Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears Live on 710 WOR

October 31, 2016

Todd Schnitt: Happy Halloween, Len.

Len Berman: Happy Halloween, Todd.

Schnitt: I am told that Mayor de Blasio is on the line. I just want to make sure this is a treat not a trick, you know?

Berman: No, I’m sure he is.

Schnitt: Mayor de Blasio? Is that you?

Mayor Bill de Blasio: I’m haunting your phone line.

[Laughter]

Schnitt: Oh, you can haunt anytime. You know, Mayor, it’s been quite a while since you’ve haunted us. You know, we were concerned about you.

Mayor: No, I’m back and I look forward to more. There’s lots to talk about so, I will be back more often.

Schnitt: I mean I hope so. Now, listen, full disclosure – all fairness here – it’s been, I believe 225 days –

Mayor: Correct.

Schnitt: And, listen, I got to disclose this. I did produce the “Bill de Blasio Countdown.” We were kind of keeping track of how many days it was since we last had you on the show. Now, let me play it for quickly –

[…]

[Laughter]

Schnitt: Do I hear laughing?

Berman: I heard him laugh. He didn’t hang up.

Schnitt: I hear laughs.

[Laughter]

Mayor: I’m impressed. That’s like morning [inaudible]. I like that.

Berman: That’s what we do here.

[Laughter]

Schnitt: Hey, Mayor, you know before we get to the serious stuff. I heard that you and your wife are going to march in the Park Slope Halloween Parade tonight. And before you tell me what your costumes are, I came up with some suggestions. Maybe I nailed it. I thought that perhaps the scariest costumes I could think is you would go as Governor Cuomo and your wife could go as a New York Post reporter. What do you think?

[Laughter]

Mayor: That’s too frightful to imagine. We don’t want to scare the children –

Berman: He’s still laughing, Todd.

[Laughter]

Schnitt: Well, wait a minute he could go as a helicopter.

Berman: Oh!

Mayor: Oh!

[Laughter]

Schnitt: Hey, so thanks for joining us, Mayor. It’s been great.

[Laughter]

Berman: Hey, listen, all kidding aside – you’re a great sport. Hey, onto Anthony Wiener here – your thoughts on the Friday development on this alleged laptop shared between Huma Abedin and Anthony Wiener.

Mayor: The first thought is a very human one. I just feel really sad for this family. Huma, I know very well and think the world off. And just – Anthony is someone who obviously is troubled and needs help, and I just hope now this finally means he will get it.

But in terms of the national election, I think this is much ado about nothing. We have – I was shocked that the FBI director who’s, I think, a figure of real integrity, would come out with such a gray announcement – no detail, nothing that we could make sense of as the American public. And it tells us nothing.

And the whole email thing – you know, I quote Bernie Sanders during that debate when he said, “Enough with the damned emails.” We’ve learned nothing in this entire email discussion that changes my mind about anything. I think the vast majority of Americans feel the same way. Nothing happened as a result of any of these emails –

Schnitt: But we also don’t know about the 33,000 that were deleted.

Mayor: Yeah, but here’s the problem with the whole discussion – when you think about something that has caused no harm to anyone – because that’s the [inaudible]. There’s been a very extensive investigation here. No harm has been caused by this.

Now, Hillary Clinton herself has said she wishes she handled it differently. We’re all human beings. We make mistakes, but the final analysis here is this new announcement amounts to nothing.

It gives us no new information that we can use. And I think the vast majority of voters are much more concerned about kitchen table issues. They’re concerned about, you know, jobs. They’re concerned about wages, benefits, making sure their kids have a good school. And that’s what this election should be about and not the emails.

Berman: Well, I find it a little disturbing, though, that, you know, even after they received the subpoena, they were talking about which emails to delete, and what to turn over to the DOJ. I think there’s a little more to the story and we don’t know what’s in the 33k. We’re going to move on here because we have a lot to cover but I also find it a little humorous that the Hillary side of the Democrats – Harry Reid was very vocal, saying, you know, when Comey essentially just admonished Hillary and decided there was no prosecution, there was nothing illegal, the Democrats loved that. But now they want Comey’s throat because of what he said on Friday.

Mayor: I think – hold on, I disagree with that. Comey [inaudible] very professional guy. He has shown his independence in the past. Obviously – very, very extensive investigation took place, and he came out and said that – he was not exactly kind in his terminology at the time back in the summer, but he did say there wasn’t anything there that there had been no negative impact.

