Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Holds Media Availability

August 30, 2021

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, everyone. Well, we always have a lot to deal with here in New York City and last night we had a challenge. Our Emergency Management Team was active from the beginning once we saw there was an issue with Con Ed that later became an issue with the subways. We are right now working with the State, working with Con Ed, working with the MTA to determine exactly what happened. It is not clear yet, a full investigation is going on. Our teams have all been working together since the time of this incident last night and we've been coordinating closely with the MTA leadership, with the Governor, and her team. I spoke to the Governor in detail this morning about the situation. Look, the good news is that we had a temporary situation, but we need to know more about it. We need to understand how this could happen, how to make sure it does not happen again. There were not, thankfully, extensive home outages, but at the same time, a lot of subway riders were really inconvenienced and put into a really tough situation, and thank God everyone came out okay, there were no injuries. I want to really thank the men and women of the NYPD and the FDNY who went to rescue those subway riders, did an extraordinary job, we should never take this for granted, wherever you are in New York City in a time of trouble, the very best professionals, the very best first responders they are to help. So, they made sure that everyone got out safely, but again, we've got to figure out why this happened and make sure it does not happen again. We're working closely with the MTA, as I think everyone knows, the subways are back up and running, there are certainly still delays. But thank God the situation was contained, and subway service is coming back fully now.  
  
Now on another front far away, but a place that we feel close to here in New York City, a horrible hurricane hitting New Orleans, hitting Louisiana, and the federal government asked New York City to help to address the impact of Hurricane Ida. So, we have sent an urban search and rescue team, New York Task Force One to Baton Rouge to help the people of Louisiana who are going through so much right now. It's almost unbelievable how many crises they have had to deal with one after another, Katrina to COVID, and now this. We've deployed 83 members of the FDNY and NYPD and they will be arriving in Baton Rouge tonight with four water rescue boats, with hazmat equipment, rescue equipment for collapsed buildings, horrible situation down there. We always want to help those in need. We always want to help cities that have been through a lot, like we have been through, and our fellow Americans everywhere, and everyone knows NYPD, FDNY, have the best professionals in the entire country. We're getting them out there to help the people of Louisiana.   
  
Okay, now let's go to this weekend before all of these challenges, and I want to accent the positive here because a lot of good was going on this weekend in New York City, and it was really striking. First of all, no matter what's thrown at us, New York City keeps coming back and we had great evidence of that on a Saturday night, the Apollo open full with people, thrilled to be there, celebrating the incredible history of the Apollo theater, celebrating the comeback in New York City. Extraordinary musicians, just about every genre represented, it was beautiful, there was jazz, there's RB, there was Latin, you name it. Amazing concert and a joyful moment. You could feel the relief, fully vaccinated crowd enjoying this moment together in safety, the freedom that comes with being fully vaccinated, but also a New York City icon, the Apollo, back in action. The message to New Yorkers and the people all over the country, all over the world, that New York City is back. So, that was really amazing, and also in Harlem on Saturday, a great a moment part of our Weekend of Faith in which houses of worship all over New York City participated vaccination drives, focused in particular on kids going back to school, tremendously successful weekend. People of all faiths working together. I joined with an amazing group of people from First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem. They put together a huge community fair, outdoors, giving people health care information, making sure people are vaccinated, a lot of other great work going on there. Really, really wonderful to see the faith community doing so much to help make sure that people are vaccinated. A few days ago, we had Cardinal Dolan and Pastor A.R. Bernard on this program, and they talked about the vaccine from their perspective, and they said it was an important message they wanted all of their parishioners to hear, that the vaccine is a gift from God. Everyone wonders, how do we get through a crisis like this? Look at this vaccine that was created in record time, that has had so much of a positive impact, that has saved so many lives. Our faith community is doing an amazing job spreading the word and helping to get us back, get people vaccinated, and that's really, really helping.   
  
Now, we can see the impact of vaccination of the city. We can see how different reality is in New York City because so many people are vaccinated compared to, unfortunately, other places where there's a much lower number of people vaccinated. We can see the impact it's having on recovery, but we also know that the pandemic is still with us and we have to put everything we've got into putting the COVID era behind us, but it's going to take more people getting vaccinated, more work, and so in the meantime, a number of wonderful community organizations are making decisions how to handle the big events that they would have put on this year, and many great organizations that we honor and love in this city have made the decision to postpone one more time until next year, their events. We're going to talk about that today. The J'ouvert celebration happens the early morning hours going into Labor Day every year, an amazing, powerful celebration of heritage, one that is so important to so many New Yorkers, but that this year cannot happen the way it did pre-pandemic, has been postponed again until 2022. But the J'ouvert celebration will be back in 2022, full strength, like so many other things in this city. Never easy to decide that such a cherished event needs to be postponed again, it's never easy, but I want to thank all the community leaders and the elected officials, the clergy, everyone came together and decided this was the right thing to do, to focus on the health and safety of the community, to make sure one more time when we take that extra step to get through COVID together and then get ready for better times ahead. I want you to hear from someone who has kept the J'ouvert tradition alive, so powerfully so effectively, it’s made such an impact for this city, and she's going to tell you why this decision is made, but also give you a flavor of what this means to people that J'ouvert be preserved, how important it is, it comes back strong next year. My pleasure to introduce the President of J'ouvert City International. Yvette Rennie. 
  
