Commissioner Fred Kreizman, Mayor's Community Affairs Unit: ... since we started here, the first hour, by having, at each table, civic, community, community board leaders, members of the community to represent the leadership from not-for-profits, violence interrupters, tenant association heads, BID heads. The leadership of the community sitting together with members of the Mayor's Office, who are taking notes at each table, facilitators from agencies, principals or superintendents from our school system, as well executives from the Patrol Borough Bronx. So this evening, we are joined here by a dais here of deputy mayors, commissioners, the brass of the NYPD, and of course led by our mayor, Mayor Eric Adams. The run of show for today is going to be the mayor speaking, followed by DA Clark, and then Borough President Gibson. But just a brief reminder, everyone received Q&A cards.

Commissioner Kreizman: For any reason, if your question is not asked — and this happened in the first two community conversations — every single person's question is monitored by the Mayor's Office, sent out to city agency representatives based on your question, followed by our staff to ensure that each one of you gets a phone call back. The notes from each table is shared with the senior staff at City Hall to ensure the points at your tables come across. So this whole thing, the setting, is made for community dialogue, conversation, and to get your points across. So don't feel bad if your question isn't asked, we're going to ask each table to come across, how many tables we get through because of the heat. We apologize. The air conditioning did work here last week, it broke down this morning. They tried to fix it, it's kicked in now, but it's still hot here, so we apologize. And we're going to get started. So thank you everyone for participating, coming, and bearing with the heat. We really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Now, we welcome the mayor.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you for coming in and we want to engage in a dialogue, we want to make sure we give you as much time as possible. Up here, this is my leadership team, and I'm sure it's not lost on you that this leadership team looks like the City of New York. And that is the administration we're going to run, an administration that understands what everyday New Yorkers are going through because many of them have gone through the same thing. It doesn't matter if it's Ydanis Rodriguez, my DOT commissioner, who came here, fought for CUNY, fought for his rights. Learning English, and now is running the largest department of transportation, DOT, in the country. It doesn't matter if it's Gary Jenkins in charge of homelessness, who lived in a homeless shelter. It doesn't matter if it's Eric Adams, who is dyslexic, and understanding that 40% of our inmates right now on Rikers Island are dyslexic.

Mayor Adams: So this reflection of this administration is a reflection of everyday people. And we made history. First woman police commissioner, five deputy mayors that are women leading this city. Everywhere you look, we are continuing to make history. But what sucks the air out of the room of our success in this administration is public safety, crime. No one knows that better than the Bronx. I've been up here many days with Councilman Salamanca and Vanessa Gibson, our borough president, and so have many of our commanders, responding to the shooters, visiting families. Just Sunday, in Sunset Park in Brooklyn, sitting down with a mother who lost her 20 year old son, shot for his backpack. The police commissioner and I have spent too many nights in hospitals — at Jacobi hospital and Lincoln hospital —  and rallying to make sure that we deal with this real issue of violence.

Mayor Adams: And we know it's not just lock people up. We know there's intervention right now, but we know there's prevention. That's why we had 100,000 summer youth jobs, the largest in this city's history. 100,000 young people were in the summer school program so they didn't have to be on the streets. Midnight basketballs. We are really investing in our young people because we don't want them to be just another stat. By the time a young person gets a gun in his hand, we already failed. We failed already. We have to be proactive and prevent this violence, and that's what these conversations are about. Some of you I see here from Guns Down, Life Up, another of our crisis management teams. You're sitting next to the law enforcement men and women from this borough that understands what it is to keep us safe. So we want to turn it over to our district attorney, then our borough president, and then we're going to turn it over to you to engage in a real conversation and dialogue with you. Thank you very much.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you very much. So we'll get started so we can get to the most questions as fast as possible. Again, just asking the questions be brief, to the point, one question so we can move to the next table. Thank you. Bahir.

Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. For the first question of the night from table one, what is the city doing about the revolving door of recidivism to reduce crime?

Mayor Adams: And that's important and I want Deputy Mayor Wright to go over some of the things that we are doing, because we are a big believer that wraps ourselves around the concept of intervention and prevention. Intervention is what we need to do right now. There are too many guns on our streets, too many innocent people are being shot by just walking the street and by standards. And so intervention is right now. That is why we put in place our Neighborhood Safety Team, zeroing in on guns and gun violence. That is why we are fighting to make sure that we unbottleneck our court system so that those who are guilty of these violent acts are sure to serve the time that are handed down, but make sure that they have the legal and the fair justice system that they deserve. But then prevention is our larger platform. People focus on our intervention and our public safety, but they miss the largest platform we have is prevention. And Deputy Mayor Wright, can you go over some of that?

Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Strategic Initiatives: Thank you. I, along with AT Mitchell, who is also here today, co-chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force that has been hard at work looking at all of the upstream contributors to violence and gun violence in particular. And so there are a number of strategies that we are going to double down on as we continue the work. When you talk, for instance, about recidivism, there are programs and initiatives that come out of the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice and the Department of Probation that give people who have committed crimes additional supports so that they don't go back to commit more crimes. And there are some evidence-based studies around that. We're going to be working, and the chancellors here, within schools, where there are young people that might be overage and under-credited, at risk, that need specific interventions that are not just academic but mentoring, social services.

Deputy Mayor Wright: We're looking at employment opportunities. The commissioner from the Division of Youth and Community Development is here. How do we expand employment opportunities and career pathways for young people? So every single agency in the City of New York is putting forth solutions to upstream. Whether it's young people who are at risk or that are justice involved. And we really are focused right now, certainly, on the Bronx and Brooklyn. We're looking at the precincts. The police commissioner has identified the policings that have the highest levels of gun violence, and so it's precision. They do precision policing, we're trying to do precision intervention, and make sure that we are directing resources specifically to those communities.

Mayor Adams: And Deputy Commissioner Goodwin is here. Is Deputy Commissioner Goodwin from the Department of Probation is here? Yeah, share the program we're doing with the young people who are justice involved. Because Deputy Mayor Wright said something that many of you may have missed, precision policing is one thing but precision resources is another to prevent crime. We have to catch people who are falling through the net early and Deputy Commissioner Goodwin, can you go over what we're doing, the Department of Probation?

Deputy Commissioner Sharun Goodwin, Department of Probation: Hello everyone. So at the Department of Probation, we're making sure we're connecting all of our youth that are coming onto probation with the mentor, a lot of the Arches mentors is here, and working with credible messengers. So we also have NeONs, which is our Neighborhood Opportunity Networks, and in there we have lots of resources available not only to the people we serve on probation, but to the community. And we offer NeON Arts, NeON Sports, NeON Works, we have nutrition kitchens. It is open to everyone and not just the people we serve.

Mayor Adams: So those young people who are criminal justice involved, probation, every agency is about prevention and intervention, prevention, every agency, we are giving those young people mentors and the recidivism rate by those who have mentors are dismal compared to those who don't get involved in the justice system again. So that's how you stop the revolving door, you do it early, you identify who needs the assistance, and you do it in a precision way.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next question, Alex.

Question: Thank you, good evening. Our table has observed that when trying to solve problems, there's often a disconnect or a misalignment among city services. So the question is how can we see more alignment among city agencies and services to better deliver for the community?

Mayor Adams: Well, that's a great question. We are disconnected as a city and that's something that Deputy Mayor Wright has been focusing on. How do we align our resources? There's no reason that every precinct commander shouldn’t know every principal in their area. Everyone that's in the Department of Sanitation should be partnering with our Crisis Management Team. People are hiding guns and drugs on streets that are dirty yet no one in the Department of Sanitation is communicating with the Crisis Management Team if they want to clean up a block to do a block party. We're disconnected because we see ourselves, our agencies, as our own separate cities and silos.

Mayor Adams: Well, we came into city government with a sledge hammer and we're tearing down those walls. And we're going to operate as one team, as one city, and all of our resources will go together. Why are schools close at night when we need youth centers? We could use classrooms, swimming pools, gymnasiums. Why are we limiting the resources we have of this city to solve all of our pressing problems? We are aligning our agencies to operate as one unit and not as the siloed city that we have witnessed so many times and everyone is so territorial that we're getting nothing done. We're about tearing down those walls and operating together.