I think the difference here is that you heard this discussion of whether it’s appropriate for the FBI to make a disclosure in the last 60 days before the election. I think that’s a very important issue. We don’t want federal agencies trying to affect the election either way. The problem here is if he had come up with something very tangible, you could have debated it. But so far, what we’ve heard is just – we’re going to look at things more. And that tells us absolutely nothing. This thing has been scrubbed and scrubbed again, and we haven’t learned anything that’s particularly troubling.

So, I would disagree. I think this was an exceptional act by Comey. I think very highly of him but I was surprised because he didn’t have anything specific to say.

Berman: Mr. Mayor, getting to local issues – should parents be concerned that the school bus strike will take place tomorrow?

Mayor: Well, yes, they should, of course, but it’s a very small number of parents. You know, in New York City terms, 12,000 kids – obviously, we care about every one of those kids but compared to a school system of 1.1 million, it’s a very small piece of –

Schnitt: So, it’s going to affect, what? Staten Island and Brooklyn and Queens? Is that it?

Mayor: That’s right but it’s about one percent of our school system will be affected if it happens. Now, let me tell you – everyone’s working very hard to avert this strike. And what we’ve seen with school bus companies and their unions in the past, it often goes down to the wire. So, we’re still hopeful this can be averted. But we’ve been sending out information to parents. We’re going to send out more today. We’ll know a lot by around the time school’s closing. But if there is not – for those 12,000 kids – if there’s not school bus service in the morning, we’ll provide Metro Cards. We’ll provide reimbursement if they take a taxi or a car service or even if they use their own car. So, we’re going to have very strong contingency plans in place but my emphasis here is vast majority of public school students will not be affected, and for the 12,000 that may be affected, we’re still hopeful that this could be averted.

Berman: Hey, Mayor, on transportation issues, I know this is very important to you. Last week, you announced a new initiative for your Vision Zero program. You want people at dusk and darkness to drive, slow down, help pedestrians out. Is that ever – is that a possibility in New York City? I mean, I guess I sound a little skeptical with all the cars and all the people in New York.

Mayor: That’s a very fair question but I got to tell you I’ve been very struck by how people have adopted to Vision Zero mentality. It’s been a really – this is something that should be looked a lot more. When I was first bringing forward Vision Zero as an idea for this city, you know, the conventional wisdom was people would reject it because they love their cars, of course, and they want to keep moving – the whole New York stereotype. I found exactly the opposite. Huge numbers of New Yorkers embrace this strategy because they cared more about safety. They cared about their kids. They cared about senior citizens. Places like Queens Boulevard – come on – we had gotten so used to the idea of it being called the Boulevard of Death. How is that possible in the greatest city in the country that was a common place reality? People were ready for a change. So I think – I know, look, people don’t love the speed cameras and some other things but there’s an overall acknowledgement that Vision Zero was needed.

There’s been a lot of change of behavior, a lot of drivers have picked up on the fact that they got to slow down. They have to yield to pedestrians. They cannot speed around schools. It’s starting to affect behavior in a very good way.

But this other point about this time of year especially when we have daylight saving coming up in a few days – people have to realize you immediately can see a lot less that you’re expecting to like during the evening rush hour. You know, you literally have fewer tools. You can’t see as well. It’s darker. And that’s when research has shown there’s a lot more accidents in those weeks after daylight saving occurs.

So, I’m just asking all New Yorkers – drive a little more carefully because you’re going to feel that difference when daylight saving hits at the end of the week.

Berman: We are on with Mayor de Blasio, here on 710 WOR. It’s Len Berman and Todd Schnitt in the morning.

Now, regarding Vision Zero, listen, I think it’s commendable. Obviously, we want to reduce pedestrian accidents and deaths. I’m a city dweller and I’m watching the installation of the bike lane going up Sixth Avenue. And you know, I hear the complaints from the taxi drivers. I have a car in this city with my wife, and I’m just seeing another lane choked off of Sixth Avenue. And while I’m all for reducing accidents, is it – talk to me about, and I obviously know where your mind is on this – but taking another 25 percent of the traffic lanes away, choking off Sixth Avenue even more for a large number of cars versus a small number of bikes. Can you answer that?

