September 26, 2024 • 38 mins
Brad Lander Discusses City Council Tensions, Mayor Adams, Vision for Running for Mayor + More
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up is way up with Angela Yee. I'm Angela Yee,
And for the first time ever, we had Brad Lander
here with us today. You are running for a New
York City mayor, but you're also the city controller right now. Okay,
So for people listening and I'm aware of what the
comptroller does, you're like the CFO of the city. So
explain what your responsibilities are.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, and I will say most New York because I
don't know. My kids really know what they're smart kids.
So the controllers, both the chief financial officer the city
and the chief accountability officer. On the financial side, biggest
thing is managing the pension funds. That's the retirement promises
we've made to our teachers and public hospital nurses and
school crossing guards and firefighters.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
So two hundred and seventy.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Five billion dollars of money that we manage invest to
make sure that it's there when those teachers retire. So
that's a big responsibility. And we had a great year
last year, ten percent return. So everybody, if you're a teacher,
if you're a school crossing guard, if you're whatever, money
is in good shape. Your retirement is there and we're
investing it in affordable housing and good jobs and so
(01:09):
so that's a big part of the responsibility, and.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
That's a lot of budget oversight.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
We put out the annual audit every year, right, and
then on the watchdog side, we audit all the city
agencies to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to do,
they're not wasting our money.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So do they get audited every year like constantly or
is it only if it feels like something's happening.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So we're required by the New York City Charter to
audit every city agency at least once every four in
the four year term. Okay, so we can't see everything
because it's a big city, but we could dig in
and really fine places where there's, you know, something that's
not right going on.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
And you are you know, are you from New York?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
No?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Right, Originally, I'm from Saint Louis, Missouri. I've been here
thirty plus years at this point.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Okay, Sant lo Isn't that where Sexy Red is from?
Are you familiar with Sexy.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
I got to learn more about Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Okay, girl, right, Okay, so you've been here, you live
in Brooklyn, I do what part of Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I'm on thirteenth Street in Brooklyn, tween Fourth and Fifth Avenue,
kind of between Park Slope.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Okay, all right, now I want to get into this
because obviously, right now you work with Mayor Eric Adams.
How is that relationship once you say, okay, I'm challenging you.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
I'm running for mayor.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
As well, but you guys still have work to do together.
How does that happen?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Well, there's long been tension between any mayor and any controller. Actually,
Harrison Jay, it is exactly the charter says, you got
to provide some oversight here. You're independently elected. You got
to be the watchdog, and when you see things that
aren't supposed to be going on, you got to call
it out. At the same time, you have to work
together because those pension funds I mentioned, the mayor and
(02:45):
the controller work together to invest them, or we issue
the bonds that pay for our parks and our schools
to get built.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
We have to do that together.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
So there's tension built in. And anytime it gets two
fears and somebody's like, oh you said something, I show
them an old quote from like a comptroller and a
mayor back in the nineteen seventies or nineteen nineties. So
it's a productive tension. Our teams are always working together.
The goal is to deliver for New Yorkers, to make
(03:14):
sure our schools are in good shape, but our parks
are safe, and then garbage is picked up. It's not
about the two of us, right, And I really try
to keep my eyes on the work.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
And listen, there's a lot to be done anywhere, because
you know, I live in Brooklyn, and so I have
my own gripes that I want to talk about. But
of course we should because even with garbage pick up,
sometimes that doesn't happen when it's supposed to, and then
we have a rat problem already.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, well like alternate streets, alternate side of the street cleaning,
at least on my block. Most people don't move their cars,
and then the sweeper can't sweep the block, and you're like,
why am I wasting all this time?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
My block's dirty? There's a rout your car, We move
our cars.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
I just want to make sure because sometimes you might
be one of those, and sometimes you take a chance.
