 Good evening. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We're going to get started now with a second portion. First of all, I want to thank you for coming to the mayor's community conversation on public safety here in Staten Island. All of you who are participating are true leaders in the community, whether you represent community board, civic association, precinct councils, violence interrupters, bids, tenant associations and all the other wonderful organizations you represent. So thank you for your leadership and bringing the issues to your forefront. There are three parts to our community conversation. The first one is the round table conversation. You participated with executives of the NYPD, principal, super tenants, agency facilitators and members of the mayor's office. The members of the mayor's office took notes at your table so this way they can address issues discussed at the tables, together with folks at city hall, policy makers, as well as Q&A cards on each table to ensure that issues that don't get raised to the dais will get a return phone call directly to you. The mayor's office monitors each Q&A card, logs it and ensures you get a phone call back. So if your question is not raised, do not feel bad, we will guarantee a phone call directly to you. The next portion is going to be directly the Q&A's agreed part by the table. We'll be asking the dais, we'll work around the room to get to as many tables as possible and then we'll direct it to the mayor and he'll have the agency rep. So the run of show is the mayor is going to speak, the borough president, Vito Fasalos speak and ADA ridges will speak and then we'll take your Q&A. Thank you. Thank you Fred. All I know is I love being on Staten Island and I have been out here probably in the last few months, more than others have been throughout the entire terms and you will not be the forgotten borough in this administration. In fact, when I take the ferry across the bridge, I have all my ear parts and I just have Nat King Cole playing unforgettable. You are unforgettable to me. This island has, you know, did the impossible for me when I was running and I was out here several times. I see Michelle over there and others spoke with Vito a couple of times. One thing I learned about Staten Island, probably you do it better than any other place in this country. You personified, there's not a Republican pothole, there's not a Democrat pothole, there's not a Republican high tax, there's not a Democrat high tax. When the campaign is over, you guys just get to work and Staten Island elected, they come as a unit and say what's best for Staten Island and I just think it's important for us to understand that. We're doing these town halls all over the city and we're going to do many of them. I enjoy being among the people, hearing directly from the people because I think you need to hear directly from us. We are doing some good stuff in this administration. And, you know, bad stuff sells. That's just the reality of it. Bad stuff is headlines, is headlines grabbing, grabs attention. I get so many clicks on social media. Even if I hang out at a restaurant, I get a lot of stories. You know, but the reality is when you dig into crevices, this administration is moving things forward like never before. And you're going to see a checklist of first times ever. You're going to see a checklist of how we made government work. This city was a mess. Don't kid yourselves. It wasn't you. It was a city of just complete dysfunctionality. You couldn't even get an inspection done in time in the Department of Builders. You thought that every time someone walked aside your small business from an agency, they came with a fine book instead of saying, how do I keep your doors open? There was just a constant way of how do we hurt you as residents. You were not getting your tax dollars monies worth. You were not getting the benefits you deserve. For 20-something years I have been taking notes on what's wrong with this city and how we need to fix it. And let me give you one more piece before I turn the mic over to you. I want you to do this. Tell me the last mayor that was a silver servant. Tell me the last mayor that was a union member. I don't know another mayor in the history of this city. If you go back and look at all the mayors, de Blasio, Bloomberg, Giuliani, Koch, Lindsey, Wagner, Bean, go look at, go Wikipedia them later today. The only blue collar mayor. I'm the only dyslexic mayor. I'm the only mayor that lived on a verge of homelessness. I'm the only mayor that was arrested. They went into the police department to protect our city. There's a uniqueness about this moment. I'm you. You have one of your own that's the mayor of the city of New York. We're not going to agree on everything. In fact, I'm perfectly imperfect. I'm perfectly imperfect. But being mayor is not perfection. It's dedication. 5 a.m. in the morning. I'm up every morning. To 1 2 a.m. at night on the subway station talking to my conductors, my motormen, going to my hospital, speaking to my nurse. This is not a 9 to 5 job. There's a whole entire city that comes alive after the evening hours. When I walk into a restaurant, you know what I do? I walk in the kitchen and talk to the cooks and the dishwashers. I get on the elevator. I speak to the elevator operators. I walk into a corporation. I talk to the cleaners. My mother was a cleaner. No one would speak to her when she was there cleaning their office spaces. That's why I'm doing this job. And I want to hear from you on how we can do it better, where we're dropping the ball, and from time to time just tell us when we're doing something right. That feels good also. So we're going to turn it over to our borough president, Vito, and then we will get this show on the road. Thank you, Vito, for joining us. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, everyone. And I'll be brief. I just want to say three things. One, how fitting it is, Mr. Mayor, that you chose this place, the Gerard Carter Center, to host this event on public safety, because it was a young police officer, Gerard Carter, who grew up in this neighborhood, who was shot in the head while he was sitting in the car a little over 24 years ago and gave his life not only for Staten Island but for this city so that we could be safe. And to his family, we will never forget and always remember the sacrifice of office at Gerard Carter. And I'm sure there are others here, but I sat through that funeral at the First Central Baptist Church, and I had never heard a better sermon than that day given by Reverend Calvin Rice, remembering that young man and his sacrifices, so God bless his memory and God bless his family. Number two, on Staten Island, as you know, Mr. Mayor, you've been out here more, as you say, in the last week than the last guy was here in eight years. We can't thank you enough because we love this city. We love Staten Island. We love this community. As evidenced by people coming out here tonight, they want to see Staten Island in this New York City thrive and grow, and we will. And we can't do without the great men and women in the New York City Police Department. So if you're here, stand up. If you're familiar with the NYPD, I ask you to stand up. And let's hear it for these men and women who keep it safe. Thank you very much for your service. You know, in the early 90s, we had a city that was ungovernable, people were leaving, and there were a lot of people who gave up on New York City. We did not. And the third thing I'm going to say is this mayor did not. And we are very blessed and lucky to have Eric Adams as our mayor right now. He is the man who's going to help us bring and turn New York City around. And all I can say, Mr. Mayor, we have your back. Thank you very much. And now the district attorney was unable to make it, but he brought a representative, ADA Ridges. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. First, let me say welcome to Mayor Adams. Welcome to the safest patrol borough in the city where we have the best cops and the best community in the city, my words. Where partnership is not just a word. DA McMahon, Mr. Mayor, sends his regards and his regrets as he's dealing with a family matter tonight. It is great that you are here to speak on this timely subject, the subject of public safety. The DA's office knows that there is no cookie cutter approach to this issue, which is why we try to look at every case on a case by case basis. And we evaluate that case for the appropriate resolution, whether that resolution is a treatment program through our alternative to incarceration unit or whether it's incarceration for someone who commits a violent felony. No two cases are the same. No two victims are the same. No two defendants are the same. We also believe the only way to deal with this problem is together, a unified effort. And as I like to say, that requires the four P's, the police, the prosecutors, the politician, and most importantly, the people. I know that we on Staten Island are all in. I know that from the prosecutors that I supervise, to the police officers that I talk with, to the politicians that I have meetings with, to the people that call my phone. The DA's office stands ready to work with you to ensure public safety and to keep every Staten Islander safe. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your continued commitment to public safety. And again, here on Staten Island, we at the DA's office are ready to steal your words. Get stuff done. So just to let you know who's up here with us, I just want to go through our senior leadership that's here. The Office of Immigrant Affairs, Commissioner Manny Castro, Department of Sanitation for Staten Island borough, Chief Daniel Linley, Office of Emergency Management, Commissioner Zachary Isko, DYCD, Commissioner Keith Howard, NYPD, Chief Kenneth Corey, Staten Island BP video for SELO as you just saw, Department of Education First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg, DSS Commissioner, one of my favorite commissioners is hardworking dealing with the homeless crisis in our city, Gary Jenkins, ACS Commissioner Jess Danhouser, Indigender based violence, I saw all those letters. I was trying to figure that out. Commissioner Cecil Noel, CCHR Commissioner Annabelle Palmer, Parks Commissioner, another great commissioner, Sue Donahue, NYCHA COO, Eva Tribble, DCP Commissioner Anna Benudez. She has some great programs she's doing around probation. NYPD Chief Madri, Deputy Mayor Phil Banks, into my right, CAU Commissioner Fred Chrismas, into my left, Staten Island ADA Ridges, who you just heard from, H&H President and a great leader over there, CEO, Dr. Mitchell Katz, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, First Deputy Commissioner Turian Eastling, and DFDF Commissioner Amazin for our senior Lorraine Cortez-Vazquez and SBS Commissioner Deputy Commissioner Gross. So those are the team that's here tonight, and we want to now open it up for it. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Now to get started, we'll start from table number one, Kevin. Yes. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. So our question, there is a disproportionate allotment of social services in parts of Staten Island that does not exist in other parts of the island, such as on the North Shore, where there are currently three shelters in operation and all are in the vicinity of schools. We need a more equitable balance and distribution of social services that does not over-tax or burden one community while not having anything in others. What can be done to address these inequalities? When your table is talking about services, are you talking about homeless services? Are you talking about mental health treatment, drug treatment? You know exactly. Can you find out from the table what they're speaking of? Homeless. Homeless. Gary, you want to touch that? Hi. Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Staten Island. Under the Adams administration, we are definitely looking at equity across the city. We want to ensure that areas that's over-saturated, that does not continue, areas that's under-saturated, that the city as a whole is playing a part in housing temporarily our homeless brothers and sisters. So we are taking a deep dive at the Department of Homeless Services, really looking at the portfolio across the city to see, again, with this under-saturation and with this over-saturation, because we want to make sure that we have equitable shelters throughout our city. It's a tough job. The folks that's coming to us are really in a really tough position, but as the city, as you all know, this is a right to shelter city. We're going to beat it for our brothers and sisters, and we need everyone to play a part in housing our homeless brothers and sisters. Thank you. And we did, one of the first things I did was to create a chart and graph and spreadsheet that did an analysis of every homeless shelter that we have in the city. We called in all the city council people. We showed them the numbers. We showed where they're located. And we did something probably has never been done before. We made it that help us determine in your council matter district if we have to put a shelter, help us decide where that location is. So we're not coming to dictate to you. We wanted to do it in a partnership. But every council person was brought in and we showed them where districts, council matter districts had shelters who didn't, what were the numbers, and what type of shelters they were, because we wanted to do it in a coordinated effort so we're not dictating to the council members. Thank you. Next table. Ido. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Our group discussion focused on the youth and mentorship. And our table wanted to ask can SYEP, the summer youth employment program, and AGVEP, the anti-gun violence employment program be funded year round for New York City's youth? Thank you. D-Y-C-D, Commissioner Howard. So we are actually looking at what those numbers look like. As you know, this past summer, oh no, we're still in the summer, we had 100,000 young people in our SYEP program. And part of the funding also went to crisis management system providers. I know one, for instance, up in 18 Mitchell and the Brooklyn man up had at least 100 plus some of youth people that they provided jobs with. So the funding we have to look at, as the mayor will tell you, we have budget carry issues we have to look at with the city, but I definitely see that there is a need for us to invest more in a full-time program. What we're doing around the crisis management teams is really unique. What I learned on the campaign trail, and after meeting with a lot of the crisis management team members, we created a task force with Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and 18 Mitchell. So that's the highest level of our food chain with one of our deputy mayors to partner with 18 Mitchell who runs the organization MANA out in East New York. And every agency in the city, there's going to be a representative that will communicate directly with the crisis management team. We found that the crisis management team members were trying to navigate city agencies without having a rep. We had a problem in Harlem where drug dealers were hiding trash in garbage bags on the block and no one in the Department of Sanitation was responding to the crisis management team when they needed those garbage bags picked up. Now they're going to have a representative that's going to speak directly. Or a crisis management team can come and say we need to close down this street to have a peace rally. They had to navigate the bureaucracy of all the different agencies to get to permit. Now they're going to have a representative that's going to speak directly with them. The police and crisis management, those are our marines. They're on the ground. They should not have to navigate the other agencies on getting what they need to alleviate the violence that they're seeing. 100,000 summer youth jobs, first time in New York City's history. We had to summarize the program. 110,000 children with schools remain open throughout the summer. Our children had a safe place. We're getting ready to put in place extended use program while schools will be open after school hours where the non-profits that's using the space, you're not going to have to pay the school safety agents to clean up the place and all the other things. We're going to pay for that. If you're using your sweat equity, we're going to pick up the cost for you using your sweat equity. We're getting ready to roll out a 100% paid internship program all year round for our young people so they could have jobs all year round. We're building out a new CTE while children can get basic skills, HVAC, carpentry, electricity, and plumbing. So they can get the real jobs that they need. So we know the best way to stop violence is to start employing. And we're going to focus on our young people to make sure we do that. Now, with all that said, if Bay Bay wants to keep carrying a gun and create violence, the NYPD is going to do its job. It's intervention and prevention. We're not going to allow violence in our city and see what we're seeing with these guns in our city. Excellent. Thank you. Table number three, Anthony. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. The group would like to ask, are there plans to provide more resources on Staten Island for city-run health services as it pertains to mental health, substance abuse, and general health screening? I'm going to turn it over to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dr. Easterling. Anthony, thanks for the question. Good evening, Staten Island. It's a really important question. I will say that we are always thinking about our commitment to increasing services for addressing mental health. What we have seen during COVID is that, you know, this pandemic has really shone a light on the need to address stress and anxiety and depression. And we are continuing to make additional investments beyond just mental health, but also substance abuse as well. And so the entire University of Behavioral Health Services are absolutely needed. One thing that I can talk about, and we just made an investment in this city, to expand our support and connection center, to think about long-term support as well as short-term support. So stabilization, engagement, providing case management, wraparound services for individuals who we know who could be faced with severe mental illness, but we also know that we need to be able to engage them and meet people where they are. The other thing that I want to talk about is we have seen the federal government expand the way that they are offering our hotline services. So the federal government has launched 988, a nationwide service that will allow people to connect with them 24 hours, seven days a week to answer questions around stress and anxiety and depression. This builds upon the city investment of our NYC well to connect to all of our services across the city. And we know that it's very much needed, not only for our adults, but also for our young folks. And so I think these are the steps that we're continuing to take and also partnering with our colleagues at Health and Hospitals, NYC Health and Hospitals to make sure that we have boots on the ground, like through our show van, which is a model award initiative that allows us to bring those services into the community where people are. And it's a real problem. The question that was asked, mental health is a real, real crisis. I don't know if COVID aggravated it or more. Remember when we took office? Those of you who use public transportation, particularly the subway system, it was inundated with encampments, tents, cardboard boxes. We stated we were not going to do like previous administrations and walk past people living on the streets. The first month in January, I went out, I spent time in those tents, in those cardboard boxes, and I spoke to people who were living on the streets and in our subway system. And let me tell you what you saw inside was unbelievable. Human waste, drug, paraphernalia, stale food, uncleanliness. And so we did our initiative. Week one, we went into the subway system with TA employees, mental health professionals. The first week, we were only able to get 22 people to respond to our call to go into our safe havens bedded shelters. We went back, we created brochures to show people what the safe haven beds were looking like. We're now up to taking almost 2,000 people that were living on our subway system are now living inside our safe haven beds and our shelters. We were able to give them the wraparound services that they deserve. You can't just act like you don't see the problem. There's nothing humane about people living on the street in those conditions. And a large number of them, when I spoke with them, they were bipolar, they were dealing with mental health issues. They don't go to the hospital until their chronic disease is in a crisis state. That is not how we should be spending taxpayers' dollars and we're going to continue to lean in that. But we need help from the state. We got to open these mental health, these psychiatric beds. We must give people who can't take care of themselves, the wraparound services they deserve and we need help to do that. Thank you. Next table, LaMona. Good evening, Mayor Adams and panel. Please forgive me. My table here, they came up with seven questions and they did not have the opportunity to choose. So this is, I'm just going to choose the first one and if we get round please allow the table to choose one if we get back around. The question is, there's a housing called Park Hill. It's not a part of NYCHA, but it's federally subsidized. However, they're saying, the table is saying they have the same issues as NYCHA. The police are not allowed to do verticals. Why are the rules different for this particular housing than the NYCHA houses? When it comes to public safety, they're experiencing a lot of issues. They're not getting stoves. They're not getting refrigerators, et cetera. First of all, thank you for that. Let me let you in a secret. When I was a rookie cop and I lost my housing for a little while, a friend of mine let me stay in Park Hill with him for two weeks. So I know Park Hill very well. I wouldn't tell you I met a shorty there and I can't say that on TV. And you're right. We need to specifically look at Park Hill. So can we table that? That's actually a second question. And when we leave here, can a group of you that are familiar with Park Hill come and I want to figure out exactly what we need to do over there because I was there during the campaign and there's some real issues there. I need to understand who owns it, what exactly is happening, is it the landlord? That's a beautiful piece of real estate if it's treated with the respect that it deserves. So get your second question. And I want us to just focus specifically on Park Hill. The team is going to speak with you on that. Thank you, Mayor Adams. The second question is pertaining to a Home Depot on Tar G Street. Apparently the sanitation is horrendous over there. So the question is, is Home Depot responsible for cleaning up around the streets over there or is sanitation? And whichever one is responsible, why isn't it being cleaned? Thank you for that and I'm going to stop by there when I leave the island today. I'm going to go by there. I know exact Home Depot you were talking about. Department of Sanitation? Good evening. Home Depot is responsible for 18 inches from the curb and their sidewalk. We've had multiple issues with Home Depot. Just recently we were partnership with the DA. The DA sent out an email to Home Depot to start cleaning up because they were lacking of doing that. They didn't have the resources. I've been sending crews over there. Today was one of the days that we sent them over there. It's an ongoing issue, but they have been improving. So listen, I'm going to go over to today when I leave here tonight. I'm going to take a ride over there. And we're going to have SBS get in contact with their corporate office. And if we can ask them to do right, we need to get over there and start hitting them to make it costly not to do right. It's not acceptable that they're saying they're going to do right. And those who live in that area, if you see after we get them to clean up, if you see the problem persist, please send us a photo. Keep us on track with that. And I'm going to speak with the Commissioner of DSNY. Even if we have to clean up and then charge them for it at a high cost, we've got to get it done. You cannot have a dirty community because somebody's not doing the job. That's not acceptable. So I'm going to take a ride over there today when I leave here. Thank you. Next table, Fernando. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. This group would like to thank you because you have come to Staten Island twice in one month. And you're the only mayor that has done that in their lifetime. The question from this wonderful group, bless group, because we also have two pastors here. Is there a willingness on your part to commit administration decision makers to come to Staten Island on a bimonthly basis to assess meaningful ways to commit resources to address social determinants of life in Staten Island? Hold on, Mike. I've got to understand that more. Drill that a little more for me. So the question is, can we have officials that could look into what is really happening in our communities here to be able to work with the nonprofits and to be able to target those resources and to come in a consistent basis so they could get a good assessment on what is really happening on the ground? So, dude, this guy, I want to fully understand this. Can this table also that I ask the question, can we just caucus a little after this so I can really drill into understanding what you're asking? Because there's a pastor out here that I met that was doing something focusing on NYCHA. His name? Right here. Look at that. Look at that. So let's come back and let's just drill into. I want to really understand that question, OK? Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. Thanks. Next table, Mohammed. Hello. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Question of this table is, how can the city make sure our communities have the proper infrastructure to support the influx of homeless shelters before opening in our communities? Gary? How are you doing? We'd love to have that conversation because we are transparent administration. So to sit down, we speak with the elected officials, we speak with the council members, we speak with all elected officials, and as I said earlier today, we want the electors to let us know where are these buildings, what's appropriate for us to open these shelters. So it's an open dialogue and I'm making myself personally available. If you want to sit down, let's have a conversation. I'll bring my team and we can have that talk. And you have to have the right infrastructure. If I'm understanding the table correctly, if you're going to have a place where you open a shelter, you must have the right police personnel there if needed. You must have the right support in the schools that's going to be handling this. That infrastructure is crucial. And what we're looking at, every time we place a shelter, we want to make sure there needs to be a support around that shelter for those who are in need. And the goal is, we don't want people standing shelter. We want people to go into permanent housing. That is our goal, not to be a lifetime in shelter and put them on a pathway to permanent housing, but you got to build that infrastructure to do so. That includes financial literacy. That includes job training. That includes mental health support. We need to zero in, and particularly with the young people who grew up in shelter. You know if you grew up in shelter, you're less likely to graduate from high school. And if you don't educate, you're going to incarcerate. So we have to really catch young people and give them the services while they're in shelter so that they can be able to grow up, to graduate from high school. That support is important. So thank you. Next table, number seven, Alina. Hi, good evening. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We have a vibrant table. Their concerns are really focused around the youth. And the question that they have is, how can you leverage your personality and connections along with your background in law enforcement to connect with our teenagers to be more focused on respect, prioritizing schooling, and be law abiding as citizens? You know, it's hard being young. I know all of us try to act like we were ideal kids, but we were not. You know, I was up in the Bronx yesterday. A group of young people were attacking, they said they were attacking elders up in the Bronx. I went up to see the elders up in the Bronx. We walked down the block. There was a mosque. I went inside the mosque and I talked to the Eman and some of the other people there. And when we got in there, a group of the young people who were part of that came inside the mosque and they sat down and they said, we want to talk with you. And they started talking about the issues. This was a group of young people who came from the continent of Africa. They were bullied as children. They were treated poorly. They wanted to sit down and they almost turned into a gang. We're going back up this Sunday. We're going to bring those elders who were assaulted to meet with the young people who assaulted them and sit down and engage in a conversation. So whatever I can do to put our young people in the room, we need to sit down and have a conversation because a lot of our young people are hurting. Two years of their lives were hijacked from COVID. They missed everything they could possibly have. Imagine two years of your life of no socialization. So part of what we must do, we need to really heal these young people and whatever I can do, wherever I need to go, I'm willing to do it because we don't want to lose them. By the time they have a gun in their hand, we're already lost. We're already lost to battle. So we have to be more proactive, more upstream and I'm willing to do whatever I need to do. If you have some ideas, please let me know because we are receptive to figuring out how to get it right. Thank you. We got a process. We're going to get to you, but there's a system. We're going to follow the system, okay? Next table, Alex. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Now that New York residents are able to conceal a weapon, how will the police, public safety and security guards operate? Do you think this will affect community policing in a negative way? Turn it over to Chief Corey. Thanks for this softball question. Okay. So will it affect policing in a negative way? It's certainly going to make the job of a police officer harder, right? There's no doubt about that. There's a lot of challenges that come along with it and, you know, listen, we're on record as being something that we're opposed to, but we obey the law. This is what the law is. We're going to follow the law. We're going to find a way to do it. Our officers will all be trained in the new law and how to approach people professionally and constitutionally, but New York City is really different from other parts of the country. And, you know, the thought of people walking around potentially starting shooting in crowded places like Times Square or the subway system are very, very dangerous. So the state has enacted a number of measures to try to offer a level of protection, right? You can't carry a gun in Times Square. It's a gun-free zone. Permit, no permit. You can't carry a gun there. So the officers who are there are going to know that. You can't carry a gun into a private business, you know, into private property, into a facility like this unless the business owner specifically permits it by advertising that it's allowed. But one thing about New York City police officers is that they are very adaptable. They are very resilient and they will rise to any challenge that comes up. So as we continue to work through that, I'm very confident that we'll be able to meet this head-on. Thank you. Next table, Angelica. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Our table is concerned with quality of life issues such as trash, drug use, and gang activity at Tappan and Tomkinsville Park. How are agencies and mental health programs working together to address this crisis in a timely manner? Yeah, so just ask the table, does that happen all day or night? Is it at a certain time? Just, you know, if anyone at the table could answer that? All day. Day and night. Day and night? No, she'll give you the mic. She'll give you the mic. Tomkinsville Park, and also I would include Tappan Park, but Tomkinsville Park in particular is a very small park, but it is the park where Eric Garner was killed. There's something that needs to happen extra that builds a relationship between police officers, the community, wonderful people like True to Life, and that brings people together because we need to move forward in building a better place for our community. And we can't do that if there's not a substantive relationship with the average officer. I'm not talking about a community affairs officer because they're trained to be community minded. I'm talking about the average officer. We need to have real relationships with each other to build a better community together. So we just need a way to do that and we need to get feedback from NYPD and others on how to make that, how to coordinate that, how to make that happen. And that includes all the city agencies that are involved. Okay, so I guess I'm going to be out in the Staten Island late tonight because we're going to take a ride over to Tomkinsville to the park. We're going to go over to the park. And then we're going to do something else. I know the CO is not here because she couldn't make it tonight. We're going to go to the park with the CO, with the community affairs officers, and we're going to hold a meeting in the park with the people. We're going to get Bishop Rice, Bishop Brown is out here, and we're going to go in the park and let's sit down and let's do something revolutionary. Let's talk to each other. Let's find out what we need in that park to get done. But I'm going to take a ride over there tonight to see what's happening before I go to Home Depot. And let's just see. Sometimes you've got to visually see what's happening to see what we need to do. And then we're going to come back out and we're going to hold a meeting in the park and engage with people. There's some pain there because of the air regardless situation. We got that. But as you said, it's time to heal. It's time to move forward so that we can fix the wrongs that's in front of us. Can I get your number before we leave also? I'm going to get your information before we leave. Next table. Hi, good evening, Mr. Mayor. My table is a question about how to build better community and police partnerships and presence without over enforcement, without over policing. And making sure that the trust and respect within the community is built between the police and the community. That's a great question. And I don't know if Chief Corrie or Chief Magery, if they have any input on that. But here's what I learned. We promote in the