Mayor: Sure. I think there’s a couple of different points. We recognize the fact the first goal is safety. And by the way, remember that Vision Zero was motivated in part by the fact that the number of traffic related fatalities in New York City was approaching the number of murders we had each year. You know, they were both in the 300-plus range. And that was very, very sobering to me – that, thank God, the NYPD has done an amazing job bringing down murders but the fact that traffic deaths were reaching the same levels said that we were just not using all the tools that we needed to, to make the change.

So, a bike lane is also a traffic calming device. More people getting out of their cars, getting into bikes – and that’s certainly true of everyday New Yorkers, it’s certainly true of tourists. It is better for all of us. In fact, look, people – and I say this as someone who drove myself until a couple years ago. I had a car. I had a family that needed my car for family. But recognizing that the more we don’t use our car, the better off the city will be in terms of congestion, in terms of pollution. So, I think it is part of a change that this city and a lot of cities are going to make away from the cars. We’re going to have citywide ferry service soon. We’re going to have Brooklyn Queens Connector Light Rail. We’re doing more Select Bus Service.

Our job is to give people more and more options that are not a single, personal vehicle. And that is the wave of the future in New York City and many other cities.

Berman: Mayor, speaking of skeptics – which I’m one of them – Second Avenue Subway. Is this really, really, really going to happen?

Mayor: You know, you are in the vast majority [inaudible]. With all due respect to the hard work of the MTA, you know, we’ll believe it the day it opens. But remember, this first leg only goes up to 96th Street –

Berman: From where? How far – 96th to what?

Mayor: It goes from 96th down to [inaudible] I think at 63rd –

Schnitt: Oh, yes, you’re right, just 33 blocks. Right.

Mayor: Yes. And that’s good. I mean, it’s progress and it’s certainly a hopeful sign. It’s been a long, long time coming. But yeah, first of all, let’s wait until we see it. Second of all, it’s a reminder that any work to be done on the next leg is going to take a long time as well.

But, look, when it works out, it’s going to be a great advantage to straphangers on the East Side. It’s certainly, you know – the 4, 5, 6-Train Lexington Avenue line has been really, really stressed for years. This is will ultimately be a good thing but don’t pop the champagne corks yet.

Schnitt: Yeah, really. Final question here – do you think that it’s impossible that Donald Trump could be a good president?

Mayor: I think it’s impossible he could be a good president. I don’t think it’s impossible for him to win. I obviously believe Hillary Clinton is much more likely to win. I think her campaign is extraordinary. I’ve been now, in the last five weeks, in five different states campaigning for Hillary. I’ve seen an amazing campaign on the ground – extraordinary field operation. You know, they have a very, very high focus on turning out voters and they’re doing a great job.

But I don’t think, you know – this election is not over. And everyone should realize it’s going to be very, very tight.

But do I think he could govern well? No. I think he’s shown none of the tools that you need to govern well because he is divisive, first and foremost. He has no understanding of how government works, and he says and does things that make it very hard for him to bring people together and get stuff done.

Schnitt: Which country are you moving to if Donald Trump wins?

[Laughter]

Mayor: I’m staying right here and fighting for change. But yes, Brooklyn is a good answer but, no, if that were to happen, it would be our job to stand and fight.

Berman: Mayor, what are you and your wife going as in Park Slope tonight?

Mayor: Well, we unveiled it [inaudible] as you know. We had a wonderful experience Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We opened up Gracie Mansion to families from all over the city. And we had a haunted Gracie Mansion – very spooky. I don’t know if you guys could have handled it. It was very intense –

Berman: Too much for me –

Mayor: Yes, it might have scared you. So, Chirlane decided to be a suffragette – very thematic given the likelihood of the first woman president being elected. So, she had an outfit that she patterned on a women from like 1919 that she saw a photo of. So, I decided I had to match her. So, I am a labor organizer from the same time period. I got my cap. I got my, you know, outfit there. I got my sign, and so –

Berman: You don’t want to go as a Donald Trump supporter?

Schnitt: That would be scary –

Mayor: You know, I’m happy just being a labor organizer from 1919. I think it’s a little more sane choice.

Berman: Thanks, Mayor.

Schnitt: The drought is over, Mr. Mayor.

Berman: Come back soon, Mayor.

Schnitt: The drought is over. Do we – I’m going to put you on hold. Can you give Natalie, our producer, your personal cell phone so we can just call you directly?

Berman: Anytime.

Mayor: That seems only fair to me. I’ll see you in 125 days – no, I’ll see you sooner than that.

Schnitt: Thanks, Mayor. Appreciate it.

Mayor: Thanks guys.