 All right, good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us for today's public safety briefing led by deputy mayor for public safety fill banks Following our last speaker We will take a few on-topic questions from the media followed by some questions that have been submitted by the public ahead of today's briefing I would now like to turn it over to deputy mayor fill banks So good afternoon, and thank you for attending and thank you for tuning in today I think we have a lot of interesting topics and some are very useful information We're going to hear from Our esteemed guests on the right side of me At least most of them over here about the building collapse that took place on on and street recently And we are joined by Commissioner is school from nice him Commissioner valence check from the Department of Buildings Certainly someone who's not estranged. It's New York City the deputy commissioner for enforcement Joe Esposito Who's former chief of department for the NYPD and former nice him commissioner? Certainly they had the engineer with them was probably the most important person here to give us an update on that That's very important. And then we have back with us again, Jessica tish From the department of sanitation the commissioner and she's going to be speaking about two initiatives that she's undertaking The sanitation is not just about Quote-unquote cleaning the streets and through the trash So you're going to see exactly how she's building that agency out and how we believe that it's going to be very Beneficial for the city and last and certainly not least we have commissioner Vasquez from us from the Department of Aging and The NYPD's community affairs commissioner Mark Stewart, and they're going to be talking about What we needed to do to protect one of our most vulnerable communities and that is the community of the aging and that how they are What their services together and how we are looking to increase our layer of that protection So I think we're going to have a really very interesting Conversation here today. I think it's going to be some useful tips. So pointed to our first subject For those of you who don't know we had a building collapse on Anstreet and lower Manhattan Very very dangerous situation All of the agencies come together FD and why NYPD department of buildings nice him But there's a quarterback there's personal coordinates all of that Now there's every smarts ability of commission a school from nice him and I'm going to now turn it over to you commissioner Thank You coach Appreciate it sir. So first off. I just want to take a moment to acknowledge the victim Who was fatally injured during Tuesday's parking garage collapse? Our hearts are with the family and loved ones as they mourn their loss. I'd also say to the family You know Willis Moore as we've been in the neighborhood People all over that neighborhood have talked about the impact that they had that he had on them about how friendly what he was About moments they had with him He was beloved in that community And it is felt down there He's also a member of the extended New York City family as a as a father of a member of service and When we were down there You know and that had become sort of apparent Phil banks and commissioner Sewell made it a point to send the NYPD's ESU down Specifically so that it was the NYPD who is doing the dignified transfer And I think it just says something about the fact that we who work for the city it is a family And Willis Moore and his family are part of that family So please accept our heartfelt condolences for your loss The ongoing operation at 57 and Street is incredibly complex. It's also very very dangerous and remains dangerous This work is not possible without a true interagency effort We're not rushing through this cleanup. I know that There's a lot of folks that are looking for more information looking for information to get vehicles about Getting back into specific buildings What I can say is safety right now is our number one priority And we are working very hard right now to ensure the stability of the surrounding structures as we proceed with the demolition This is also very this is further complicated just by the number of vehicles that are in there. Those vehicles have gas other fluids that can cause hazards in addition to that we have the added complexity of electric vehicles Which as we've had briefings from the fire department, we know that there are all sorts of issues with electric vehicle batteries For micro mobility, that's one problem when you're talking about large cars. It's it's also pretty significant Issue that we need to deal with I'll walk through briefly the the timeline and then we'll turn it over to our partners at Department Department of Buildings so on Tuesday afternoon parking garage at 57 and street collapsed fiddling Fatally injuring one victim and injuring five DOB inspection found that the roof the third floor and the second floor all collapsed into the footprint of the building in addition the rear wall of the building had partially collapsed and the front wall of the building at that point in time was bulging the The parking garage was three stories with a cell underneath The do be structural engineers determined that the parking garage was no longer structurally stable and in danger of further collapse And then as part of the ongoing demolition vehicle remover city contractors on the scene Now have to work to temporarily brace the adjacent Buildings walls are essentially a party wall between 57 and street an adjacent building that's owned by peace University To make sure that that wall doesn't come down in the course of demolition This work is it takes time. It's complicated and it's also delayed our ability to continue the demolition extraction of vehicles For some history a collapse of this magnitude is pretty rare across New York City The closest recent parallel to this incident was a major building collapse that did not involve a fire Or caused by construction work would be the building collapse in Carroll Gardens back in 27 2020 Which is also during the height of COVID in terms of some of the impacts