[…]  
  
Mayor: Thank you so much, Yvette, and that's a beautiful message. Of course, the J'ouvert celebration will come back in 2022 and we're going to all work together to make it wonderful, but this year, the focus on health and safety, the focus on moving New York City out of the COVID era once and for all. Now, this is, of course, not the only major celebration effected by the pandemic, and I want to talk now about one of the most beloved events and the biggest event every year in this city, West Indian American Day, the beautiful parade on Eastern Parkway. The Carnival Association, which has done such extraordinary work for years to make it a memorable, amazing event, an event that literally people come from all over the world to. They have made the decision again, that this is not the year for a big event, so they've come up with a new approach, and the theme this year is the Rebirth of New York Carnival 2021, and what has been created is a three-day festival, a virtual and smaller in-person events, beginning this Thursday. It is a smart approach. It is a healthy approach. I really want to thank everyone involved, again, with the close cooperation of elected officials, clergy, community leaders. This is never easy for people to postpone a cherished tradition, but it's the right thing to do, and the great alternative has been put together that will link us from this year to next year when we can bring everything back. I want you to hear more about this decision from someone who's done such important work, both to celebrate culture and to keep people safe, from the West Indian American Day Carnival Association, my pleasure to introduce Michelle Gibbs.  
  
[…]  

Mayor: Thank you. And, Michelle, again, I know this wasn't easy. I really want to emphasize that to everyone watching. These are amazing, beautiful events that take a whole year of planning. It's just like what they say with the Macy's Parade, they start the planning for the next one the next day – the same – the beautiful parade we see on Eastern Parkway every Labor Day. A lot to have to postpone, but the right thing to do. So, Michelle, to you and your whole team and all your colleagues, thank you. You did the right thing. You did the smart thing and the safe thing for the people of Brooklyn and all New York City. Thank you.  

Now, I want you hear from two of the elected officials who have played a key role in determining the right way to proceed. And both of them are leaders, strong leaders who focus on the wellbeing of the people and understood how important it was to get this right. First of all, a leader of both in Albany and New York City, and the democratic leader of the borough of Brooklyn, and, also, she celebrated her wedding reception last night, which was – yesterday afternoon, which was beautiful at the fabulous River Cafe. My pleasure to introduce Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte. 

[…] 

Mayor: Thank you. Thank you very much Assembly Member. And, again, I know you and all the other elected officials really worked closely with the event organizers to determine the right course of action. And it was important for the folks who do the work to get the support of the elected officials, to know the whole community was behind these important decisions. I want you, everyone, now to hear from another elected official who has a strong, clear voice, is very, very proud of her heritage and stands up for it, and has been a leading advocate for promoting a culture of the African diaspora. She is also the majority leader of the New York City Council, Council Member Laurie Cumbo. 

[…] 

Mayor: I like what you're saying, Laurie. And Laurie, I really think your message perfect today, and your message is powerful, and I appreciate it. But I wanted you to start with – oh, hello, there, I just threw on something for this moment. I love your outfit. And, you're right, people can celebrate, but also keep it safe. If we keep it safe this year, we can have a big, beautiful celebration next year. So, thank you for your powerful, positive message. Council Member Laurie Cumbo, thank you.  

All right, everyone. So, it's all about safety, it is about making sure we fight COVID, that's what gets us to a recovery. And safety equals recovery, recovery equals safety – I've said that many, many times. And, obviously, when we talk about public safety, constant work that has to be done to protect the people of this city. We do it every year, but it's been particularly important now, because it's also how we bring the city back. So, early, before the summer began, we announced the Safe Summer NYC plan and we said it was about the community, it was about cops, it was about courts. And we had to make key moves in each of those areas, key investments, key actions to turn the tide this summer. We still have more to do, obviously, and we never for a moment will think that even a single crime is acceptable, but we do see some real progress. The gun arrests by the NYPD have been outstanding, higher levels of cooperation with communities, extraordinary work that's being done at the community level by violence interrupters. We see shootings trending down. Some real good work is happening, and the facts are proving that these efforts are having a big impact. We’ve got a lot more to do. We know on the community level when you invest in violence interrupters, when you invest in bringing police and community together, when you invest in Summer Youth Employment, these things make a big difference. We know that the NYPD has made a huge impact with precision policing, moving officers where they're needed most, with the gang takedowns, which you've seen a number of lately that are taking violent people off the streets and changing the reality and communities. We're really happy about what's happened at community level and what's happening with the NYPD. These are two pieces of the strategy that are working in so many ways. There's more to do, but those two pieces are working.  

But what about the courts? Here's the area where we still have a problem. I've spoken about this a number of times, Commissioner Shea has spoken about this number of times, and we've got to put this in perspective. Here's the NYPD making a record number of gun arrests, that's incredibly important. The most gun arrests in 25 years. And I want to give the court system credit. There's has been a real focus on prosecuting gun cases and that's been really helpful. I want to give credit where credit is due, that's been tremendously helpful. But what we still see is, the court system as a whole is lagging behind everything else. It is not operating at all at the levels of 2019 pre-pandemic, even though so much of the rest of our society is coming back full strength.  

