the Bloomberg era. So, did you loosen the criteria?

Mayor: So, Brian, I think the world of you. I’m surprised at how many times you go to the Post as your go-to information source. But that being said – I don’t think that’s the story at all. I think what happened here – and we have lots of evidence to prove it – is the biggest shock to the system, the biggest reason why shelter population increased was the 2011 decision by the Governor and the Mayor then to end the Advantage program. That took the shelter population at that moment – April, 2011 about 36,000 in shelter. By December of 2013, not that much time passed – two-and-a-half-years passed – the shelter population was 50,000.

So, we saw a rapid increase once the number one tool that the City had to address homelessness was take away. I think it was a huge mistake. We came into office and we found that on top of that the economic reality – the fact that people were not seeing the kind of incomes that they needed to keep up with the cost of housing. The cost of housing was constantly increasing – a lot of families’ economic reality collapsing. And more and more, the people in shelter – and I’ll give you all the facts, we’ll reel them off to you – now, people in shelter are families with children, overwhelmingly.

That was not true even when I was General Welfare Chairman in the City Council. Ten years ago that wasn’t true. It has been a sea change because of the reality of rising cost of housing but not increasing wages that keep up.

So, that’s what we’re dealing with today – a different homelessness reality. We have been very clear that we are going to be tough but fair on the entry policy –

Lehrer: Did you also loosen the entry policy criteria?

Mayor: Again, the reason I want to say this exactly is that there were different points along the way – we dealt with some different State rules that then we didn’t agree with but got adjusted in the end. So, that ended up in a better situation. Different things were done along the way. I think at this point, we have good rules and the right rules to serve people fairly but also make sure that only folks who truly need shelter get them.

So, the bottom line –

Lehrer: But is there an example of that? I’ll get to this – I just want to get as specific as we can on this. Did you loosen some criteria because you thought it was too hard under Bloomberg for families to get in?

Mayor: I would not say that. And again, I’ll get you chapter and verse because I want to be very, very exact. We had some situations where the State changed rules but again, I believe that situation has now been fully resolved and we’re at a point where we think the rules are proper.

We had some things that we worked through. I think we’re now in a very good place in terms of having tight rules. There were different points along the way. We can get you an exact description but I don’t want to speak beyond the details I know.

Lehrer: Okay. And anything new coming that you can preview, as you said in the State of the City there would be?

Mayor: Yeah, again, I’m – I generally don’t preview but I will say to you that we’ll be making these announcements soon and I think it is about being very blunt with the people of New York City. This is going to be a long tough battle to overcome the homelessness crisis. It is a crisis that has been with us since the 1980s. We believe we are going to be able to turn the tide, but again – it will take a long time to get it right. And we are going to be very focused on working with communities who obviously are concerned about the issue. But we want to also help people understand that the folks who are homeless come from neighborhoods all over the city. And we are going to be working with families to do more for their family members who are homeless and we are going to do more to support them to take in family members who are homeless and get them back on their feet. So, a lot more detail to come. I am not going to give you a deep preview –

Lehrer: Sure.

Mayor: But, that gives you some of the flavor.

Lehrer: Thank you for that.

Steve in Brooklyn, you are on WNYC with the Mayor. Hello Steve.

Question: Good morning Brian. Good morning Mayor de Blasio.

For many years now, the City has been promoting its IDNYC program, which I think is wonderful. It’s one of your initiatives and I know you are still trying to get the enrollment up, but I think that the City can make some effort on the other end to gain greater acceptance of the card. And I am sure all city agencies accept it, but I was shocked and surprised to find out that the federal government, specifically the Social Security Administration will not accept that as identification. I mean they won’t even accept – it has nothing to do with IDNYC, they won’t even accept the New York State EBT, Electronic Benefits Transfer Card as identification. But as far as the city is concerned I think you should perhaps negotiate with the federal government [inaudible] your agencies to accept the cards.

Lehrer: Mr. Mayor –

Mayor: Yes, it’s a great question. Look, we created IDNYC and thank you for your comments. It’s been a great success and it’s helped a lot of people. It’s helped people get bank accounts, get leases, get access to their child’s school so they can visit the teacher and all sorts of really fundamental things. And folks have really appreciated the benefits of the cultural institution memberships and all the other benefits. We did it first and foremost for life in New York City. We did it with close collaboration with the NYPD. And as you know the NYPD does accept it as ID. If someone has an encounter with a police officer, IDNYC is absolutely a viable ID card. Also the agencies do, a lot of banks do. There’s plenty of ways you can use it. People have asked the question before, how do we get more connection, for example, to the federal government or other institutions? We are going to keep working on it. I never have the illusion that other institutions that are not run by the City of New York are going to necessarily understand why this is such a valuable thing and fair thing. But we are going to keep working on trying to get as wide acceptance as possible. But I want to note that again, its central mission is already being accomplished and you hear that’s particularly from NYPD. It has been extraordinarily helpful to our officers that more and more people are walking around with an ID. It was a fundamental problem in the City. All sorts of people –folks who were citizens all their life and folks who were undocumented. Folks who were immigrant. All sorts of people weren’t carrying ID and it’s very good and important in terms of public safety that people have an ID. And this is where IDNYC has worked.

Lehrer: We have another question about the municipal ID on Twitter from somebody who wants to know if you are going to destroy the underlying information. I am paraphrasing this tweet, but destroy the underlying information to protect undocumented immigrants from the federal government and in conjunction with that –there’s this that just came in from in the Associated Press. I am guessing you haven’t seen this yet. This just crossed.

Trump administration considers mobilizing as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants. So have you heard anything about that? I don’t know if it’s just a tweet that he came up with or if they’ve notified the City of any kind of policy – so that and the municipal ID.