Neighboring residents as a result of this ongoing work and some inspections that need to go on There are full vacate orders at 55 and Street 49 and Street 27 Beekman Street 19 Beekman Street and then partial vacate orders at 47 and Street 33 Beekman Street These vacate orders I understand that they're an inconvenience But they are issued in the interest of public safety, which is our number one priority due to the immediate hazards of this building If you've been displaced I know many of the residents are currently being assisted by the Red Cross if you need assistance You can reach out to the Red Cross Everyone has a roof over their heads and the resources that they need As part of the ongoing demolition vehicle removal operations You know as I mentioned we have a lot of folks working down there. It really is an incredible effort We have HPD DOB fire department NYPD the MTA all of them working in conjunction to make sure that we're doing this safely and responsibly For those that had vehicles inside the garage We advise you to contact your insurance company as quickly as possible Once vehicles are matched with owners and I want to stress that because of the complexity of this operation and some of the things that we talked about that we Need to do in order to move forward with the demolition and extraction of vehicles that this is going to take some time But we will reach out to find times as we Move these vehicles out of that location for you to possibly come and find things that you might want in your vehicles And also To help you with the police report that we know that you're going to need for insurance claims If your car was in the parking garage, you can also call 311 to give them your information But we will also be reaching out to you Anyone whose vehicle was on the street at the time and was moved to facilitate the operation You should also call 311 and again You know having mentioned the importance of public safety and how complex and dangerous this operation remains I really just want to urge everybody's patience as we continue this cleanup process Lastly, you know, I'd like to turn it over to our our friends from Department of Buildings to chat a little bit about The history of the building and also to talk to us a little bit about What it with the licensing and procedures are for city garages Thank you commissioner riskal. Good afternoon. I'm Kass will enter acting commissioner of the Department of Buildings after collapse We will we will work in on pulling archives Archives records related to the building and our records indicate the following that the building was constructed in 1908 and in 1926 the building and their went on alteration Resulting in certificate of occupancy indicating the use of the building as parking garage in addition to this in 1957 the building underwent additional alteration Resulting in updated certificate of occupancy also indicating it was a garage This certificate of occupancy remains in effect as of now As it's In addition our records indicates there are four open ECB violations Out of four open ECB violations two of them related to the defects of concrete in addition also in response to those violation in 2009 owner of A higher-rate engineer and filed application with Department of Building and obtain necessary permit to to to to to to apply this necessary repairs The four open violations remains open as of now because of In order to close the violation the owner required to submit to us certificate of occupancy but in fact department of building visited the site and observe that repair way in progress and in addition our Record indicated necessary permits were obtained and after that it was even renewed for it for additional for additional year Pertaining the recurrent condition this garage was cited for inspection a required inspection as a Local law implemented a new building court in effect in January of 23 In fact the local law was implemented ahead of the building court in January of 22 Requiring the owners of parking garage to inspect their structure by the licensed professional engineer and This garage is which located in community board one was cited for inspection, which was due For submission by the end of this year. Unfortunately, we're not able to receive this report So next I just wanted us to hear from Commissioner Esposito who has as much experience as anyone here in emergency management and just Taking control over the scene. So Joe if you can can you just explain you briefly like? One how many levels was the building and to the core goes in all the agencies come down Just kind of paint a picture to general audience What actually goes into effect to be able to get to the point where we are at today after the collapse? Yes. Yeah, so what I was with the four levels you had SUVs on the roof level close to 50 SUVs on the level what caused the collapse? We don't know yet. That's an investigation our engineers will be in there They'll be making observations working with other agencies to see how we can determine what exactly did happen But when that incident like happens again emergency management is the is the person that's going to coordinate the response of being That's a collapse without an explosion without a terrorist attack It really is the FD that is the primary a lead on it They come in and we everyone else supports them in their effort and I must say we were there In a matter of a few minutes and the coordination between all the agencies was really really well done and it continues today Right, so you know so what happens is that you have multiple agencies coming in right? So but there's some coordination and that's what the primary responsibility of nice and miss to make sure they're coordinating all of the Agencies that there's no duplicity in it that somebody's not missing anything and now we're in an aftermath We're doing an investigation to determine what went wrong Certainly and what we can learn from it so we can get that information out and correct it and the objective of course is to minimize or to Try to ensure as best we possibly can That this doesn't happen again with any other parking garages. So sure just on the