July 21, 2023
J.R. Giddings: Audience, tell a friend to tell a friend we have Mayor Adams joining us right now. Good morning, mayor. How are you?
Mayor Eric Adams: Hey brother, how are you doing? Good morning, good morning to you and all of your viewers. I think that was a real powerful presentation. I hate when I come on and break up some of these powerful conversations that your guests have because the substance abuse issue is real. For those of us who lived through heroin in the ’60s and ’70s, crack cocaine in the ’80s and ’90s, what we’re facing with fentanyl and other was started out as prescription drugs and now has really elevated, I think it is going to be the combination of both those issues of previous drug use combined. A lot of drug is… Appears to be, particularly the fentanyl is being produced in China and making their way through Mexico through drug cartel who have really professionalized the operation in business.
Fentanyl is so dangerous, there are a few accounts we’ve had where just the mere touching of the drug, the inhale of the vapors have caused people to be hospitalized, the overdose deaths are extremely high, and people tend to self-medicate. We have to be honest about that. When you’ve gone through social conditions, you try to self-medicate yourself, and the drug usage is a real concern across the country. I think the president should be calling a national summit on drug use and drug abuse throughout our entire country and this entire region, because if we don’t get a handle up on it, we’re going to see an entire generation lost.
Dr. Monique Abner: Well, Mayor Adams, on July 11th, I don’t know if you heard when I started that the office from the National Drug Control Policy did issue a national plan just on July 11th by Dr. Rahul Gupta. It’s a pillar plan that is structured to address all of the things and they want to reach to each state. It’s very interesting because I know that when I first started hearing about xylazine and being cut with fentanyl, as you know, in addition to being a plastic surgeon, I do wounds. So we would see these horrendous wounds as a result of tranq, and it was more common in the South. Then even specifically, Maryland was found that 80 percent, they had a syringe safe program when they were handing out clean syringes, and you found that you had Maryland, and then in Philadelphia, it’s just atrocious.
There are certain areas like Kensington where you actually see people walking around and collapsing on the street with syringes in their arms because of this drug. So I know that because this plan just rolled out July 11th, I am hoping that it’ll reach the states and then programs will be developed to try to find some way to rein this in. But I really feel that the addiction management is what’s key, because if we can keep people from going back to getting it, that’s going to be as important as keeping it from getting on the streets and coming into the country to begin with.
We have to get rid of that desire, that unfortunate addictive desire to want to use this drug, because you’ll find people taking these elements and mixing them and using them in all sorts of ways. Whether they’re injecting them, snorting them, they do whatever they want because they need to get that fix. I’ve had patients, and I’ve seen cases where patients will come in and they’re begging to have help as they go through their withdrawal and then they leave because they feel, “You know what, I need to get my hit from the street because it’s going to take care of the pain.” They’re in so much pain from the withdrawal. It’s a very, very difficult situation.
Mayor Adams: Well said. Well said.
J.R. Giddings: So Mayor Adams, we’re going to switch gears a little bit because, of course, you’re here to give us updates and briefings, and we just have to touch on that because substance abuse is major. But I know that you’ve rolled out a plan about the next generation. About the youth and development. I’m big on that. I know you have rolled out a plan for summer employment for kids where you’re providing over 100,000 jobs. Could you expound on that a little bit?
Mayor Adams: Yes. I think there’s a few items that are in the news and this platform is so important ’cause you get the unfiltered version. If I can, I want to first talk about the Rikers Island issue. We saw that the Southern District made a move towards a place in Rikers Island under receivership. What that means in essence is that the federal government would take over the jails. Rikers Island has been just dysfunctional for generations, and it’s something that I’ve been part of for almost 25, 30 years working with the men and women who are there to really shed light on what was happening in Rikers Island. It’s overwhelmingly people of color are the inmates, overwhelmingly the people of color are the employees. A substantial number of them are women who are there on the island, and I knew we had to come in with a comprehensive plan.
The previous generation was under a federal monitor, and they were watching what they were doing. They did not move the needle at all. There were no changes. We had large number of officers who were out for long period of time because of sick stress. We saw prison violence was high. We saw just unkept conditions, and I knew the only way you could turn it around is really to get on the ground and look at what was happening. I visited Rikers Island, folks, more than any mayor in the history of this city, and I have spent time talking to the inmates with the officers sent in on programs that were held for inmates. On November last year, I went to Rikers Island to visit a young lady who had a newborn child. I spent Thanksgiving speaking with her and talking with her and just walking the facilities, watching the evolution.