Commissioner Kreizman: Excellent. Thank you. Next question is table three, Angelica.

Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. So our table has a very specific question. Currently, crisis management groups are spread throughout the city. Can the city move anti-violence groups strictly to the highest crime areas based on local precincts' crime statistics?

Deputy Mayor Wright: So yes, and so what we're doing with the Gun Violence Task Force, and I'll ask AT Mitchell maybe to say a word about this again, is looking very specifically at where the highest crime is, looking at the current catchment areas of the Crisis Management Units. Now, what we know is that in order for those organizations to be successful, they have to be credible. And you can't just swoop in from one neighborhood, as we all know, and go into another one and set up shop. So the goal is to really cultivate and to build capacity in a specific neighborhood so that they can learn from other crisis management and really build that infrastructure where it's needed. But AT, did you want to say…

A.T. Mitchell, Co-chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force: Yes. Yeah, as been mentioned, as we know, the crisis management system as you see, they are present…

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry, AT, introduce yourself. Let them know who you are.

Mitchell: Yes. Oh, well good evening, everyone. How are you? I try to make my way around. I'm AT Mitchell, co-chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force here in New York, and I'm privileged again to be back in the Bronx. No stranger to the Bronx because of the organizations that already work — the Bronx community are very, very close allies and comrades of mine. But to the point around can we cover the entire Bronx, to date the answer is no. However, this administration, as has been mentioned, is working very closely to make sure that every organization and every neighborhood that is what is considered a hotspot is covered eventually. And so we just want to make sure that we're doing it right, we have the right trained boots that are on the ground, and we're working in unison, so that way we are making sure that we're making progress. So to date, we are yet to cover the entire Bronx, but this administration is overly committed to making sure that we do that very soon. So that's our answer to that question.

Mayor Adams: And AT Mitchell, Man Up! in East New York, Brooklyn, Crisis Management Team, a almost 30 year friendship. We talked about this from the days of my state Senate days. The first Crisis Management Team funding was my legislation in Albany, $5 million, Operation Snug, guns called backwards. That's the birth of the Crisis Management Team. I'm not new to this, I'm true to this. All of the Crisis Management Teams that are here, it came from a seed I planted in Albany with Malcolm Smith, the state senator, and we seeded Snug that gave way to this multimillion dollar crisis management operation that you are witnessing right now. It happened in Albany when I was a state senator, AT Mitchell was one of the architects that assisted us in getting this done. Now, he has partnered, not with a commissioner, not with a deputy commissioner, he's partnered with a deputy mayor to make sure you get the resources you need. That's the highest level of respect we have for what the crisis management men and women are doing every day in our city.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next table, Rohan.

Question: Sure. Good evening, everyone. The next question comes from a very passionate Bronx constituent who has a question to ask.

Question: Hi, good afternoon. Okay, I wanted to say that we know that everything starts with our younger generation, so our table came up with — how are we going to support local community programs, such as youth shelters, to be funded and supported by people in our community?

Mayor Adams: Go into that a little bit more for me. Go into it a little more. You said youth shelters.

Question: Yes, because it starts at the core. If they don't have anywhere to go and they're running to their friend's house, they're sleeping on the streets, they don't have stability. So how are we going to help them if they don't even have a roof over their head?

Mayor Adams: Got you. Well said, and you obviously is inside City Hall because we're making a big announcement tomorrow on this topic that you're raising. You're dead on. If you grow up in a homeless shelter, you're less likely to graduate from high school. If you don't educate, you will incarcerate. Our children are set up for failure. So, as Chancellor Banks says all the time, we have to drill in and put the resources where they're needed. In some communities, the resources are greater because children are dealing with larger challenges. We have focused on equality and not equity. This is an administration that's about equity because if you're giving everyone a suit, that's equal. But if I fit a size 44 suit and you're giving me a 34 suit, then you're not giving me what I need.

Mayor Adams: We need to give people what they need, and that's what this administration is doing. Tomorrow, we're making a major announcement on homelessness, but we need to open these school buildings, something called extended use I did as borough president. We ask you as nonprofits to volunteer your time and give back. Why are we charging you to use school buildings? We're charging you to pay for the school safety agents, the insurance, cleaning the building. We're saying no to that. We're saying if you are volunteering your time, we're going to allow you to use the school building, and we're going to pick up the cost from that with our extended use. That is the way you have to do it. Let's keep our children safe.

Commissioner Kreizman: Next table, David.

Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Our table no longer wanted to be a part of a culture of reacting, but rather a community that proactively works with elected officials, the community, and police to create a collaborative process on addressing the holistic needs of the community. And because of this, they came up with the question of how do we allow people with lived experiences, people that are invested in the community to be a part of the decision making process. So, really looking at the bottom up decision making process versus the top down process.

Deputy Mayor Wright: I think there are a couple of ways, and I'll ask maybe our DYCD commissioner to jump in. There is a participatory budgeting opportunity where we want people in community to make decisions about the investments that you want to see in your neighborhood. We have a Civic Engagement Commission, and I'm sure Fred can talk about a lot of ways that we really want to partner with you. We have youth councils that are connected to the NYPD, that are connected to the Department of Education. So there are many ways that we really want and need engagement, absolutely.

Commissioner Kreizman: The Mayor's Community Affairs Unit is all about that. Listening to the community leaders in all five boroughs that we have Alina Dowe, Paula Kiakus, the deputy commissioner, Valerie Velasquez. So please coordinate with our office. You should know all these names. They should be coming to your district service cabinet meetings, to your precinct council meetings, to all your organizations. Our office listens to all the ideas that you have, ensures that works with all the agency commissioners and the deputy mayors to ensure these ideas are brought to the highest levels. So again, my recommendation is to work with your borough directors, our deputy commissioners, and the Mayor's Community Affairs Unit to ensure your ideas are presented to the right people.

Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. The Bronx at this table feels that the Bronx is always last in a lot of variables. And so the question is, how do we ensure we have equitable access to the resources, which support the pillars of our communities, such as small businesses, houses of worship, schools, and others?

Mayor Adams: I've been up in the Bronx probably more times than previous administrations and years to come. I'm up here with your borough president. I'm up here with your Council persons, everything for our major investment in Hunts Point and the parks in that direction, bringing high-speed, broadband Wi-Fi here of several investments in our safe havens. Here, we were here, with our LGBTQ+ representatives as well. I'm up here a lot because I agree, the Bronx has been denied and you lead everything that's bad. Highest number of traffic fatalities and crashes, gun violence, crime, the struggles with your schools, small businesses. A former borough president, Ruben Diaz Jr., was really turning the corner in this borough, then COVID hit and it devastated this borough at such a level. Thank God we have current Borough President Gibson who's really turning the corner on what's needed in the Bronx.

Mayor Adams: And so I am zero laser-focused on the Bronx. We have to make sure that the Bronx is not forgotten, and it's going to take us working together. Our houses of worship. I was up here. I believe it was last week with all of my clergy from the Bronx talking about what can we do on the ground around housing, around mental health. There's a real mental health crises that's taking place in the city in general but specifically in this borough.

Mayor Adams: And so we need our houses of worship, our community groups. We need to come together as a unit and have a real plan in the course of action. And that's what we're doing as an administration. And you know what? We don't have to agree on everything. I don't agree with myself all the time. There's nothing wrong with that. But trust me, if you were to do an analysis on the things we do agree on, you're going to find we agree on far more than what we disagree on. So let's lean into what we agree on, and then we can always debate on those two or three things we disagree on. But we are going to be up here. This is not the last meeting. This is what we are going to do as an administration, engaging these real conversations and come out with real solutions.

Mayor Adams: Well, first, there was a process that we're having here. And when you respect your neighbors, you respect the process. You respect the process.

