 We started here the first hour by having each at each table civic community, community board leaders, members of the community that represent the leadership from non for profits, violence interrupters, tenant association heads, bid heads. The leadership of the community sitting together with members of the mayor's office who are taking notes at each table. Facilitators from agencies, principals or superintendents from our school system, as well as executives from the patrol, borough, or Bronx. So to this evening, we are joined here by Adaius, a year of deputy mayors, commissioners, the brass of the NYPD, and of course, led by our mayor, Mayor Eric Adams. The run of show for today is going to be the mayor speaking that followed by B.A. Clarke and then the borough president Gibson. But just a brief reminder, we're going to go, everyone received Q&A cards. For any reason, if your question is not asked, and this happened in the first two community conversations, every single person's question is monitored by the mayor's office. Send out to city agency representatives based on your question. Followed by our staff to ensure that each one of you gets a phone call back. Notes from each table is shared with a senior staff at City Hall to ensure the points at your tables come across. So this whole thing, the setting is made for community dialogue, conversation, and get your points across. So don't feel bad if your question isn't asked. We're going to ask each table to come across how many tables we get through because of the heat. We apologize, the air conditioning did work here last week, it broke down this morning. They tried to fix it, it's kicked in now, but it's still hot here, so we apologize. We're going to get started. So thank you everyone for participating, coming, and bearing with the heat. We really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Now we welcome the mayor. Thank you, thank you for coming in and we want to engage in the dialogue. We want to make sure we give you as much time as possible. Up here is my, this is my leadership team. And I'm sure it's not lost on you that this leadership team looks like the city of New York. And that is the administration we're going to run. An administration that understands what everyday New York is going through. Because many of them have gone through the same thing. It doesn't matter if it's Doniz Rodriguez, my DOT commissioner, who came here, fought for CUNY, fought for his rights, learning English. And now he's running the largest, the largest department of transportation, of DOT in the country. It doesn't matter if it's Gary Jenkins in charge of homelessness who lived in a homeless shelter. It doesn't matter if it's Eric Adams, who is dyslexic. And understanding that 40% of our inmates right now on Rikers Island are dyslexic. So this reflection of this administration is a reflection of everyday people. And we made history. First woman police commissioner, five deputy mayors that are women leading the city. Everywhere you look, we are continuing to make history. But what sucks the air out of the room of our success in this administration is public safety. Crying, no one knows that better than the Bronx. I've been up here many days with Councilman Salamanca and Vanessa Gibson, our borough president, and so many of our commanders. Responding to the students, visiting families, or just Sunday. Sunset Park in Brooklyn, sitting down with a 20 year old mother, who lost her 20, a mother who lost her 20 year old son, a shot for his backpack. The police commissioner and I have spent too many nights in hospitals, at Jacobi hospitals and Lincoln hospitals. And rallying to make sure that we deal with this real issue of violence. And we know it's not just locked people up. We know there's intervention right now, but we know there's prevention. That's why we had 100,000 summer youth jobs, the largest in the city history. 100,000 young people were in the summer school program, so they didn't have to be on the streets. Midnight basketballs, we are really investing in our young people because we don't want them to be just another stat. By the time a young person gets a gun in his hand, we already failed. We failed already. We have to be proactive and prevent this violence, and that's what these conversations are about. Some of you I see here from guns down, life up, and other of our teams, our crisis management teams. You're sitting next to the law enforcement men and women from this borough that understands what it is to keep us safe. So we want to turn it over to our district attorney, then our borough president, and then we're going to turn it over to you to engage in a real conversation and dialogue with you. Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. Thank you to this wonderful Bronx community. See, this is the Bronx showing up and showing out. I don't know how they're doing in other boroughs, but I know how we do it here. We know how to get it done. Mr. May, I want to thank you for bringing yourself and your leadership team here to speak to the resonance of the Bronx, but not to speak to them, to listen to them. That's what this is about, to listen to what the community needs, what their concerns are, and to come together as a community, as government, as elected officials, as the police department, as our clergy, as community leaders, community board, precinct council members, school officials. All of us together are the solution to the problems that we're facing in the Bronx. And I want you to know that you have a DA that's committed to this work, okay? I live this each and every day because I grew up here my whole life, a daughter of the Bronx, just like all of you. So when you suffer, I suffer, okay? We're all in this together. So I'm happy to be here part of this conversation. I'm ready to listen. I'm ready to learn. And I'm ready to share what my office can do in this fight against the violence and the devastation that we've seen in the community. Members of my staff are here as well. So if there's something that I can't answer directly, I have members of my staff here as well. So thank you, Mr. Mayor, for this opportunity. Thank you all of you gathered here today. But most importantly, thank you, Bronx residents, for caring enough about your community to show up and let us know what you want. Good evening, everyone. Buenos noches a todos. Bienvenidos. Welcome, welcome, everyone. Welcome to the Longwood PAL. I want to recognize our executive director of PAL, Carlos Velasquez, and the entire team at the PAL for hosting us tonight. I want to say thank you to our mayor, Eric Adams, and all of our deputy mayors, and executives, and commissioners, and each and every one of you. I want to say this is such an important opportunity that we find ourselves here tonight. Coming together in this space for such an important time as this. We are the solution that it takes. We are the village that it takes to change the dynamics of our community, to stabilize our families, to support our young people and older adults, and to serve in a great borough like the Bronx. To make sure that we're looking at creative and innovative approaches to how we get work done. So for the last hour, all of you have sat together, community-based organizations, educators, first responders, essential workers, frontline staff, elected officials, NYPD officials, educators, superintendents, principals, district managers, chairpersons, advocates, elected officials, everyone that has a title in front of their name. It means that we have a collective responsibility to make sure that our borough is a safer borough, is a healthier borough, is a more vibrant borough, that we are creating those good paying jobs that provide stability and a pathway to the middle class for every family, regardless of where you live. I just want to say to all of you, what an honor to serve as your borough president. And to say that at the end of the day, no matter where you live, no matter what zip code you represent, that does not define your future. Your block does not block your blessing. And that is the message that we want to resonate to every family and every young person here in our borough. So I'm so grateful that everyone is here. I want to acknowledge my partner at Borough Hall. Our deputy borough president, Janet Bighetto, is here. Thank you so much for joining us. I want to recognize our council member, Rafael Salamanco Jr., our amazing chief at patrol, Borough Bronx chief, Phillip Rivera, our district manager right here, community board too, represent Hunts Point and Longwood, Rafael Acevedo, chairperson, Bobby Crespo. This is the leadership here in this community, but all of you are the leaders in the entire borough. So we are grateful that you are here. We look forward to a stimulating and productive conversation. But most importantly, what we do after tonight is so important. And this administration and all of our executives get it. We are about getting stuff done. Not just talking the talk, but let's walk the walk. Let's stay ready so we don't have to get ready. For our children, for our families, for our seniors, for our veterans, we look forward to tonight's conversation. Gracias a todos. Thank you. Thank you very much. So we'll get started so we can get to the most questions as fast as possible. Again, just asking the questions be brief to the point, one question, so we can move to the next table. Thank you. Bye. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. For the first question of the night from table one, what is the city doing about the revolving door of recidivism to reduce crime? And that's important and I want Deputy Mayor Wright to go over some of the things that we're doing. Because we are a big believer that wraps ourselves around the concept of intervention and prevention. Intervention is what we need to do right now. There are too many guns on our streets, too many innocent people are being shot by just walking the street and by the standards and so intervention is right now. That is why we put in place our neighborhood safety teams zeroing in on guns and gun violence. That is why we are fighting to make sure that we unbottled our court system so that those who are guilty of these violent acts are sure to serve the time that they are, that are handed down, but make sure that they have the legal and the fair justice system that they deserve. But then pre-vention is our larger platform. People focus on our intervention and our public safety, but they miss the largest platform we have is pre-vention. And Deputy Mayor Wright, can you go over some of that? Thank you. I, along with A.T. Mitchell, who is also here today, co-chair of gun violence prevention task force that has been hard at work. Looking at all of the upstream contributors to violence and gun violence in particular. And so there are a number of strategies that we are going to double down on as we continue the work. When you talk for instance about recidivism, there are programs and initiatives that come out of the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice and the Department of Probation that give people who have committed crimes additional supports. So that they don't go back to commit more crimes and there's some evidence based studies around that. We're going to