In the 18 months we were in service, this administration, we saw the number of offices substantially declined that were out sick for a long period of time. We saw the physical plant improve. We saw violence go down all across the board. In April of this year, the special monitor who was looking at the Department of Correction put out a report in April stating that basically, the systemic changes we are making is really moving the Rikers Island in the right direction, and we are really making inroads and moving the facility in the correct place. Something happened in June of this year where there were five incidents where they believed that they should have been reported to the Special Monitor. I’ll take, dispute some of that, but it was just five incidents that they believe they should have reported. Based on that report in June, there’s a complete turnaround that the decision was made that they believe that we should have Rikers Island go into receivership.
I have a great deal of respect for the Southern District leader there, the US Attorney in Southern District, first time we’ve had an African American there, brilliant, really understand these issues, and I believe we want the same thing. I just believe that this is a great mistake to take this away from me. I want this problem. I can fix Rikers. The report in April showed that I can fix Rikers. No one has this level of commitment. I was the ranking member of Crime and Corrections in the state senate. I know the problems there, and I just really want an opportunity to fix it. If we’re honest, our federal jails is not a poster child for what a correctional facility should look like. I think the dedication and commitment is needed. What happened is that many of the loud voices for years have called for receivership.
I think that some of that had a lot to do with taking this away from me, from having the right correction commissioner. First time we have an Hispanic commissioner who’s there, dedicated, committed. We can turn this around, and it is unfortunate if I’m not given the opportunity to do so, where years under the previous administration, I had 18 months and they indicated I’m moving in the right direction. It’s just really unfortunate that I’m not able to continue what I started out. So as you read these stories and hearing that there’s no improvement in Rikers, the April report said just the opposite. Even as we talk about Rikers Island, let’s talk about ending the pipelines that feed Rikers Island, and there’s several initiatives that we are doing. I believe public safety is both prevention and intervention. The prevention part is about how do we invest in our youth? So we have a Summer Youth Employment Program. First time in history, 100,000 jobs to our young people. We focus on NYCHA and other low income New Yorkers and those New Yorkers and young people who are in problem areas. Everything from justice involved, et cetera. We added this with our Summer Rising program.
Like many of you know, I’m a believer in education all year round. I don’t believe in the two months off during the summer. That agrarian calendar was when folks was going to do the harvest during the summer season. Our young people need to be getting some form of structured education all year round. It doesn’t have to be in a school building, but they need some structure so that you don’t have the learning laws where experts has have predicted 40 percent of what they’ve learned is lost over the summer months. We have to be honest about what is needed to have our children competitive.
And our Summer Youth Employment Program is an amazing success. It’s through DYCD. We reached out and placed our children, exposure. And there was a story in the Daily News today that I just don’t quite understand. Many of these young people have never had exposure to work at all. And to be honest, some of them have been home with family members who never had a job. And so, they’re coming in with this first layer of exposure. They’re young people, 15, 16, 17 years old, et cetera. And this is a great opportunity for them to be in a professional environment, how to communicate, how to work in groups. And they’re going to be rough around the edges. I mean, they’re young people. But year after year, we’re doing the grooming of them. And so, we’re teaching them financial literacy, teaching them how to go around the city. A lot of our young people are born in one square mile. They go to school in one square mile. They shop, go to church, they do everything in one square mile. We’re exposing them to the city.
And over 13,000s of the youth living in NYCHA housing participating this year. 35,000 additional opportunities for those in foster care, unsecured housing, students with disabilities, justice involved, students in high need New York City public schools. So we’re going where you are seeing the pattern that if we leave these children behind, they are the ones that end up in the Rikers Islands, and that is the reactionary approach. So we’re really proud of this program. We’re going to continue to expand it. We’ve been trying to get an increase for years.
Finally, under this administration, J.R., we were able to do it with 100,000 young people that’s in… And then you add that with the over 100,000 that’s in our Summer Rising program, full-day activities. So parents can have their children in the right place. And then you add that with free meals, summer meals, breakfast, lunch and snacks for every child under 18 that can go to over 1,000 locations and get free summer meals, where they can get good, healthy nutritional meals. So we’re really leaning into our young people because we know we have to prevent crimes and not just respond to the conditions of criminal behavior.