Now, here are some facts that tell a clear story and this is troubling. For the first half of this year in New York City, there were 18 trial verdicts – 18. The first half of the year 2019, there were 405 trial verdicts in New York City. 405 versus 18 – I am not belittling the huge challenge of COVID. I am saying, that's a problem. When with all that we brought to bear – vaccination and all the other health and safety measures, we were able to open our schools, everything else, the courts have only completed 18 trial verdicts in the first half of the year. That isn't good enough, obviously. And if you say, well, wait a minute, prove to me that's not happening everywhere, let's look at the rest of New York and the rest of the state – 118 verdicts. So, around New York State, we've seen court systems coming back. The city is lagging behind in the very place where we have the biggest challenges that need to be addressed. So, to fight violence, to fight crime, you need to address all crimes. This is something that has been established for years and years. Ask the experts at NYPD, you can't just focus on the gun offenses, you have to focus on all offenses, and make sure there are consequences, and make sure that people know that if they do something wrong to a fellow New Yorker, something will result. If the court system isn't moving, there is no consequence. It stops us from ensuring that we have every tool available to fight crime.  

That gives you a sense of some of the numbers, but I want you now to understand the human consequences, the human cost of our court system not functioning effectively. And I want you to feel the outrage that so many of us feel when a crime is committed and then there's no action by our court system. In a moment you're going to hear from Natasha Christopher, and she has gone through a horrendous ordeal that no parent, no person should ever go through. Years ago, 2012, her 14-year-old son Akeal was shot, and Natasha had to rush to the hospital, fearing the worst, arriving, seeing her son's life on the line, and then she lost him. And she has been waiting for years and years for justice, but it's still not here. This is one very, very painful story, but there are so many others right now in this city where the justice system has not produced an outcome, a result, anything to give any sense that justice has been served and that's unacceptable. Natasha is a strong person, never stops her fight for justice. I want you to hear from her now. 

[…] 

Mayor: Thank you, Natasha. Natasha, you've been through so much. As a parent, my heart goes out to you, but I always come back to the people who have the amazing inner strength and faith to turn pain into purpose, and you've done that. And I know you're helping other families. I know you're helping us stop the violence and, God forbid, a family's going through the pain of violence, you're there for them. But we know we can't stop the violence if there's no consequence. 

Natasha Christopher: Yes. So, that there has to be consequences, right? And, like, again, we need everything to go back to normal where cases can go to trial and some parents can get some type of closure. For me, again, it's been nine years, no one has ever been apprehended for my son's case. I may never get closure, but I will never stop fighting for that justice. And I want the same type of justice for my friends – all my friends, all the mothers in my support group who have a case open, or a case that are supposed to be on trial. They need to get some type of closure. So, we need everybody, again, working together. And, again, I need people to know, don't think that families – we are getting up. Mothers are getting up and taking – they’re putting your boots on the ground and doing the work. We are survivors. We are out there helping other survivors, just trying to find some type of way to continue living.  

Mayor: I really, really admire you. I feel what you've been through, but I admire how you've turned it into so much good for other people. God bless you for that.  

Christopher: God bless you too. Thank you. 

Mayor: Everyone, you've heard an incredibly powerful testimony on what it’s going to take to protect people, to stop the violence, to bring back a healthy society in every way. I want you to hear now from an elected official who represents part of the Bronx – in fact, part of the Bronx that’s been hit so hard by gun violence. And he understands that we have to show that anyone who does violence against their fellow Bronxite will have consequences. And we need a functioning court system to do that. He is a new member of the City Council, but he's already making a big impact. My pleasure to introduce Council Member Oswald Feliz. 

[…] 

Mayor: Thank you, Council Member. And that's exactly right, every possible tool. And not someday, now. We need to move now and make a difference in people's lives. I really want to thank you for speaking out and I know you're doing so much work for the people in your community to help people stay safe. Thank you for that. And, again, thank you for that. Thank you, my friend.  

Safety – we're talking about safety in every way. We're talking about safety from gun violence. We're talking about safety from COVID. And what is remarkable is the way New Yorkers stand up for each other and do the right thing time and time again, we always hear the stories when someone has done something bad, but let's talk about the people who've done something good. The many, many New Yorkers who have gone out there and gotten vaccinated. These numbers are staggering. Here is the latest in terms of vaccination levels in New York City. The doses from day-one – 10,657,351 doses from day-one. And just to give you some of the other facts, because they're so striking – 5.4 million New Yorkers who've received at least one dose. That is 65 percent of the total population. 5.1 million adults – almost 77 percent now of all New York City adults have received at least one dose – that's a beautiful figure. Young people, the 12-to 17-year-olds, the newest group that could be vaccinated, over 318,000, 61 percent-plus of that group of young people now having gotten at least one dose. New Yorkers are voting with their feet. New Yorkers are making the decision to stay safe and keep each other safe. And this amazing figure over 10.6 million doses – again, thank you to all the vaccinators, to Test and Trace, to all the good people out there. I saw you this weekend. I saw you on Friday in Staten Island. I saw you Saturday, in Harlem. You guys are doing amazing, amazing work. Second indicator, daily number of people admitted to New York City hospitals for suspected COVID-19 – today's report, 108 patients with a 32.79 percent confirmed positivity level. Hospitalization rate, 1.34 per 100,000. And number three, new reported cases on a seven-day average – today’s report, 1,585 cases. 

