 Good morning, 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 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 Phil banks. Good afternoon and welcome We're joined here today by the New York City emergency management commissioner Zack is school And he is going to provide some safety tips Some other critically important information to the new york is because it has been extremely hot And this weather could be continuing in the near future We also have the parliament of buildings commissioner James Otto He's going to give an update on the city's emergency operation following a very concerning incident that took place on wednesday In manhattan and that was the crane collapse And last but not least we have our director of rodent mitigation Kathleen karate who's affectionately known as the rat czar And we've gotten so many calls about people would not sing as many rashes they used to it's contributed to like the fantastic fantastic work That she's done and she's just going to give us some updated information of what she's done and What we're going to continue to do But just a quick recap for those who are tuning in for the first time We had these weekly briefings so you right the new york city new yorkers can hear directly from this particular administration About what we're doing and updates about public safety We certainly want to hear from you as much as we possibly can we want you to tell us what we're doing right What we're doing wrong what we need to do a little bit better We listen we incorporate this it has a direct impact Or how we're going to operate and as the mayor always says as a team we can win this Uh, so my acts of you today as you're watching or listening to the today's discussion to take at least one One piece of information that you deem valuable and share it with the neighbor a loved one a friend, etc Etc and that's how we spread the information We spread the intel and in fact we can have some success So we want to make sure our families friends and neighbors are safe And the best way to do that is for them to be informed So if you've been outside in the last 24 hours or so, you know, that is very hot outside Extreme heat like this can be dangerous. We have to be very strategic how we combat this Um, yesterday, uh, the national weather service, uh, issued an excessive heat warning What does that mean that means it's hot And then maybe getting hotter, right? So we need us as a team to work together to combat this So we need to be very very, uh Strategic about this. So here's the takeaway for me at least initially you have air conditioning and you're cool Check on someone who does not a neighbor a loved one a friend or for up a Your residence or the places that you know that they can become cool, right? So once we sure that we take care of ourselves, let's reach out and take care of our neighbors And the commissioner is certainly going to advise us on the public cooling locations That people can go to in the event that they needed So with that, I'd like to turn over to your commissioner. Uh, it's going to be hot. It's been hot. It's going to be hot What do we need to do to uh to try to mitigate this? Yep. Uh, so first off, thank you deputy mayor Thanks for having me here today Great to be here with jimmy and kathleen as well. And as you said it is hot. It was hot yesterday There was an excessive heat warning. Uh, that was downgraded for today through tomorrow to a heat advisory by the national weather service Um, and as we have seen over the last month plus We're facing a lot of different types of extreme weather events Across the country. We have extreme heat in the southwest. We've had extreme flooding in upstate new york and vermont We've certainly seen our fair share here in the city with floods with the air pollution last month And we now have heat to contend with we also had a microburst Earlier this week So we're certainly dealing with our fair share of weather and that's all to say that New yorkers really need to make sure that they are doing everything they can to prepare So there's a lot that we do as a city to prepare Are for these types of events something like heat Initially, we start working Days in advance with the national weather service with our interagency partners with the private sector nonprofits community-based organizations and coned to make sure the grid is prepared and the city is prepared for these types of events And then we offer things to new yorkers. We offer public information and guidance Right things like turn your thermostat to 78 degrees. So cool enough to keep you cool But not so cool that you're placing an undue burden on the electrical grid that could lead to Blackouts or brownouts around the city Uh, we encourage people, you know, uh, you see people opening up fire hydrants around the city That's not safe. It decreases the pressure in the fire hydrant system Which makes it more difficult for our fire department to fight fires You can go to any fire department, uh In the city and you can get spray caps that you can then place and that reduces the amount of water that's coming out But you can also then Have some spray to keep cool. We do a lot of work to protect vulnerable populations We have our department of homeless services has teams out there doing something called a code red Making sure we're getting our homeless unhoused individuals off the streets and into cooler places And then we've opened up cooling centers Uh, we've extended pool hours and and as I said open up cooling centers You can learn more about where those cooling centers are and more tips at nyc.gov backslash beat the heat or by calling 311 And uh before you go to a cooling center, it's really important that you do that that you check the hours Find out if it's open We don't want you going out in the heat to then arrive at a place that may be closed because it's outside their hours And the other thing I just said about cooling centers is is you know, these are places that they're like libraries They're dual use places That uh provide respite from the heat. There's a lot of other ways to do that You can go to a coffee shop. You can go see a movie this weekend Um, but going to any cool place can be really helpful So those are both things that we're doing and also things