Mayor Adams: And so there's a process that we have here. You want to ask me a question when we're finished, I'm more than welcome to answer your question. But if you just want to disrupt a meeting, I'm not going to participate in that. If you want to ask me a question after, I hang around. But if you just want to yell and disrupt a meeting and disrespect everybody in this room, that's not going to happen. I will stay here to answer your question. I will stay here and answer your question. Is that okay? All right.

Commissioner Kreizman: So next question, next table. Everyone will have a chance…

Question: Good morning. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. So the question from this table is how will the administration address and enforce quality of life issues that affect public safety? And they could be about open drug use in the community, the second hand marijuana smoke, including dirt bikes, illegal vendors. And so some of the questions that we're addressing here.

Mayor Adams: So we'll let the police commissioner answer that. And I know Commissioner Maddrey has been zero focus on illegal dirt bikes. We heard you. We responded. So we're going to turn it over to the commissioner. And then chief manager, you could go with some of the dirt bike initiative.

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, Police Department: So thank you for that question. So we firmly believe that, and the data has shown us, which is important because when I talk about data, there are people behind that data. We're talking about people who are complaining about exactly what you're describing, which are the quality of life offenses that make life a little less pleasant for us all to live in. And that comes about loud parties. You're talking about marijuana smoking, like you said. People who are playing dice on the corner. These things create conditions that may lead to more serious offenses. If I can stop a game that's becoming disruptive, if I can stop a house party that's too loud, maybe a shooting can be prevented. Not in all cases but in some. And people are complaining about these things. We have a number of 311 calls where people are saying, "Please, do me a favor, shut down this loud party."

Commissioner Sewell: “Please do me a favor and take care of this quality of life issue,” because it really comes down to how comfortable you feel walking down the street. Nobody wants to go to a store where there are people hanging out in front of it, and then in some ways, they're intimidating. So we're answering those quality of life concerns. And as you see with the dirt bike initiative that we have and the ATVs that we're taking off the street, sometimes they're going in the wrong direction. They're taking up streets. They're circling people in traffic, and they're creating a nuisance. So when people complain about us enforcing quality of life concerns that are bothering people, these are actually concerns that people have expressed to us that we have to address. So I'll ask Chief Maddrey to talk about his ATV initiative.

Chief of Patrol Jeffrey Maddrey, Police Department: Thank you. Thank you, commissioner. And good evening to the Bronx. Thank you. Over the past couple of weeks, we've started this ATV initiative, and I actually call it Operation RIDA, R-I-D-A, removing illegal dirt bikes and ATVs. That's what it's called. So when we started it and we've — at first, we went over to the Rockaways because we had some serious complaints in the Rockaways, and we were just figuring out how to do this the best way that we can. We went to the Rockaways. We had some success. We actually trained with our highway unit. We work with our intel unit to get to understand more about where the bikes are being hidden. We listened to the community. Many people were telling us where the riding was occurring and where they were congregating. And over the past few weeks, we were just getting better and better.

Chief Maddrey: Right after that week in the Rockaways, we went to Brooklyn. We took over a hundred bikes in Brooklyn in one day. The following week we came to the Bronx and Chief Phil Rivera and all the men and women of the Bronx along with the members of my office, we took over 200 bikes in one day in the Bronx — 200 bikes. Not an easy task but we did it and we are going to continue to do it. We were here in the Bronx again last week. We took close to another a hundred bikes.

Chief Maddrey: And since we've been doing it over the last couple of weeks, we are at about 8, 900 bikes. We're moving them heavy, but it seems like as much as we take them, they keep coming back. So again, Bronx, I'm going to ask you for your help. We need you to keep telling us the locations you see them. Reach out to the commanders, reach out to Community Affairs, reach out to your borough commander. Let us know where we need to be. Let us know where the activities are occurring and we will respond accordingly, and we will remove those bikes. So thank you for your support. We'll continue to push that.

Mayor Adams: And it's so important because there's a connection. Chief Maddrey... And he's telling about the bikes he removed. What he didn't share with you is that in many of those bikes, we found illegal guns. We watched throughout the previous years that those paper plates that you see, those unregistered cars with paper plates, we are seeing the connection that people are stealing them. They're stealing rental cars. They're putting paper plates on them, and they're doing stickups, robbery patterns that we're closing.

Mayor Adams: Those dice games that the commissioner is talking about. You get those 311 calls. It turns into shootings. When you don't deal with the quality of life issue, they turn into taking lives. That's why we are not going to sit back and just watch every day people who want to live in clean, safe communities have to deal with the disruption. Our bike initiative is not going after motorcycle riders who have their bikes registered, who are following the laws and following the rules. That's not what we're doing, but we are going after those illegal bikes, not registered, harming and making it dangerous for our community to say, "This is not the city we are going to live in because you don't deserve to live in a city like that." And I thank this initiative that the chief has been leading, and we're seeing real results with it.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next question, Kevin.

Question: Good evening, sir. We had a very robust conversation. And the question that we have is, there have been a continuous pipeline of services and service providers who move in and out of our communities. How do we incentivize these organizations so that they buy in and stay in our communities? So they create that relationship, that synergy with the communities that they're meant to serve.

Deputy Mayor Wright: One of the things that we're doing is creating a Mayor's Office of Nonprofits so that there can really be a focus on the nonprofit sector. Making sure, one, that they get paid on time. But they also have the capacity to meet the needs of the community. So really providing technical assistance, the capacity-building. We know that the city really can't get its work done without nonprofits as partners. And we have to be much more focused as you're suggesting on that sector to make sure that we are in real partnership with them and that they're really meeting the needs of the community. So that is a focus.

Deputy Mayor Wright: Yeah. So when we came into the administration... I mean, and one of the challenges I think that nonprofits have is that when they contract with the city, they'll do the work for a year and not get paid. So it makes it difficult for them to dig, put the roots down and do some of the things that you said. When we came in, we had hundreds of nonprofits that were owed $5 billion with a B. They had been working for a year and more and not gotten paid. So we started an initiative. And in 12 weeks, we cleared $4.25 billion of money that they were owed to make sure that they got the resources that they deserve. So those are some of the things that we are doing.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next table, Paula.

Question: Hello, sir. Echoing the importance of agencies collaborating to provide resources in areas that need it the most. Not everything should fall on the NYPD to deal with mental health and homeless issues. What is being done to make sure precincts and transit districts are adequately staffed?

Mayor Adams: Who's our Department of Health that was just...

Commissioner Kreizman: The first deputy commissioner.             Deputy Mayor Wright: Yeah, Torian.

Mayor Adams: Okay. Torian is here?

First Deputy Commissioner Torian Easterling, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: Good evening. Thank you, mayor. Thank you to the Bronx for having us this evening. What I'll just say is the top line is addressing mental health certainly with the way that the violence impacts our community is a high priority for this administration. One of the things that we think about, I think, is really important that we all know that is available. NYC Well is one of our robust call lines that really connect individuals, New Yorkers to community mental health services throughout the city. Really making sure that we are addressing substance use, behavioral health issues. And I think it's really important that we always have this as top of mind because this is a really important asset that we have throughout the city. But I think the other things that are also important particularly as we think about how mental health, behavioral health intersects with violence.

First Deputy Commissioner Easterling: One of the things that we do look at is certainly how a number of different health issues are overlay with where we see high rates of gun violence incidents. We're really working hard with our colleagues at Health + Hospitals, NYPD to drive forward interventions that are going to connect people to community mental health services such as our mobile intensive treatment centers, our support and connection centers.

First Deputy Commissioner Easterling: The plan is to open up support and connection centers in the Bronx. And so we're really excited about that as well as our mobile crisis teams. These are ways in which we are connecting individuals to community mental health services. We're connecting them to our H + H systems across the city because we know that addressing the root cause of violence is the way that we do prevention. And then when we think about prevention more broadly, one of the things that we also know is that we have to take care of our workforce. And so all of our Cure Violence workers who are doing the yeoman's work of making sure that we prevent violence. We're providing wraparound services, treatment services, trauma services for our Cure Violence partners and our hospital violence staff as well. I think this is really important that we think about ways in which we are not only supporting the community but also the workforce that are also protecting the community as well.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next person. Next table. Tiffany.