Going to say a few words in Spanish, and I want to go back to public safety and the importance of getting our courts fully open.  

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish] 

With that, let's turn to our colleagues in the media and please let me know the name and outlet of each journalist. 

Moderator: We will now begin our Q-and-A. As a reminder, we are joined by Emergency Management Commissioner John Scrivani, DoITT Commissioner Jesse Tisch, Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi, and Dr. Varma, Senior Advisor for Public Health. Our first question for today goes to Andrea from CBS New York. 

Question: Good morning to everyone on the call. Can you hear me okay?  

Mayor: Yeah, Andrea. How are you doing today?  

Question: Okay. Great, thank you. Mr. Mayor, I wanted to talk about the postponement of the West Indian Day Parade and J’ouvert. How do you explain that decision when you have events like the U.S. Open that until just a few days ago after public pressure was being organized as a maskless event without proof of a negative COVID test or vaccinations. [Inaudible] the demographics of the participants in relation to vaccine uptake taken into consideration. 

Mayor: Andrea, thank you for the question. I think every event is its own reality. Big events out in communities are one thing. Events that we're talking about could attract hundreds of thousands of people at a given moment, that's one thing. A controlled event in the stadium is another thing. But the bottom line is the same, we need people to be safe. With events indoors, period, people have to be vaccinated, period. There's no gray in that. With outdoor events, you have other options, but still each event organizer, each organization has to decide what they think is safe. So, this is a decision these organizations made. I commend them for it, but they made the decision, this was what was safe and healthy for their communities. Go ahead, Andrea. 

Question: Okay. My second question is pertaining to the courts reopening. Murder cases just in general often take a long time to go through the court system anyway. So, what would be different about the murder rate if the courts were at capacity – at the capacity which you desire? And how would the current reality be different? Break that down for us. 

Mayor: Yeah, it's a very good question. One of the things – and you'll be hearing – we're going to be speaking later in the week about the overall situation with public safety with Commissioner Shea, and I know he'll be speaking to this. You need consequences, and that has to pervade the entire justice system. Whether it is something as horrible as a murder or gun violence, or whether it's other offenses, you need a culture of consequences. There needs to be justice. There needs to be fairness. We need to make sure the system works in a way that is not discriminatory, but we need consequences. That's the whole concept of the criminal justice system. If there are no trials, there are no consequences. So, again, Andrea, what we're seeing is, in the area of gun violence, we've seen some real improvement in the court system with those trials moving. But we are not seeing trials moving in a whole host of other offenses – with a whole host of other offenses. We're not seeing the court system at full strength. And this is what's strange to me, we're planning in just a few weeks to bring back our school's full strength. We have a lot of businesses back at full strength. In the areas that we have our new mandates for, indoor dining, entertainment, they're back full strength. Why is the court system the outlier? And it can't go on like this. We have offered, literally, since long ago last year, whatever physical space, whatever support they need with vaccination, whatever it may be, and we're still not getting a satisfactory outcome. We need our criminal justice system fully operational to protect New Yorkers, period. Anything less than that is unacceptable. 

Moderator: Our next question goes to Juan Manuel at NY1.  

Question: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. How are you? 

Mayor: Good. How are you doing Juan Manuel?  

Question: Very good, thank you. Just as a follow-up, are you in conversations with the Office of Court Administration? What is – is there any negotiation happening? Is there any conversation beyond you in your daily news conference, asking for the courts to reopen? 

Mayor: Juan Manuel, 100 percent now for a year or more there have been ongoing conversations led by First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, by Marcos Soler, the head of the Mayor's Office for Criminal Justice, constantly offering any and all help – as I've said, vaccination to help physical space, whatever it may be. This has been a nonstop effort that still hasn't yielded what we need. And there's a lot of frustration at the NYPD. We're going to have –happily have you speak to leaders in the NYPD to hear their perspective as well. But it's an unacceptable state of affairs. It's something that must be resolved quickly. And I – we've tried all the right dialogue and private conversations, and we have not seen the progress we need. And as you know, with anything outside the purview of the City of New York, I've said many times, we always try to resolve things privately. When it doesn't work, it's our obligation to say it out loud, to get action on behalf of the people. Go ahead, Juan Manuel.

Question: And in terms of the Con Ed issue last night, what's the City doing to improve its power grid and to adapt it to be aggressive in environmental goals needed to combat the current climate emergency?

Mayor: Yeah, we are for an – and you may remember back right before COVID we spoke about this, State Of The City at the beginning of 2020, and then amplified again in the State Of The City this year. We have a major effort underway working cooperatively with State agencies to bring in a lot more renewable energy to New York City and to improve the transmission grid. We’re ready, willing, and able to make a major investment in that effort for the good of the city and the state. We need that for our future. We need that for – to fight climate change. We need that to make our electricity system more reliable. This is a big, big part of the mission going forward. If we're going to protect people, the biggest challenge of all is climate change and converting to renewable energy to the maximum extent possible is necessary. So, we have a major investment we're working on right now with State agencies to achieve that.