DOB front Not only have they doing a lot of work down there over the scene the engineering the investigation But the team from DOB also assisted in some pet rescues the other day So there was a number of of cats that were in a building They went in assisted the went in to try and locate the cats in a I think it was in 55 and Street with 55 5 and Street, which is adjacent to 57 and Street Which is also under full vacate order right now from DOB Residents couldn't go into the building the DOB staff went in Couldn't I find the cats in the building at first they figured out they escaped They went back on Thursday afternoon found the cats underneath the residents bed safely return them to their owner So DOB does a lot they do the engineering they do a lot of the contracting oversight They do the investigations Also pet rescue and I would say that if there are also residents that need to get into their apartments because they have a pet Because they need to get access to medication If you're down on the scene you can talk to some of the NYPD community affairs folks who are down there or any of the officers And we can arrange for you to get escorted in or for somebody to go in if the building's too dangerous to help you get your stuff And all the all the Agencies that are required be there are there constantly we stay there they'll be there until the demolition is completed And again, they're very important We have interagency meetings run by emergency management every few hours We had one at 10 o'clock this morning when we had the latest updates on what's going forward with the pinning of that that wall between pace and and the Construction site the collapse location so we get updated every few hours as again. It's coincided by Emergency management Well, great. That was a lot of information and a very useful very helpful very much appreciated Okay, so we're gonna like turn topics now and we are going to hear from our Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica tish the commissioner was recently on a podcast with the mayor his get stuff done podcast if you haven't heard it I would encourage you to go and check it out And if you like it tune into the next episode and if you don't Then do not but I understand just see that you said something on the podcast I did not listen to it But if I'm hearing correctly you says that sanitation if we don't do our jobs for one day Everyone in the city notices if we don't do our jobs for two or three days. That's called the public health crisis, right? So I'm sure that the podcast is very very interesting And I do know that When you were appointed to the Department of Sanitation and me just see people she worked together And I mentioned to her I says Jesse why the Department of Sanitation? He said it's the one agency that affects every single New Yorker, and I want to make a change. That's it interesting I never actually thought about it quite like that So I understand there's a couple of new things that you are now expanding into moving into can you share that with us? Sure. Thank you, Deputy Mayor Banks The Department of Sanitation works to keep the city clean But our 10,000 members of service also work to keep it safe both from public health risks caused by unaddressed trash and also from quality of life concerns At the beginning of this month Mayor Adams entrusted our department which has unique experience at the intersection of public space communities businesses and cleanliness with two new responsibilities related to public safety the First is enforcement of the rules around street vending Now I want to explain that while DCWP remains the lead agency on vendor licensing and management and Doh and SPS and other agencies provide important services and support Sanitation police officers have for the last three weeks been ensuring that sidewalks are clean and accessible that vendors who follow the rules are protected from those who do not and That we have an enforcement mechanism that works for vendors for residents and for tourists DSNY does not enforce for the sake of enforcement We come at this work looking for compliance around cleanliness specifically we focus on illegal disposal of garbage or dirty conditions Blocking curbs subway entrances bus stop sidewalks or store entrances Oversized tables lead leading items tied up overnight carts failing to visit commissaries Safety issues like gas generators and gas cans and dumping grease down sewers or in the garbage Now vendors that keep the area clean and passable for pedestrians are not our focus But New Yorkers have an expectation of clean streets and clear sidewalks and that is what DSNY is helping to deliver We've inspected areas from Kingsbridge to Times Square to flushing and many more posting warnings and only when necessary engaging in limited summoning and confiscations Our sanitation police officers are also empowered to engage in these confiscations And we'll do so if necessary after warnings have failed to address an issue It's early, but we are seeing results as the few vendors who are persistent bad actors Learn that there will be consequences and disperse from these heavily trafficked areas Again, this protects our brick-and-mortar businesses our rule-following vendors visitors to our city and all of us The second quality of life issue that entered DSNY's portfolio at the beginning of this month is management of graffiti removal Now for 20 years New Yorkers would call 311 to report graffiti and responses were slowed by a bureaucratic mess involving different agencies Mayor Adams has cut through that red tape and given us the green light to get the job done in The first two weeks of this work We were able to get over 600 sites out of the backlog These sites are clean today and the work will continue Organized around the same commitment to results that New Yorkers expect from the Department of Sanitation On both of these issues New Yorkers should expect to see continued results towards a clean safe and livable city Thank you So commission if I heard you correctly going back to the first topic that you brought up was about vending So we are we're educating we're supporting The