Question: Good evening, mayor. My table has... We covered a lot of the safety issues and the safety concerns. And you guys have answered a lot of the questions, but one main question that wasn't answered is, how do we deepen this conversation and this event and what's next?

Mayor Adams: What's next is in the room. And what I'm hoping that we do is that we exchange information with each other. And based on your passion area, some of your passion may be around young people. Then everyone in this room should know the organizations that are supporting the services of young people and coalesce together. Some of yours may be around older adults. You should coalesce with the other organizations that are dealing with older adults.

Mayor Adams: Some may be job placement, some may be health. So people often talk about the siloing in our government, but we also are dealing with the siloing of organization. You can walk on one block and at the one end of the block, you will have a nonprofit for financial literacy. In the middle of the block, you have a nonprofit for financial literacy. And at the other end of the block, you have a nonprofit for financial literacy. We got to stop the duplication of the same services and coalesce around services. So we should use this moment to find out who you are and what you represent and what's your passion and coalesce. So the resources we have can go to the bodies of the organizations and not spread thin to many organizations doing the same thing. So this is an introduction so you can meet each other. Now let's move to working together with each other.

Commissioner Kreizman: Excellent. Next table. We have Ed.

Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Our question focuses around school safety agents, which are a vital part of keeping our schools working and successful. We have seen a significant decrease of school safety agents in the Bronx and throughout the city since the pandemic. Is there any plan to return to those levels of staffing or increase them?

Mayor Adams: First of all, I love that question and the chancellor’s here. But that's an open door to a bigger problem we're having. Do you know how many jobs we have that we can't fill? I don't understand this. We have high unemployment and high needs of workers. We have good paying city jobs that we can't fill. And one of those jobs that we have that we can't fill enough of our school safety agents. I mean, good jobs. So we are going to be listing all the jobs that we have in city government, all the jobs. And all of you that know someone that's looking for a job, we're asking you apply for these good civil service union, pension, healthcare salary jobs.

Mayor Adams: And I love my school safety agents. They do more than protect the children in the schools. Many of them are predominantly Black and brown women. They know the names of all of these children. They treat them like their own. There was one school in the Bronx where they were bringing in clothing for the children who didn't have clothing. So our goal is — while others say remove school safety agents, no, I'm not with that. I believe we need to have a safe environment for our children with respectable school safety agents, and they're doing an unbelievable job in these schools. Chancellor Banks, you want to add anything to that?

Chancellor David Banks, Department of Education: I would just simply say — also, just to echo really what the mayor has said — there are opportunities not just with school safety but in a whole host of different areas. But when the opportunity presents itself, we have to be ready. The district attorney and I were just sitting here saying there were folks that we know who a job became available, they fit the credential, all the criteria, but they like to smoke weed. That's real talk.

Chancellor Banks: So all of a sudden now the opportunity that was there right in front of you is not there for you. So there are opportunities that are there. We have to continue to make sure that our young people are ready. And we have to — those are the kinds of things that we have to focus on. But I also want to just take a moment here and say while I'm here, those of you who are part of the New York City public school system, if you're in the building right now, let us hear you. If you're here from New York City principals, educators, so happy that you are here. If you are one of the superintendents that are leading our school districts around the Bronx right now, please wave your hand. Everybody needs to know that you're here.

Mayor Adams: Tell them to stand up.

Chancellor Banks: Please stand up, stand up. I want everybody to make sure that they know that you are here. We went through a painstaking process over these last several months of selecting the superintendents for across New York City. And I'm glad to see that the Bronx came out strong because leaders matter. And it is critically important that we selected the right leaders to lead every district across the Bronx. I'm glad to work with each and every one of you. What you do every single day is going to make a difference in the lives of all of our young people. There's a lot of talk around restoration of budget and everything else. Issues around dollars are always going to be there. There's not an unlimited amount of money, but what we need to recognize is this. New York City has a $38 billion budget for its schools. Think about that.

Chancellor Banks: But yet the mayor says all the time, 65% of Black and brown kids never achieve reading proficiency with $38 billion, never learn to read properly. The issue is not around restoration of cuts. That's not the biggest part of the issue. The issue is what are we doing with the money that we have? Why is it that we have $38 billion and kids can't read?

Chancellor Banks: And I offer this to you. Our fundamental approach to how we have been educating our children has been flawed. We have to reimagine, and we are reimagining with these leaders that you see here. A whole different approach to how we're educating young people, how they're experiencing school in the first place. We should not feel good about the fact that we graduate young people who have no idea, borough president, what you even do. They don't know, councilmen, what you do? They don't even understand how government operates, and yet we spend $38 billion. They don't understand how to even open up a bank account, how to invest their money. The mayor talks about this all the time. We are in the global capital of the world, and yet we are graduating young people who don't even know how to open up a bank account. And yet we give them a certificate and say, "Congratulations." Congratulations for what? Congratulations for what?

Chancellor Banks: If we are not putting young people on a pathway to careers that actually matter, school safety is one, that is a job. But I want you to understand what it means to be an investment banker as well. I want you to understand what it means to be a scientist or an architect so that when you graduate, you can get off mommy and daddy's payroll. Say amen, somebody.

Chancellor Banks: That's what this is about. It's not about just going to school. We need to be smarter with the money that we have. This stimulus money that we have is going to run out. It is not lasting forever. So whether or not you deal with it now, or the mayor says, we're going to deal with it later, we are going to have to deal with it. But if we are smarter about the approach that we are taking and making sure that our kids get the bright starts, that they need, that sets them up for a bold future, that's when this system will ultimately make sense. That's what we are committed to.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you very much. Can we go to the next table, Tony.

Question: Mr. Mayor, that energy from the chancellor definitely helps what we had a discussion over here, and it goes back to what we've said in the other forums. What plans does the city have to provide opportunities for paid internships, also bring in co-op programs back in our public schools, and create workshops to educate our young people on obtaining and sustaining gainful employment and business ownership?

Mayor Adams: Well, I went through and many people don't know about the co-op program, Tony, that you're talking about. I went through the co-op program. I worked one week. I had a job another week, and it was extremely important. Deputy Mayor Wright is working on a 100% paid internship program for our children year-round, which is extremely important. As the chancellor stated, we are really leaning into CTEs. Carpenters, plumbers, electricians, computer programmers. All of these skills are employable.

Mayor Adams: I had the first of its kind program in Brooklyn, in the Brooklyn STEAM Center, where our young people were getting certifications by the time they graduate. Do you know what a HVAC repair person makes? These are real good jobs. So putting our children on a pathway to employment, gainfully employment, that's our mission. That is the mission that we are focusing on. But I know Deputy Mayor Wright some of the partnerships she's doing with Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer about bringing our business community into opening their doors and doing paid internships, to expose our children to the possibilities that they deserve.

Commissioner Kreizman: Okay. Next question, Edo.

Question: Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. We have had multiple engagements with the city in the past, but failed to see a long term plan or change. How will this time be different? As an example, and we tie this to larger city issues, homelessness and mental health issues, we discussed the proliferation of both. But we want to know what is the city's long term vision to address these. For example, we discussed the proliferation of shelters as a short-term plan, but not one that is a long-term plan. What is a long-term thread of what the end result looks like? Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Someone stopped me and said, "Listen, man, you failing us, man. The streets are dirty. Crime is up. Our schools are not doing well." I said, "Ma'am, this is January 3rd. I just got here three days." Listen, these are generational problems. Homelessness didn't start January 1st. Crime didn't start January 2nd. The failure of schools, as the chancellor just stated, 65% of Black and brown children not meeting proficiency did not start this year. These are generational betrayals that we're turning back. How do we do it? By being honest and facing them on the ground. We were walking past people living in tents in shanty towns and acting like we didn't see them and advocating they should have a right to live that way. No, they should have a right to be in shelters and then move into permanent housing. That's what they should have a right to do, not to live with drug paraphernalia, human waste, dirty clothes, not access to showers. Healthy food, going into a healthcare system.