that new yorkers need to be aware of and as you said deputy mayor Always really important that you are checking in on Uh, your neighbors, especially the most vulnerable Other weather issues that we're contending with uh today in this weekend There is an air quality advisory in effect right now. Uh, we have an a qi of 108 Which is unhealthy for sensitive groups. Um, so that's children older adults people with respiratory and heart conditions Due to ozone not due to wildfires And we also have our flash flood plan has been activated in anticipation of potential storms tomorrow afternoon So the city is very busy. Uh, we ask all new yorkers to follow public health guidance And as always sign up for notify nyc our public messaging system That's where we can provide you all the information you need to stay safe Uh, keep your loved ones safe. You can sign up at nyc.gov backslash notify By calling 311 or by downloading the app that's available in 14 languages including american sign language And uh, the best way to have the information you need. So thank you. Thank you So let's recap this for a minute commissioner So one we'll give everybody a second if you're home watching this go to your thermostat now and make some type of an adjustment Because if you don't there's a possibility that there could be some type of a brownout and you won't have The electricity so we need to think of not only ourselves, but we need to think of our I love one so we need you to adjust those thermostats to a point where you're still cool But the fact that we can almost Hopefully increase the chances of it won't be overburden. So we need you to be able to do that Now if you need a location for the cooling center, you says there's a couple of ways one You can call 311 always yep call 311 or you can go to nyc.gov backslash beat the heat Right and you say these places are not just for you to I mean there's like a libraries and other dual uses, right? So yeah, so you might be able to take care of other things that you're doing in this particular locations And we certainly want you to in fact Share this information with your neighbors. How how long can we anticipate this heat? So the good news is that it should be through tomorrow and then sunday should be beautiful Should be much more temperate weather on sunday. Okay so, you know, we've been dealing with a lot and Commission your agency and the people in the residents of the city that's worked with you You know, we've been dealing with these these fires that's coming From up north your team is doing a great job in connection with the residents and now we have this extreme heat So certainly thank you. We want to make sure we push out this information as much as possible. Thank you I certainly appreciate it Okay, so on wednesday for a lot of people who may know if in case you didn't know on wednesday in the hell's kitchen area of Manhattan around 10th avenue west 41st street There was a crane operating at a construction site and a court fire and sustained a partial collapse The crane the boom and load of concrete fell We were relatively relatively fortunate is that that new yorkers didn't suffer any severe injuries. There was some you know Minor injuries, but I didn't want to say minor because if you were the person who got injured, right? It's not minor to you but we were relatively Unfortunate as that it could have been a lot more dangerous There was a really a great response and a swift response from the fdny department of builders nypd nice humans to get to the scene And uh, we we pretty much avoided something that could have been very catastrophic. So Can you just let us know what happened? What was the follow-up and what do we do to try to Minimize these things of happening in the future. Yep. Thank you deputy mayor for the the chance to to be here today and to update new yorkers fortunate indeed the first thing that Mayor Adams said when he spoke to the media and to new yorkers Was that that we were extremely fortunate two days later? I think It's even more evident. Uh, how fortunate we were I have with me just one of The thousands of shards of glass that rained down across 10th avenue that day in addition to the part of the crane As I said on wednesday morning, this mayor doesn't expect This team to rely on luck So our obligation our commitment Is to look under every stone to figure out what went wrong here And determine what was preventable so that we do not have a repeat of this Before I recaps and update Some of the things that have gone on the last two days I do want to say thank you to our partners to the nypd to the fdny To my good friend commissioner iskall and all the good people At oem. Thank you for the level of professionalism And I do want to take a point of personal privilege This was the first incident like this during my brief tenure my two and a half months at dob And I just want to shout out to our agency The mayor when he hired me as dob commissioner charged me with the responsibility of continuing to Improve this agency and we know we have improvements to make But on that day you New yorkers got to see the professionalism of this agency that sometimes doesn't Kind of come to the fore Structural engineers inspectors Have been all over that site for two days and a shout out to the wilkin dillions Who's this really talented engineer a shout out to the chief inspector frank demiani who is a Quintessential new york character in new york institution that level of professionalism in this agency happens every day And it's in those critical moments that that we get to see it and I got to see it up close So I again, I appreciate the opportunity dem to kind of recap and remind Remind new yorkers where what happened and where we're at as you said Early wednesday morning while construction crews were using a tower crane To lift a load of concrete to the 36th floor of a new tower development project on 10th avenue and Midtown manhattan a fire broke out on the machine deck of the crane The fire severely damaged the crane causing the boom to fully collapse And detached from the crane striking the adjacent tower On its way down to the street uh street level the collapse sent Glass and concrete debris raining down onto 10th avenue I think we've all seen the gut wrenching videos