police department. I think we're missing one area where we should be promoting more. We promote if you take an examination. We promote if you're a detective and you do a good job solving crimes. I think we need to promote based on your ability to prevent crimes. You know, how well you're doing in crime prevention. Chief Banks always tell the story about Ozzie Smith. They said, listen, he doesn't hit 100 at home runs a year while we're paying him so much money as a shortstop. And the owner of the team says, well, how many runs did he save? Because he was a great infielder. So I think we need to really look at those officers and all of you know them that because of their presence they prevent crimes from taking place. And we need to lift them up as well as we lift up those who solve crimes. And that's something I'm going to speak with the police commissioner about. How do we start lifting up those officers better than what we do? And that is how you build the relationship. Think about it. Those of you who are not law enforcement, you start your day, you leave your house, you all of a sudden walking down the block and that police officer stops you and says, you know, how you doing Miss Jones? I heard your son or daughter graduating the last year from school. Really proud of them. Have a good day. You're going to think about that the entire day. You're going to remember that. That symbol, that uniform means so much to us and we do not sell that product enough. The majority of times we encounter our police officers. It's not because we're inviting them to a birthday party. It's because the party was shot up. We need to have more positive interactions with our law enforcement officers and that is how you build real relationships and that's what we want to do. Chief, you want to touch on that? Thank you and let me just circle back for one second to Tompkinsville Park and the issues in Tompkinsville Park which have persisted for many, many years, well over a decade. And it's ironic because we were talking about Tompkinsville and Tappin' Parks just this morning on a separate call we had so I'll basically reiterate what I said on that and there is a high likelihood of success here that never existed before and I'll explain why. And a few years ago we were finally successful in getting the Parks Department to remove that comfort station that had sat boarded up for decades in the park, right? We improved the lighting in the park. We got the Parks Department to trim some trees and to make some improvements and you're right, it's very small. It's a triangle. It's three quarters of an acre. The problems that exist in the park are not for the police department to solve. We have a small role there in enforcement. It requires a whole of government approach. It requires every agency, homeless services, social services, parks, sanitation, DOT, everybody's sitting at this table working together and that's what was missing before and that's what the mayor alluded to when he talked about that the city was dysfunctional, city government was dysfunctional. He forces everyone to work together, whether we want to or not and he forces us all to work together and that's for the betterment of the city and I've been in this business for 34 years and I've never had that before. When I needed help from other agencies with Tompkinsville Park four years ago, three years ago, nobody helped. Nobody wanted to help. Not my problem. You clean it up, Cory, but it wasn't Cory's to do. All I can do is kick the can down the road. Now we're actually going to try to solve the problems there. So the mayor lay eyes on it for himself and we will get to work again and this time we're going to fix it and we're going to fix it the right way. As to the community engagement and this also goes to something that you said about community affairs officers being trained, we've begun training all our officers that way. The expectation is that all of our officers treat everyone with dignity and respect. Now again, I'm doing this a long time. I am not naive to expect that that happens every day but we are getting better each and every day and to that end we've gone back to doing something that we have not done in a long time and we take our new officers when they graduate from the academy we assign them to foot patrols on our commercial strips so that they're walking the streets they're talking to people as they're going about their daily lives they're talking to the merchants, the small business owners that are out there and they begin fostering that engagement in the community and right now that's a really small number but that number is going to continue to grow and that's the way we change the culture in the police department. I don't have a switch that I flip or a magic wand that I wave but I start with the young officers and before you know it, two years, three years, four years now there's a huge wave of officers that have been trained to do this the right way the way that we want them to do it and I know that Chief Madri has some other points to make. Thank you and thank you to both the tables for bringing up this very important point about police community relationships because I know we can't do it without you and I have been doing this along with Chief Corrie I'm at 31 years but we need your help and we have to partner up in terms of the park you know I know the mayor is going to lead an event out there real soon but I'm looking for something very sustainable I'm talking about every week things that are done daily where our youth officers our study sectors are coming out there and spending time with the community working with the community and it has to be something that's long but it just has to be sustainable and something that's pretty regular so if all officers are stopping in there for an hour every other day playing the game of chess discussing a book, discussing a movie, anything that's where the relationship is going to build it has to be regular stuff regular everyday things that we talk about and we work on we could talk about oh oh why do the police stop people or things like that but the real relationships are built when we just come out there and talk about it and then everything and that's what I'm looking for for our youth officers to come out there for our neighborhood officers to come out there and to introduce our sector officers out there our sergeants and our lieutenants to make sure that we are building a relationship the relationship you deserve you deserve to have a good relationship with your priesthood so we're going to start working on that and make sure we build that up thank you thank you for that both chiefs don't miss what chief Corey said it's so important what he just said he said that historically all we knew was 9-1-1 we had to police do everything and then when they did it we said why did you come and do it that's not how we operate if the police officer identified that hey here's a problem at this park and that problem equals drug uses homelessness encampment everybody the team must come together and figure out how do we handle this we're going to call Sue Donahue from the parks department we're going to call the chief manager we're going to call Gary from our homeless issues if the team comes together and say what piece of this problem you need to fix no such thing as well that's not my problem let the police department handle it we had to police do everything in this city everything call 9-1-1 let them handle it no you can't do that that's not their job to do every problem in this city the other agencies must respond to the needs that the police who are the first responders identify what the crisis is now we need to go there as a unit and fix the problem that we're facing that's how you operate a city as a team not as individual players that's how we fix our problem and speaking of parks Sue Donahue who is an amazing commissioner maybe maybe a good idea Sue and I'd like to hear your thoughts about even doing a project of design a park let the community come and design what they want Totten Park to look like and have input in that park so we should think about doing something like that thank you Mayor Adams and absolutely agree I think that's a great idea I think also you know we've built some great alliances and friends of groups I mean maybe that's a tech that you could take here too like figure out put together a group of people that are the Eisenheers on the park and you've got a great team out here in Staten Island and your borough commissioner Linda Rickadone you've done great great work in parks so we are anxious ready willing and able to step in and help and provide that kind of support and build that kind of entity that can be the Eisenheers a friends of group that can really be helpful in terms of that park that's my background I think a lot of those groups in Brooklyn love to help to think that