be working and the chancellors here within schools, where there are young people that might be over age and under credited at risk. That need specific interventions that are not just academic, but mentoring, social services. We're looking at employment opportunities, the commissioner from the division of youth and community development is here. How do we expand employment opportunities and career pathways for young people? So every single agency in the city of New York is putting forth solutions to upstream whether it's young people who are at risk or that are justice involved. And we really are focused right now, certainly on the Bronx and Brooklyn. We're looking at the precincts. The police commissioner has identified the policing that have the highest levels of gun violence. And so it's precision. They do precision policing. We're trying to do precision intervention and make sure that we are directing resources specifically to those communities. Can I add something to that? As a district attorney, you know firsthand that I have to deal with people at their lowest points in their lives. So as a DA, I have to make sure that my approach is wide ranging. I could cast a wide net. So I appreciate the city having the prevention measures and the intervention because that's key. We need to front load this before they get to me, before NYPD has to get involved. But we need to have the resources in the Bronx. We have been under resource for years. So every community has to accept the fact that we need to do our part to make sure that we can do what we can for our young people and those others who may find themselves in harm's way. Mental illness, substance use disorders, poverty, the schools, all of these things contribute to the people that end up in the criminal justice system. I'm that committed to making sure that the prevention part is taken care of and the intervention. But I'm also telling you that I'm also holding accountable those who do bring that noise and cause those crimes and bringing the harms to the people in our community. My peace plan, which is precision enforcement and community engagement is just that. Intervention, but also the precision in identifying those who are causing the most harm. We're not sweeping up everybody in the community anymore. We don't do things like that anymore. That's not fair. We need that public safety and fairness. So I'm engaged in the community. I see all these queer violence groups here, the crisis management system. You are my partners. You stand in the gap. When I can't be there, you are making sure that some of them don't enter the system. And I will never know. But as long as you're saving them and keeping them from me, that's what this is all about. So I want to engage the community, the clergy, the business community. I see Jimmy Rodriguez here. So many answers to this. But all of us have to play our role and understand that each of us have to do something. Not every neighborhood wants these things. But all of us as a Bronx, every neighborhood plays a role in turning this around. And that's the only way we're going to get it done. And Deputy Commissioner Goodwin is here. Is Deputy Commissioner Goodwin from Department of Probation is here? Yeah, share the program we're doing with the young people who are justice involved. Because we, Deputy Mayor Wright said something that many of you may have missed. Precision policing is one thing, but precision resources is another to prevent crime. We have to catch people who are falling through the net early. And Deputy Mayor, Deputy Commissioner, Donna Goodwin, can you go over what we're doing in the Department of Probation? Hello, everyone. So at the Department of Probation, we're making sure we are connecting all of all youth that are coming on to probation with a mentor. A lot of the archers, mentors is here and working with credible messengers. So we also have all neon, which is our neighborhood. Opportunity networks and in there we have lots of resources available. Not only to the people we serve on probation, but to the community. And we offer neon arts, neon sports, neon works. We have nutrition kitchens. It is open to everyone and not just the people we serve. So we are those who, young people who are criminal justice involved. Probation, every agency is about prevention and intervention, prevention. Every agency, we are given those young people mentors and the recidivism rate by those who have mentors are dismal compared to those who don't get involved in the justice system again. So that's how you stop the revolving door. You do it early, you identify who needs the assistance and you do it in a precision way. Thank you. Next question, Alex. Thank you, good evening. Our table has observed that when trying to solve problems, there's often a disconnect or a misalignment among city services. So the question is, how can we see more alignment among city agencies and services to better deliver for the community? Well, that question, that's a great question. We are disconnected as a city. And that's something that Deputy Mayor Wright has been focusing on. How do we align our resources? There's no reason that every precinct commander should know every principle in their area. Everyone that's in the Department of Sanitation should be partnering with our crisis management team. People are hiding guns and drugs on streets that are dirty. Yet no one in the Department of Sanitation is communicating with the crisis management team if they want to clean up a block to do a block party. We're disconnected because we see ourselves as our agencies as our own separate cities and silos. Well, we came into city government with a sledgehammer and we're tearing down those walls and we're going to operate as one team, as in one city, and all of our resources to go together. While our schools close at night, when we need youth centers, we can use classrooms, swimming pools, gymnasiums, you know, while we're limiting the resources we have of this city to solve all of our pressing problems, we are aligning our agencies to operate as one unit and not as the siloed city that we have witnessed so many times. And everyone is so territorial that we're getting nothing done. We are about tearing down those walls and operating together. Next question is table three, Angelica. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, so our table has a very specific question. Currently, crisis management groups are spread throughout the city. Can the city move anti-violence groups strictly to the highest crime areas based on local pre-since crime statistics? Yes, and so what we're doing with the gun violence task force, and I'll ask AT Mitchell maybe to say a word about this again, is looking very specifically at where the highest crime is, looking at the current catchment areas of the crisis management units. Now, what we know is that in order for those organizations to be successful, they have to be credible. And you can't just swoop in from one neighborhood, as we all know, and go into another one and set up shop. So the goal is to really cultivate and to build capacity in a specific neighborhood, so that they can learn from other crisis management and really build that infrastructure where it's needed. But AT, did you want to say? Yes, yeah, as been mentioned, as we know that the crisis management system, as you see, they are present. I'm sorry, AT, introduce yourself. Let them know who you are. Yes, well, good evening everyone. How are you? I'm trying to make my way around. I'm AT Mitchell, co-chair of the gun violence prevention task force here in New York. And I'm privileged again to be back in the Bronx. No stranger to the Bronx because of the organizations that already work the Bronx community are very, very close allies and comrades of minds. But to the point around, can we cover the entire Bronx to date? The answer is no, right? However, this administration, as been mentioned, is working very closely to make sure that every organization and every neighborhood that is considered a hotspot is covered eventually. And so we just want to make sure that we're doing it right. We have the right train, boots that are on the ground, and we're working in unicents, so that way we're making sure that we're making progress. So to date, we are yet to cover the entire Bronx, but this administration is overly committed to making sure that we do that very soon. So that's our answer to that question. And AT Mitchell, man up in East New York, Brooklyn, crisis management team, a almost 30 year friendship, we talked about this from the days of my state senate days. The first crisis management team funded was my legislation in Albany. $5 million operation snug, guns called backwards, that's the birth of crisis management team. A lot of people, I'm not new to this, I'm true to this. All of the crisis management teams that I hear, it came from a seed I planted in Albany with Malcolm Smith, the state senator, and we seeded snug that gave way to this multimillion dollar crisis management operation that you are witnessing right now. It happened in Albany when I was a state senator. AT Mitchell was one of the architects that assisted us in getting this done. Now he has partnered, not with a commissioner, not with a deputy commissioner, he's partnered with a deputy mayor to make sure you get the resources you need. That's the highest level of respect we have with the crisis management men and women are doing every day in our city. Thank you. Next table. Rohan? Good evening everyone. The next question comes from a very passionate Bronx constituent who has a question to ask. Hi, good afternoon. Okay. I wanted to say that we know that everything starts with our younger generation, so our table came up with how are we going to support local community programs, such as youth shelters to be funded and supported by people in our community? Go into that a little bit more for me. Go into a little more. You say youth shelters? Yes, because it starts at the core. If they don't have anywhere to go and they're turning, they run into their friend's house, they're sleeping on the streets, they don't have stability. So how are we going to help them if they don't even have a roof over their head? Got you. Well said, and you obviously is inside City Hall because we're making a big announcement tomorrow on this topic that you're raising. You're dead on. If you grow up in a homeless shelter, you're less likely to graduate from high school. If you don't educate, you will incarcerate. Our children are set up for failure. So we have to, as Chancellor Banks says all the time, we have to drill in and put the resources where they're needed. And some communities, the resources are greater because children are dealing with larger challenges. We have focus on equality and not equity. This is an administration that's about equity because if you're giving everyone a suit, that's equal. But if I fit a size 44 suit and you're giving me a 34 suit, then you're not giving me what I need. We need to give people what they need. And that's what this administration is doing. Tomorrow we're making a major announcement on homelessness. But we need to open these school buildings, something called extended use I did as well as President. We ask you as nonprofits to volunteer your time and give back. Why are we charging you to use school builders? We're charging you to pay for the school safety agencies, the insurance, cleaning the building. We're saying no to that. We're saying if you are volunteering your time, we're going to allow you to use the school building and we're going to pick up the cost from that with our extended use. That is the way you have to do it. That's keep our children safe. Thank you. Next table. David. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Our table no longer wanted to be a part of a culture of reacting, but rather a community that proactively works with elected officials, the community and police to create a collaborative process on addressing the holistic needs of the community. And because of this they came up with the question of how do we allow people with lived experiences, people that are invested in the community to be a part of the decision making process. So really looking at the bottom up decision making process versus the top down process. There are a couple of ways and I'll ask maybe our DYCD commissioner to jump in. There is a participatory budgeting opportunity where we want people in community to make decisions about the investments that you want to see in your neighborhood. We have a civic engagement commission and I'm sure Fred can talk about a lot of ways that we really want to partner with you. We have youth councils that are connected to the NYPD that are connected to the Department of Education. So there are many ways that we really want in need engagement. Absolutely. The Mayor's Community Affairs Unit is all about that. Listening to the community leaders in all five boroughs. We have Alina, Dow, Pola, Chiakas, the Deputy Commissioner Valerie Velasquez. So please coordinate with our office. You should know all these names. They should be coming to your district service cabinet meetings, to your precinct council meetings, to all your organizations. Our office listens to all the ideas that you have. Ensures that it works with all the agency commissioners and the deputy mayors to ensure these ideas are brought to the highest levels. So again, my recommendation is to work with your borough directors. Our deputy commissioners and the Mayor's Community Affairs Unit to ensure your ideas are presented to the right people. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. The broncs at this table feels that the broncs always last in a lot of variables. And so the question is, how do we ensure we have equitable access to the resources which supports the pillars of our communities such as small businesses, houses of worship, schools, and others? I've been up in the broncs probably more times than previous administrations and years to come. I'm up here with your borough president. I'm up here with your council persons, everything for our major investment in Hunt's point and the parks in the direction. Bringing high speed broadband Wi-Fi here, several investments in our safe havens. We were here with our LGBTQ plus representatives as well. I'm up here a lot because I agree. The broncs has been denied and you lead everything that's bad. Highest number of traffic fatalities and crashes, gun violence, crime, the struggles with your schools, small businesses. Former borough president Ruben Diaz Jr. was really turning the corner in this borough. Then COVID hit and it devastated this borough at such a level. Thank God we have current borough president Gibson who's really turning the corner on what's needed in the broncs. And so I am zero laser focus on the broncs. We have to make sure that the broncs is not forgotten and it's going to take us working together. Our houses of worship, I was up here, I believe it was last week with all of my clergy from the broncs, talking about what can we do underground around housing, around mental health. There's a real mental health crisis that's taking place in the city in general, but specifically in this borough. And so we need our houses of worship, our community groups. We need to come together as a unit and have a real plan in the course of action. And that's what we're doing as an administration. And you know what, we don't have to agree on everything. I don't agree with myself all the time. You know, there's nothing wrong with that. But trust me, if you were to do an analysis on the things we do agree on, you're going to find we agree on far more than what we disagree on. So let's lean into what we agree on. And then we can always debate on those two or three things we disagree on. But we are going to be up here. This is not the last meeting. This is what we are going to do as an administration, engage in these real conversations and come out with real solutions. Thank you. Next. So can we, we just had to, can we? First, there was a process that we're having here. And when you respect your neighbors, you respect the process. You respect the process. And so there's a process that we have here. You want to ask me a question when we're finished? I'm more than welcome to answer your question. But if you just want to disrupt the meeting, I'm not going to participate in that. If you want to ask me a question after I hang around, but if you just want to yell and disrupt the meeting and disrespect everybody in this room, that's not going to happen. I'm going to answer your question. So I would stay here and answer your question. Is that okay? All right. Next question. Next table. Hi. Good morning. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. So the question from this table is, how will the administration address and enforce quality of life issues that affect public safety? And they could be about open drug use in the community. The secondhand marijuana spoke, including dirt bikes, illegal vendors. And so some of the questions that we're addressing here. So we'll let the police commissioner, the police commissioner answer that. And I know commissioner Madri has been zero focus on illegal dirt bikes. We heard you. We responded. So we're going to turn it over to the commissioner and then Chief Madri, you can go with some of the dirt bike initiative. So thank you for that question. So we firmly believe that, and the data has shown us, which is important, because when I talk about data, there are people behind that data. We're talking about people who are complaining about exactly what you're describing, which are the quality of life offenses that make life a little less pleasant for us all to live in. And that comes about loud parties. We're talking about marijuana smoking. Like you said, people who are playing dice on the corner. These things create conditions that may lead to more serious offenses. If I can stop a game that's becoming disruptive, if I can stop a house party that's too loud, maybe a shooting can be prevented. Not in all cases, but in some. And people are complaining about these things. We have a number of 3-1-1 calls where people are saying, please do me a favor, shut down this loud party. Please do me a favor and take care of this quality of life issue because it really comes down to how comfortable you feel walking down the street. Nobody wants to go to a store where there are people hanging out in front of it and there's some ways they're intimidating. So we're answering those quality of life concerns. And as you see with the dirt bike initiative that we have and the ATVs that we're taking off the streets, sometimes they're going in the wrong direction. They're taking up streets. They're circling people in traffic and they're creating a nuisance. So when people complain about us enforcing quality of life concerns that we're bothering people, these are actually concerns that people have expressed to us that we have to address. So I'll ask Chief Madre to talk about his ATV initiative. Thank you, Commissioner. And good evening to the Bronx. Thank you. Over the past couple of weeks, we started this ATV initiative and I actually call it Operation RIDA. RIDA, R-I-D-E-A, removing illegal dirt bikes and ATVs. That's what it's called. So when we started it, at first we went over to the Rockaways because we had some serious complaints in the Rockaways and we were just figuring out how to do this the best way that we can. We went to the Rockaways. We had some success. We actually trained with our highway unit. We worked with our intel unit to get to understand more about where the bikes are being hidden. We listened to the community. Many people were telling us where the riding was occurring and where they were congregating. And over the past few weeks, we were just getting better and better. Right after that week in the Rockaways, we went to Brooklyn. We took over 100 bikes in Brooklyn in one day. The following week, we came to the Bronx and Chief Phil Rivera and all the men and women of the Bronx, along with the members of my office, we took over 200 bikes in one day in the Bronx. 200 bikes. Not an easy task, but we did it and we're going to continue to do it. We were here in the Bronx. Again, last week, we took close to another 100 bikes. And since we've been doing it over the last couple of weeks, we're at about 8 to 900 bikes. We're moving them heavy, but it seems like as much as we take them, they keep coming back. So again, Bronx, I'm going to ask you for your help. We need you to keep telling us the locations you see them. Reach out to the commanders. Reach out to community affairs. Reach out to your borough commander. Let us know where we need to be. Let us know where the activities are occurring and we will respond accordingly and we will remove those bikes. So thank you for your support. We'll continue to push that. And it's so important because there's a connection. Chief Mandry, he's telling you about the bikes he removed. He didn't share with you that in many of those bikes, we found illegal guns. We watched throughout the previous years that those paper plates that you see, those unregistered cars with paper plates, we're seeing a connection that people are stealing them. They're stealing rented cars. They're putting paper plates on them and they're doing stick ups, robbery patterns that we're closing. Those dice games that the commissioner is talking about, you get those 311 calls, it turns into shootings. When you don't deal with the quality of life issue, they turn into taking lives. That's why we're not going to sit back and just watch everyday people who want to live in clean, safe communities have to deal with the disruption. Our bike initiative is not going after motorcycle riders who have their bikes registered who are following the laws and following the rules. That's not what we're doing. But we are going after those illegal bikes not registered, harming and making it dangerous for our community to say, this is not the city we're going to live in because you don't deserve to live in a city like that. And I thank this initiative that the chief has been leading and we're seeing real results with it. Thank you. Next question, Kevin. Good evening, sir. We had a very robust conversation and the question that we have is there have been a continuous pipeline of services and service providers who move in and out of our communities. How do we incentivize these organizations so that they buy in and stay in our communities so they create that