I could get a ticket or I could not get
a ticket.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
For the last I feel a little bit less than.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
My wife flew in and I wanted to go pick
her up at the airport, but I was like, honey, I.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Got a spot. It's good till Thursday.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
She's like, no, no, nobody's can't move the car tomorrow morning.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
So yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
What made you decide finally like, Okay, I'm planning to
run familiar Was this something you had been thinking about
or was it something that you said there's so much
going on because and we'll talk about Mayor Eric Adams
and his administration. He's had a lot of high profile
issues that's been in the news NonStop. But when did
you decide this is what I want to do.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, I was not planning on it. I like the
job of controller. It's really interesting. I could do it
again for four more years, and I find it fascinating
trying to make the city run better, invest those funds well.
So that was my plan, was run for reelection and
then see what comes in twenty twenty nine. But the
more often i'm out there talking to people, they're just like, Controller,
we need a safer, more affordable, more livable and better
(04:48):
run city. A couple weeks ago, I was in the
dentist chair, my dentist's office, and the hygenist, says mister Lander,
I thought there was supposed to be a childcare slot
for every three year old. Why am I one hundred
and fortieth on the waitlist for the program in my neighborhood.
That was not the novacane shot I was looking for.
And I just am hearing that more and more. And yes,
(05:12):
as these different investigations and FBI raids and you know,
allegations of corruption are coming up, it's a distraction from
focusing on housing affordability, getting those streets clean, keeping our
neighborhood safe. And I think we need new leadership at
city Hall.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Now, what would you say Eric Adams has done well
so far because I feel like with affordable housing, that's
been something he's been big on as far as getting
that done and new developments and new projects.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I like this city of Yes that he's proposing, which
would let a little more housing get built in every neighborhood.
But if you're just judging by the numbers, the rents
higher than ever a vacant you know, a unit that's
available on the market now, it's average thirty six hundred dollars.
Who could afford thirty six hundred dollars. One thing I
will say that I think is going well is some
(05:59):
of the the trash and garbage work. I have to say,
the sanitation finally getting to containerization, so you put your
trash out, not just in random bags. It is simple,
but no one had done before it.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
And I was saying, that's it when he did the
press conference and you saw him wheel out the garbage can,
and I posted it and so many people from all
of them were like, heity, hold, no, y'all, don't put
your trash and trash cans.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
That's why you have a rat problem.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yes, but so it is simple.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Obviously they're going to move forward to be able to
do it on much larger buildings and get the automated equipment.
But just telling every New Yorker don't put your trash
out in bags the rats are going to eat. Put
it in a can with a lid on it. It's
making a difference already on my block. So I give
the mayor and Dusty Tish credit for that.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I remember growing up, we used to not we have
to write our address on it because people were still
in trash cans.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
God, you know, Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Growing up that was the thing. That's why people were like,
I can't put my chest. People had their trash cans
like chained to the gates.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Now you got the compost bins, you got the recycling bins.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
So yes, hell, holding on to them is But.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Then once everybody has it, then I guess we don't
have to worry about that anymore. Now, another thing, I
want to talk about the pensions. Right, so you guys
invest that money and then it grows and then people
are able to have that.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
So how do you decide what to invest in?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Does it matter to you what the organizations or the
companies or the private companies are like, how do you
guys invest that?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
So I've got a great staff, about one hundred staff
in the office, and they're looking at all the different
asset managers people that are bringing us business. And of
course the first question is does this have a good
track record that it's going to deliver returns because we
have to hit at least a seven percent return every
year to make sure retirement.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Will be there.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
But we ask a lot of other questions as well.
We want asset managers that look like New York City,
So We've dramatically increased the number of black and Latino
and women owned asset managers. In my first year, we
got that number up by two point seven billion dollars,
so that's more money invested, and those managers, we did
(07:53):
a study outperform our other managers by five percent, so
we're looking at making sure our managers are more diverse.