through and how we could do that for Totten Park as well so we're going to look if you would help us establish a friends of group okay good so we want to meet I want to meet with the friends of group we're going to bring in a commissioner and let's put some ideas together how do we design that park that would be a great W for us and if you have a friends of group 70% there okay thank you next table Karen good evening Mr. Mayor and your cabinet I'm so glad that all this has been around NYP so far so with that being said this table is adamant that they would like to have a NYPD youth community center that's modeled after the one in East New York Brooklyn and they would love to have something like that here and I know Chief Magery who ran a place as such would know how they could start and have a place like that here in Staten Island right guys right I love that and I'm going to partner with the president and the councilman out here and the state senator so that we can all identify a location where we can do it and see how do we come up with the capitol to make it happen but while we are building and putting the shovel in the ground we have a ton of youth centers that we don't even see them as youth centers they're called school buildings I just don't understand why 7am to 3pm we tell our children to come come in and at 3pm we say get out and don't come back to the next day we have gymnasiums some have pools some have classrooms we can teach courses financial literacy life skills there's so much we can do in these school buildings that are not being done and I say let's open the doors to them while we're building a youth center and let's identify a location I think would be a great project to do next table we have Malcolm testing good evening Mr. Mayor how are you first I want to thank the people who is at this table I like to call this table table empowerment because we really came together elaborated on some great topics great issues I want to thank the police officer the entrepreneur, the family the probation and also NYCHA you already touched on the mental health presence but we do have a question but like our educator who was here that left she said you can't answer question without having a solution so I like to elaborate what is your Mr. Mayor what is your plan to hire the professional help to address this urgent mental health crisis issue can we partner with city colleges and other universities to provide programs where mental health college students can get their debt wavered after working a few years in an NYC mental health facility and also can we provide incentives to mental health workers that are similar to like the good neighbor next door program so they would want to stay and do the job a great question and we would really need help from the state to do that even loan forgiveness like we do with some of the other professions but we hired you know I'm really really pleased with our hire the head of department of health and mental hygiene Dr. Fassan I met him while I was campaigning he was in charge of what was called fountain house where he transitioned people from dealing with mental health issues living on the street and into permanent housing the clubhouse model the whole program is amazing we were able to bring him on he's now my commissioner of department of health and mental hygiene but yes we're looking for professionals in fact we're looking for professionals in every agency we have a real hiring problem in the city so if you know folks who are looking for a job we're asking them good qualified people to apply for these jobs and the department of health and mental hygiene is looking for professionals to be part of their team there and so to your answer to the table yes we do want to hire professionals in that career next table table number 13 I guess that would be me they just did the numbers over Mr. Mayor greetings first and foremost I just want to say we have some awesome Staten Islanders at this table a lot of what they had put on the table is reverberating around this room so it made it kind of difficult to actually come up with a question because they're being answered as we move along but I asked this question on the behalf of the awesome Staten Islanders here at my table once again feel that economic opportunities are the driving engine that would help to save some lives in our community can you re-emphasize the plan you have to bring jobs to the youth and residents of NYCHA in addition to bring in vocational technical programs to our schools and I premised that with the thought process that one of the Staten Islanders here made it very clear he loves what you're doing and he said if you ever in a street fight I'm in a street fight with the media every day man you know what just to digress a little the media is so fixated on me you know it's amazing okay we have Lisa for NYCHA but here's what I was speaking with the Chancellor the other day about NYCHA and I want to speak with you about a pastor also everyone everyone looks at those children that may do something wrong in NYCHA but you know we have a lot of accelerated learners in NYCHA and we need to go in and give them the additional support that they deserve we need to help all the children in NYCHAs but you have some children in NYCHA who are A students on the pathway to go to Ivy League schools but there's no real support system for them and so the Chancellor and I we're going to identify those accelerated learners and we're going to build an entire mentorship support program for them and build a cohort where they can know each other and see how they can support each other as they continue to grow that was missing I never looked at those young men and women who are accelerated learners in NYCHA we have basically told them to fend for themselves we're going to go give them and we're going to give them the support as we help those struggling students at the same time but we want to focus on those accelerated learners also but I want to go over to NYCHA Lisa do you want to touch on that or are you on my right or my left okay thank you Mr. Mayer and actually you said it so beautifully NYCHA really takes very seriously fostering empowerment in our youth we were actually with the Borough President a couple of weeks ago at the Berry Homes where we have a boxing center and part of being and actually with the NYPD as well part of that is the students who participate actually have to achieve certain grades so that you have the consistency across learning a discipline like boxing and also doing well in school we have a lot of opportunities for financial empowerment for business development for career advancement and we are looking to continue to foster those programs with the help of the city and other agencies Commissioner Howard you want to touch on that anyone else I'm used to you being to my left look at the facility that we're in now this is a cornerstone community center that is run by NYCHA and DYCD and look at the floor look at the programming that happens and our network of CBOs that are running it shout out to JCC because they are doing amazing things here in fact I just had a meeting with them shout them out they're doing a good work one of the things that we talked about as a pre-meeting to this meeting was how they want to roll out a tech program in NYCHA to the NYCHA residents so I think that the investment is here all we need to do is better job at advertising where it is so that you can have access to it as well we have seven community center cornerstone programs in DYCD on Staten Island we also have a number of beacon programs in the schools that do after school programming and deal with the youth and I also want to give a shout out to NYPD this year for some of youth employment the number of 813 kids went through the NYPD and you talking about community relationship you got to give them a shout out for that next question to table number 14 Paula good evening Mr. Mayor our question has to do with resources for the youth specifically the second actually when can we get a recreational facility in the St. George area and Mariners Harbor in the Allerton area specifically those two locations that those two locations that a recreational center is located there isn't anyone there isn't a recreational facility they want a facility there so the question is they were like a recreational center for the youth that correct so I think that we are dealing with real budgetary restraints and we want to be honest about that the question is always ask what is our goal the goal is a safe place for children to develop their full personhoods and that includes courses, recreation information and I continue to say all over the city we have those places we have those buildings we have to open these school builders up you know while we are trying to build recreational centers there's no reason we're not using spaces that