vendors will follow the laws and enforcement will only come when all of the options have been exercised Did I hear you correctly in it? absolutely We are not trying to be punitive With this enforcement. We are trying to ensure a clean Livable city, which is why we have a warnings first approach And I think that is very important because of I certainly know my time in law enforcement that I've heard and Sometimes correctly and sometimes maybe not so correctly that the tool is enforcement enforcement I can debate it. I can argue it I certainly see the point and a lot of different areas and the mayor has made it like very clear that Enforcement as the last option. So I know we have spoke a couple weeks ago You are reaching out and you I believe you had met with some of these Organizations and these mindful profits that that support these vendors and the the message is if we if you're doing it Biding by the law and you're respecting the community by all means legally then and the ones who are illegally vending Give them the option to say hey It's time to pack up or clean your stuff up and if not then we're going to use that as last stop and show I think that's a really an important important part for us to to get out. So I thank you and I appreciate it Our final topic for today is protecting the safety of older adults Last but certainly not least we say that consistently last but not least but this is certainly not At the least here. This is our most vulnerable Population and we need to make sure that we in fact are Doing all we can to protect these older adults I had a meeting about 20 weeks ago with your commissioner right I came to your office All right, and we had a nice long long talk and You're gonna hear to hear how and this is the reason why we have Mark Stewart who's a commissioner for NYPD community affairs and how they are working together the mayor has said Consistently I mean this is during the transition. This is what he was running for office is that these cities We've been managing these cities the same way for years and years and years What is the first step to actually change how we run these cities and it's to break down the silos like nobody owns anything we all here working together and I think you're going to see yet another example of how two separate agencies are actually collaborating working together and I think it's Going to produce some very valuable valuable outcome. So commissioner talk to me what's going on Well, first of all, I want to say thank you for the opportunity and for those of you who do not know The department for the aging is responsible for making sure that New York is an age inclusive city And that's one of the mandates by this mayor sort of not only cross collaboration but making sure that all services are aligned to Allow older adults to age with dignity and with the services and the supports that they need and that Institutionalization is the last resort most people want to live in their community. So we're very proud to work with With the mayor on older adult abuse and victimization during his early in his administration, we were able to expand those services and We now have programs that not only provide information and Services to the older victim, but we also do so now in a stronger collaboration with the police department one of the Projects that the mayor also established was the cabinet for Olden New York is where he bought together 20 agencies to look at how to get things done and make sure that we do not have any gaps What we would love to talk to you about today is not so much that the Elder abuse crimes have been on the increase but the nature of that crime has changed dramatically and our Responsibility is to inform the public on what the nature of that crime is and to work very in close partnership With the police department, we've always had a working relationship now What we have is a partnership where we and we and that's very different What we do now is Do a lot of cross training we train police officers so that they're better better versed on what the services are for Older adults. We also train officers so that they can be well aware of the issues facing older adults And then we have community service providers One in each borough and with this administration Mayor Adams Increase that so that in Brooklyn Queens and the Bronx where the population is growing We have additional resources there and they can help the older adult victim Navigate all of the complexities that an older adult does to get prime victim compensation board funding also They also help them get some of the legal supports that they need and they also provide Tangible items that the older person may have lost a walker They may change the locks if the person was with a Breakery entry and you know, so there's an entire treasure of information and services out there That the public is not aware of and that many older persons are not and so the job is to make sure that they Are aware of it with the police department. We would always have an exchange of information Right now we work with the police department and I have to thank Deputy commissioner Stuart because we have not only exchange data on Clients, but we use Comstat data to start directing how our services should be Reinforced or how the direction of our opportunities We also are working very closely with them to ensure that there is and mark you might want to speak more about this We are also working very closely with them to ensure that there is one police officer designated and trained and informed So that he could be a reason he or she can be a resource to to Their precinct and the local community around elder abuse and elder services And if if you may if I may I may take a few seconds to just give some people some tips One of the things that we have heard is that you know The nature of the crime is so different I mean what we have seen and it is a clever industry is the scam industry We have older adults being victimized and losing personal property and assets that are sometimes Limited because of scams so we are always educating and that's our partnership with the police department also is educating