of the incident Showing the catastrophic collapse over one of our city's busiest streets It's it's really nothing short of miraculous that no one perished and no one was seriously injured in in the incident As soon as we were made aware of the incident d.o.b crane inspectors and structural engineers Quickly rushed to the location to assist our city first responders Fdny personnel worked without pause to put out the raging fire on the tower crane And along with the nypd the port authority police emergency management our friends the community assistance unit Helped uh all helped to secure the surrounding area While d.e.p conned mta mobilized to protect the city's critical infrastructure Again, I want to personally thank All of our fellow agencies on the scene that day for the first class job Showing the world that uh what a major emergency response An interagency cooperation is supposed to look like New yorkers should know that public safety is the top priority of every agency involved in the response And that over the past several days d.o.b structural engineers have been closely scrutinizing the damaged tower crane the tower construction project and the neighboring tower that was struck by the boom All three have been found to be structurally stable and we have found no evidence of any of them currently Posing a risk to the public Following extensive inspections conducted by d.o.b. And our partners in law enforcement Cleanup and recovery operations began in earnest yesterday morning A small immobile crane was brought to the scene by the construction contractors to help move the collapsed boom arm from the construction site Lifted away from the site workers have been able to cut the boom into pieces Which have since been carted away from the scene d.o.b is now coordinating with contractors and their engineers as they devise a plan to bring another Larger crane into the city to remove the damaged tower crane Construction crews have also worked to identify any part of the under construction Tower the neighboring tower And the crane that was damaged and possibly in danger of falling All of the loose debris has been removed or secured mitigating potential falling hazards Simultaneously the contractors have removed the majority of the glass and concrete debris from 10th avenue This quick work has enabled us to reopen 10th avenue to vehicular traffic While this cleanup has been proceeding d.o.b. Investigators have been hard at work getting to the bottom of how this collapse occurred That investigation is currently in its infancy And we will be working closely with our partners in law enforcement throughout Yesterday our crane inspectors were able to access the fire damage crane cab Braving the 550 foot climb up into the air so that they can uh the inspectors who made the climb were able to get a closer look Of the damage caused by the fire I want to reiterate That from everything we have seen up close The tower crane is stable and we have found no evidence that it currently poses a hazard to public safety We want the results of this investigation to be transparent So we can share with the public not only how this happened But what we can do to prevent something like this from happening in the future At this time the investigation is ongoing and we have not made any final determinations On the case of the fire and the on the cause of the fire and collapse New york city has rigorous crane and construction safety regulations in place to protect the public Tower crane collapses like this are thankfully an extremely rare occurrence in our city That said we can all agree that even one of these incidents is entirely too many When we have more information on exactly what happened We will continue to keep the public informed and uh finally Again, I would like to take a moment to draw our attention to the tremendous work done by the Men and women of the new york city The department of buildings you have Lots of units dm uh D.O.B.'s cranes and derricks unit the forensic engineering unit The emergency response team the construction engineering unit the construction safety Enforcement unit these are the folks that um have uh the backs of new yorkers and uh again the commitment is that As soon as we have answers we will make them public um and we will be as transparent in this process as possible Just a reminder it's 48 hours into this process and uh give us some time and And we will share what we learn Excellent and you know because I just want to touch on two points one if uh If I live in a block I live in a neighborhood prior to that construction starting up again Before because another crane has to come in to complete the work. We're going to take that through. I'm sure a very vigorous Prospect so if you see the next crane is coming up, we're going to be clear that that has a Complete safety stamp of approval. There are Various entities that are involved in a crane process every single entity that every single variable in this uh situation is being analyzed and uh deputy mayor the next crane that comes in to reach a tipping height of 582 feet Will be a much larger crane than the mini mobile crane that was out removing the debris yesterday You can rest assured that uh, we will be looking at those plans that the contractor submits to us before That crane is put in place and that crane is utilized to Secure and remove the existing damage crane The second point I just want to touch on is that it's The department of buildings right and I just have the ability Uh to just be able to do that The department of buildings right and I just have the ability Uh to just deal with them Of course much closer than the public, but they are the unsung heroes in so many so many ways It's like Incredible the kind of work that they do they never ever get the credit the news is not on on on the front line They probably don't choose to be but to the new yorkers out there It's like the integrity of these buildings and the safety of these buildings You know lies almost exclusively in the laps of the agency and you're doing a fantastic job And this is I'm not the pattern of the back type of an individual But your agency doesn't get enough credit for what it does So I'm glad that you pointed out and I just wanted to say salute to you and thank you