we already have gyms we already have pools in some of them we already have classrooms where they can sit down we have shop classes we have everything we need in many of these buildings we keep them wrapped up like they only can be used from 7 to 3 yes there are no schools in Arlington I'm sorry there aren't any schools in Arlington in that specific area those are the areas we should look to build recreational centers where you don't have the facilities for our young people so we're with you next table Tia who's your council person over there by the way okay she's good on youth stuff good evening Mr. Mayor there are a lot of needs in the community including a lack of hope among our youth and safety concerns but the question how can we ensure that our night care buildings have the funding we need to be safe and the next question and how can we increase the access to mental health services to those that are unable to leave their apartments due to concern about safety and lack of mobility and this is in night care that they're talking about you want to talk to the speaker Chief Corey or Madri thank you for your question first and foremost I mean all the precincts the four precincts out here are responsible for public safety the housing police don't cover out here the precincts cover so you know we have to ensure that we're out there that we're inside the buildings that we're doing most importantly we have to make sure that we're speaking to the community understand what's going on if there's specific incidents that we need to be addressing we have to get your number so at some point we can just understand a little bit better what's going on so after this meeting I'd like to connect with you so I can make sure I understand exactly what's going on at any specific development and if we're just talking generally I mean all the precincts are here the borough command is here and it's up to us to just make sure that we're out there that we're increasing our public presence out there and that we're being responsive to the needs of the community so we'll make sure that message it's out and we'll increase the safety around public housing thank you I just ask the table is there any particular NYCHA residents that they're talking about or is it in general which one where's the mic Stapleton Stapleton daytime nighttime there's always something going on three days ago there was a shooting daytime right near the park while kids are in the pool you know it's a shameful that we can't have our kids go outside and not worried if something's going to occur and you're a hundred percent right okay alright so we have the borough commander here and you're right you need to have a safe space for our children and we're going to really dig into that we are focused on the quality of life issues that leads to the criminal behavior some of the dangerous behavior that we have been witnessing in the city thank you next table we have Andrew good evening sir how can your administration increase hope and communication you sound like a radio host man come on like you trying to wrap or something how does he hear you how can your administration increase hope and communication to parents and children while improving public and community engagement and safety drill down and add a little more for me let me understand a little more so we're just trying to see how we can increase communications between parents and children to create more community engagement in the city how do you propose your administration tackles that issue I don't know anyone who want to talk about it you sort of lost me yeah who asked the question what you wanted to someone to let them drill it go ahead how you doing the question basically is talking about how can your administration work on improving family relationships one of the things that deals with community violence especially the increase is that families aren't involved with each other there aren't a lot of fathers involved with the children how is your administration going to address that so that we can be pre-emptive instead of what was the word reactive what are you attacking that issue first of all I like your shirt father's matters we already had this conversation two weeks ago yes I like your shirt and I have your shirt for you right here okay let me have it because sometimes my son don't realize that I matter too he does everything for mother's day he never remembers father's day until he needs money so there's a group of organizations I know Dan David is not here the chancellor but they have been having a group of meetings with with folks like you throughout the city and I would love Dan so you should come on brother so listen David the chancellor David Banks is having these meetings drilling down what you're talking about so Dan can we let him connect with David and be at these meetings we're talking about these relationships with families and conversations I would love for you to connect with the chancellor and be at the next meeting that he's having what is his name the gentleman that's in the Department of Education that specifically rallying these organizations and groups he introduced him where's Aaron is that right here this is the man you want to see right Aaron this is the man you want to see he specifically is dealing with that issue that you're talking about Mr. Mayor can I add real quick just real quick from ACS perspective there's something very exciting happening very soon on Staten Island the Staten Island Justice Center is going to open the first family enrichment center on Staten Island and the family enrichment centers where a new model families can just walk in wash your dryer it's set around a kitchen table parents supporting parents it has nothing to do with an investigation it's a real model for parents if families are really struggling we also have our family assessment program where we have family therapies young people are struggling it's operated right out of our ACS office over here so I'd be happy to talk to you about both of those things after this and Jess is doing the commission is doing one hell of a job over at ACS one hell of a job he's thinking outside the box he's not waiting until there's a crisis and so connect with these folks up here they are really committed to what they're doing so make sure you connect with the commissioner before you leave both is you had it coming from both sides thank you next table you have Rodney good evening Mr. Mayor respected members of the dais Rodney Carvajal with table 18 so recently there was a young man that was shot in Park Hill and there was a recent shooting also here in Stapleton houses a few weeks back a question that the team came up here is how can we stop guns from entering the community and how can we stop the wrong people from accessing those guns we'll take that Chief Corey there are some challenges keeping guns off the street and guns come into New York City traditionally they come up the iron pipeline they come from those southern states that have more lax gun laws and they come up here and they get resold on the street and then lately of course we have a brand new threat what we'll call in the plastic pipeline ghost guns where you can water all the parts make the gun at your kitchen table that we need help from the federal government the mayor has been very outspoken on that we need them to close that loophole in the law and stop that from happening and go after the manufacturers who make these parts and ship them in on the intervention and we've taken more guns off the street this year we've taken over 4,000 guns off the streets we've taken more guns off the streets than at any time we have in the last 28 years think about that it's an incredible incredible number and in Staten Island we're very fortunate because you've got a great DA in Mike McMahon and his fantastic staff like Tom Ridges that work so closely with the police department and make sure that there's appropriate justice and justice doesn't always mean incarceration but it means deterring the future behavior having consequences for the action and that's probably one of the main reasons well that along with all the community support that goes on here why Staten Island didn't experience the same surge in shootings that the rest of the city did so far too many shootings in Staten Island no doubt about it but compared to the rest of the city even percentage wise in the increase it pales in comparison and like I said that's not just because of the relationship between police and prosecutor but it's also all the community groups that get involved in that space and that's the way that we solve this problem that's the way we turn the tide on violence is by everybody working together it's a real battle man you know the number of days that you know you know you know you know you know you know you know the number of days that we had to show up at the hospital