Giddings: Well, Mayor Adams, when I saw this, I thought it was very important for our audience to know what you’re doing, some of the positive things that you’re doing, because you’re getting a lot of pushback out there, but when you start to work on the youth, we’re saving our future.
Audience, if you’re just joining us, we’re speaking with Mayor Adams, bringing all the important briefings to you. I know you have a short out. I would like to bring in Nicole Jordan Martin quickly.
Mayor Adams: Nicole, before you come on, and I’m not going to take up your time, Nicole. I’ll add on some extra minutes.
But you said something that’s important J.R. You said, “I know you’re getting a lot of pushback,” and we need to be clear, the difference between the conversations on the ground and the conversation of the echo chambers that people speak in. On the ground, people are seeing the results, they’re seeing that we have unbelievable recovery in our economy. 99 percent of the jobs we lost during the pandemic, we have back. Crime is going down.
Do you know that many people point to the safety in this city under the Giuliani years? Do you know that this year we are 20 percent lower in crime during Giuliani’s last year in office. So the perception has hijacked the reality. Subway, we have record low levels of crime in our subway system, double-digit decrease, closed in on homicides, closing these cases, making the apprehensions. And so, when you do a real analysis of what we’re doing, you could get caught up in what is in the echo chamber. But on the ground, people are seeing the results of the work that we’re doing.
Giddings: Thank you, Mayor Adams. I’d like to welcome in Nicole Jordan Martin. Nicole Jordan Martin is the executive director and CEO at NYC Health + Hospitals/Community Care division. Good morning, Nicole. How are you?
Nicole Jordan-Martin: Good morning J.R. I’m doing well, thank you.
Giddings: Well, the mayor has three minutes for you. He said he’s going to add on some minutes, so you could go ahead and pose your question to him.
Jordan-Martin: It’s more of a comment. Good morning, Mayor Adams, and welcome back again to The Reset.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
Jordan-Martin: We really appreciate your updates, and again, hearing from you in a very unvarnished way what’s happening on the ground and all of the efforts that you’re leading.
I’m a product of summer youth employment. In my high school, I didn’t come from a wealthy background.
My parents were poor working class people. And it was an incredible opportunity because it set the stage for where I am today, because my summer youth job started in healthcare. My first summer youth job was at Interfaith Medical Center. And that is where my love affair with healthcare started. And from there, my high school offered me the opportunity to study nursing. And then, that sort of launched my healthcare career. So summer youth employment is responsible for my success. And so, I’m very proud and happy to hear you talk about that. And I really feel that our high schools are the place where we really have the opportunity to change the trajectory of these young people’s lives.
And I look at everything that you’re doing now, and I think for our audience who listens to this program, I really want them to understand that you are sort of fixing what we didn’t do in prior years. And so, now we have consequences for that. The substance use disorders, mental health challenges, housing challenges.
And so, summer youth is to help the current generation figure out how they’re going to become self-sufficient and productive members of society and build a better future for themselves, and not prolong or I think exacerbates some of the challenges that we’re facing today by adding to it. And they too, having to spend the next several years dealing with the consequences of that.
So I read the news, I listen to the news, there’s a lot of things that are said, but I’m a firm believer of someone who lives in these communities, who sees, to your point, Mayor Adams, the impact that these programs and efforts that you’re leading with your administration have on their day-to-day life. And I think that gets lost in the news stories because they’re sound bites. But come to the neighborhood, come to East Flatbush and see the person who relies on the Summer Youth Employment Program, the food pantry in their community. Those things are real and those things are really propelled through the efforts of your office.
And I think for our listeners, the hope is that you’d adopt a balanced view. That you actually are bombarded with these news stories, but really look at and really try to learn about the impact on the ground in your community and how that ties back to the efforts of the mayor and his team. Because it’s one thing to write about it in a global way, but it’s a different thing to see and experience it with my neighbor next door who relies on the food pantry, my other neighbor down the street who relies on the Meals on Wheels program to come bring their meals to them so that they can continue to survive. So it’s really adopting a balanced view.