for that and listen We know we have work to do at the agency the mayors. That's the mayor's charge But that doesn't negate the professionalism every day. These are the best engineers And folks in their field and uh new yorkers, you know when we have moments like this We have true professionals in every agency that rise to the occasion and I got to see it and Dm in a moment of candor in a previous life, you know, I was one of the folks that was Perhaps gratuitously critical of the agency having having lived this now for two and a half months I'm aware of the things that we need to work on and get better Not shying away from that, but I'm also awfully proud of and impressed by the professionals In this agency. Fantastic. Thank you commissioner. I really appreciate it So last but not least, I am here once again with who we refer to as the rat czar This is our director of rodent mitigation Kathleen karate As the mayor often says public safety is not just about reducing crime, right? People have to be safe, but as important they need to feel safe And a big part of feeling safe is living in a neighborhood that is clean And we all have a role to play in keeping new york city clean when it comes to cleanest varsity public enemy number one Are the rats and as my good friend and former colleague jessie tis commissioner of sanitation Says the rats don't run this city We do and a big part of we Is the person who has taken the charge on this and that charge is led by our director here And I got a call the other day. I shared with you earlier and I go to call from someone I won't mention the name, but she's allegedly well known in the Public arena and she says what are you doing with all of those rats? We're these rat chat. I don't see these rats anymore. And it was a it's a great compliment if you had if you had heard it So uh Rats are thank you very much. Tell us what you're doing and tell us how new york is uh How they're going to see less and less rats as the time goes on Thank you deputy mayor and we love to hear that feedback that new yorkers are seeing less rats We know mayor adam has declared a war on rats and thanks to the hard work across many agencies We're winning this war 311 complaints are down for rat sightings 20 percent this year and even more in our rodent mitigation zones The department of health is out in force conducting biannual inspections of every property in the rodent mitigation zones That's in addition to their inspections for all 311 complaints citywide As the foundation for our city's approach to integrated pest management this inspection data ensures we are targeting resources and working with private properties to affect change New york city parks new york city schools and nitra are doubling down on rat reduction Utilizing seasonal staff and pest control teams to make sure our city's properties are unhospitable to rats They're removing harbourage Managing waste and deploying extermination techniques to make sure we're knocking down rat populations Citywide we're cutting off rats from their food Because we know if you feed them you breed them Through dsm y's new curb set out times and rules around containerizations for food establishments We're taking a what we're systematically taking away rats access to food on our curbs And making new york a cleaner city But we know the city can't do this work alone Which is why we're excited to host our first anti rat day of action in harlem next month Taking place on august 12th the harlem day of action will bring together city and community partners To share best practices and take action on street tree care Waste and litter management and rodent mitigation We'll have agencies across the cities there to highlight their work. They're doing and pitch in on our street cleaning efforts We're also planning to host more of these one in every borough by city's end So be on the lookout when they come to a neighborhood near you So when is this uh, this this first one's going to kick off and what are we calling that again the harlem the anti rat day of action It's in harlem on august 12th And every borough is going to have at least one low case between now And the end of the correct We know that it takes everyone and we want to make sure we're directly connect connecting city resources to communities And we know that needs to be a citywide effort So how would the new york is find out when it's coming taking place in the irrespective borough or borough that they're interested in But are you going to post it online or how would they find a 311 or yeah? We'll get information out through the different media channels. We have um at city hall But also be connecting with our community partners in the different boroughs to make sure they're connecting Grassroots with their neighbors to make sure the message is out there. Listen rats have been around since the beginning of time, right? They've been very resilient right there survivors absolutely, but uh Truly about almost all indicators is happening And once I've never been wanting to just shoot any type of alarm rah rah rah Um, it's clearly I've heard from numerous people that and I didn't even know the statistics about the 311 calls Being down, but I hear from many people about they actually see that particular difference. So I don't live in one of those zones. I'm glad I don't Uh, but I do know people in those zones specifically Harlem have stated that they actually are seeing a lot lot less And they were seeing a lot lot more. So certainly have had to up to you Please stay informed listen to the tips that you can do to help us because the city cannot run Um on just administration of loan. This is a teamwork the mayor has been saying is from day one if we work together as a team We actually can uh We can actually can do this. So once again, I appreciate you tuning in. Derek. Thank you We will now open up for a few on topic questions if there are any commissioner, uh Otto You look at the rules of the city of new york, which govern, you know building building code cranes and the only mention of fire is for fire extinguisher 2012 a similar crane fire in sydney australia and what that city did was uh It's too. There should be early detection a fire happens on a tower crane as a siren that goes off to alert people