with some of these these babies being shot and see like as fast as we take these damn guns off the streets they just continue to flow into the city as the chief stated you know I think we're up to 4700 guns of this you know this year the highest level and it's just an endless flow all across the country this gun violence stuff is a national problem and one of the most important pieces is the household you know we need to really engage in the conversation with our family members we need to see what's in those book bags we need to see what's in the mattress under you know the pillow cases we gotta really engage in that I could not bring anything in the house she would do a pat down in a minute if she had to you'll be surprised some of the things your children are doing on the streets and it's not that they're bad it's just being a young person it's a difficult moment right now social media is just screwing our children up and so please have a role our educators have a role brothers have a role parents have a role you know we're losing too many young people to gun violence every day all day we're hearing these shootings that are taking place and it's traumatizing us but we're gonna do our part we're gonna continue to fight to turn it around next question we have last table Marcus good evening Mr. Mayor our Staten Island residents are having a real problem with safety and travel some of them don't feel comfortable leaving Staten Island some of them don't feel comfortable getting on the bus or the train to get to the ferry to get into Manhattan just because of the sheer amount of news that they're hearing about outside with transportation how would the administration address the safety concerns in Staten Island residents with traveling within the borough and outside yeah real real concern and there's several layers to it number one you know I know it's hard for people to believe but we have almost three million people that use our subway system a day we have an average of six crimes a day six is too many I'm clear on that but when you look at the omnipresence making sure our police officers are there very active we have police officers back on the trains riding the trains we are really deploying our police personnel because the best deterrent to crime is seeing that blue uniform and we know that we want our officers moving around engaging in the public and we're going to continue to lean on that to make sure that it is done so the visible presence of a police officer plays a great role in deterrence but you know when you read about the stories every day you're reading about someone shoved to the subway you read about someone slash you know you have a tendency to believe with that disorder that our subway system is a place that is disorder all the time in fact that is not the case but again six crimes a day is too many crimes for us we're going to continue to have the visible presence go after those repeat offenders that's on our system and make sure our system is a safe system our police our subway system during the 80s and trust me this system was a system that was out of control but we have a good police force now a lot of young officers the new classes are coming out the goal is to keep pushing down these numbers of crimes and make sure that the system is safe as people are moving around both on the subways and the buses I met with John Samuelson who's the head of the TWU our bus drivers being assaulted is unacceptable I pushed the legislation in Albany to turn an assault on a bus driver or transit employees to be a felony we need to prosecute these cases to make sure that people get the right message that you're not going to assault those who are moving our system every day but we're making inroads, decreasing shooters, decreasing homicides, we're making inroads but we had a long way to go and we committed to get to the place that you all deserve as taxpayers I just want to add one thing before we end I just want to point out Ed Jackson in the back corner he's our Staten Island Bar for the Mayor's Community Affairs Unit everyone who doesn't know him should know him, I see obviously everyone does here he coordinates all the efforts to ensure that the Mayor's office coordinates the services like the Mayor said there are no silos with this administration we have these quality of life meetings that our Deputy Commissioner of Operation leads, Anthony Oliano those efforts are done with Chief Madri's office on a regular basis with the quality of life throughout all agency issues to come together so whether it be Adam Foreman from Deputy Mayor Toro Springer and Anthony Oliano's task force it's to cut down there's no silos it's a uniform approach to address all the issues and just thank you again for everyone coming out today all of you have our leaders in the community who listen to the concerns and you're here directly from this administration day so we want to thank everyone for coming out tonight thank you I see you in the back first of all we want to just those of you who are part of the crisis management team can you stand up let's just acknowledge them for what they do and every day thank you thank you so much you know appreciate you and sorry brother with the red hat can somebody get a mic to the gentleman with the red hat he wanted to ask a question and that young lady next to you Junior what I said we're going to hear from you we're only going to do one brother we're only going to do one with the red hat thank you and I had a question how can we make it better for felons who have a hard time keeping a job because of their background check we are really leaning into that we've done some great things there's a bill pending in Albany now called clean slate bill we need to really push that through you've been home for a period of time no other encounters with law enforcement living a good life your slate should be clean that clean slate bill is a good reasonable approach so people are not penalized the rest of their lives you know and so get in contact with your state elected and really encourage them to support that bill and I've been working with a young brother that's part of in perpetual punishment where you don't have someone do a life sentence after they serve their time they're home they're back in the community and they've been back home and they're living a productive life you should not hold people back for the rest of their lives and then we're going to look at some of those licenses there's no reason you can't get a license to be a real estate agent a barber and some of the other things because you have served your time already or a person that served their time already we're trying to remove those barriers as you stated Mr. Mayor Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry can I just add hello here at the end of the table I hear you but I don't see you yes I just wanted to add that just to the question that was raised and the concern the New York City Commission on Human Rights is the agency to come to be able to help you navigate through the issues that you are facing because it is against the New York City Human Rights law to discriminate for anyone who has a background to be disqualified for a job if you had a job offer to be not to have access to housing so if we can connect after this we'll be more than happy to work with you in identifying those individuals who are having those issues and we can help them navigate the problem thank you next commissioner Annabelle Palma doing some great stuff over at the commission of human rights okay we got a bounce we don't keep people here all day every day go ahead young lady you want to say something before we take off yeah thank you for the time I have a question and I don't know if it may be a solution to what everybody here is saying everybody wants to build on the persona we have to teach people that we are not just this meat body here that we're souls and I want to know when the education system is going to change that and educate children on what they really are their true nature education system has changed history so much of our history is gone I'm talking about black American history a lot of it and with teaching these kids how to be workers with teaching them all the other things to do but I have a question give me a question that's why I went to you is the school system ever going to change their books to teach true history for the kids to teach them what we really are souls here having a human experience that's where the change has to come sister I got your question David Banks the Chancellor we're doing everything in our school system to healthy food meditation yoga we don't want our children to be robots we want to develop their full personhood and we have the right Chancellor that understands the mission to accomplish that thank you for your question thank you all for coming out tonight appreciate you all