relationship and that synergy with the communities that they are meant to serve? One of the things that we're doing is creating a mayor's office of non-profits so that there can really be a focus on the non-profit sector making sure, one, that they paid on time but they also have the capacity to meet the needs of the community so really providing technical assistance to capacity building. We know that the city really can't get its work done without non-profits as partners and we have to be much more focused as you're suggesting on that sector to make sure that we're in real partnership with them and that they're really meeting the needs of the community. So that is a focus. What was your pain when we did with the backlog? Yeah, so when we came into the administration I mean in one of the challenges I think that non-profits have is that when they contract with the city they'll do the work for a year and not get paid. So it makes it difficult for them to dig, put the roots down and do some of the things that you said. When we came in, we had hundreds of non-profits that were owed $5 billion with a B. They had been working for a year and more and not gotten paid. So we started an initiative and in 12 weeks we cleared $4.25 billion of money that they were owed to make sure that they got the resources that they deserve. So those are some of the things that we're doing. Thank you. Next table. Paula. Hello, sir. Echoing the importance of agencies collaborating to provide resources in areas that need it the most now everything should fall on the NYPD to deal with mental health and home mis-issues. What is being done to make sure precincts and transit districts are adequately staffed? Who's our department of health? Okay, Torian is here. Good evening. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you to the Bronx for having us this evening. What I'll just say is a top line is, you know, addressing mental health certainly with the way that the violence impacts our community is a high priority for this administration. One of the things that we think about I think is really important that we all know that is available NYC Well is one of our robust call lines that really connect individuals, New Yorkers to community mental health services throughout the city, really making sure that we're addressing substance use, behavioral health issues and I think it's really important that we always have this as top of mind because this is a really important asset that we have throughout the city. But I think the other things that are also important particularly as we think about how mental health, behavioral health intersects with violence. One of the things that we do look at is certainly how a number of different health issues overlaid with where we see high rates of gun violence incidents. We're really working hard with our colleagues at health and hospitals NYPD to drive forward interventions that are going to connect people to community mental health services such as our mobile intensive treatment centers, our support and connection centers. The plan is to open up a support and connection center in the Bronx and so we're really excited about that as well as our mobile crisis teams. These are ways in which we are connecting individuals to community mental health services. We're connecting them to our H and H systems across the city because we know that addressing the root cause of violence is the way that we do prevention. And then when we think about prevention more broadly, one of the things that we also know is that we have to take care of our workforce. And so all of our cure of violence workers who are doing the yeoman's work of making sure that we prevent violence, we're providing wraparound services, treatment services, trauma services for our cure of violence partners and our hospital violence staff as well. I think this is really important that we think about ways in which we're not only supporting the community, but also the workforce that are also protecting the community as well. Hello? Yes. I'd like to add to that. This past June, the Bronx DA's office in conjunction with Montefiore hospitals and a number of our other stakeholders in community had our first mental health summit held at the Bronx Zoo. And we had every stakeholder in the Bronx, in the room for an entire day sharing information with each other. City agencies, the hospitals, community-based organizations all talking about the gaps that we have in mental health in our community. Like I said and I agree with Dr. Easterling, we have to get to the root causes of the problems that are bringing people into the criminal justice system and I got to tell you, mental health is one of the number one issues that we're dealing with. So after that summit, we have convened, we see the gaps, we know what each other are offering and we're moving on with a part two to come up with a real strategy for the Bronx. And I thank the mayor's office and the other city agencies that deal with mental health because again, I am so tired of the Bronx being first in everything bad and last in everything good. So we need these resources and I'm ready, willing and able to tackle this issue because this is the number one problem, driving people into the criminal justice system. I have to deal with them when it's too late. We have a young lady, a case pending right now. She walked into a precinct two years ago saying I need help. Y'all better do something for me. The police tried to talk to her. She walked out and she slashed the throat of two of her kids. She's seriously mentally ill and there were missed opportunities for her. She's been in mid Hudson now, not even in Rikers. That's how sick she is and we have so many people like that. So I can't wait until we pull these resources together because that's going to help us solve the violence in the Bronx. Thank you. Next person, next table. Tiffany. Good evening mayor. My table has we covered a lot of a lot of the safety issues and the safety concerns and you guys have answered a lot of the questions but one main question that wasn't answered is how do we deepen this conversation in this event and what's next? What's next is in the room and what I'm hoping that we do is that we exchange information with each other and based on your passion area some of your passion may be around young people. Then everyone in this room should know the organizations that are supporting the services of young people and coalesce together. Some of yours may be around older adults. You should coalesce with the other organizations that are dealing with older adults. Some may be job placement. Some may be health. So people often talk about the siloing of government but we also are dealing with the siloing of organization. You can walk on one block and at the one end of the block you will have a nonprofit for financial literacy and in the middle of the block you have a nonprofit for financial literacy and at the end of the block you have a nonprofit for financial literacy. We have to stop the duplication of the same services and coalesce around services. So we should use this moment to find out who you are and what you represent and what's your passion and coalesce so the resources we have can go to the bodies of the organizations and not spread to the public. We have been to many organizations doing the same thing. So this is an introduction so you can meet each other. Now let's move to working together with each other. Excellent. Next table. We have Ed. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Our questions focuses around school safety agents which are a vital part of keeping our schools working and successful. We have seen a significant increase in school safety agents throughout the city since the pandemic. Is there any plans to return to those levels of staffing or increase them? First of all, I love that question and the Chancellor is here but that's an open door to a bigger problem we are having. Do you know how many jobs we have that we can't fill? I don't understand this. We have high unemployment we have good paying city jobs that we can't fill and one of those jobs that we have that we can't fill enough of are school safety agents. I mean good jobs so we're going to be listing all the jobs that we have in city government, all the jobs and all of you that know someone that's looking for a job, we're asking you apply for these good civil service union pension healthcare salary jobs and I just I love my school safety agents. They do more than protect the children in the schools. Many of them are predominantly black and brown women. They know the names of all of these children. They treat them like their own. There was one school in the Bronx where they were bringing clothing for the children who didn't have clothing. So our goal is while others say we're going to remove schools safety agents, no I'm not with that. I believe we need to have a safe environment for our children. We're respectable school safety agents and they're doing an unbelievable job in these schools. Chancellor Banks you want to add anything to that? I would just simply say also just to echo really what the mayor has said. There are opportunities not just for school safety but when the opportunity presents itself we have to be ready. The district attorney and I were just sitting there saying there were folks that we know who a job became available they fit the credential or the criteria but they like to smoke we. That's real talk. So all of a sudden now the opportunity that was there right in front of you is not there for you. So there are opportunities that are there. We have to continue to make sure that our young people are ready and we have to those are the kinds of things that we have to focus on. But I also want to just take a moment here and say while I'm here those of you who are part of the New York City public school system if you're in the building right now let us hear you. If you're here from New York City principals educators so happy that you are here if you are one of the superintendents that are leading our school districts around the Bronx right now please wave your hand everybody needs to know that you're here please stand up stand up I want everybody to make sure that they know that you are here. We went through a painstaking process over these last several months of selecting the superintendents for across New York City and I'm glad to see that the Bronx came out strong because leaders matter and it's critically important that we selected the right leaders to lead every district across the Bronx I'm glad to work with each and every one of you what you do every single day is going to make a difference in the lives of all of our young people there's a lot of talk around restoration of budget and everything else issues around dollars are always going to be there there's not an unlimited amount of money but what we need to recognize is this New York City has a $38 billion budget for its schools think about that but yet the mayor says all the time 65% of black and brown kids never achieve reading proficiency with $38 billion never learn to read properly the issue is not around restoration of cuts that's not the biggest part of the issue is what are we doing with the money that we have why is it that we have $38 billion