NYC Gazette

Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, Department of Transportation: Morning, everyone. Having the mayor leading this effort, expanding Summer Streets, is another way of how all New Yorkers… And last I year know that the mayor said that with the industry say that they was close to 50 million visitors last year.

This is how New Yorkers and visitors, they will see how the leadership or the leaders of the city, when it comes to expanding this type of initiative, is speaking by itself. So I am Ydanis Rodriguez, the New York City DOT commissioner, and I'm pleased to be with you this morning to share some exciting news about one of our city's great summer traditions.

Under the leadership of Mayor Adams, DOT is reimagining the use of public space in a level that we never thought that it was possible in the past, and that includes the over 6,000 miles of roadway managed by our agency, almost 6,000 men and women at DOT, that represent 27 percent of our land. In New York City, our streets are our collective front yard and they are public space for all New Yorkers. That's why I'm excited to join the mayor and all of you to announce how we will transform our street to celebrate all that summer has to offer.

To kick off today's event, I want to turn it over to our friend, our mayor, Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Real vision. I remember walking, first time you brought this to my attention, back when I was Brooklyn Borough President. You had this vision. We were walking downtown Brooklyn and you shared your vision of Summer Streets on how you utilized the full capacity and ability of getting our streets up and operating over the summer months. This is really an exciting, exciting opportunity for all of us. When you think about the summertime, you don't really appreciate all that it has to offer, and I think that your quote…

I think that your quote says it all that how do we get a full use of our summer streets? How do we get a full opportunity to utilize our streets in a very real way? When you saw the expansion in Harlem, when we were out last summer walking up and down Park Avenue, the question was raised, how come we are not expanding this all the way uptown? There's been this desire in the city to localize the expansions and the opportunities in the city to just certain places, really Manhattan-centered. Let's be honest about it. It was about what do we do just in Manhattan.

That was the indicator of how well programs were going. This is a five borough city and we are now saying the Summer Streets program is going to be a five borough initiative. Everyone deserves to enjoy that. When you think about it, streets are just not places where cars drive up and down. We have redefined that entire thought starting from, again, this is the continuation of real visionaries in previous administration. Mayor Bloomberg, he saw this. He started the process of reshaping our streets. Mayor de Blasio picked up and continued that with bike lanes and bus lanes and really pedestrian plazas.

We are just continuing what previous administrations have done and we were fortunate to have this seamless transition because Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez was the transportation commissioner at this time as a Council person and now he's leading the agency that's responsible for much of these initiative. It's a real way of really re-energizing, refocusing, and taking to full fruition what the councilman saw when he was in place. Streets are used for everything now, mopeds, walking, skateboarding, roller skating, when you think about it, coming outside and strolling and really compelling people to really interact with each other.

Bringing Summer Streets to all five boroughs is a real win. Starting in July and August, you will get to enjoy activities with hundreds of thousands of your neighbors. All are car free. We are more than doubling the size of Summer Streets for nearly 20 miles. Last year, we added two miles. I brought the program to East Harlem and brought back the third Saturday. This year, we'll continue to grow in Manhattan, bring in, as I stated, Summer Streets all the way up to 125th Street in Harlem for the first time.You keep hearing that over and over again.

The first time, the first time, first time. This is administration of the first time. Summer is a time for everyone. We want to make sure they enjoy our streets from the sprinkler systems to outdoors to really enjoying everything that it has to happen. And there's a win-win. We're going to deal with congestion and we are fighting the greenhouse gasses and air pollution. Nothing was more of a reminder of what we're dealing with when it comes down to fighting climate change and what we saw last week in our city from the fire in Canada to how it impacted our city, thousands of miles away.

And we also know that we didn't start now. We started in December, when we opened 5th Avenue to pedestrians for the first time in more than 50 years. It's a real win. I was there the other day walking up and down the block. People enjoy being able to stroll through this city and enjoy all that it has to off as they stroll through New York City. So, we are leading away, once again, bringing Summer Streets to New York in every borough. It's a bold, new vision for public space across the city. This is exactly the kind of work we're doing all across our entire city in all five boroughs.