And again, it’s difficult. This is a very, very difficult time. So Mayor Adams, we appreciate your service to our city. I know you say we don’t have to say that, but I do feel like we do have to say that. We do have to acknowledge that you have taken on an incredible job. It’s extremely difficult, a lot of complexities, and it’s easy to be critical. But I think to be fair, we also have to recognize all of the positive things that you’re accomplishing for us. So, thank you.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Very, very kind of you. I keep a journal, and every day I make an entry. I try to keep it up as much as possible. And I want people to really understand this moment. You have an ordinary New Yorker running the most powerful city on the globe. My milder half is still a nine to fiver. She swipes a metro card. She on the train. Somebody may be riding right next to her. She’s not driving around in a limousine. We shop at Target, we clip our coupons, we try to get as many savings as possible. You have two ordinary people running the city of New York. And we know what people went through because we went through or we are going through. And that is why it’s so important. I’m on the train. I’m interacting with people walking the streets. I stop at these incidents and walk through the food pantries and hear people say how much they need the services. I’m in my senior centers talking about the challenges of their healthcare.
And so this is an authentic moment for me because I am a person who has gone through a lot and I want to help people who I’m going through a lot. And that’s real. This is an everyday New Yorker, your neighbor. I live in Bed-Stuy. Your neighbor is the mayor of this city. And I want to see people continue to move forward. And I want people to always remember that. I don’t deify myself. I know I’m the servant for the people of this city.
Giddings: Mayor Adams, it’s intentional what I do when you’re coming on, I start to blast out that the mayor’s going to be on Friday. And I get a lot of pushback that we’re supporting you. We’re not supporting you, we’re just trying to bring the information unfiltered so everyone could understand the job that you’re doing, the tough position that you’re in, and you’re doing your best. So here is the next question and here is the big talking point: affordable housing. Could you talk about your affordable housing plan?
Mayor Adams: Yes. and that’s so important. And I like to say these are SYMS moments, those of us who are old enough to remember it. “An educated consumer is our best customer.” Many people talk about affordable housing on the street level and not really understanding, well, how is it built? What role do I have to build affordable housing?
In the areas that I have power, we have shown that we stepped up. We have committed $24 billion for affordable housing, the most in the city history. Never before in the city history has a mayor committed that much money to affordable housing. And we did something that no one else did. We included NYCHA in our affordable housing conversation and we’re going to really push the envelope.
I had NYCHA leaders all at Gracie Mansion yesterday. Some of them have never been there. I held an event with them to tell them, “I hear you, I see you. Let’s work together to finally turn the corner on NYCHA.” With a $40 billion deficit that they have and the federal government has abandoned NYCHA.
So we have a 500,000 new homes in a decade, moonshot goal. That’s what we’re doing now. We’re on track to exceed our goal of financing the creation of 18,000 new homes in the last fiscal year that ended July 1st. We have exceeded what the goals were. But here’s the problem, J.R., that many people leave out of the equation. In order for me to build at the rate that we want to, we need state help.
One of the areas, and I’m just going to touch on three areas actually. One is utilizing what’s called a tax incentive for people to build affordable user units. It’s called a 421a. We got away from it during Covid because no one was building. We wanted an extension of that program. Albany did not give us that extension of that program. We wanted to be able to convert the millions of square feet of office space into how affordable housing. Albany did not give us the authorization to do that. We wanted to build higher in those areas that traditionally did not have affordable housing and districts where you have great transportation, good school, good access to food, Albany did not give us authorization to do that. The governor put a plan that in transit dense areas, we want to build more and incentivize building. Albany did not get us the authorization to do that.
So everyone is saying affordable housing is our number one issue. All of my state lawmakers have stated that yet. We took no action at all on housing in Albany this year that would allow us to move forward.
Now we’ve done some good things with our partner in Albany, some great things, these lead of the speaker, the lead of the Senate and the governor. But we did nothing on housing that would allow us to build higher. So when you come to the mayor and say, “Mayor, where the affordable housing,” educate oneself on how we get housing built and then we need to go and push those pressure points.
And lastly, let me tell you the biggest problem in housing. Everybody say we need to build affordable housing. And then when we identify a project that is on their block around the corner in their community, they say, “Wait a minute. We don’t want it here. We want you to do affordable housing, but we don’t want you building it in our area. We got our parks, we have our supermarkets, we have all the things we want. We don’t want more housing in our area.”
We have to be consistent. Every community must bear the brunt of building housing for New Yorkers. We have an inventory problem. More people have moved in looking for housing than the amount of housing we have. So the areas that we control, we’re pushing forward. We need help from Albany. They took no action on affordable housing at all.
Giddings: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Pastor Straker has been away for the last two weeks and I’m going to defer from my third question and bring in the good pastor. Welcome back, Pastor Straker.
Pastor Louis Straker: Good morning, J.R. It’s good to be with you fellow panelists, mayor, this morning and listening audience.