individuals And by going to those older adult clubs that we have throughout the city I'm not and how not to give out information and how to protect yourself against scams The other thing that we have seen on an increase is a assault at the ATM again Spending a lot of time the two agencies together doing a lot of education across the city on helping people What are those safety tips that you need to protect yourself and not to be vulnerable? We're also working to look at the nature of the crime Can we and working with the DA's can we change the amount the penalty for particular crimes? Because and I've said this before if you push Jessica Down and she gets hurt the vulnerability is still there But if you push me who is maybe 25 years older than Jessica The vulnerability and the impact is much stronger. I can break my hip if I break my hip I am prone if I'm prone I can get pneumonia So the impact of that same act is very different on an older person than it is on someone who is much younger So we're looking at those kind of impacts But I would love for you to talk a little bit more about our partnership commissioner shoot Yes, yes, good afternoon When I first met commissioner Cortez For the relationship and I told I was very committed to the older adult and what the police department where we can do I just didn't want it to be we assign a Precent cop to go talk to our older adults These people that were picked these officers that were picked are hand-picked We just can't go into a person's home and say what's the facts what happened? We have to be compassionate. We all have older adults in our family. My mother's 85 So I seen the decline from where she was 30 years ago 20 years or 10 years ago to where she is now so Officers that we assigned to these precents. They are hand-picked and The majority of time I said listen first Let's ask them if they want to do it because I don't want to put officer there that we assign I'm gonna know you have the passion and be compassionate when you go to these homes and you experience a crime victim especially a older adult so These officers in these precents are hand-picked we have a crime prevention unit that we will be talking about Scams with the older adults utility scams medical scams law enforcement scams And what I want to do when we get these complaints in a precents. I want these officers to have a forum with the older adults and the siblings because sometimes we think if we do a Scam alert that older adults they might not get it and if the children or the siblings Caretakers there they will probably be the person that you want to contact if something's happening So we want to do forums in every precinct. We're going to get the complaints of all of our Victims and we're going to beg a man We're going to do so a scam alerts and we're also going to teach them about crime prevention to so We will definitely be Compassionate to our older adults and I look for a relationship to grow stronger with with Cortez Say the other the other area in terms of public safety is because this cabinet that the mayor has created I'm 20 agencies many of you are sitting at this table a part of that one of the other areas is pedestrian safety and For us, that's an important area so we're working with the Department of Transportation on Pedestrian safety also which is a public safety issue because then the highest number of victims has been the older adults and That kind of work is very very essential in Creating areas in those districts that have a high percentage of older adults creating traffic calming Effects so that the older adult is safer when they're crossing the street or when cars are turning corners So that has been another major major collaboration again around public safety issues I mean if we just think about it right if a city gauges itself on how well is doing? How could one of the most important metrics not be how do you take care of the aging and the elderly and So I know when I went to your office commissioner and oftentimes I go and we speak and people stay with the problem is and I said What are you doing? She says when the train in the police academy so far for someone to get one cop in every piece I mean she had a whole list of exactly these things that we need to do So I do know that the aging community certainly has like a phenomenal advocate in you And I got that feeling just by having that you know Conversation that we we do have so we certainly want to get this message out And I think that Mark brought up like a very point that I just want to accentuate I don't want to lose that Oftentimes it's the elderly who might not be able to hear the tip and it has to be someone else It could be the son the daughter the next to a neighbor who can actually maybe explain That important tip to them about things that they should be doing or not doing so we have to be very careful about that You know, this is just a personal comment I'm about to make now, but I'm not so sure how much lower you can get on someone who prays on the elderly And we as a society if we don't protect I mean if that's not something that we can kind of call us around and agree around I don't know what else it could be. So I was very very in comes like very encouraged when I left your office It's like I'm elderly. I have an advocate for you I said, you know mark for a very long time. So I do know you have like a great partner You say working relationship versus partnership and I just think that I just feel very good that like really good things So listen here, I think this wraps up our topics now Certainly in the beginning for people who actually just listen for the first time if you go to hear from Eric calm You can submit your questions or your questions will be read and the ones that we don't get to right I think we tighten it up Sheila, right? You will receive a response because we want to make sure that you have a question or an area that you need more information on Administration is providing that back to you. So go to hear it here from Eric calm You'll be a prize of the next week's topics So that you can prepare your questions and be prepared and certainly thank you for for tuning