Moderator: Our next question goes to James Ford from PIX 11.

Question: Hey. Good morning, everyone. Happy new week.

Mayor: Happy new week? James, I've never heard that one before. Happy new week. [Inaudible]

Question: I encourage it. I encourage it highly. I do it every week. Well, onto our questions. I think this is really for you and for any of the medical professionals on the call. New York City's hospitalization, infection, and death rates remain low certainly relative to the rest of the country, which continues to see a spike of – a significant rise in these areas. That having been said though, we are seeing in certain parts of the city, still elevated levels of infection, apparently in areas that have lower rates of vaccination and mask use. Can you elaborate more on that situation and what the City's trying to do to change it?

Mayor: James, such an important question. I thank you for it. From day one, we have been fighting the disparities that have come up from COVID. They've always been there in a lot of ways. COVID made it so vivid and there were new disparities in the context of COVID we had to fight. And it's painful that the history bears down on us so intensely. And that it's been hard to get people, in many cases, to feel comfortable with the thing that would help them the most, which is vaccination. So, what we determined to do was to bring the vaccination effort to the grassroots. And we've seen a big impact. Getting houses of worship involved as we did with the Weekend of Faith. Getting community organizations involved. I'll turn to Dr. Chokshi in a moment because this is a matter he is passionate on and he has been one of the leaders in making sure this effort was taken to the people. But just look at what's happened with the Test and Trace Corps, hired largely from the communities most affected by COVID. All of these pieces have led to big changes on the ground. One of the statistics I gave you last week was, we saw two weeks in a row in the beginning of August, where we had over 100,000 new vaccinations each week. And we hadn't seen that since beginning of June. And 60 percent of those vaccinations were for people of African descent and Latinos. And that was a crucial sign that all of these new approaches, the grassroots and the incentives, and the mandates are having an impact. I think you're going to see a lot more of that. I think you're going to see a lot more impact in the communities that need vaccination the most. Dr. Chokshi?

Commissioner Dave Chokshi, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: Thank you so much, sir. I want to start by thanking you for your leadership and commitment to equity as a core pillar of our vaccination effort. I think it was highlighted in events like those from the Weekend of Faith, as well as everything that we did around City Hall In Your Borough in Staten Island last week. And James, you're exactly right. When we look at the data in almost all cases, the parts of New York City that continue to have the greatest burden of COVID-19 disease are the places where we see lower vaccination rates. But we obviously have a solution. We have an approach that can work for that. The key principle, as the Mayor said, is to meet people where they are. That involves a lot of what the City is doing in terms of bringing the vaccine to the places where people are already frequenting whether it's at events or are bringing the vaccine into people's homes. Our in-home vaccination program continues to operate strongly, as well as partnering with community-based organizations. The trusted messengers who have been living in and serving the very neighborhoods that we need to reach for decades. And the City empowering those places by giving them funding, by making sure that they have access to the vaccine, giving them the science-based information that we need to combat misinformation. And so those are all of the strategies that we're bringing to bear. And we have to continue to think about this as an all-hands-on deck moment in the places where vaccination rates are lagging, because we can prevent further suffering and save more lives. Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you very much. James, go ahead.

Question: Thank you both. So back to trials and court activity. Recently, a coalition of public sector attorneys, including Legal Aid, Brooklyn Defenders, and others has said the courts need to more strongly support COVID protocols that it says aren't taking place, including masking, air filtering, vaccinations by court personnel, and ensuring that attorneys and clients aren't put into unventilated interview rooms together. Can you respond to those specific requests that these attorneys who are in court every day have made?

Mayor: Yeah, sure. I don't run the court system obviously. It's a State function. So, I can't speak to, you know, the decisions that the leadership has made, but I can speak to the broader point. So, let's think about it, James. What is our mission here? Our mission is to keep New Yorkers safe and to address any crime that happens and stop crime from happening and from afflicting our communities. That's not optional. That's not something that can wait forever. Just like we said, with our schools, we had to educate our children. We opened our schools last year. We said, no matter what we had to make education available for the kids ready then. This year we said we had to be open, full strength. Then it's up to us to go and do all the things we have to do to make that happen. So, we put the gold standard of health and safety measures in place. And then on top of that, decided to vaccinate all the adults who work in our schools. These are doable things. The court system has had a year and a half to figure it out. And the fact that they're not on full strength now is absolutely unacceptable. So, you know, the attorneys can raise concerns. That's valid. My answer is the court system has to come up with the very best answers in each case. But the one thing that's not allowable is to not have trials and not have justice. So again, there's something backwards here. If folks raising valid complaints are suggesting don't do anything? Well, that's just wrong. Raise the complaints, address them the same way we did with our schools in so many other areas and keep moving forward. But we can't have a safe city without a fully functioning court system, period.

Moderator: Our next question goes to Juliet from 1010 WINS.

Question: Hey, good morning, Mr. Mayor, and everyone on the call. So, I did want to follow up on the court question. When you spoke with Governor Hochul, did you bring up the bail reform issue? And asking her to do something about it? And why do you think nothing is being done about it, period?