So this summer, New Yorkers can enjoy open streets at nearly 160 locations across the city and 400,000 square feet of new permanent pedestrian space that we have added over the past year. Great job, Commissioner, with building new public spaces, allowing people to cross pollinate with their community and their residents and their neighbors in a very real way. This is a real win, something that we said we wanted to do, another item to check off on our list. We promise it, we did it, we committed to it, and we want to continue this expansion to open our streets to all New Yorkers.

Really excited about this. We're going to try to get to as many as possible this year so that we can tell people to come out, enjoy your streets. Streets are no longer just for vehicles. They're for people. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner.

Commissioner Rodriguez: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And speaking about the first time, the time that New York City has given the opportunity on the new leadership to someone like me that defer or any of those new immigrants to be a commissioner when English is not my native language. So I think it is important also that the city recognize that under your time you are giving opportunity to an individual that can have a strong accent when I speak, but as strong as my accent is also my commitment in my vision working with you to reimagine the use of public space.

We are a city where, as I say, only someone like you could see how a former council member that back in 2016 spearheaded the initiative for Car Free Day, a groundbreaking event that aimed to reimagine the way we perceive and utilize our city streets. You became the first major in the two year that have in this administration being part and participating in the car free day working with us. So, that make a big difference. Car Free Day was the testament to our commitment to sustainability, liability and the reduction of carbon emissions.

It serves as a call for action to New Yorkers to embrace alternative model transportation, such as walking, cycling, cycling, and using public transportation. Summer Streets serves as this very same call to action. It also serves as a way to provide art, wellness, educational, and entertainment programming. Last year, we partnered with dozens of organizational programming and we expect to do even more this year. We welcome all interested organizations to reach out and join us, and there is stipend available to cover the cost to those organizations too.

Since 2008, Summer Streets has become one of the greatest traditions of summertime in New York City. 500,000 people came out last year. Last August, we expanded a route to 109 Street in Manhattan, bringing two more miles of car-free entertainment, education and wellness and hope to New Yorkers living in East Harlem. I'm proud to say that this year we are raising the bar even higher. This summer, we will have the largest ever expansion of Summer Streets, as you heard from Mayor Eric Adams, doubling the numbers of miles to 20 miles from nine miles that we had last year. For the first time, New York City will hold Summer Streets in all five boroughs.

Mayor Adams and I and the advocates are committed to equity and Summer Streets should be available to all New Yorkers, no matter their socioeconomic, ethnic composition. We invite you to join us in Queens and in Staten Island on July 29th. In Queens, we will be opening Vernon Boulevard from 44th Drive to 30 Drive, allowing access to the entire Queens waterfront in Long Island City in Astoria. Be sure to come to Staten Island, Richmond Terrace from York Avenue to Bard Avenue, the crown jewel of Staten Island North Shore waterfront. In August, we are ecstatic to continue to celebration. There will be three those weekend in car free streets in Manhattan on August 5th, 12th, and 19th. This year, as you heard from Mayor Adams, we are also expanding into the heart of Harlem, bringing the joy of Summit Streets to 125th Street along the historic Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard. And to close out with events will host our final round of Summer Streets this year on August 26th in Brooklyn and the Bronx. In Brooklyn we will be celebrating along Eastern Parkway from Grand Army Plaza to Buffalo Avenue, bringing car free streets from Brownsville to Prospect Heights. And the party continued to the Bronx and Grand Concourse and salsa and merengue and bachata and hip hop from East Tremont to Mosholu Parkway, linking neighborhood long-divided.

So mark your calendars and get ready to nearly 20 miles on New York City streets to become your front yard. None of these will be possible without the strong belief, leadership and support or Mayor Adams and the hope of assisting agency, including the great work of the NYPD. I want to thank Commissioner Sewell, Chief Royster, Dawn Miller from City Hall from CECM, and this expansion to all five boroughs is also happening. Thanks to the leadership of Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. They were a strong advocate for expanding Summer Streets and all the board commissioner from Staten Island, the Bronx and Manhattan. They always are on board on this initiative. I also want to thank our dedicated DOT staff, starting with the first temporary commissioner that any commissioner can have who oversee operation of [inaudible]. Let's give a big round applause. Nick and Thomas, Nina, Mary, Sharon, Fabricio, Matthew, David, Kim, Quinn, Emily, Daisy, Daisy, and many others. When we open our streets, we open the opportunity to enjoy everything this city can offer. The streets belong to you and to all New Yorkers and everyone is invited. [Speaks in Spanish.]