in or listening in once again So Derek, I'm kicking to you. Thank you deputy mayor We will now take a few on topic questions from the media related to today's presentations Fabian Mr. Esposito before you mentioned there were 47 or 50 SUVs on the roof at the time of the collapse Do you know what the capacity was for that garage and subsequently how many other? Building garages are there within the five boroughs and what's the OB's plans going forward with inspections now that this tragedy occurred with relation to 57 and there were 40 some odd SUVs on the roof they were in there in their Symphony of occupancy they were allowed to have five or more Vehicles on that roof and it held it could actually hold more than than 40 so my actual hold 50 some odd So it was justified in having those up there now. That's a Rule that's put in place back in the 50s I think that the SUVs were probably Pretty similar in weight to the cars from the 50s because those 50s cars were all heavy metal a lot of plastic in The cars right now and the second part the second party question Are there scattered throughout the five boroughs and in light of this tragedy What's the DOP's plans going forward to inspect these garages are is that what you guys? We have over 4,000 Locations where people park their vehicles that we're talking about parking garage You're talking about locations on the buildings for the owner For the number is 4,000 As a result of this event we've went out and and did a sweep of all the Garages that this company overseas we swept down locations that was completed yesterday and nothing has been Found that would cause us to evacuate or vacate any of those buildings The other buildings does this company overseeing other parking garage 17 was from DOB. I visited a couple Garages in lower Manhattan today with open DOB violations, and I know that Mayor Adams had said That this was going to be an immediate start to an investigation to make sure this doesn't happen elsewhere Not just how it happened at 57 and Street So how soon especially in lower Manhattan with lots of other buildings? How soon can the public and garage tenants as well? Know for certain that the structures they're working in are safe Well, first thing is that and I just want to go back to think it was very interesting question The investigation hasn't revealed yet that the 47 SUVs caused the collapse, right? but in generally investigations as the as Joe Espigino said earlier and Commissioners school is that they're meeting every few hours So as investigations go anything that comes up that indicates that it could be the immediate concern to the gains of anybody It's dispatched so we don't wait until the end of the investigation So if anything is coming up that determines we should be looking at this we should be looking at that We're actually dispatched. I've met with deputy mayor Joshi yesterday. We had a conversation about that It seems actually going into another meeting concerning that so as that data comes out It's actually farmed out to the appropriate agencies to ensure that we are doing what we can to keep New York is safe But I don't know if anybody else wants to to tag on to that. Yeah, just like to clarify The current court required owners of the garages submit to us engineers report once per each six years and This particular garage was cited to be submitted report by the end of this year There is a garage with open violations now that there's an investigation as mayor Adams has said to make sure this doesn't happen And other garages even if they haven't till the end of the year is there a plan to change some sort of Make some sort of action to make sure that structures even if they do have until the end of the year are safe Obviously it's a routine actions to follow up on violations especially on violations with classified Hazardous class one which kind of was risk risk is one and we follow up with the inspection within 60 days And as I said, it's an owner's responsibility to maintain the building into periodic inspection visit professionals and make sure that this The structure is maintaining state of good. If you're asking that are we looking at all of the buildings with violations? And I just want to make sure that he's understanding your question new investigation Even if the city council laws in effect that they have a certain amount of time to get an outside engineer to come look I'm wondering if the investigation is going to change your urgency to make sure that these Garages have the ability to withstand the weight of the cars Absolutely, and that's something that we spoke with deputy mayor Josie about who's the deputy mayor of operation So the answers is absolutely and that's what I guess how it was trying to articulate it is that when information like that comes out Immediately we're dispatched to take a look at it. So even though you may have a two another two years We certainly are we taking that in consideration to see and how do we how do we make sure that we get inspections in or? To make sure that we minimize that but the first thing I'll be clear is that the best case It hasn't determined yet that any of the violations that were open caused this hasn't happened yet Or in fact where they overloaded vehicles. We haven't come to that as of yet One of the attendants who was there at the garage of 57 and Street today who said that he and the other attendees Had concerns about the structure of the building as did the deceased willis more And I'm curious for any of these employees who are you know clocking in eight-hour days Don't feel like they're in a position of power. What can they do? In their day-to-day life to tell somebody hey I don't know anything about Department of Buildings or code or whatever, but this may be unsafe The first most responsive Responsible actions will be to call 311 Immediately, and I just want to say to everyone if you see something observe something we treat each complaint with respect and we send it in a speck of basically to all complaints and If employee of someone observe deficiency in the structure of the building they're working They mean that they should not fight us through 