Is that something that that city can consider that's something you're thinking about? Yeah, one of the things that We did immediately was decide to bring on uh an outside expert on cranes to sort of look top to bottom at this specific incident To see what lessons can be learned and what changes we might want to implement Uh, we actually got approval this morning from the controller's office to solicit six of those firms This is a similar sort of approach to what the agency is doing on ant street with the collapse of that parking garage so in addition to New york city's We will have an outside independent entity that has a particular subject matter in in cranes Take a look at this. Um, we're aware of the australia situation So we hope to have that entity on really quickly and we'll see what kind of feedback we get from them and Where if they have strong viable suggestions, uh, we certainly will will listen and uh, we'll get feedback from the mayor on how he Wants to implement them Yeah, we we have not started that but as I said earlier, we are looking at every entity. There's a general contractor involved There is the crane owner involved There's the crane user the crane operator. There is the engineer all of those uh entities and every Other variable in this situation We'll be looked at and considered Too soon it's only 48 hours. I I don't want to jeopardize the integrity of the process by speaking too soon Everything is being looked at. Uh, let's do sort of Our due diligence. Let's offer folks their due process. Let's uh, look at everything from a to z And if we find wrong doing we will act as we have in the past as everyone is aware of post Other incidents particularly 2008 All right 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 page on the bronx for commissioner iskel who asks during serious heat Are people allowed to open fire hydrants to cool down? Uh, so you are but there's a caveat. So right now, I think d. E. P. Just reported that yesterday we had Uh people primarily actually in areas of the bronx open up over 900 fire hydrants I think it's like about 941 hydrants were open that creates a dangerous situation where we it reduces the water pressure That the fire department needs to fight fires. So what we ask is What you can do is you can go to your fire department if you're over the age of 18 You have an id you can get a spray cap which can be put on the fire hydrant That can allow you to have the benefit of water coming out of the fire hydrant without Damaging the water pressure impacting the water pressure that's needed to fight fires Thank you Our next question comes from joseph minhamon Manhattan for director karate who asks Does sidewalk garbage leave a scent of food that draws rodents? Why not have property owners wash sidewalks when garbage is removed? Great question joseph. So rats communicate almost entirely by pheromones, which is a scent trail they leave The best practice all new yorkers can take is washing down their curbs with a mix of bleach and water solution One part bleach to 10 parts water that could be done daily weekly and will help disrupt their pathways rats pathways to access former food sources The next question is from vincent in statten island for commissioner otto Who says there has been scaffolding on my office building for many years. When do these new finds go into effect? Well before I answer the question, let me just say and I think deputy mayor banks will agree Any questions from katie h from the rockaways regardless of the topic? Zach, you're going to answer that Vincent from statten island, they find me statten island. They always find me Usually gsd in this administration's stance to get stuff done. This is this time means get sheds down the mayor and deputy mayor joshi and colleagues of our president levine council members Botcher and powers had a press conference on monday To announce a very robust plan both carrots and sticks to Get sheds down Now the mayor Hates rats the mayor doesn't necessarily hate sheds because sheds are a safety device The mayor hates sheds that are up unnecessarily the mayor hates sheds that are up too long the mayor Hates sheds that are drab and not uh lit well And are attractions for all kinds of quality of life or other more serious nefarious activities And the reality in this city is there's an economic incentive not to do the underlying work and to leave the shut up So we uh to answer vincent's question specifically We are working with our colleagues in the city council to enact various pieces of legislation That will give us those sticks that will increase the fines fines for doing Work without a permit fines for leaving up sheds Too long in commercial business districts These sticks are Are substantial And lastly at the same time and maybe even more importantly We are going to redesign the sheds to a much more aesthetically pleasing look redesign the sheds that are for more light more space um And also at the same time look at local law 11 Which is the facade law that drives the need for at least half of these sheds in the first place So uh the legislative process, I can't tell you in exact time, but it will play out over late summer and early fall and Hopefully we'll be getting sheds down As quickly as possible Thank you Next question is from Teresa in queens for commissioner iskall who asks what is the air quality today? So good question. So we are under a air quality advisory today looking at An aqi that's forecasted around 108 which is in the unhealthy for sensitive groups. That means primarily children older adults people with respiratory Or heart conditions Should take some precautions And our final question is from Teresa in Harlem for director karate who asks Rats are a huge problem in my neighborhood and I want to do more than just call 3 1 1 What are some things that I can do in my own home to stop rats? Teresa and Harlem some great news for you. We're hosting a day of action on august 12th on 137th Come on out. You can connect with educators and partners at department of sanitation department of health And department of parks to learn how you can take direct action against rats in addition to flagging via 3 1 1 So we could take action as a city All right 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