Mayor Adams: When you are in a crisis or you have chronic diseases, we are being proactive in our approach. We had over 2,000 low-income housing that was sitting there empty. Our Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz came in, and we already cleaned up a thousand of them, and we're going to continue to fast-track. We have abandoned NYCHA for years. We were able to get the land trust. Everyone tried to get it, but you know what? NYCHA, we got it, and now NYCHA residents are going to be picking their contractors. Making sure those slips are closed correctly and not just closed any type of way. Changing the whole landscape of NYCHA. Housing is our number one issue that we need to face to deal with how people feel like they're being left out, and it's a huge challenge, because don't let anyone kid you. When we try to build returning citizen housing, our brothers and sisters who are incarcerated and it's coming home, the same people who advocate that, "Hey, we need this housing." Then they say, "You can put it on any street, but my street." Let's not be hypocrites folks.

Mayor Adams: If we really want housing, then when we start to build this housing, we need to open up our neighborhoods and allow people to be in the housing that we're building. That's our biggest challenge. No one wants the housing in their community that they're advocating for. But we are going to build it in every community, because these are our neighbors, and we want to make sure we house the people in this city. That's our long-term focus.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next question is going to come from Malcolm.

Question: Good evening, mayor. First, our table, we had great people here. It was a combination of principals and police. Unfortunately, the principals had to go home because they got schools to run tomorrow. So they bowed out gracefully, but they did leave a question. I do want to thank Captain Gutierrez and Sergeant Santana for participating in the meeting. Y'all answered most of them. It was these two I got. Not too many. They're looking for more safety agencies, more safety agents. That's one. But they're looking to find out how to create more CMS groups that can network with the safety agents so that they can resolve issues before they start? That's one. The other is how to create the dialog in improving relationships between NYPD and men of color in the community. Each group wants the right to be respected. Each group wants to thrive. Each group wants to go home at the end of the day and each group has the right to pursue the American dream.

Mayor Adams: Great question. Commissioner, you want to talk about that and the chancellor can talk about school safety?

Commissioner Sewell: So, we'll go backward. I'll answer the question about NYPD and the communities. We can't do anything without the community and you're absolutely right, and I'm so glad you said that the way that you did, that we all have the same needs. We all want to go home. We all want to be respected, but these types of relationships start here, right? They start with these connections, with us being able to talk to each other and come together and understand the needs and wants of both. But we are the same, as you just pointed out so well. So we have to make sure we come together as part of the community, to be able to air our issues and our concerns and where we can go from here. We have community affairs. We have youth officers. We have a number of different initiatives that we have that can come together and make us all understand how we can work better together.

Commissioner Sewell: It starts with these meetings. It starts in PAL. It starts every time we come together, the first time someone speaks to a police officer, shouldn't be a negative encounter. It should be a positive encounter where you feel as though, "This is someone I can go to and speak to who I have something in common with," because at the end of the day, you're absolutely right, we all do want to go home at the end of the day for our families. So I think as long as we have that dialog, and as long as we have members of the NYPD and members of the community that are willing to come together, I think that's how we affect change. Since the chancellor did so, I would just like for everyone to see the members of the NYPD in this room who are here to have this dialog to make sure we come together, could you all stand up, please? The members of the NYPD. This is truly an extraordinary group…

Mayor Adams: Hold on. Tell them to stay. Hold on, hold on. Stand up, stand up. Stay standing, stay standing. Stay standing. Now, I bet you any kind of money. That's not going to be shown on the news. I bet you. I bet you any kind of money, they're not going to show on the news how much we appreciate each other because that doesn't sell. What sells is that we're at odds with each other. It doesn't sell when you look around this room and you see the diversity of the men and women in the white shirt. That doesn't sell. It doesn't sell that you are here on your time because you're concerned about the Bronx being safe. That doesn't sell.

Mayor Adams: It doesn't sell about your commitment, the hours you put in, how much time you deal with knocking on doors of people and the victims of the crime, how you go after hours to make sure they have the basic things they need to go and deal with. They're traumatized. None of that sells. None of that sells, and so I know you take a lot of heat. I know Twitter and Facebook and Instagram want to define you, but you need to hear the applause, because the people here that want law and order, they appreciate you. They appreciate you, and always remember that.

Chancellor Banks: Amen. I would like to say this, just to add to that. We identified 140 schools across the city, many of them in the Bronx, that have had some real significant challenges. And we know that it can't all be responded to by NYPD, but we need NYPD. They can't all be responded to by school safety, but we need school safety. But we also need those men and women from our community who are credible messengers who are here every day. Who live here each and every day. So let me just tell you what we have done. This is not just talking rhetorically. This is what we have done and what we're getting ready to lay out as we start the beginning of this school year. Where's Aaron Barnett? Aaron Barnett in the back there with the pink shirt on.

Chancellor Banks: Just so everybody knows. I want you to just know who this brother is because he's leading the effort for us working together with Deputy Mayor Wright at focusing on these credible messengers, neighborhood organizations, mentor organizations who have come together from around the city. Well, over 100 organizations that we've already identified and that we are going to fund. We're not just asking them to show up and volunteer. They've been doing that for years. We're going to put some dollars behind this, and we're going to put them out there on the front lines with our kids. They can't save everybody, but every one of these schools got 10 kids in there that if you could help them, you could transform the whole school.

Chancellor Banks: If you ask any principal in the room, they can tell you their names, Rodney, Kenyatta. They can name them right now, and brother Barnett is going to be leading that work. It is already identified. They've been working for months on this. As we start the school year, you're going to be hearing about this. The mayor will make an official announcement. But if you are aware of any community group, that should be a part of that work. That's the brother to see in the back. That's why the mayor does this, so that we all come together and we know who to connect with. That's why I want to shout him out, so you know who to see when the meeting is over and we break up. Please have a conversation with brother Aaron Barnett. Thank you, Aaron.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you very much. Next, Anthony.

Question: Good evening. Question, they've posed is the following. Are there any plans by your administration which can develop a collaborative effort between the NYPD and community stakeholders to begin to make their neighborhoods safe?

Commissioner Sewell: So the answer is yes. I think if anyone doesn't know what COMPStat is, COMPStat by far is probably one of the greatest crime fighting tools we have. But COMPStat has been around for a very long time. How do we change that? How do we bring the voices of the community into the NYPD? We make it better. So going forward, we are actually probably going to announce maybe at the end of the summer, we're going to do COMPStat a little bit differently; a separate set of COMPStat, where we actually bring the community and multiple agencies into the Police Department. So we can hear your ideas, we can hear what your issues are, and I think the best way to illustrate that, are the T-shirts that are here in the front that basically read, "It takes a village," because it does, and we recognize that in the NYPD.

Commissioner Sewell: Far too often, we go to communities and we tell you what we're going to do for you. What we're going to ask you to come tell us what you need from us. So you're going to see that probably toward the end of the summer, when we're able to get that ramped up. We're going to bring the voices of our communities, of the Bronx, of Queens, of Brooklyn, Staten Island, every single community we serve. We want to have representation in the Jack Maple Center to be able to tell us what you need as a community. All we can do is find out what our communities need the most from us, and be able to act on that in real time. So you're going to see that going forward.

Commissioner Kreizman: Excellent. Okay. Next question, Karen.

Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. With all that's going on in the Bronx to the youth. In some precincts, there are well-trained youth officers who help coordinate services and safety of the children in the community. Are there plans to extend this program so that all communities in the Bronx have ample support from the NYPD for the children's safety, as well as formulation training programs so youth offices have the same training and precinct to precincts, and please allow the offices, the youth to come in earlier instead of 11:00, maybe have them start at 8:00? Thank you.

Commissioner Sewell: I'm going to ask Chief Corey, do you mind answering? Chief of Department Ken Corey?

Chief of Department Kenneth Corey, Police Department: Thank you. Good evening, everybody. So the question about youth officers. So there are youth officers in every precinct, and the number of youth officers varies a little bit precinct to precinct because quite frankly, it has to do with the number of people that live in the precinct, and therefore the number of youth, right? Every community is not the same. We do have a good training program for our youth officers. That training is going to even continue to be further enhanced. Our Deputy Commissioner Chauncey Parker was very much involved in youth strategies. He couldn't be here tonight, but he has a tremendous amount of ideas and work that go into that, but really the key to any of these positions in the police department is selection. How do we select our youth officers? Because in order to be really effective as a youth officer, you have to have a passion for working with the youth, and we haven't always done that.