With that, I now would like to turn it over to true champions, the first Laura Rothrock, president of Long Island City Partnership.

Laura Rothrock, President, Long Island City Partnership: Good morning. Thank you Commissioner. I'm Laura Rothrock. I'm the president of the Long Island City Partnership and I welcome you to LIC. The Long Island City Partnership is a neighborhood development organization for Long Island City and we're so excited to welcome Mayor Adams and Commissioner Rodriguez here this morning. LICPs mission is to advocate for economic development that benefits the area's industrial, commercial, science and technology, cultural, tourism and residential sectors. As you can see, we have a really diverse community here. And LICP operates the LIC Business Improvement District and the LIC Industrial Business Zone, providing business services and assistance. Long Island City is the most mixed use neighborhood in New York City, home to a diverse community who will all certainly benefit from more open space to enjoy here with Summer streets.

I want to thank Mayor Adams, Commissioner Rodriguez and the administration for bringing Summer Streets to Long Island City. Summer Streets will provide a wonderful opportunity for people to explore the neighborhood in a fun and active way. And while you're here, don't forget to check out the many shops and restaurants along Vernon Boulevard, visit our cultural institutions and explore our public art installation. So I had to get that plugin. I'm excited to see how Summer Streets will bring our community together and showcase all that LIC has to offer. Thank you to the organizers and to the mayor for making this possible. Thank you.

Commissioner Rodriguez: Thank you. Speaking about the first, the person that we're here right now was the person that he's clear that on after he started asking during the time of Ed Koch for New York City to give expansion of time for them to hold the largest bike tour in the whole nation and the second largest one in the whole world. Ken Podziba more than the Five Boro Bike Tour. He's a partner with DOT teaching children how to ride the bike. He's a partner with the Department of Health, teaching adult how to learn how to ride the bike in three hours. So let me give you see the second director of Bike New York Ken Podziba.

Ken Podziba, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bike New York: Thank you. Thank you commissioner. Nothing connects New Yorkers and neighbors better than the opportunity to move around car free. And I want to thank Mayor Adams, Commissioner Rodriguez and everyone at DOT for this significant expansion of Summer Streets, our beloved Summer Streets, all five boroughs. Summer Streets is going to probably outlive all of us and I hope it does and it's going to continue to grow. But today is really historic, five boroughs, and it took Mayor Adams and Commissioner Rodriguez to realize that New York City isn't just Manhattan, it's all five boroughs and that's the way they lead. And we are so blessed and so lucky to have them as our leaders. I remember coming to these press conferences for years, probably since it started. Commissioner Rodriguez, the head of the transportation committee for the City Council, kept talking about the need to open it up to all five boroughs, we need to be more equitable, more inclusive. New York City's not just Manhattan. And today his day has come.

Thank you commissioner. Thank you everyone who's made this happen. This is a great day. Let's expand it. And by the way, Bike New York will be teaching adults and children how to ride at Summer Streets. So if you know anyone who doesn't know how to ride, have them come to Bike New York, go on our website and we will teach them how to ride. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Commissioner Rodriguez: Thank you. Now here from Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso: Thank you so much. All right. We got the white Polo crew memo. I just noticed. Yeah, I know. It's all right. We're going to put you on the list.

Welcome to one of the top five boroughs in the City of New York, in Queens. So happy to have you here. But I am Antonio Reynoso, the president of the greatest borough in the City of New York, which is Brooklyn. And I know there's some folks behind me that might disagree, but you're in the top five. The Bronx is in the top five. I'm so happy to be here to kick off this great news. The people I've been calling for car free streets where families and friends can gather to enjoy the long sunny days of summer. And finally, Summer Streets are coming to Brooklyn. Yes, yes. City streets are our largest public space, but all too often we're dominated by cars that do little more than clog our streets, pollute our air and endanger our people.