Mayor: Well, Juliet, let me emphasize. I want to speak to your question for sure, but I want to make very clear, the court system not functioning is having a bigger impact than almost any other factor right now. And this is what the NYPD is telling us. That the absence of those consequences for a whole variety of crimes is undermining public safety. I want to go over this number again. In the first half of 2021, so up to the end of June, 18 trial verdicts in a city of 8.8 million people. 18, 1-8 trial verdicts. That's all that the court system produced in the first half of 2021. Compare that to the first half of 2019, 405 verdicts. This is not acceptable, period. It's not even close. So, this has to be addressed. When the Governor and I spoke, we spoke first and foremost, of course, about fighting COVID and fostering the recovery of New York City. We did talk about some of the potential upcoming actions in Albany, like the parole reform bill, which is very important and would do so much good for addressing public safety and justice in this city. That's where we have focused. But I want to tell you, actions on bail, that's going to take the whole legislature coming back and addressing it. But getting the court system up and running is something the Office of Court Administration could be doing right now. And we will help them in any way they need. We've said it 1,000 times. Go ahead, Juliet.

Question: Okay. Thank you. Regarding the outage last night, it seemed everybody in the city saw their lights flicker. Do you know if this was related to the incident at the Con Ed plan in Long Island City? And also, what do you say to New Yorkers who self-evacuated from the subway trains last night?

Mayor: You know, Juliet, you always have to admire the do it yourself attitude of New Yorkers, truly. But I would say something very, very clear and strong, never self-evacuate from a subway train. It's dangerous. If the third rail is not off, you're putting your life in danger. And you can rest assured, God forbid you're ever on a subway car that is stuck between stations. You can rest assured that help is coming. FDNY, NYPD have a long history of getting people out safely. Wait for the professionals to come and be safe. So again, I understand why people were so – felt so urgently the need to get out. And I do feel for them, but it's dangerous. And I just want to always urge people, wait for the pros to come who can really make sure you're safe. To the power surge we saw last night. It's a great question, Juliet. That's why an investigation is underway. I spoke to Governor Hochel this morning. We've got to understand what happened here. This was a strange series of events to say the least. We don't know how they all interconnect. But we've got to know. We need Con Ed to come clean with everything that happened. We need the MTA to explain everything that happened over there. We don't know how much of this was Con Ed, how much this was MTA. We don't know how they connect and we need these answers and we need it to be very transparent.

Moderator: Our next question goes to Julia from the Post.

Question: Hey, Mr. Mayor. How are you doing?

Mayor: Good, Julia. How you been?

Question: Good. A couple of us are puzzling over this issue with the courts and the lack of verdicts. Can you be more specific about these lower level cases that you're saying aren't going to trial? And how you think that's having an impact on the safety issue in the city? And do you have any more data to kind of explain what you think is going on?

Mayor: We will get you plenty. I'll have Marcos Soler who runs my criminal justice office, get you all the facts. They're quite striking. Beyond the gun cases – and again, I have commended and thanked the court system for focusing on the gun cases. That's where we have a profound need and we've seen real progress. But for a host of other serious crimes, we're not seeing the same focus. We're not seeing the same outcomes. And Julia, the way to say it -- so we'll get you the facts category by category, but that big number 18 in the first half of this year versus 405 in the first half of 2019, I think that speaks volumes. We'll get you the breakout. But here's what I want to say as a matter of sort of philosophy and strategy. I believe in consequences. I'm a progressive and I believe in justice, I believe in fairness, I believe in non-discrimination, but I also believe in consequences. Because we're human beings and human beings respond to consequences. If someone has committed a crime against a fellow New Yorker and they never see a consequence, or they think it's so far away, that it will have no impact on their life, it gives them license. That's unacceptable. And I also think about the human cost of what the victims are going through. You heard Natasha’s story. There's so many other horrible, painful stories of people waiting for justice. So, we have to have consequences in real time. It was one thing in March, April, May of 2020, everyone was trying to deal with the great unknown of COVID. That's one thing. It's now the end of August 2021, and almost every other part of our society is back full strength. Why on Earth is the court system not back? It just stands to reason, there's something wrong, they need to be held accountable, and they need to fix it immediately. Go ahead, Julia.  

Question: Did you address this with Governor Hochul? If so, what was the conversation like? If not, why not?  

Mayor: I have not yet, and I will. This is an issue that obviously predates her by a lot. We attempted numerous times at all levels in Albany, and dealing directly with the court system, to get resolution here, again, always with an offer of whatever we could do to help – buildings, physical space, vaccination help, whatever it was. And there has been some cooperation, I want to be clear about that, but we haven't seen the result. So, the Governor is brand new. We're going to be talking about it for sure. But this is not about her. This is about her predecessor, and this is about the people running the court system now. We've appealed repeatedly for this issue to be resolved. It – I can only say it from my perspective, if this was one of my agencies this would not be allowed, and it can't be allowed.  

Moderator: Our next question goes to Elizabeth Kim from Gothamist.   

Question: Good morning, Mayor de Blasio.   

Mayor: Hey Elizabeth, how you been?  