Chief Corey: So as we go through that, and we make sure that if you're not the right person for this role, that's fine, we move you into something else, and we identify the person who is. The person who's truly passionate about working with the youth. So those youth officers are going to get better and better. The question you had about the hours that they do. So particularly during the school year, we want those officers around when schools are out. We don't need them sitting around when the kids are in school. I want them out at school dismissal time, to be there, to provide a safe space for the kids to come from school, to get to the bus, to get to the train, and then I want them in the parks and the playgrounds, because that's where the youth are, and that's what they're doing right now.

Chief Corey: So I could bring them in at 8:00 in the morning, but then their shift ends at 3:30, 4:00 in the afternoon. I'd rather have them here later in the afternoon and into the early evening hours, and in a park, in a playground, and that's where their precinct commanders task them. That's where you are going to find them every day.

Commissioner Kreizman: Excellent. Thank you. Next question’s coming from Alina.

Question: Hi, good evening. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for coming to the Bronx. We actually have a youth leader here at our table, and they were very concerned about drugs being the driving force of crime. The question is, how are you going to address the needs for anti-drug use messaging and implement accountable processes that will hold your New York City agencies and their contracted organizations accountable to share that message?

Mayor Adams: Thank you for that. We're going to have one of these meetings with just young people, and we want the young person or the youth leader who shared that with you. We want them to help us draft and craft the message because they know how to reach their population better than what we could do, and so we would like them to be part of craft in that message. Once we do that, we want to do everything from social media to billboards, to whatever methods they see fit, because we want it to be youth-driven.

Commissioner Kreizman: Excellent. Thank you. Next question from Pastor Gil Monroes.

Question: Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. How are you going to finally implement a structure of accountability that consistently brings quality services to communities that need it the most, especially NYCHA?

Mayor Adams: Well, as the commissioner stated about using COMPStat. We need a real-time system of seeing the services we provide. We hired an amazing chief technology officer, and he's looking at how do we use technology to look at the delivery of services in our city? We have not been doing that. I always quote my mother say, "You have to inspect what you expect or it's all suspect." There's been a lot of suspect things going on in particularly the city and in the Bronx in general. So our goal, when you look at NYCHA, as we move in using technology to see the tickets, how long the tickets are open, how long it took to repair? From everything from lead abatement to fixing cabinets, to fixing leaks, to painting. Everything has fallen into a black hole, and no one is really monitoring what's happening day to day. That's not the administration that we are running. We want to run a real-time technology-driven system that allow us to know where our progress is and not stay stagnant.

Commissioner Kreizman: So next question from Ariel.

Question: Hello, Mr. Mayor. What actions and/or measures are being taken to address inequity in funding sources and capacity building for smaller social service agencies and MWBEs to provide direct resources and funding to the community, to be more self-sufficient, proactive, and responsible for their own community building from within?

Mayor Adams: I love that. Nothing frustrates me more than if you have a Yemeni’s need in a Yemeni’s community and someone from outside that community is providing services to that community. Then you want to subcontract one of the community leaders to do the services. Why can't they be the prime contractor? Why, if you are running in a Dominican domestic violence group, why we need someone outside the Dominican community subcontracting a Dominican organization to do it? Why can't the Dominican organization be the prime contractor? We constantly have these larger entities going in providing services on the ground because the largest entities don't have enough street credibility to provide services on the ground.

Mayor Adams: So you cannot provide services for NYCHA, if you are afraid to walk up into NYCHA and knock on apartment 4D. We want to look at the local community-based organization, and have direct-to-consumer interaction. But what does that mean? It means what I said earlier. We cannot have 100 groups in the same zip code doing the same thing. Everyone has their own board. Everyone has their own treasurer. Everyone has their own chair of the board. There's just not enough money to do that. So we need the organizations and groups to come together and say, "Let's bring all of our strengths together." This way we can bring and have direct interaction with the different groups, particularly as diverse as this city. We want local community groups to provide the services. Why? Because they're doing it for the people and not for the profit. You get a different outcome when you're doing it because you have that real compassion for it, and that's where our focus is.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you very much. Next question from Lamona.

Question: Good evening, everyone. Mayor Adams, there's a program called the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, and apparently it lasts for 17 months. So it is said that that program is about to end. So the question is, are there any other programs or initiatives in store to avoid mass evictions?

Mayor Adams: Gary's here. Gary Jenkins, our commissioner.

Commissioner Gary Jenkins, Department of Social Services: Yes. Good evening. Good evening, Bronx. Y'all still awake, right? All right. Okay. So the Emergency Rental Assistance Program is administered by the state. That's OTDA, not by the city. But we encourage everyone to please, if you have rental arrears sign up for ERAP. Because when you sign up for ERAP, it gives you those protections as far as evictions will be not expedited. They have to go through that process, review your application and make a determination. However, the Human Resources Administration, HRA, as many of you know, we offer the eligibility for a One Shot Deal. So if you have any emergency, that agency, our agency is here to assist those who need it.

Commissioner Jenkins: So please, you can apply online through ACCESS HRA, apply for One Shot Deal. We will make that determination and we want to make sure that every New Yorker who's in a predicament of rental arrears knows first to sign up for ERAP. But also HRA is here, and HRA has your back to make sure that we are determining your eligibility. I will be remiss if I did not ask my team from DSS to please stand up. These are important people. Karen, Jill, Jamar, we are here to service you because we are here for you. We are your public servants. Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Yeah, I was knocking on doors, Saturday? Saturday, I was out with our Public Engagement Unit knocking on doors, telling folks in the Bronx. I was in the Bronx knocking on doors with them. We were walking in the streets. We had about 20, 30 CUNY interns joining us, and what we are doing, we've learned that we're sending millions, if not billions of dollars, back to Washington, D.C. in the state of services, real services that people are not signing up for because it's just too complicated to sign up for. You have SCRIE, senior assistance, DRIE, monies that you can actually freeze their rent. SNAP, people are living in food insecurity and they are eligible for SNAP benefits. The different tax incentives that we were able to pass in Albany. So we are not sitting back and say, "Shame on you for not coming and learning about what you are eligible for." We're saying, "Shame on us as a city, that we are not going out and let you know what you are eligible for."

Mayor Adams: So we are knocking on doors, ringing doorbells, telling people, "Do you know, you are eligible for SCRIE? Let us sign you up for it." Now, where are we going in the future? In the future, we are looking at our residents and their profiles. We have your data. So why are we waiting to let you know you're eligible for all these things? We're going to cross-connect all of our agencies and all the benefits that you are available for and notify you that, "Do you know you're eligible for SNAP, for SCRIE, for DIE, for WIC." We need to let you know what this city has for you because it's your tax dollars. We were knocking on doors this weekend. We're going to be continuing to knock on doors because we believe in being in the streets and meeting people where they are so they can get the resources they need.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next question from Miguel.

Question: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and the executive leadership. The question is how can students start an apprenticeship/vocational program immediately when they start high school and not wait for the 10 credit requirement to begin a transfer or job core requirement?

Chancellor Banks: That's where we're going. That's a big part of what we're getting ready to do. We are creating a career pathways initiative, that's really going to be the north star for this administration. And so the way we've been doing it in the past, we're not going to have to wait to accumulate a certain number of credits. We want students. In fact, we're going to be starting this as early as middle school with much more career awareness programs that are going to be in place. And by the time our kids are actually in high school, we're going to have them fully connected into the world of work in the 21st century economy.

Chancellor Banks: And it's not just trade positions, but it's the biotech industry. It's the fintech industry. It's just so many ways for our young people to plug in and to have real jobs, so that's where we're going. We're building it out now. We're going to be announcing some things as soon as the school year begins. So stay tuned. There's a lot of news that's getting ready to come.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next question. Coming from Jerry.