Mayor Adams: Good to see you pastor. And thanks for yesterday.
Pastor Straker: Yes, sir. Yesterday we came together. And before I mention that I have to say thank you for your leadership, especially in terms of SYEP and everybody’s talking about that today at the God Squad. I served there as the board chair and we have 50 beautifully intelligent young people in our care for SYEP and they’re doing tremendous things and it also helps stem the tide of gun violence. And we’ve seen the church community, the devil finds work for idle hands.
And so having these kinds of programs, especially in the summer months when they’re not in school, really goes a long way to keeping children focused and giving them hope, as Nicole said, for our future careers and so forth. And so in the vein of gun violence and yesterday we stood together with the Uzbek community. Sadly, a young man, 15-year-old Faridun was taken from us due to gun violence.
And so, Mr. Mayor, gun violence has been a major issue in our city. And just like you were saying, you have the people that are talking in the streets, then you have people that actually are seeing results, but then you have the echo chamber that is just ringing the alarms and saying all kinds of things as if your administration is doing nothing. I love that you come on here to set the record straight.
What has your administration been doing to fight gun violence? And then, what are the barriers? I don’t think people really understand some of the things that pigeonhole your administration and the NYPD from doing what they have to do. What have you been doing and what are the barriers that you’ve seen in fighting gun violence?
Mayor Adams: That’s a great question and it really broke my heart to see that dad, the mom, and leaders of the community lose that 15-year-old in the manner in which we lost him to senseless gun violence.
And here are the problems to addressing this. One, there are just so many people that do not understand the basic principles of public safety and how you do an intervention plan, which is dealing with the violence right now, and a prevention plan. That’s the approach that’s unique to this administration coming with just years of experience of not only policing, but also as a lawmaker.
Like I stated, I was the ranking member of Crime and Correction when I was a state senator. This is an area that I know. And we have a small number of people we call extreme recidivists. Small number of young of people who have made up their minds that they’re going to carry guns and they’re going to use them. They don’t care how many times they’re arrested. When you add the accessibilities of guns with this small number of repeated offenders and a system that refuses to hold them accountable, you are just going to have a continuous cycle. So yes, we’ve been successful in bringing down gun violence, confiscation of guns, bringing down homicides. But that pocket of individuals are repeatedly brought back into our system. We arrest them on Monday with a gun. They’re out Tuesday or Wednesday carrying another gun, committing a crime over and over again because the current structure does not compel us to hold them inside.
Some of them need some mental health support. 50 percent of the men and women at Rikers Island are dealing with mental health issues. 18 percent have severe mental health issues. Some of them need to be removed from society until they’re able to get the support they need that they don’t come back out and be disruptive.
We are not getting the support we need in that area. And each time we arrest someone that carries out a homicide, a shooting, or another violent crime, you look at their records, they have done it over and over and over again. It’s almost a mockery of the criminal justice system.
We’re going to do our part. I have an amazing team out there doing the law enforcement part of it. And we’re doing a lot of prevention work. We’re doing a lot of stuff around justice-involved young people, in general, to take them off the path of criminal behavior. But we have to go after those extreme recidivists. That is what’s driving some of the violence you see.
And we have to do what I started in the beginning of the year, some time last year, going after those with severe mental health illness that they cannot take care of their basic needs. That is some of the random acts of violence you’re seeing. These individuals, we should not wait until they commit a violent act to give them the support.
We need to utilize the laws that we have available now. Got a lot of pushback for that, but it was the right thing to do. And we’re seeing people turn their lives around because of that.
Pastor Straker: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. God bless your work.
Mayor Adams: Yes. Yes.
Giddings: Mr. Mayor, I’ve just been hit up by your team. They said that I’m over my time. And I tried to tell them it’s not me this time. They’re coming at me. But what I wanted to say, we have… Dr. Madad, are you there?
Dr. Syra Madad, Senior Director, System Special Pathogens Program, NYC Health + Hospitals: Yes. Good morning.
Giddings: Yeah. Dr. Madad is on also. Listen, this powerhouse panel that we have here is serving the city, the tri-state area, and the world. And we just partnered with 93.5 FM, so now we know that we’re going past a million listeners for sure.
Mayor, I want to tell everyone about your program that you’re now having on WBLS. And I’m a little bit offended, but we’ll talk about that offline. But congratulations on your new program on WBLS. You’re teaming up with Dawid. I know you’re not leaving me out, so we’ll work that out off-air.