Question: I'm good. I have a question about testing capacity for you and your health officials. Is the City concerned that there might be a shortage with either PCR tests, but also those self-administered rapid tests that I think – might seem like they might be the future in testing?  

Mayor: Well, it's a great question, Elizabeth, and I’ll turn to Dr. Chokshi. I will only say to you, the way we've set up testing so far, the different areas we need testing, we feel good about what we have in place. Testing is always an important part of the strategy. But the most important part of the strategy is vaccination. Vaccination is what's going to change everything. That's the leading edge of this strategy. And in that area, we have tremendous capacity and tremendous reserves of vaccine. So, that's where our focus has really been. But as to testing capacity, Dr. Chokshi, do want to speak to that?  

Commissioner Chokshi: Thank you, sir. Briefly we aren't seeing any evidence of shortages with respect to testing either in terms of molecular – those are PCR tests – or for antigen tests. We are monitoring this. We know that the demand for testing across the country has surged as many places are seeing a surge in cases due to the Delta variant. So, this is something that we closely monitor but New York City is not dealing with that at this moment. I will also add New York City, the overall testing capacity for our city, thanks to the Test and Trace Corps as well as our many partners across the health care infrastructure, remains among the most robust in the entire world. Thank you.   

Mayor: Thank you. Go ahead, Elizabeth.  

Question: My second question is about Governor Hochul’s announcement last week that she wants to start a task force to study NYCHA. I'm interested in what you think she can do immediately to help the Housing Authority.  

Mayor: I really appreciated when Governor Hochul acknowledged that her predecessor did essentially nothing to help NYCHA despite lots of bluster and lots of attacks on NYCHA, attacks on the City, that almost nothing was done to actually help the people live in public housing. So, I think acknowledgement is a great first act and I believe she is sincere in her desire to help. I mean, what NYCHA constantly needs is resources, and where there are State laws and rules that slow down the work, we need cooperation from the State. I wish I could articulately tell you about the maze of different regulations we deal with all the time and the different agencies involved that sometimes slow down the work of making NYCHA buildings better for the residents. But if the State said, ‘Hey, what's it going to take? We just want to get all the roadblocks out of the way and help you guys,’ there's a lot they could do. We'll have folks follow up with you on the details, but I'm very, very happy she's focusing on it.  

Moderator: We have time for two more questions today. Our next question goes to Bob Hennelly from the Chief Leader.  

Question: Mr. Mayor, thanks for taking the call. In the after-action report, we can tell, as far as last night's event, that there was about an hour-and-a-half where there was no communication for folks who were caught between tunnels. You mentioned before that people should wait for the professionals, the police and fire. Certainly, I'm sure you would associate with yourself to comment, they should also listen to the crews. This is an important thing because as you mentioned, the third rail is active, people are putting themselves at risk. One of the things that's happened is that over the years, the MTA has really been driving, trying to automate this function and try to push for one-person crews. And in a situation like this, where we have a disruption of service where communication is critical, doesn't it show the importance of having a more robust physical presence by the MTA on these trains, as opposed to just automating it?  

Mayor: Yeah, it does Bob, for sure. I mean, look, you're absolutely right. I want to thank you for the question and absolutely commend the men and women of the MTA. You know, I wanted to first say the folks who worked for me, FDNY and NYPD did really heroic, wonderful work, but I want to give credit as well to everyone who worked for MTA last night, who did the work to protect people. And you're absolutely right. The train crews are right there. Those are the first voices to listen to. New Yorkers need to listen to them, they're the experts. But I think you make a good point. It does speak to the fact that we got to think about safety first, and we got to think about the kind of personnel we need to keep people safe. Go ahead, Bob.  

Question: [Inaudible] about technology, back when you were a Council person, you were aware of this problem we've had with emergency communications. We're on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, World Trade Center. All through your political career, you were holding the Bloomberg administration responsible for expenditure. There's been some sense, from my sources, of progress above ground about communications in these kinds of events, but sub-services remained a problem. And the MTA has also spent all kinds of money here. Is it possible that your subject matter expert to conduct an independent investigation that looked at this issue of emergency communications in the event of these black swan events, which with global warming, may be happening more frequently?  

Mayor: Yeah, I think that's exactly what we need to do. You have your historical perspective right. There were some real problems in the past with communication systems, either just not working or different parts of our public safety apparatus not being able to communicate with each other. I think we have made a lot of progress, but I think there's definitely more to do. And you're right, these situations could get more complex going forward. So, I'm going to have that analyzed by our team quickly and see if there's additional steps we need to take. And if there are, we're going to take them right away.  

Moderator: Our last question for today goes to Steve Burns from WCBS 880.   

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor, how are you?   

Mayor: Hey, Steve, how you doing today?  

Question: All right. [Inaudible] background noise. I'm in Downtown Brooklyn on a bike at the moment. My first time calling in to you in transit. So, I apologize.  

Mayor: That's – you're allowed. You're a busy man.  

Question: So, first I wanted to go back to the courts question. I think I'm among the reporters still looking to find kind of a linear connection here between the lack of trials and public safety issues. I’m sure you're aware the court’s OCA spokesman has called the [inaudible] uninformed. He said when there are gun cases there are – there is bail being set in the vast majority of them. So, are you able to explain in clear terms what this kind of one-plus-one connection is between a lack of trials and public safety?   