and kids can't read and I offer this to you our fundamental approach to how we have been educating our children has been flawed we have to reimagine and we are reimagining with these leaders that you see here a whole different approach to how we're educating young people how they're experiencing school in the first place we should not feel good about the fact that we graduate young people who have no idea borough president what you even do they don't know councilmen what you do they don't even understand how government operates and yet we spend $38 billion they don't understand how to even open up a bank account how to invest their money the mayor talks about this all the time we are in the global capital of the world and yet we are graduating young people who don't even know how to open up a bank account and yet we give them a certificate and say congratulations congratulations for what congratulations for what if we are not putting young people on a pathway to careers that actually matter school safety is one that is a job but I want you to understand what it means to be a scientist or an architect so that when you graduate you can get off mommy and daddy's payroll say amen somebody that's what this is about it's not about just going to school we need to be smarter with the money that we have this stimulus money that we have is going to run out it is not lasting forever so whether or not you deal with it now or the mayor says we're going to deal with it later we are going to have to deal with it but if we are smarter about the approach that we are taking and making sure that our kids get the bright starts that they need that set them up for a bold future that's when this system will ultimately make sense that's what we are committed to thank you very much can we go to the next table Tony Mr. Mayor that energy from the chancellor what we had a discussion over here and it goes back to what we have said in the other forums what plans does the city have to provide opportunities for paid internships also bringing co-op programs back in our public schools and creating workshops to educate our young people on obtaining and sustaining gainful employment and business ownership well I went through and many people don't know about the co-op program Tony that you are talking about I went through the co-op program I worked one week another week and it was extremely important and Deputy Mayor Wright is working on a 100% paid internship program for our children year round which is extremely important and as the chancellor stated we are really leaning into CTEs carpenters, plumbers electricians all of these skills computer programers all of these skills are employable I had the first of this kind program in Brooklyn in the Brooklyn steam center where our young people were getting certifications by the time they graduate do you know what an HVAC repair person makes these are real good jobs and so putting our children on a pathway to employment, gainful employment that's our mission and that is the mission that we are focusing on but I know Deputy Mayor Wright some of the partnerships she is doing with Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer about bringing our business community into opening their doors and doing paid internship to expose our children to the possibilities that they deserve next question, Ido thank you, good evening Mr. Mayor we have had multiple engagements with the city in the past but failed to see a long term plan or change how will this time be different as an example and we tied this to larger city issues homelessness and mental health issues we discussed the proliferation of both but we want to know what is the city's long term vision to address these for example, we discussed the proliferation of shelters as a short term plan but not one that is a long term plan what is the long term thread of what the end result looks like thank you someone stopped me and said listen man the streets are dirty crime is up our schools are not doing well I said ma'am this is January 3rd I just got here 3 days listen these are generational problems homelessness didn't start January 1st crime didn't start January 2nd you know the failure of our schools as the chancellor just stated 65% of black and brown children not meeting proficiency did not start this year these are generational betrayals that we are turning back how do we do it by being honest and facing them on the ground we were walking past people living in tents and shanty towns and acting like we didn't see them and advocating they should have a right to live that way they should have a right to be in shelters and move into permanent housing that's what they should have a right to do not to live with drug paraphernalia human waste dirty clothes not access to showers healthy food going into a healthcare system when you are in a crisis or your chronic diseases we are being proactive in our approach we had over 2,000 low income housing that was sitting there empty our chief housing officer Jessica Katz came in and we already cleaned up a thousand of them and we are going to continue the fast track we have abandoned NYCHA for years we were able to get the land trust everyone tried to get it but you know what NYCHA we got it and now NYCHA residents are going to be picking their contractors making sure those slips are closed correctly and not just close any type of way changing the whole landscape of NYCHA housing is our number one issue that we need to face to deal with how people feel like they are being left out and it's a huge challenge because don't let anyone kid you when we try to build returning citizen housing our brothers and sisters who are incarcerated and it's coming home the same people who advocate that hey we need this housing then they say you can put it on any street let's not be hypocrites folks if we really want housing then when we start to build this housing we need to open up our neighborhoods and allow people to be on the housing that we are building that's our biggest challenge no one wants to housing in their community that they are advocating for but we are going to build it in every community because these are our neighbors and we want to make sure we house the people in this city that's our long term focus thank you next question is going to come from Malcolm good evening mayor my first we had great people here it was a combination of principals and police fortunately the principals had to go home because they got schools to run tomorrow so they bowed out gracefully but they didn't leave a question I do want to thank captain Guterres and sergeant Santana for participating in the meeting your answer most of them not too many they are looking for more safety agencies more agents that's one but they are looking to find out how to create more CMS groups that can network with the safety agents so that they can resolve issues before they start that's one and the other one is how to create the dialogue and improving relationships between NYPD and metacolor and community each group wants the right to be respected each group wants to thrive each group wants to go home at the end of the day and each group has the right to pursue the American dream great question commissioner you want to talk with that and the chancellor can talk about school safety so we'll go backward I'll answer the question about NYPD and the communities we can't do anything without the community and you're absolutely right and I'm so glad you said that the way that you did that we all have the same needs we all want to go home we all want to be respected but these types of relationships they start here right they start with these connections with us being able to talk to each other and come together and understand the needs and wants of both but we're the same as you just pointed out so well so we have to make sure we come together as part of the community to be able to air our issues and our concerns and where we can go from here we have community affairs we have youth officers we have a number of different initiatives that we have that can come together and make us all understand how we can work better together it starts with these meetings it starts in PAL it starts in every time we come together the first time someone speaks to a police officer it should be a negative encounter it should be a positive encounter where you feel as though this is someone I can go to and speak to who I have something in common with because at the end of the day you're absolutely right we all do want to go home at the end of the day for our families so I think as long as we have that dialogue and as long as we have members of the NYPD and members of the community that are willing to come together I think that's how we affect change and since the chancellor did so I think that's why we have the NYPD in this room who are here to have this dialogue to make sure we come together could you all stand up please the members of the NYPD this is truly an extraordinary interview hold on, stand up stay standing stay standing now I bet you any kind of money they're not going to show on the news how much we appreciate each other because that doesn't sell what sells is that we had ours with each other it doesn't sell when you look around this room and you see the diversity of the men and women in the white shirt that doesn't sell it doesn't sell that you are here on your time because you're concerned about the Bronx being safe that doesn't sell it doesn't sell about your commitment the hours you put in how much time you deal with knocking on doors of people in the victims of the crime how you go after hours to make sure they have the basic things they need to go and deal with they're traumatized none of that sells and so I know you take a lot of heat I know Twitter and Facebook and Instagram want to define you but you need to hear the applause of the people here that want law and order they appreciate you they appreciate you and always remember that I would like to say this just to add to that we identified 140 schools across the city many of them in the Bronx that have had some real significant challenges and we know that we need NYPD but we need NYPD they can't all be responded to by school safety but we need school safety but we also need those men and women from our community who are credible messengers who are here every day who live here each and every day and so let me just tell you what we have done this is not just talking rhetorically this is what we have done and what we get ready to lay out as we start the beginning of this school year in the back there with the pink shirt on just so everybody knows I want you to just know who this brother is because he is leading the effort for us working together with the deputy mayor right at focusing on these credible messengers neighborhood organizations mentor organizations who have come together from around the city well over 100 organizations that we have already identified are going to fund we are not just asking them to show up and volunteer they have been doing that for years we are going to put some dollars behind this and we are going to put them out there on the front lines with our kids they can't save everybody but every one of these schools got 10 kids in there that if you could help them you could