But what makes New York, New York is our people. It's the love for our neighborhoods. It's the smell of the delicious food that lingers in the air. It's the song and dance of our ancestors and the art that we make now. That's what Summer Streets honors, that's who Summer Streets honors. And at the same time supercharge our local businesses, they create safe space for kids to be kids. And they remind us that our neighbors are in it together, we each have each other's backs. So I'm excited that all along the Eastern Parkway from Grand Army Plaza to Buffalo Ave connecting Prospect Heights to Brownsville, will be free of cars and full of fun. And I want to thank our mayor Eric Adams and our Commissioner Rodriguez that didn't forget to spread love and brought this all the way to Brooklyn. And I want to be clear, this is not an easy endeavor.

The amount of time it takes to get something like this done is not easy. I was very skeptical and thought that we were going to have to wait till next year. The mayor did one up on me, got things done, and now look, we have safe streets and Summer Streets here in Brooklyn. I don't want it to be lost upon people how difficult that is. And then he didn't choose a random street that no one cares about. He put it on Eastern Parkway. It's really sending a message to folks how important this is and the value of it. So I really do want to thank you to our mayor for getting this great thing done and excited. And thank you for not forgetting about Brooklyn, my brother. Always. All right. All right.

Commissioner Rodriguez: Thank you, president. Also has a few words from the Bronx, Assembly Member Yudelka Tapia.

State Assembly Member Yudelka Tapia: Okay. Open streets are coming to the Bronx too. We are going to have so many streets open this year. I have one in my district, but also I have Grand Concourse and it's going to be full of people. And I'm so glad, and I give the thanks to our mayor for his leadership all the way along since he started as a mayor, bringing the equity to our communities. Not only in spaces like that, but also the parks and how actually, I mean, open street is not only economic development, it's also had to do with safety. And you know that when we put open street that we're going to put in the Bronx now, and we see our neighbors caring by their neighbors and being together in a block. I mean, that promotes safety. I mean, when we have good parks and our children and our young people and our families can go to those parks, that promotes safety. And that is so important. But I mean, the mayor has always understood what it is that take and what it is that we have to do to continue keeping our streets safe in our community, especially in the black and brown communities that are suffering the most from these safety issues that we're having in our community, that the mayor is tackling and we are helping and we are in partnership with the mayors.

But we want to thank also my brother from another mother, the DOT commissioner, the first ever Dominican to be in a position like that. And I'm so proud of the work that he's done. He started this project with a dream that he didn't know that it was going to happen and he was a city council member. And now, as a DOT commissioner, he has brought it to fruition in the five boroughs. Guys, that's a big deal. The five boroughs is a big deal. So I'm so happy to be here and so happy to make sure that I'm going to be partnering in opening Grand Concourse, which is the Concourse Boulevard that many years back. We're bringing it back to the beauty that it used to have and it's going to be fantastic for our families and our children and the community as a whole and all the businesses that are around that are going to be able to benefit and to promote safeties in our community.

Thank you, mayor, for your leadership. Thank you Ydanis Rodriguez, commissioner, for continuing to be persistent and for being the progressive person that we need to move forward our parks and our communities and our transit here in the City of New York. Thank you very much.

Commissioner Rodriguez: Thank you. Before turning to the mayor for the question, I want to acknowledge also Sharon and Nate and Vince for the great job that they do, but also the team here. We also have the Queens borough commissioner, Nicole, who is here. You also have Roseann from Staten Island, also our commissioner. And the person who oversee the sidewalk, so Leon also who is back there. So thank you. Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: I don't have my friend Julie Won here, the council person, but I know her office is being represented here. And really, I hope this is not lost on people. We did not go to the small dead end block and say, "Well, let's open it and be just symbolic." We went to Eastern Parkway, we went to the grandest concourse in the Bronx, the Grand Concourse. We are going after the large places where people are able to walk and to rarely congregate together. And if you have ever navigated the complexities of relationships along large stretches of real estate in this city, you will appreciate what this commissioner was able to accomplish. 8.5 million people in the city, 35 million opinions. And trust me, this was not easy. But we said we were going to GSD, we were going to get it done. We got it done because of the leadership of this commissioner and his team. And we're really happy that these large pieces of spaces will be used for people to enjoy. And I'm really pleased by what he was able to accomplish. So why don't we answer a few on topics?