Question: Yes. Hello, honorable mayor and leaders. My question from this table is now... Sorry, I had to put on my glasses. Now and when will we get additional resources to address mental illness? Can we expand community partnership and youth employment to curb violence?

First Deputy Commissioner Easterling: The short answer is yes. This is something that we absolutely want to do. We want to continue to support our community-based organizations to provide mental health support, connect individuals, to the type of resources in our community. But I think the number one thing that we have to remember, and this is something that we've been pounding the pavement with. We need the language about how to talk about mental health and mental illness. I mean, that is very important.

First Deputy Commissioner Easterling: We know that stigma is really prevalent in our communities. We need people not to be shameful about addressing mental illness, not just our physical illness, but how do we talk about depression and stress and anxiety? I'm sure everyone in this room in the past two years have dealt with some type of stress and anxiety. What is the language that we can use and how do we ask for help? And that's what we are talking about. And so we absolutely want to increase resources to community based organizations, to our schools, to our healthcare systems, to make sure that people have access to the right type of services.

Commissioner Keith Howard, Department of Youth and Community Development: Hello, everyone. I just want to just add that. As you're going to be seeing as DYCD is moving forward with our contracts, especially the after school COMPASS and SONYC and a few of the beacon and cornerstone. You're going to see the language in the contract that's going to focus specifically that anyone that's awarded those contracts have to have a mental health component. Regardless of whether or not is in the program or outsourced. So the mayor had made that a signature requirement and you're going to see moving forward, all of our contractors are going to have that component.

Commissioner Kreizman: Excellent. Next question from Valerie.

Question: Thank you, mayor. My table was filled with proud Bronx sites, many educators who feel unsafe in their home. They want to see legislative changes as it relates to public safety. They want you to explain the division of power between the mayor's office and the state legislature to enact those necessary changes. And then lastly, they want to know what they can do to make sure that these necessary changes are implemented.

Mayor Adams: That's such a great question. I was talking to someone last week and they said, you know what, Eric, all it seems like you want to do is lock people up. That's all it seemed like you wanted to do. And I told them, I need you to Google and look at all of the reforms that you're hearing today that took place in Albany, those were my bills. When I was in the state Senate, this is what I advocated from. Some people don't even know I had an organization called 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. You talking about your history being rewritten.

Mayor Adams: No, 90% of people have benefited from the reforms that went through Albany, 10% are exploiting those reforms. They're repeated individuals who have made up their minds that they're going to bring violence in our city. Those are the individuals we need to zero in on. You can't have 30 arrests for burglary and still get out the next day. You can't constantly be caught with a gun and commit a homicide. We can't have those people who are repeated offenders. That is my focus. My focus is on the parts of the law that are allowing repeated offenders, not the 90% of the people who learn from their mistakes, they get the assistance that they needed. We're not trying to keep people incarcerated. That's not the goal, but there are some dangerous coldblooded killers that are among us and don't feel as though they have to deal with any form of behavior, or any form of reprisals for their actions.

Mayor Adams: That is the part of the reform we are pushing for. That's what I need people to focus on, and I'm going to continue to talk to Albany about it. I think that what they did is commendable of dealing with the reforms they put in place, but those 10% that we need to deal with is something we need to focus on. Let me give you a perfect example of what we're doing, that's very dangerous. You have a gun in a car. That gun is on — everybody see the cops pull up behind them. They throw the guns, the two, three guns on the floor of the car. They wipe it down so that no DNA is on it. If they're juveniles and they did it before, you know how difficult it is to get a conviction on that gun, because no DNA is on it. Nobody is claiming it.

Mayor Adams: Criminal minds, as smart as you think they are, they learn how to utilize the loopholes that can continue to perpetuate the violence that we're seeing. We have to close those loopholes at that small percentage of people that are continually inflicting violence on our community. And that is what I'm calling for on the reforms that I pushed as a state senator, fought for as a police officer, advocated for as the borough president. So I don't want to hear people tell me that all we want to do is lock people up. No, we're trying to stop dangerous people from hurting innocent people. Tell me the law you know of in this city that was passed to help someone that was a victim of a crime. What about them? What about the mother I saw that lost her 20 year old son? What about the 11 year old baby that was shot? Who are passing laws for innocent people that are the victims of crimes? I'm advocating for innocent people in this city. That's what I'm doing.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next question from Andrew.

Question: Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Our table actually talked about the difficulty that local organizations have offering services directly in schools. So our question this evening is, how can we activate now to open those school doors, to offer all the services that the young people need such as health clinics?

Mayor Adams: Such as what? I didn't hear you.

Mayor Adams: Chancellor, you want to touch that? You heard him, chancellor?

Chancellor Banks: Yeah, and this is something that Deputy Mayor Wright and I talk about quite a bit as well, which is about school-based health clinics and really putting our schools in a position to have the stuff that they need in the schools themselves, as well as partnerships with local hospitals as well, who can provide those additional services. So we've got it in a number of our schools, but we need to be able to look at how we can expand that, so that more of our schools can have those access to those kinds of resources as well.

Chancellor Banks: Those are important initiatives, and that's one of the things that we're looking at. But they're just so many things that we need to continue to expand on in our schools. We need to expand the level of technology. We want to make sure that all of our schools have libraries and librarians, and there's a lot of things that we need. And yet we're also having to deal with the level of fiscal responsibility as well. And so these are tough choices that we have to make, but we're going to do the best that we can to try to provide as many resources as we possibly can across all of our schools.

Mayor Adams: And you know brother, some schools, we have to think outside the box. And that's one thing I love about the chancellor. The chancellor said it back when I was running. We think educating our students is what happens in the school day, what happens inside the walls of the school, and it's not. There are barriers to learning that we need to deal with. Some schools need washing machines. Some schools need food pantries. Some schools need to have just boxes of clean socks and undergarments. We need to look at that child and say, "What's preventing you from getting educated? And we need to give them that assistance. And listen, you graduate from high school, we shouldn't be dropping you off the cliff. Chancellor Banks has been saying this for the longest.

Mayor Adams: We need to extend that child. They built up a loving relationship throughout there in K-12. Then they get to 12, we say, "Get lost. We don't want to deal with you anymore." No, we got to extend that nurturing throughout their first few years of adulthood, college, starting a new job. We need to give people, our children everything they need, so that they can be prepared to learn and we're not doing that. And little Johnny may have everything at home he needs and little Bakim may not have anything at home. So we want to know why is little Bakim failing? Because we are not giving what he needs outside the school building. That's what we must do as a city, we must develop the full personhood of our children and that's the mission that we are doing.

Chancellor Banks: And Mr. Mayor, I would say this as well, to connect what the mayor is saying. To get the schools all the things that they need, does not always necessarily mean you have to keep increasing the amount of money that we're spending. So hear me, I'm not knocking you. We always want more money, that's for sure. But when I say we have to be smarter. So Deputy Mayor Wright, we talk about this all the time. One of the reasons why she's now leading the creation of this office of nonprofits. In the New York City public schools, we have hundreds of nonprofits that are doing work. And when I ask those nonprofits, who do you deal with at the DOE, so you can coordinate your work? You know what they tell me? "Nobody, we doing this on our own. We go principal to principal, school to school."

Chancellor Banks: That's what the mayor, when he talks about, when he says dysfunction. There are people right now who are doing work in our schools on one part of the Bronx. They could help the other schools on the other side of the Bronx. Doesn't even cost the school any more money. They just don't know that they even exist. That's what we mean when we say coordination. So we are now connecting our efforts at DOE together with City Hall so we identify who all of these groups are. We bring them together, so that we can organize for real impact and not just a lot of people out doing a lot of good stuff. That's good, but if you are smarter about how we move, we can have a much greater impact. That's what this administration is about.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next question for Emily.

Question: Good evening, everyone. The folks at our table, we're wondering, how do we proactively and strategically allocate resources and political capital to strengthen robust community ties and programs that improve outcomes, particularly for youth and seniors around the issue of safe transport to and from schools and around the community in general?