transform the whole school and if you ask any principal in the room they can tell you the names Rodney, Kenyatta and brother Barnett is going to be leading that work it is already identified they have been working for months on this and as we start the school year you are going to be hearing about this the mayor will make an official announcement but if you are aware of any community group that should be a part of that work that's the brother to see in the back that's why the mayor does this so that we all come together we know who to connect with that's why I want to shout them out if this is over and we break up please have a conversation with brother Aaron Barnett thank you Aaron thank you very much next Anthony good evening the question they posed is the following are there any plans by your administration which can develop a collaborative effort between the NYPD and community stakeholders to begin to make their neighborhoods safe if anyone doesn't know what Comstat is Comstat by far is probably one of the greatest crime fighting tools we have but Comstat has been around for a very long time and how do we change that how do we bring the voices of the community into the NYPD we make it better so going forward we are actually probably going to announce maybe at the end of the summer we are going to do Comstat a little bit differently a separate set of Comstat where we actually bring the community into the police department so we can hear your ideas we can hear what your issues are and I think the best way to illustrate that are the t-shirts that are here in the front that basically really takes a village because it does and we recognize that in the NYPD and far too often we go to communities and we tell you what we are going to do for you we are going to ask you to come tell us what you need from us so you are going to see that probably toward the end of the summer when we are able to get that ramped up bringing the voices of our communities of the Bronx, of Queens, of Brooklyn of Staten Island every single community we serve we want to have representation in the Jack Maple Center to be able to tell us what you need as a community all we can do is find out what our communities need the most from us and be able to act on that in real time so you are going to see that going forward so the next question Karen Mr. Mayor with all that is going on in the Bronx for the youth in some pre-sense there are well trained youth officers who help coordinate services and safety of the children in the community are there plans to extend this program so that all communities in the Bronx have ample support from the NYPD for the children's safety as well as formulation training programs so youth officers have the same training in pre-sense to pre-sense and please allow the officers to come in earlier instead of 11 o'clock maybe have them start at 8 thank you I'm going to ask Chief Corrie do you have my answer Chief of department thank you good evening everybody so the question about youth officers varies a little bit precinct to precinct because quite frankly it has to do with the number of people that live in the precinct and therefore the number of youth every community is not the same we do have a good training program for our youth officers that training is going to even continue to be further enhanced our deputy commissioner Chauncey Parker was very much involved in youth strategies couldn't be here tonight but he has a tremendous amount of ideas and work that go into that and the key to any of these positions in the police department is selection and how do we select our youth officers because in order to be really effective as a youth officer you have to have a passion for working with the youth and we haven't always done that so as we go through that and we make sure that if you're not the right person for this role that's fine we move you into something else and we identify the person who is the person who is truly passionate about working with the youth so those youth officers are going to get better and better the question you had about the hours that they do so particularly during the school year we want those officers around when schools are out we don't need them sitting around when the kids are in school I want them out at school dismissal time to be there to provide a safe space for the kids to come from school to get to the bus to get to the train and then I want them in the parks and the playgrounds because that's where the youth are and that's what they're doing right now at 8 o'clock in the morning but then their shift ends at 3.34 o'clock in the afternoon I'd rather have them here later in the afternoon and into the early evening hours and in a park, in a playground and that's where their precinct commanders task them and that's where you're going to find them every day Excellent, thank you Next question is coming from Alina Hi, good evening Thank you Mr. Mayor for coming to the Bronx We actually have a youth leader here at our table and they were very concerned about being the driving force of crime The question is how are you going to address the needs for anti-drug use messaging and implement accountable processes that will hold your New York City agencies and their contracted organizations accountable to share that message Thank you for that We're going to have one of these meetings with just young people and we want the young person or the youth leader who share that we want them to help us draft and craft the message because they know how to reach their population better than what we could do and so we would like them to be part of crafting that message and once we do that we want to do everything from social media to billboards to whatever methods they see fit because we want it to be youth driven Excellent, thank you Next question from Pastor Gilman Rose Good evening everyone, good evening Mr. Mayor How are you going to finally implement a structure of accountability that consistently bring quality services to communities that need it the most especially nature It's about using as a commissioner stated about using comms that we need a real time system of seeing the services we provide We hired an amazing chief technology officer and he's looking at how do we use technology to look at the delivery of services in our city and we have not been doing that I always call my mother saying you have to inspect what you expect or it's all suspect and there's been a lot of suspect things going on in particularly the city and in the Bronx in general and so our goal when you look at NYCHA we've been using technology to see the tickets how long the tickets are open from everything from letter baitment to fixing cabinets to fixing leaks to painting everything has fallen into a black hole and no one is really monitoring what's happening day to day that's not the administration that we're running we want to run a real time technology driven system that allow us to know where our progress is so next question from Ariel Hello Mr. Mayor what actions and or measures are being taken to address inequity in funding sources and capacity building for smaller social service agencies and MWBEs to provide direct resources and funding to the community to be more self-sufficient proactive and responsible for their own community building from within I love that nothing frustrates me more than if you have a Yemenese need in a Yemenese community and someone from outside that community is providing services to that community then you want to subcontract one of the community leaders to do the services why can't they be the prime contractor why if you are running in a Dominican domestic violent group why we need someone outside the Dominican community subcontracting a Dominican organization to do it why can't the Dominican organization be the prime contractor we constantly have these larger entities going in providing services on the ground because the largest entities have free credibility to provide services on the ground so you cannot provide services for NYCHA if you are afraid to walk up into NYCHA and knock on an apartment for a deed we want to look at the local community-based organization and have direct to consumer interaction but what does that mean it means what I said earlier we cannot have 100 groups in the same zip code it's not a big thing everyone has their own board everyone has their own treasure everyone has their own chair of the board it's just not enough money to do that so we need the organizations and groups to come together and say let's bring all of our strengths together this way we can bring and have direct interaction with the different groups particularly as the versus this city we want local community groups to provide the services enough for the profit you get a different outcome when you're doing it because you have that real compassion for it and that's where our focus is thank you very much next question from Lamona good evening everyone Mayor Adams there's a program called the emergency rental assistance program and apparently it lasts for 17 months so it is said that that program is about to end so the question is are there any other programs or initiatives in store to avoid mass evictions Gary's here Gary Jenkins our commissioner yes good evening good evening Bronx y'all still awake right so the emergency rental assistance program is administered by the state that's OTDA not by the city but we encourage everyone to please if you have rental areas sign up for e-wrap because when you sign up for e-wrap it gives you those protections as far as evictions will be not expedited they have to go through that process review your application and make a determination however the human resources administration HRA as many of you know we offer the eligibility for a one shot deal so if you have an emergency your agency is here to assist those who need it so please you can apply online through access HRA apply for one shot deal we will make that determination and we want to make sure that every New Yorker who is in a predicament of rental areas know first sign up for e-wrap but also HRA is here and HRA has your back to make sure that we are determining your eligibility from DSS to please stand up these are important people Karen, Jill, Jamar we are here to service you because we are here for you we are your public servant thank you I was knocking on doors Saturday Saturday I was out with our public engagement unit knocking on doors telling folks in the Bronx I was in the Bronx I was knocking on doors with them we were walking the streets we had about 20-30 CUNY interns joining us and what we are doing we've learned that we're sending millions if not billions of dollars back to Washington DC in the state of services real services that people are not signing up for because it's just too complicated to sign up for you have screes, senior assistants that you can actually freeze their rents people are living in food insecurity and they are eligible for SNAP benefits the different tax incentives that we were able to pass in Albany so we're not sitting back and saying shame on you for not coming and learning about what you are eligible for we're saying shame on us as a city that we're not going out what you are eligible for so we're knocking on doors ringing doorbells telling people