Question: So when the SWAT of the Grand Concourse in Eastern Parkway are closed, how will traffic be rerouted because those are really main arteries in the borough?

Mayor Adams: It's going to be a combination of things. Number one, people are going to discover how fantastic our MTA and our subway system is. I'm surprised how many people don't get on our subways to see how wonderful it is. And even some of our citywide leaders, I don't know if they've been on the train for a long time. I'm on the train often. It's a great way to move around the city and I think people are going to discover, wow, you know mean I can get from one location to the next in such a short period of time, I don't have to sit in traffic. Then people are going to discover this Citi Bike. And they may go out and say, "Let me take them up on learning how to ride a bike in three hours." They're going to learn the exercising that comes with riding a bike.

And they're going to do something revolutionary. They're going to walk. Being stationary is unhealthy. People are going to get out and walk and see, wow, I can actually get to this store without having to drive there. So we are really allowing people to not only reintroduce themselves to the streets, but reintroduce themselves to their capability and start to think differently about moving around our city and enjoying their neighbors. And those who are just dogmatic about, no, I want to stay in my car, okay, they're going to sit in traffic a little longer.

Question: To that point, mayor, by releasing the dates in advance, people can plan, if they know Grand Concourse is closed, et cetera, plan to not take their cars. Since you brought up the Canadian wildfires and in remarks, one of the criticisms you faced from last week was that you did encourage people to not drive those days, to try to de-pollute the city in those days. Do you think if that kind of air quality issue resurfaced, you might say, "Look, folks, stay out of your private cars"?

Mayor Adams: Okay, two things. One, we have to really zero-in on the science. And when we make these decisions, it's not just making decisions to make a decision. That would have very little impact based on the science, would've had very little impact. So just to call on things to be calling on things without any substance, it's making no sense. And when you talk about criticism, we can't just look at three people who yell all the time no matter what we do and say, "Why you getting this overwhelming criticism?" It's just not true. So those three characters that are saying, "Oh, they failed to do X, Y, and Z," listen, we know what we did last week. We know how well this city responded, how the teams responded.

So those who believed that, hey, these guys choke, that's just not the reality. We had a successful deployment of personnel, Deputy Mayor Williams-Isom, the first African-American woman to hold that position, really moved in the right direction. Department of Health, all of our teams did the right thing. And I'm really pleased with how this team responded to the unprecedented smoke over our city from a thousand miles away in Canada. I would never have thought I was going to wake up and see the smoke coming from Canada in New York, but we responded.

And so those three people who are running around saying what we didn't do, they never handled a crisis before and we know that our team handled that crisis well. We're going to continue to do so. We're going to be defined by our ability to manage crises. From the day I got into office, we've been dealing with crises. You don't even talk about Covid anymore. You don't even think about Covid anymore. You know why?

Because we handled it. When those same three people were saying, "Close the schools, close the schools," we were focused. They were saying, "Close down the city." Remember that? "Close down the city." They were saying all of that. Anyone can sit in the bleaches and not get on the field and bring home the victories year after year, day after day, month after month. And so we know what we have to do to run this city and we're doing that.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.I want to talk to you about the Summer Streets program. It says on the website that it still finishes up at 1 p.m. in the middle of the day. Can you explain a little bit of what the reasoning is behind that? And if it's a resource question, could you spread it out by having less programming, for example, on Summer Streets?

Mayor Adams: Commissioner, you want to talk?