We try where we can to invest in things like
affordable housing. When Signature Bank collapsed and put thirty five
thousand units of rent stabilized housing at risk, we decided
to team up with Community Preservation Corporation and related and
(08:16):
we bought the mortgages so we could stabilize those buildings
even as we made a good return. We look at
climate issues because the CA's a rising and the temperatures
a rising, and as we invest our money, we've got
to make sure we're moving a in a better direction.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
We look at workers' rights.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
We were the investor that supported the Starbucks workers in
their unionization and we're still making a good return.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
You had that whole employer violation dashboard, right, Can you
talk about what that is?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Absolutely, This just went up a couple of weeks ago
on Labor Day it's called the New York City Employer
Violations Dashboard, and it's all built on existing data. We
just said, okay, if you're an employer in New York City,
we're going to pull these data sources down. So if
you have violations from the Occupational Self Safety and Health Administration,
so you're putting your workers' lives at risk, you're a
(09:07):
construction company that doesn't make sure everybody's safe, and you
have violations, that's going up. If you violated their rights
to organize, and you have un for labor practices, if
you've stolen wages from your workers. The biggest thieves there,
unfortunately our home care companies. And if you steal from
a home care worker, that's somebody who's taking care of
(09:28):
our elderly and majority women of color, Like, what.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Is wrong with you? So you're going on the wall
of shame. So we've got a dashboard.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
There's about over two hundred thousand employers in New York City,
only forty five hundred of them, so only about two
percent are in the dashboard. And then the top eleven
worst ones are on a wall of shame that we
have and it won't surprise that's Gucci and Chipotle and
Uber and Lyft, but also a couple of these home carecraters.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Then what happens after they're on that, Like, then what happens?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yeah, Well, we just put it up a couple weeks ago,
and it's you know a little like you know, there's
the ten Worst Landlords. A little of it is name
and shame and say, I don't want to be on
this list next year, so hopefully clean up your act.
But we're also reaching out to the city agencies that
do contracting and saying, hey, maybe you want to think
twice before you give a big city contract to a
(10:20):
company that's stealing from its home care workers or putting
its workers construction safety at risk. And so we're going
to be looking to use it not just for transparency,
which is where it's starting, but as a tool to
have the city do business with people that care about
their workers.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And you just spoke about city contracts, and that's something
that also I think when it comes to getting these
mwbees and making sure that people are getting these contracts,
who are people of black people, people of color, women,
that's been something that's been challenging too.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Stays really challenging.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
People have been trying it for a long time, going
all the way back to Mayor Dinkins, but we still
are stuck at about five percent of all city contracting
going to minority and women own business.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Really, why do you think that is?
Speaker 1 (11:04):
It's interesting to me because people act like DEI is
not necessary, and a lot of companies are getting rid
of all of those initiatives. But as we can see,
people are not in an equal footing right. There's certain
people that are getting these contracts, which has given them
a lot more financial opportunities, and some people are being
boxed out and it's not because they can't perform or
they can't do it.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, no, look look at the money that we're spending
on shelter and services for asylum secrets. So they used
emergency procurement, which means they don't even bid it out.
And almost all of the firms are.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
These big publicly traded.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Firms that are almost none of them owned by people
of color, women.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
And yeah, the agencies just kind of grab them.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I think it's easier obviously, if you're a business that
already has a lot of capital, already has a lot
of relationships, already is doing business.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
With it, they get that big, it's much easier.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So yeah, that's an area that we put out an
annual report and we suggest recommendations for things we could do.
I give you one example. We have a lot of
nonprofit organizations and they might get a contract for shelter services,
but then they subcontract the security business, the cleaning business,
the food business, the transportation. Those could all be opportunities
(12:17):
for a somewhat smaller black.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Owned business or woman owned business. But we don't even.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Track the subcontracts on the nonprofit businesses. So we're looking for,
you know, recommendations of just real practical We want to
make big change because the racial wealth gap in New
York is fifteen to one. Let's look for concrete steps
forward where we could really make change.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
And you did just mention housing, right and the migrants
who are here. That's been something that Mayor Adams has
gotten a lot of flak for. So what's the plan
moving forward to make sure again people are getting you know,
have been getting bussed here. I think that's stop now
if I'm not mistaken. But it still is an issue
in the city because we already have a housing issue.