do you know you are eligible for SCRE let us sign you up for it now where are we going in the future in the future we are looking at our residents and their profiles we have your data so why are we waiting to let you know you are eligible for all these things we're going to cross connect all of our agencies and all the benefits available for and notify you that do you know you are eligible for SNAP for SCRE for WIC we need to let you know what this city has for you because it's your tax dollars we were knocking on doors this weekend we're going to continue to knock on doors because we believe in being in the streets and meeting people where they are so they can get the resources they need thank you next question from Miguel thank you Mr. Mayor and the executive leadership at the dais the question is how can students start an apprenticeship slash vocational program immediately when they start high school and not wait for the 10 credit requirement to begin a transfer or job core requirement that's where we're going that's a big part of what we're getting ready to do creating a career pathways initiative that's really going to be the north star for this administration and so the way we've been doing it in the past we're not going to have to wait to accumulate a certain number of credits we want students in fact we're going to be starting this as early as middle school with much more career awareness programs that are going to be in place and by the time our kids are actually in high school we're going to have them fully connected into the world of work in a 21st century economy and it's not just trade positions but it's the biotech industry it's the fintech industry it's just so many ways for our young people to plug in and to have real jobs so that's where we're going we're building it out now we're going to be announcing some things as soon as the school year begins so stay tuned there's a lot of news that's getting ready to come thank you next question coming from Jerry yes I'm Charles The short answer is yes this is something we absolutely want to do support our community-based organizations to provide mental health support, connect individuals to the type of resources in our community. But I think the number one thing that we have to remember, and this is something that we've been pounding the pavement with, we need a language about how to talk about mental health and mental illness. I mean, that is very important. We know that stigma is really prevalent in our communities. We need people not to be shameful about addressing mental illness, not just our physical illness, but how do we talk about depression and stress and anxiety? I'm sure everyone in this room in the past two years have dealt with some type of stress and anxiety. What is the language that we can use and how do we ask for help? And that's what we're talking about. And so we absolutely want to increase resources to community-based organizations, to our schools, to our healthcare systems to make sure that people have access to the right type of services. And I'd just like to add to that as well, that when we had the Mental Health Summit, one of the gaps that we saw is that they needed peer mentors. We need those individuals who have lived experience with mental health that can help other people who are struggling with it. And that was one that we had a number of peers that were there saying that there's not enough resources put into them or training for them to help others in the community get through some of the same things because they've been through it before. So as we build these things, we have to make sure that we have peer mentors, four people in our community that are suffering from mental illness. Hello, everyone. I just want to just add that as you're going to be seeing as DYCD is moving forward with our contracts, especially the after school compas and Sonic and a few of the Beacon and Cornerstone. You're going to see the language in the contract that's going to focus specifically that anyone that's awarded those contracts have to have a mental health component, regardless of whether or not it's in the program or outsourced. So the mayor had made that a signature requirement and you're going to see moving forward. All of our contracts are going to have that have that component. So, yeah. So next question from Valerie. Thank you, Mayor. My table was filled with proud Bronxites, many educators who feel unsafe in their home. They want to see legislative changes as it relates to public safety. They want you to explain the division of power between the mayor's office and the state legislature to enact those necessary changes. And then lastly, they want to know what they can do to make sure that these necessary changes are implemented. You know, that's such a great question. Someone, I was talking to someone last week and they said, you know what, Eric? All this seems like you want to do is lock people up. That's all it seems like you want to do. And I told them, I need you to Google and look at all of the reforms that you're hearing today that took place in Albany. Those were my bills. When I was state senate, this is what I advocated from. Some people don't even know I had an organization called 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. You're talking about your history being rewritten? No, 90% of people have benefited from the reforms that went through Albany. 10% are exploited in those reforms. They're repeated individuals who have made up their minds that they're going to bring violence in our city. Those are the individuals we need to zero in on. You can't have dirty arrests for burglary and still get out the next day. You can't constantly be caught with a gun and commit a homicide. I mean, we can't have those people who are repeated offenders. That is my focus. My focus is on the parts of the law that are allowing repeated offenders. Not the 90% of the people who learn from their mistakes, they get an assistance that they needed. We're not trying to keep people incarcerated. That's not the goal. But there are some dangerous, cold, blooded killers that are among us and don't feel as though they have to deal with any form of behavior or any form of reprisals for their actions. That is the part of the reform we're pushing for. That's what I need people to focus on, and I'm going to continue to talk to Albany about it. I think that what they did is commendable of dealing with the reforms they put in place. But those 10% that we need to deal with is something we need to focus on. Let me give you a perfect example of what we're doing that's very dangerous. You have a gun in a car. That gun is on the, everybody see the cops pull up behind them? They throw the guns, the two, three guns on the floor of the car. They wipe it down so that no DNA is on it. If they're juveniles and they did it before, you know how difficult it is to get a conviction on that gun because no DNA is on it? Nobody is claiming it? That's the criminal minds as smart as you think they are. They learn how to utilize the loopholes that can continue to perpetuate the violence that we're seeing. We have to close those loopholes at that small percentage of people that are continually inflicting violence on our community. And that is what I'm calling for on the reforms that I pushed as a state senator fought for as a police officer, advocated for as the borough president. So I don't want to hear people tell me that all we want to do is lock people up. No, we're trying to stop dangerous people from hurting innocent people. Tell me the law you know of in this city that was passed to help someone that was a victim of a crime. What about them? What about the mother I saw that lost her 20-year-old son? What about the 11-year-old baby that was shot? Who are passing laws for innocent people that are the victims of crimes? I'm advocating for innocent people in this city. That's what I'm doing. Thank you. Next question from Andrew. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Our table actually talked about the difficulty that local organizations have offering services directed in schools. So our question this evening is how can we activate now to open those school doors to offer all the services that the young people need such as health clinics? Health clinics. Chancellor, you want to touch that? Yeah and this is something that Deputy Mayor Wright and I talk about quite a bit as well which is about school-based health clinics and really putting our schools in a position to have the stuff that they need in the schools themselves as well as partnerships with local hospitals as well who can provide those additional services. So we've got it in a number of our schools but we need to be able to look at how we can expand that so that more of our schools can have those access to those kinds of resources as well. Those are important initiatives and that's one of the things that we're looking at. But there are just so many things that we need to continue to expand on in our schools. We need to expand the level of technology. We want to make sure that all of our schools have libraries and librarians and you know there's a lot of things that we need and yet we're also having to deal with a level of fiscal responsibility as well. And so these are tough choices that we have to make but we're going to do the best that we can to try to provide as many resources as we possibly can across all of our schools. And you know brother some schools some schools I mean we have to think outside the box and that's one thing I love about the chancellor. Chancellor said it you know back when I was running you know we think we think educating our school our students is what happens in the school day of what happens you know inside the walls of the school and it's not. You know there are barriers to learning that we need to deal with. Some schools need washing machines. Some schools need food pantries. Some schools need to have just boxes of clean socks and undergarments. You know we need to look at that child and say what's preventing you from getting educated and we need to give them that assistance. And listen you graduate from high school we shouldn't be dropping you off the cliff. Chancellor Banks hasn't been saying this for the longest. We need to extend that child. They build up a loving relationship throughout the K through 12. Then they get to 12 we say get lost we don't want to deal with you anymore. No we got to extend that nurturing throughout their first few years of adulthood college starting a new job. We need to give people our children everything they need so that they can be prepared to learn and we're not doing that. And little Johnny may have everything at home he needs and little Bob Kim may not have anything at home so we want we want to know why is little by Kim failing because we're not giving what he needs outside the school building. That's what we must do as a city. We must develop the full personhood of our children and that's the mission that we're doing. And Mr. Mayor I would say this as well to connect with the mayor saying to get the schools all the things that they need does not always necessarily mean you have to keep increasing the amount of money that we're spending. So hear me I'm not knocking we always want more money