311 each complaint being triage in order of priority and being inspected as well Thank you Earlier this week the administration reached out to New Yorkers asking them to submit questions for the officials that have joined us here today We will now get to as many of those as we can with the amount of time that we have left Our first question comes from Catherine in Manhattan This is for our Department of Buildings and NISM With the garage collapsing Manhattan should the people that work near the vicinity be concerned about air quality Yeah, we're testing we're testing The air on a regular basis and as of right now we have seen no indication of any hazardous material in the air Yeah, so when we talk about the interagency process one of the agencies that's represented is DEP They do a lot of work down there and one of the things that they do is air quality monitoring and there have been no concerns with the air quality down there Our next question comes from Octavia from Queens for the Department of Sanitation She asks given the city's ongoing rat problem Can you explain the restriction on the size of garbage containers that can be put out? The new rules that went into effect on April 1st change the set out time from trap for trash From 4 p.m. To 8 p.m. The understanding that People may need more flexibility We have said that New Yorkers can set out their trash at 6 p.m. In a container 55 gallons or less with a sealed lid reason why we came up with 55 gallons or less is That is the size of a container that our sanitation workers can lift And so we have to remember that we have People coming around collecting the trash collecting these containers and getting the contents out of them into the back of a truck And that size was the right size For them to be able to lift Our next question comes from Shakir in Brooklyn who asks as a Muslim community member I am really concerned about the safety of mosques. What does the NYPD do to keep houses of worship safe? That was a question based on the topics today Okay, you want to tackle that? Community affairs, I'm in charge of the clergy unit and just two weeks ago We started the I started a clergy unit and that means we have Three community affairs officers in each borough and their job is to go to the house of worships and Inform them if any threats any intel that we might have on the police department And have our community affairs officers be go to Mosques synagogues, whatever house of worship it is that they'll be informed And also that question here is that during these holy days of The NYPD, you know, they put out a lot of extra coverage to go around to make sure that these Houses of worships are being secured and you know, there's a whole intelligence apparatus that takes place in the city And that they are they're listening or they're looking on social media They're hearing a lot of tips that come in to get investigated So there's a lot of like backdoor things that are happening to keep the city safe Especially during a religious very holy day. So Professor short that they are working very diligently in that area Next question comes from Nathaniel from the Bronx for deputy mayor banks Says, can you explain the difference between purchasing robotic dogs that can be vandalized by criminals versus hiring more police officers? Um, I don't accept the question I don't I we get that a lot and the question is that is have to be either or Right technology is something that uh, we as a Society has to embrace Um, and I don't I don't I reject the notion that it's either or So when you have these And I think it was robotic dogs All right, just just just take the situation yesterday that took place for two days over the and street The FDNY could have sent in right their fire Officers and the building could have collapsed on them or they could have sent in A a robot with a camera on it right think about it So you know, I think people are getting caught up in these quote unquote dogs The question is their cameras and you can send them into a location to take a look And be able to prepare yourself for a potential incident So if you want to bring it down to the nypd, there's a person or a legislative person inside He has a firearm or do we send police officers in where they have to engage or do we send a camera in? That's just in case in quote unquote a digital door We want to make it a cat we can order a cat But it's a camera that goes in it takes a look and now it gives the people outside the ability to say What do we need to do to negate this particular situation as peaceful and harmless to all of us? So I think that we need to change the narrative at that particular part of what it is This technology is coming and we have to be able to use it responsibly And very fair and equitable to be able to continue our safety in the city Arlene from Manhattan's question is for the Department of Building She asks 33 Beekman, which is the building next to the garage collapse Was evacuated from floors one through four is the rest of the building safe You repeat that question repeat the address to 33 Beekman the building next to the garage collapse was evacuated initially floors one through four is the rest of the building safe We did structural inspections of all the buildings surrounding that whole block and we only vacated The areas that we thought were Had structural stability issues. So if there wasn't a vacate on there, we didn't see any structural disabilities with the rest of the building Next question comes from Donald in Brooklyn. This is for both the NYPD and potentially aging I'm 65 and walk a lot and there are a lot of e-bikes on all of our sidewalks, which is scary for older new yorkers What is being done to address this problem? Well Just a crime prevention unit to this that uh, we're putting out as far as Reflectives to wear Make sure that you look both a well They were both ways when you cross the street We know it is a problem with all these e-bikes and these bikes going a going across We just tell people just to be mindful That you know, so much traffic is going north and south and east and west just to look out and and be careful But at this point