Mayor: Absolutely. The reality, Steve, is the whole criminal justice system affects what happens on the ground. When someone thinks about committing a crime or commits a crime and then sees nothing happen, bluntly, it encourages more crime. And that's unacceptable. The fact is, if the court system – I'm always amazed when the people who speak on behalf of the court system say, ‘it's okay, we're not having trials.’ That's basically what they're saying, ‘it's okay.’ So, I'm like, well, why do you exist then? If it's okay, you're not doing your job, then why do we need you? If I said to you, Steve, ‘hey, you know what? I think the NYPD should take a few days off, everyone go home, or FDNY go home, or Schools go home.’ You'd say, you're out of your mind. So, how are the courts saying that they don't need to function, but it's okay. It's not okay. It's just not okay. I'm going to give you a couple of specifics, but I wanted to turn it back to Natasha for a moment because she does this all day long, working with families, including families who are waiting for justice. I want you to hear the human consequence, what it means if courts are not functioning, therefore people who were wronged can't get justice. Natasha, please help people understand what that feels like.  

Natasha Christopher: Again, right, I talk to mothers all the time who are just waiting to get some type of closure, who have cases and have to wait until – we’re in 2021 – until 2022 to go to trial. Why so long? Someone murdered this woman's son, and now she has to wait for the courts to get their act together so she can get some type of justice. That is so unfair. People don't understand the painful effects of gun violence. The trauma that families are left to deal with and all they are asking for is some type of closure. And I think they are owed that.  

Mayor: And – please go ahead.   

Christopher: It's a responsibility – it’s the court’s responsibility to do their jobs. And I just want the mothers in my group, my support group, who have lost their sons or daughters to gun violence to get the closures that they deserve.  

Mayor: And, and Steve, again, I've said I appreciate the efforts the courts are making on gun violence. It took a while, but they did get there. You know, we’re in a much better place, but there's a host of other crimes. If you've been attacked and it doesn't involve a gun, if your house has been broken into it, there's a – we'll give you the breakout by category. There's so many things where people have been attacked and violated and yet nothing is happening. And what the NYPD will tell you – and again, we'll have Commissioner Shea here later in the week, and he will go over this in detail, that they see the impact on the ground of a lack of consequences. If folks who commit crimes think they're not going to see a courtroom for a long, long time, unfortunately it encourages them to commit more crimes. This is really basic stuff, but I want to just go back to the central question. Where is the excuse for not doing this? If the court system wants to say, ‘oh, there's COVID.’ Well, guess what, there's COVID everywhere. But NYPD is functioning, the FDNY is functioning, the schools are functioning. We're doing what we're doing every day at City Hall. That's not an excuse. Just fix it. But if you're not – if you literally have so much disrespect for your own criminal justice system, that you don't think it matters if it functions, then maybe you shouldn't be working there, would be my answer. Go ahead, Steve.  

Question: Appreciate that. On a separate topic and where I'm actually en-route to is Grand Prospect Hall. As a native of Park Slope, I'm sure you're familiar with it. There's a kind of grassroots effort underway to try and save at least the facade because it appears the inside has already been gutted after this sale a few months ago, a developer wants to turn it into apartments apparently. So, I wanted to see if you have any Grand Prospect Hall memories and if there's anything on the City side that might be able to happen if there is any interest in keeping this building alive.  

Mayor: Yeah. I'm glad you asked, Steve. This is kind of painful to me. You have – if you're from Brooklyn, particularly from my part of Brooklyn, you have Grand Prospect Hall memories. And, of course, the legendary ad about making all your dreams come true, who could forget that? One of the great ads of all time. It's – you know, that wonderful family who owned it, unfortunately lost the patriarch of the family to COVID. And it's been downhill since then. I think that's a great question whether the facade could be saved. I certainly would love to see that happen. I'm going to see what the City can do to make that happen. I remember going there for so many community events and it was a place people cherished. You know, it was part of history, and you felt a connection to just all the history of Brooklyn, all the families who have been there before, people loved being there. And it's very strange to me. And I think, except for COVID, this never would've happened. Meaning not only would the family not have lost their loved one, but people would have been paying a lot more attention and there would have been an outcry. And I'm just shocked. I didn't know until very recently that so much had been lost there. So, it's real sad. But if there's a way to save the facade and some of the history, we should certainly try and do that. And I'll be working on that right away.  

And listen, everybody, as we conclude today, again what it comes down to, we see in communities all over this city people standing up doing the right thing, doing right by each other, protecting each other. You heard it today with the leaders of the Caribbean community, doing the right thing to protect members of their community, even at a time they’d love to be celebrating, but putting safety first. You've heard about Natasha's amazing work, protecting people, helping people go through the biggest challenges, but there for them. That's who New Yorkers are. And I keep coming back to the thing that New Yorkers should be proud of is how many New Yorkers made the decision to go get vaccinated to protect each other. That's a beautiful act. Anyone who goes and gets vaccinated, you're helping everybody else, your family, your neighbors, everyone. So, please, if you haven’t done it yet, no better time than today. Go out and get vaccinated. Thank you.  

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