Commissioner Rodriguez: Yeah. First of all, the mayor was the first one, as he did the walk through Fifth Avenue, three Saturdays, where he was able to get the data knowing that there was a 29 percent increase of selling during those three Saturday. And he was the first one who say, "What time do we finish? How can we go later?" So I can say that that's one thing that I told my team at DOT that I'm so lucky to be a commissioner of a mayor that really is always pushing to expand what we are doing. But this year, we focus mainly on expanding through five boroughs. When it comes to possibility to go after 1 p.m., this is something that we can talk, we will follow the leadership at City Hall. But we are confident that what we are doing, expanding five borough is the most important thing that we have done.

We will talk later on for next year. This year, we focus on expansion through the five boroughs.

Mayor Adams: And you get to five boroughs or you look at it… Right, well said. You look at it, you look at the five boroughs, which was huge. Don't downplay this expansion. And then you look at the time, you do an analysis of how much it costs, you scale back the number of manpower. I don't know if many people realize over this weekend how many celebrations we've had over the weekend; Guyanese, Puerto Rican, others. But if you walk down the parade route, you did not see the oversaturation of police, you saw the proper deployment of manpower that we were able to stretch throughout the entire city.

On Saturday, when I was up on 116th Street, you didn't see police officers being deployed and oversaturated during the daytime. We shifted the manpower. Do an analysis of the numbers of crime over the weekend and you'll see how successful the deployment actually was this weekend because we are looking, then we're making the analysis, and then we are making the smart moves because there's a balance. Public safety is always the prerequisite in this city. So we have been successful in... Now let's scale up. We would like to go next year. We can scale up better and more hours we're going to do. So we are going to continue to expand and scale up, but you want to do it correctly because you never want to do it that you're going to put people in harm's way by doing so.

Question: Mayor Adams, just to touch on that point, some of the areas you've identified this summer to expand. So you're saying that there won't be any extra deployment of police officers in maybe some of those areas that might have higher crime. Would that be fair to say? Or there would be?

Mayor Adams: Tell me that again.

Question: Some of the areas you're expanding this year, let's say in Harlem, for example, or some other areas that may be seeing a little bit more crime than other areas in the city, would you be seeing more officers deployed on those streets to protect families and children who are out enjoying Summer Streets?

Mayor Adams: Well, what we have noticed, which is very interesting, and we should do a complete analysis of it, but my observation, those Summer Streets initiatives have done just the opposite. They've become extremely safe. People have come out, they have communicated, et cetera, and so we may find that the more we have Summer Streets, the more we going to have safer hours in these communities. We didn't find a correlation between Summer Streets and public safety. We had enough police officers there, volunteers to make sure that people were safe at the same time.

Question: Mayor Adams, I wanted to ask you, I don't see anyone from the Parks Department here, but it feels on topic to me, one of the concerns I know is here in Queens, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, during the US Open, the park basically turns into a parking lot for a private tennis event. And I know that's been a concern for people in the past and it seems counterintuitive for you to shut down the streets and then allow a park be turned into a parking lot. Is that something you might consider talking to the USTA about encouraging some of those people, "Don't take your little private car. Take the train. Take the railroad." Because it's the largest park in Queens and it's predominantly immigrant communities and they can't use the park for weeks at a time.

Mayor Adams: You're talking about during the US Open?

Question: Yeah.

Mayor Adams: That's the same US Open that brings the largest amount of economics in the sporting arena?

Question: Yes.

Mayor Adams: If we talking about that same US Open, that US Open being there means that we can have good parks. It's the economic engine. Now, we want to encourage people to take the train. We want to sit down with them and say, "Let's think of a new plan and show the excitement. How about coming to the Open on the train?" We want to do that, but let's never lose sight that because we have a US Open, we're able to have parks open. That's a major economic engine for this city. That's the balance. We must always think about. Idealism can't replace realism. We have to keep the bills going. We have to keep the grass cut. We have to make sure that we have a park that could be maintained. But if we can find and encourage people to let's do a bike to the U.S. Open. Let's have people walk to the U.S. Open. I'm with that, but let's never lose sight, I want the U.S. Open right here in New York because I want that greenery in here in New York.