Mayor Adams: Why don't we get that deputy mayor — I'm sorry, we have the commissioner of aging who's amazing at what she's doing. Deputy mayor — Vasquez.

Commissioner Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez, Department for the Aging: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for remembering older adults. We are — yes. We have several programs to do that. Safety is one of the issues that we're working with the most. We have to be very grateful that in this administration, now we've expanded the elder abuse programs that we have throughout the city. But one of the things that we also do is that many of our programs are co-located with DYCD programs. And we just started a conversation with DYCD, the youth development organization to start coordinating those services and also picking up on something that Chancellor Banks has said a long time ago, which is about civic engagement. Again, we're working with DYCD to look at some of those ways that we can marry this community, the older adult community in New York, who is very civically engaged, all of you know that, and also the young people so that we could exchange those ideas, mentor, and keep working with each other.

Commissioner Cortes-Vazquez: We still have a lot to do. The issue that we are confronting now is not the rise in elder abuse. And I want to thank the commissioner from the Police Department. One of the programs that we have is really working with the Police Department, looking at some of the constant numbers and which are the highest areas where there is elder abuse. And we're looking to really move forward and come up with an older adult victim's officer in the precinct, just we have domestic violence. And those are the early steps that we're taking together.

Commissioner Cortes-Vazquez: So there's a lot that we still have to do, but there's a lot that we are doing now. And it is looking at one of the things that we are looking at, in terms of older adults, in I'm hoping I'm answering your question, there's a lot to do, but the way we're doing this is that this mayor on this administration for the first time ever has convened an aging cabinet. And that cabinet is going to take all of the richness in the assets that is across his leadership to ensure that this is an age inclusive city. That agencies are doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing and maximizing services to ensure that older adults, the people who made this city can live in this city safely and with dignity. And that's what we're doing now. So you're going to hear more about that cabinet come September, because it unveils with the school year. So thank you very much.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next question, Fidel.

Question: So our table here has had an engaging conversation discussing ways to create safer neighborhoods for families. So the following question is, what resources is this administration dedicating to help neighborhoods be neighborhoods, specifically to create safer public parks and community centers and encourage communities to use them? Thank you.

Mayor Adams: Was Deputy Commissioner Rodriguez right from the Bronx, number two in charge. Can we talk about some of the initiative we're doing in the parks?

First Deputy Commissioner Iris Rodriguez, Department of Parks and Recreation: Hello. Okay. So I just have to say that we have a wonderful Park Enforcement Team in the borough of the Bronx. They actually have been very committed to being able to service all the parks in the Bronx. We work very, very closely with NYPD. We have a very close partnership with NYPD. We have been also dealing with many of the issues of homelessness in our parks, dealing with the syringes, the syringe conditions that we have in our parks. We provide bloodborne pathogen training to our park employees, and we try to make sure that they're safe.

First Deputy Commissioner Rodriguez: We continue to be able to provide the many services that the Parks Department is very proud to give to the community. In addition to the park enforcement, we also try to be able to provide many programming opportunities for the community. So when you talk about being able to weed the negative elements out of our parks, by seeding it with positive programming. I have actually been possible for me to witness also the Police Department and the youth officers actually working with the youth in our parks to be able to provide programming.

Mayor Adams: And we want — also leaning to the pedestrian plazas. Sometimes we think about parks in general, but we really want to encourage those block associations, civic groups, et cetera, to develop your pedestrian plazas. We want to be a partner in doing so. They're great spaces for people to sit, to rest, and enjoy their communities. The power of a community lies in those block associations. The more block associations we have in coordination with the local precincts, it really creates that safe environment that you're looking for.

Commissioner Jess Dannhauser, NYC Administration for Children's Services: Mr. Mayor, can I add one thing from ACS, Mr. Mayor? So hi, I'm Jess Dannhauser, the commissioner of ACS. I just wanted to add a couple things for families. Right now, families in the Bronx and this community can apply for priority access for childcare vouchers because of the mayor and Deputy Mayor Wright's Childcare Blueprint. So if you go on the ACS website, you can apply today. And we are for the first time in our city's history, making sure childcare vouchers are distributed equitably across the city by prioritizing the 17 communities that have the biggest childcare deserts and have the greatest need for childcare.

Commissioner Dannhauser: Also, ACS is putting out 30 family enrichment centers across the city. Many of you may know our place over on the peninsula, in Hunts Point, we are expanding those. There are two more coming to the Bronx and we're getting to 30 within the next 18 months. So under Mayor Adams' leadership, ACS, every agency is pushing forward to go upstream, not only for young people, but for families.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. Next question from Deanna.

Question: Good evening, everybody. Good evening, Mayor Adams. While community has valuable resources like SOS and This Pal, everyone doesn't have access. Our table wants to know what the plan is to increase resources for urgent community needs, including resources for rent, stabilized home, adding funding programs in community centers of housing developments and providing addiction services outside of the court mandated programs?

Mayor Adams: Yeah. Too many NYCHA community centers are closed and we really want to zero in on those NYCHA community centers and get them up and operating. Too many are closed. But I often hear people say to me, "Eric, we need a youth center built in our community." And I tell them all the time, "You do have a youth center. It's called a school building." A school building has gyms, some have swimming pools, classrooms, auditoriums. We have everything right there. Why do we have to wait five, six years to put a shovel in the ground for youth center, when you have these buildings that are unoccupied and unused? 7:00 to 3:00, we tell our babies come in. 3:00 PM, we say, "Get out and don't come back until tomorrow." That makes no sense. These youth centers can teach HVAC training, financial literacy, electrician, carpentry, home care.

Mayor Adams: There's so much we can learn by using our school buildings better. You have to utilize all of your resources. We have to be smarter with your tax dollars. That's what I'm saying. If we open these schools, allow our children to do after school program, utilize the gyms to have sports leagues, utilize the auditoriums to do talent shows. Do we still do talent shows chancellor? This is what we used to do. We got to start utilizing all of our assets that we have. Every community has a public school and a middle school for the most part. Why aren't we utilizing it more after school hours and not only during school hours?

Commissioner Kreizman: But last but not least, we'll end off the last table with Shauna.

Question: Good evening, Mayor Adams. The question from my table, who unfortunately had to leave, was many of tonight's attendees are all aware of the issues spoken about, and they want to be part of the solution. How can CBOs and community leaders improve lines of communication with agencies and city leadership?

Deputy Mayor Wright: So we are, as I said, creating the Mayor's Office of Nonprofits, so that there is one place, certainly that nonprofits can go. Many nonprofits are working across two, three, four, five, six, seven, 10 different agencies. So we want to make sure that there's one door where they can connect across. And certainly for community members, as Fred said, the community affairs unit is the place to be.

Commissioner Kreizman: Thank you. The perfect way to end the last question again, I just wanted the Bronx borough directors from the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit to stand up. Alina, Paula. I think everyone here knows them. Also Valerie, my deputy commissioner from the Bronx. These are people you should take advantage of, reach out to them. Of course, I'm available as well, but please, these are your Bronx borough directors. We have a great lineup here on this dais. They all are well represented in the Bronx. We just want to thank everyone who participated here from Health Department, ACS, H + H, AT Mitchell, the Bronx DA. We have Bronx Borough President Gibson, the DOE chancellor, DSS, CCHR, DIFTA, SBS, Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright.

Commissioner Kreizman: Of course, the NYPD brass, all who represented here with the commissioner. The First Deputy Commissioner Caban from the Bronx. Chief of Department Corey. Chief of patrol, we have Maddrey, Chief Maddrey. NYCHA CEO, commissioner of DSNY, and Gender Based Violence commissioner. Parks Department, MOCJ executive director, Probation, Moya, Commissioner Manny Castro, OEM commissioner, DYCD commissioner. Everyone here to listen to your concerns and to work with you. So we thank everyone for participating, coming out here, being the leadership. And we look forward to answering all your questions that you filled out on your tables and following up with you on each and every one of them. Thank you for participating.

Mayor Adams: And thank you for staying three hours. You just show you how much you are committed to this community. Appreciate you all. We'll be back in the BX.

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