that's for sure. But when I say we have to be smarter so the deputy mayor right we talk about this all the time one of the reasons why she's now leading the creation of this office of nonprofits. You know in the New York City public schools we have hundreds of nonprofits that are doing work. And when I ask those nonprofits who do you deal with at the DOE so you can coordinate your work you know what they tell me nobody we're doing this on our own we go principle to principle school to school. That's what the mayor when he talks about when he says dysfunction there are people right now who are doing work in our schools on one part of the Bronx they could help the other schools on the other side of the Bronx doesn't even cost the school any more money they just don't know that they even exist. That's what we mean when we say coordination. We are so we are now connecting our efforts at DOE together with City Hall so we identify who all of these groups are we bring them together so that we can organize for real impact and not just a lot of people out doing a lot of good stuff that's good but if you are smarter about how we move we can have a much greater impact. That's what this administration is about. Next question for Emily. Good evening everyone. The folks at our table were wondering how do we proactively and strategically allocate resources and political capital to strengthen robust community ties and programs that improve outcomes particularly for youth and seniors around the issue of safe transport to and from schools and around the community in general. Why don't we get that deputy mayor I'm sorry commissioner a commissioner the commissioner of agent who's amazing at what she's doing deputy mayor of vast squares. Thank you thank you very much thank you for remembering older adults we uh yes we have several programs to do that safety is one of the issues that we're working with the most we have to be very grateful that in this administration now we've expanded the elder abuse programs that we have throughout the city but one of the things that we also do is that many of our programs are co-located with DYCD programs and we just started a conversation with DYCD the youth development organization to start coordinating those services and also picking up on something that uh chancellor banks has said a long time ago which is about civic engagement again we're working with a DYCD to look at some of those ways that we can marry this community the older adult community in New York who is very civically engaged all of you know that and also the young people so that we can exchange those ideas mentor and keep working with each other we still have a lot to do there the issue that we're confronting now is not the rise in elder abuse and I want to thank the commissioner from the police department one of the programs that we have is really working with the police department looking at some of the constant numbers and which are the highest areas where there is elder abuse and we're looking to really move forward and come up with an older adult victims officer in the precinct just like we have domestic violence and those are the early steps that we're taking together so there's a lot that we still have to do but there's a lot that we're doing now and it is looking at one of the things that we're looking at in terms of older adults and I'm hoping I'm answering your question is a lot to do but the way we're doing this is that this mayor on the disadministration for the first time ever has convened an aging cabinet and that cabinet is going to take all of the richness in the assets that is across his leadership to ensure that this is an age-inclusive city that agencies are doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing and maximizing services to ensure that older adults the people who made this city can live in this city safely and with dignity and that's what we're doing now so you're going to hear more about that cabinet come September because it unveils with the school year so thank you very much thank you next question Fidel so so our table here has had an engaging conversation discussing ways to create safer neighborhoods for families so the following question is what resources is this administration dedicating to help neighborhoods be neighborhoods specifically to create safer public parks and community centers and encourage communities to use them thank you was Deputy Commissioner Rodriguez right from the Bronx number two in charge can we talk about some of the initiatives we're doing in the parks hello okay so I just have to say that we have a wonderful park enforcement team in the borough the Bronx they actually have been very committed to being able to service all the parks in the Bronx we work very very closely with NYPD we have a very close partnership with NYPD we have been also dealing with many of the issues of homelessness in our parks dealing with the syringes the syringe conditions that we have in our parks we provide blood-borne pathogen training to our park employees and we try to make sure that they're safe we continue to be able to provide the many services that the parks department is very proud to give to the community in addition to the park enforcement we also try to be able to provide many programming opportunities for the community so when you talk about being able to weed the negative elements out of our parks by seeding it with positive programming I have actually been possible to for me to witness also the police department and the youth officers actually working with the youth in our parks to be able to provide programming and we went also leaning to the pedestrian plazas you know sometimes we think about parks in general but we really want to encourage those block associations civic groups etc to develop your pedestrian plazas we want to be a partner in doing so they're great spaces for people to sit to rest and enjoy their communities the power of a community lies in those block associations the more block associations we have in coordination with the local precincts it really creates that safe environment that you're looking for Mr. Mayor can I Mr. Mayor can I add one thing from ACS Mr. Mayor so hi I'm just Dan I was in the commission of ACS I just wanted to add a couple things for families right now families in the Bronx in this community can apply for priority access for child care vouchers because of the mayor and deputy mayor writes child care blueprints so if you go on the ACS website you can apply today and we are for the first time in our city's history making sure child care vouchers are distributed equitably across the city by prioritizing the 17 communities that have the biggest child care deserts and have the greatest need for child care also ACS is putting out 30 family enrichment centers across the city many of you may know our place over on the peninsula and Hunts Point we are expanding those there are two more coming to the Bronx and we're getting to 30 within the next 18 months so under Mayor Adams leadership ACS every agency is pushing forward to go upstream not only for young people but for families thank you next question from Deanna good evening everybody good evening Mayor Adams while community has valuable resources like SOS and this pal everyone doesn't have access our table wants to know what the plan is to increase resources for urgent community needs including resources for rent stabilized home adding funding programs in community centers of housing development and providing addiction services outside of the court mandated programs one thing we too many NYCHA community centers are closed and we really want to zero in on those NYCHA community centers and get them up and operating too many are closed but you know often hear people say to me Eric we need a youth center built in our community and I tell them all the time you do have a youth center it's called a school building a school building has gyms some have swimming pools classrooms auditoriums we have everything right there why do we have to wait five six years to put a shovel in the ground for a youth center when you have these buildings that are unoccupied and unused seven to three we tell our babies come in three p.m. we say get out and don't come back until tomorrow that makes no sense these youth centers can teach HVAC training financial literacy electrician carpentry home care there's so much we can learn by using our school buildings better you have to utilize all of your resources we have to be smarter with your tax dollars that's what I'm saying if we open these schools allow our children to do after school program utilize the gyms who have sports leagues utilize the auditoriums to do talent shows do we still do talent shows chancellor I mean this is what we used to do we got to start utilizing all of our assets that we have every community has a public school and a middle school for the most part why aren't we using like utilizing it more after school hours and not only during school hours should the lesson the last but not least we'll end off the last table with shana good evening mayor adams the question from my table who unfortunately had to leave was many of tonight's attendees are all aware of the issues spoken about and they want to be part of the solution how can cbo's and community leaders improve lines of communication with agencies and city leadership so we are as I said creating the mayor's office of nonprofits so that there is one place certainly that nonprofits can go many nonprofits are working across two three four five six seven ten different agencies so we want to make sure that there's one door where they can connect across and certainly for community members as Fred said the community affairs unit is the place to be thank you the perfect way to end the last question again I just wanted the Bronx borough directors from the mayor's community affairs unit to stand up Alina pola I think everyone here knows them also Valerie my deputy commissioner from the Bronx these are people you should take advantage reach out to them of course I'm available as well but please these are your Bronx borough directors we have a great lineup here on this day is they all are well represented in the Bronx we just want to thank everyone who participated here from health department ACS ACS HH age 18 Mitchell the Bronx DA we have Bronx borough president Gibson the DOE chancellor DSS the CCHR DIFTA SBS deputy mayor Sheena right of course the NYPD brass all who represented here with the commissioner the first deputy commissioner Caban from the Bronx chief of department Corey chief of patrol we have a Magery chief Magery NYC CEO the commissioner of the SNY and gender-based violence commissioner parks department Mojade the executive director probation Moya commissioner Manny Castro OEM commissioner DOICD commissioner everyone here to listen to your concerns and to work with you so we thank everyone for participating coming out here being the leadership and we look forward to answering all your questions that you filled out on your tables and following up with you on each and every one of them thank you for participating thank you for staying three hours you you know just show you how much you're committed to this community appreciate you all we'll be back in the BX