now we are doing The nypd is cracking down on a lot of these illegal bikes So hopefully that would that will cut the problem down And that's in the accidents that we do have right? It's actually monitored through a form called traffic stat And when that data reveals that this is on an increase certainly and if it's in pocket in certain areas Extra resources are put into that area to do education and certainly do enforcement if necessary So and that's why it's very important for people to communicate as best they can through the 301 system As it is important for the city to make sure that we stay pretty pretty much in tune to what we are The data that we're getting from the 301 system That is your way to communicate in non-emergency situations because as usual data there So if we're starting to see here from you that there are some Issues that you're sensing in this particular area that we can deploy more resources in there to do education And certainly uh to be able to come out with a strategy to do it So that particular individual uh, I want to get back to the individual find out exactly specifically what areas And what times that they're hearing so we could actually dedicate some Some resources there and I wanted to just add to that that as part of the pedestrian safety The department of transportation is beginning Walking tours with older adults through our network of service agencies to look at exactly what those issues are So that we can give that data to the department of NYPD as well as the department of transportation to see what mitigation strategies are necessary So we're doing walking tours around the city to look at pedestrian safety issues that impact older persons By that that person should contact us just as as deputy mayor of bank said And they can call 311 or they can call aging connect at 212 to 446469 And we could hone in on what that neighborhood is Great and our final question comes from aglaya in manhattan for deputy mayor banks And the whole dais What can we as residents of the city do on an individual level to help police keep our neighborhoods safe? There's a lot of people or this dais who work for the police department And I'll let any one of them take the first crack at it I mean because I can speak on that for a very long time But i'm going to say to uh, george posito Right you take the first crack at that Okay, i'm going to kick it through mox to it What was the question how what can the people do to help the police keep the city safe? Don't commit crime. I thought i'll start there Don't commit any crime Be the eyes and ears of your neighborhood if you see something say something It's been a slogan that we put out since 9 11 If we react the best when we get good positive information And that's what we rely on the public to give us good information Listen to the tips that the police department gives out about how to stay safe Lighting things of that nature how to park your car. So listen to what the pd tells you They they're the experts on on how to stay safe if you listen to them, you'll stay safe But again, we rely on information from the public. So please don't be afraid to give us that information If I could I'd add a couple programs that Chief Esposito really helped build under his tenure At new york city emergency management. I think you're the longest serving commissioner of new york city emergency management and the longest serving chief of department Well, the longest serving chief of department Well his his name You know as if a name could be hallowed ground in a building his name is hallowed ground in in new york city emergency management A couple of the programs that he really helped build and expand That I encourage new yorkers to take advantage of one is our cert program You can volunteer with new york city emergency management often our cert volunteers End up getting deployed alongside the nypd for different events and activations And then also signing up for notify nyc, which is our public messaging system It's we now have over a million subscribers. It's available in 14 languages including american sign language But if you are prepared if you have the information you need Likely means that you will be able to take care of yourself and your family You won't need a first responder to rescue you or help you And you will also be able to keep your loved ones safe So two things that you can do through emergency management cert and notify nyc. Thank you I brought a very good point. Thank you for reminding me cert Those are people from the neighborhood that have a concern for their neighborhood and they journey volunteer Very similar to the auxiliary police program in the nypd So if you want to get involved that's the way to get involved the cert program the auxiliary get involved with your Precinct community council your community board. There's so many ways or you can get your opinions and your advice Out out to us the agencies that can help you so I advise you get as involved as possible cert is a great great program and again It's the it's the civilian part of what we would call the auxiliary police program from the nypd take Crack at this too. This is a partnership Between the police department and our communities the commanding officers in a precinct They all have town meetings. You could come to the town meeting You're in the community. You know what's going on in the community You know people that's hanging out in streets that shouldn't be there You know people who are riding bikes in the neighborhood that shouldn't be there The precinct is open 24 7 you could go in at any time and speak to an officer Commanding officer and let them know any activity that's going on in your neighborhood That you don't seem this is right that the police department should know about the whole process to this is communication Communication is a big Part of policing and we hope we have the doors open 24 7 so I think um communication some is sums it all That concludes today's briefing on behalf of the Adams administration I would like to thank everyone for tuning in to today's briefing We look forward to seeing you all at our next one. Have a great day. Thank you