Mayor: I had not heard that before. We are all learning not to be shocked by anything that President Trump does, but I had not heard that before. I think that will undermine public safety all over this country. If the President attempts to do it, I also think he will run into a fundamental problem that the National Guard is at the command of governors around the country in all but situations of national emergency or natural disaster, etc. I think that’s a fair definition. I think he’s going to find tremendous resistance. I think it is not an appropriate role for the National Guard. I think it will create tremendous tension between local law enforcement and the federal government.

Look, our Police Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill and police commissioners all over the country have said do not upset the balances constructed by law enforcement in working with immigrant communities. Not only with undocumented people who, we know, are in our cities – about half a million people and in cities and towns all over America. But, remember their family members are permanent residents. Their family members in many cases are citizens. The disruption of the relationship between law enforcement and millions and millions of people all over this country will hurt public safety day to day on the ground. So I believe that President Trump will run into a host of problems: legal problems, opposition locally, opposition from governors, opposition from police chiefs. We will be in the forefront of opposing any such policy. But no, we’ve gotten no indication whatsoever that – that is being attempted.

Lehrer: And again I say - this is just coming across. The AP is now saying that this comes from a draft memo that was leaked to the AP. So it could be something that’s – when they something draft memo it’s maybe something that’s in formulation that somebody in the administration wanted to get out to stop it. You know how these leaks go, usually from people who want some advance publicity for something either as a trial balloon or because they are outraged by it and they want public attention to it. So that’s what we have on that from the AP.

Mayor: But, look Brian – whatever the source of the information, people should be outraged. Because here is why I am so distressed about this whole discussion – when I met with then-President-elect Trump, one of the most important topics that came up was immigration. And I said to him point blank – talk to the police chiefs about this country. If you don’t think the politicians are right, talk to the police chiefs of this country. Ask them what an attempt to round up undocumented immigrants [inaudible] would do to public safety in this country and how much of a destruction of the progress that we’ve made. We are the safest big city in America – right here. Safest big city in America in large measure, because going back to the Giuliani administration and before, a decision was made that our police should never be put in the situation of being immigration enforcement officers or gathering information from undocumented folks and passing it to the federal government. That trust that we were able to build by proving year after year that we would respect people’s privacy, and respect their humanity allowed us to become the biggest, safe city in America. If that is eroded or even worse- if one element in our law enforcement in the military is turned to do something against the interest of another element, against our local forces interest and our communities’ interest – that will have a huge corrosive impact on the social fabric of this country, let alone on public safety. 

Lehrer: I also see that your office issued a press release today that says New York City leads coalition of municipal governments filing amicus brief in court, supporting a challenge to President Trump’s travel ban. But my understanding from his news conference yesterday was the travel ban as rejected by the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court is not going to be appealed again. Instead, they are going to issue a new one next week. So what is your press release related to?

Mayor: Again, we have so many changes in direction from the Trump administration that until we are certain that the current attempt at the travel ban is pulled back, we are going to continue to work with cities all over the country and all other interested parties to stop the travel ban. It is on its face, unconstitutional and divisive and again, it is a pathway to a religious registry which is what we should be even more worried about in terms of our constitution and our values. So we have worked with 34 cities to file an amicus brief against the travel ban and to support all those who are working to stop it. And, look I think the court actions on this is the reason people should be very proud that our constitutional system is working. That a court that was bipartisan in terms of who appointed the members stood up and said that the travel ban was unconstitutional. It wouldn’t accept it on its face. That’s a great thing. We are going to keep fighting that battle. I am not going to trust that any replacement is any better until we see something that we can verify.

Lehrer: We are just about out of time. I know we are going to ask you one more question from a listener via Twitter and this actually will serve as a segway to our next segment. We are going to have the editor of that Jewish newspaper from Brooklyn from whom a reporter asked a question at President Trump’s news conference yesterday. That started out as a supportive question from an ultraorthodox perspective and then the President bit his head off. I don’t know if you saw that?

Mayor: I saw that clip specifically. Yes –

Lehrer: So we have the editor of that paper and another guest coming up. But related to that here’s the question from a listener that says, “My question to Bill de Blasio is what is your response to the rise in anti-Semitism in New York City?” So there is a premise there that there is a rise in anti-Semitism in New York City. Do you see it and if so what’s your response?

Mayor: Yes. There is no question and it’s very, very troubling and its [inaudible] things we’ve seen as the result of the election and no one should mince words about it. The horrible, hateful rhetoric that was used in this election by candidate Trump and by a lot of his supporters, directly connects to an increase since the election to anti-Semitic incidents, in anti-Muslim incidents and anti LGBT incidents. It is clear here and it is clear around the country. And the NYPD is very forcefully confronting this situation.

We are making very clear that any bias attack will be due in immediate and direct and serious consequences for anyone who perpetrates it. And when we see any patterns of attack we reinforce certain communities or certain areas with additional NYPD presence working closely with the community. But, I gave some remarks at a synagogue on the West Side a couple of weeks ago and I talked about the fact.

There is a rise in anti-Semitism not only in the United States directly related to our election, but look at these xenophobic parties in Europe that are bringing out all the worst instincts in Western European countries and these are parties that directly connect to a Nazi and fascist history directly. These are parties formed, in many cases, by people who are involved in Nazi and fascist movements in the 30s and 40s. These parties are now surging in Western Europe – you see an increase in anti-Semitic incidents.

I thought the reporter’s question was 100 percent fair and respectful. I am never surprised of the President overreacting and overreaching, but the question needs to be dealt with. Negative forces have been unleashed in this country and they have to be beaten back. And in this city we are going to do that very vividly.

Lehrer: Mr. Mayor, as always thank you very much. Talk to you next week.

Mayor: Thank you, Brian.