Mayor Adams: Yeah. No, it was really kind of WBLS. It is just so important, J.R. And that’s why this show is so crucial to us. There must be direct-to-consumer communication. It’s just unimaginable when you think about it. All the things we’re doing, they’re just not reported, and the access to the things that are needed.
For example, jobs. We have 12,000 jobs that are waiting for New Yorkers. How do we have a 5 percent unemployment rate when you have 12,000 good-paying union jobs? I need to talk about that. Many people didn’t even report that the bond raters raised our bond rating in the city because of the way we’re managing the crisis. They’re not reporting that.
We have over 90,000 asylum seekers in this city. And unlike other cities, you don’t see tents around our city, people living in tents, or children living on the streets. We incorporate those children into our school system without any federal help.
And so the purpose of the radio show is similar to what you’re doing. It’s the expansion of what you’re doing. We have to communicate directly with consumers. That is what we’re doing. People need to hear directly from my administration, hold us accountable, make sure we’re living up to the promises.
But you look at the list of promises I made when I was campaigning, you see those are the promises kept. I said I was going to have a diverse administration, have the first Indian American that’s deputy mayor, first
Filipino, first Dominican American to be the deputy mayor in the history of the city.
First African American woman I appointed as a police commissioner. Now we have the first Puerto Rican appointed as a police commissioner in the history of the city. My Trinidadian deputy mayor, Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom. You see the Caribbean diaspora being appointed, my Korean Americans.
So I said I’m going to have a diverse administration. I have that. I stated I was going to lean into the support for our youth. We’re doing that. I stated we were going to go after dyslexia screening so we don’t have 30 percent of our inmates in jail being dyslexic. We’re doing that.
So all the things that we promised on the campaign trail, we are delivering on. And I need to let New Yorkers say that because no one is going to tell your story like you are going to tell it. And this is an expansion of what you have been doing from the time that we were fighting to get Covidunder control to now.
Giddings: Mayor Adams, I applaud you. I know that you’re going to give us as much time as you give WBLS. I’m not worried about that. But I just had to let everyone know that you’re on WBLS.
What we’re going to do, we’re going to continue to partner. And we’re partnering and we’re growing this thing, and we’re growing this thing. And that’s what’s important.
Look at the panel that we have here, some of the best minds in the country. We have Dr. Madad, an epidemiologist. We have Dr. [inaudible], the psychiatrist. We have Dr. Sri, breast cancer expert. We have Dr. Giddings, the pediatrician. We have the pastor. We have Rabbi Cohen. We have Nicole Jordan-Martin.
I mean, this is definitely an unbeatable team. We compliment what you’re doing. Okay? But your team has to know that you’ve got to just give us a little bit more time when you come here so we could get it out, we could get it out to all the communities. Thank you for your time.
Mayor Adams: And I always push it over the time limit. And listen, we want to tell folks in their community, we love people enjoying themselves and doing it in a free way, the Rise Up New York City concert series.
We have Wingate on Wednesday and Thursday. Now we’re headed to Midland Beach Park on Staten Island, Lot 8 on Thursday, July 27th. We’re going to be in Orchard Beach in the Bronx on Wednesday, August 9th, and Thursday, August 10th. And then we’ll do Roy Wilkins Park in Queens on Wednesday, August 16th, and the 17th. And we’re going to end up in Harlem around Harlem Week time on August 19th with some great concerts. So look out for the information.
But again, thank you, J.R. Really appreciate you, brother. Your panel is just unbelievable. People tell me all the time they tune in and hear just the expert, dedicated public servants and how much they care about the people of this city. Thank you. Look forward to seeing you on our monthly updates.
Giddings: Thank you, Mayor Adams. It’s always a pleasure. Such a pleasure to have you. Last, I would like to say this, though. I’d really like to say this because of the pushback that I get. We are not promoting the mayor, we’re supporting the mayor. That’s my point. We are not promoting. We are supporting.
Mayor Adams: Well said, brother. And let me tell you something. For those who… they look in the mirror and they realize that Eric looks like me, so I’m going to have some reason to critique him, remember, we did not have J.R. and this platform when David Dinkins was the mayor. And what we got in return? Rudy Giuliani. So let’s see. We got to think about that. Real people must deal with these real issues. You pray for me to depart, be careful of what you pray for.
Giddings: Well said, Mayor. Well said, Mayor Adams. We have nothing but love and respect for you.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Take care.
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