[Crosstalk.]

Mayor Adams: But I love her. Her mother is really kind. Her mother loves me. Her mother beats her up all the time. "Why are you bothering, Eric?" Because you know I'm a mama's boy. Mamas like me. Listen, our goal is to reach the 1 percent. We know we're dealing with some major economic challenges that we're facing. Fiscal cliff next year from the federal dollars, from the Covid dollars. There's the asylum seekers, $4.1 billion we thought may be higher. We're dealing with some challenges so we have to find a balance. What we have done in hiring staffs in the parks, placing money in the parks, the amazing appointment of Sue Donoghue to look over our parks, we're moving in the right direction. People know that we are doing great things in the parks. I've spend a lot of time in the parks. We're going to continue to do so.

Question: Mr. Mayor, how much is this expansion supposed to cost? And, also, you were talking about the smarter deployment of police officers during things like this program, parades, et cetera. I'm wondering, has the pilot program begun yet for the longer tours that were announced previously for officers? And will you make the results of that pilot program public?

Mayor Adams: I'm sorry, which one? I didn't hear that last part.

Question: Regarding the new union contracts for the NYPD and the longer tours for officers?

[...]

Question: You mentioned the smarter deployment of officers during parades, during Summer Streets, so I'm wondering, has that pilot left begun yet?

Mayor Adams: Oh, I got you. Okay, you're saying the 12-hour tour? Okay, let me find out from the commissioner where are we with that. And we would definitely want to make that as transparent as possible because we're trying something new, and when you try something new, we want to show what the results. Are because if the results are not successful, they have to either tweak it or do something differently. The goal was to make sure the 12-hour tours, we were not overburdening police officers with long hours. There was a DOI report that stated long hours can impact on the style of policing. So we want to look at this.

And this is something that the unions called for. This is something that the police officers called for. I know the firefighters having an extended tour, they have more days off. So we're going to look, is this successful? And if it's not, we have to rethink it. But we will give an analysis of it. I'll find out from the Commissioner if it's started already because she's going to make the decision on when it starts and how long it's going to run and do the analysis and then I'll be able to let you know.

[Crosstalk.]

Question: How involved are you in the promoting and hiring of officers? One of my colleagues reported over the weekend that City Hall has taken a heightened interest in promoting detectives and that Chiefs are going to now have to be sending over forms to City Hall for these promotions and other hirings. Sources are also saying that you took this tone after Chief Maddrey was sanctioned by the commissioner. Wondering what your thoughts are.

Mayor Adams: That was an interesting article because they said that I control the NYPD, but at the same time they said that the Commissioner made the decision on what was going to happen to Maddrey, not me. So I mean you can't have it both ways. Let's be clear on one thing, because this is so important, the people of the City of New York elected one Mayor, Eric Adams. That's who they elected. Every agency in the city comes to me with a proposed leadership. They don't come to me when they want to hire a clerk. They don't come to me when they want to hire a chauffeur. But if you want to hire a deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner, once a week I have hire reviews because I have the role as the mayor to make sure I get the talent, the diversity, and I need to know, what are your ideas that you're presenting?

Everyone does that. Not the NYPD alone. Let's be clear on that. Once a week, we have what's called hiring Zooms. Commissioners come forward in front of me, all of them, including the chancellor, including the deputy mayors, and we sit down and they say, "Here is a proposed hire we want to do. They've been vetted. Here's what they are going to bring to it." I look at the org charts, I look at all the information, so I can make sure that we are not running a city that's continually leaving out qualified people because they're not inside the bubble or the circus. And so whoever writes an article that says the mayor is trying to determine who a commissioner is hiring, no, that's not true. The mayor is making sure the promise I made on the campaign trail that communities who were ignored on a city leadership position won't be ignored under this administration.

It's about the mission I promised to the city. Commissioners didn't promise that to the city. Assistant commissioners didn't promise that to the city. I promised that. I ran on a campaign promise I'm going to diversify and I'm going to make sure city government reflects the people that live in the city. So now some people say, "Well, you're making the decision for the commissioner." That's just not true.

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