(13:00):
But again, as human beings, we also don't want to
leave people who are trying to get their citizenship with
no place to go and no place to live. But
then sometimes they can't work. There's just so many different
things that are happening. What's the plan for that? Because
I feel like we really need to focus on that.
It feels like it's been a little all over the place.
People were really critical of those food vouchers and you know,
(13:21):
money that's been given to migrants who are coming here.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
What is the plan?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yeah, I wish there were a better plan.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Honestly, this was one where if we focused and let's
just take one step back and remember, you know, it's
an extraordinarily diverse city. You know, I'm out at the
West Indian Day Parade. You know, Jimani Williams and I
share a float there the Public Advocate, and you know,
so we got.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
A whole lot of folks who have.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Come from everywhere around the planet here, and that's true
of this current generation of asylum seekers too, a lot
from Latin America, but a lot from West Africa as well.
They come here they want to work, so the number
one thing is helping them get work authorization. It's stupid
that the Fed governments makes you wait six months. But
if the city were helping people file their asylum application
(14:06):
and then file their work authorization six months later, and
in the meantime saying let's get you some English classes
and some workforce development. We've got employers begging for certified
nursing assistants or people to work in restaurants or those
home care jobs I mentioned, and we could have a
lot of folks getting on path to get those. And
(14:28):
you know, our employment, our labor force participations at all
time high, so those folks don't are going to take
jobs from people here. And if we do that, if
we help those asylum seekers get jobs, then I think
we can focus our affordable housing resources on long standing
New Yorkers who are desperate to just have a safe, decent,
(14:49):
affordable place to live.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, because I see that as a big conversation with
people feeling like, well, they're coming here, they're getting things
that I don't even get. And I don't know if
that's misinformation, love for you to explain that better, because
I see all the time, well I'm not getting vouchers,
Well I'm not getting free money.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I hear this too, And New Yorkers are really feeling,
and of course we should be doing better for those
New Yorkers. We are not giving housing vouchers to the
set of asylum seekers where they are they can stand now,
they're getting kicked out of shelter in only thirty or
sixty days, even if they've got kids in our public school.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Now, I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
I feel bad sometimes and I walk past and I
see little kids sitting outside.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
With you know, families.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
If to me, I don't see how you can people
can feel so heartless that they are like, just get
out of here, you know, because we don't know what
people's situations are. But I also can agree that we
have to do better with people are here, pop and look.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Housing, I think is issue number one I'd like to
get back to. When you know, we mentioned Mayor Adams
program to build a little more housing. I'd like to
see us build housing that's like the old Mitchell Lama
developments where somebody could a working class family could own
an apartment like in co Op City or Penn South
or amalgamated houses. If we're going to up zone and
(16:02):
make a neighbor make it so there could be a
lot bigger buildings built let's say to families, a big
chunk of that is going to be affordable co ops
for people like you and your neighbors. That's what saved
our neighborhoods and the abandonmic crisis. That's where I got
my start. I didn't start in politics. I worked fifteen
years first in affordable housing and community development. And the
people who schooled me were people like Ebone Mohammed, who
(16:26):
brought back, like saved this neighbor that the Saint John's
Place in Brooklyn, that whole block was being a band
and I They didn't quit on their neighbors. They organized,
They took over the buildings, took it away from a
private landlord who was neglecting it, and made it affordable
co ops for working class Black and Latino folks right
in the heart of Park's Lope.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
And it's still there all these years later. Let's help
people like that.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Let's build the kind of buildings that let people own
a piece of this city.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
If we could do.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
That and working class folk could see I got a
chance to have a place where my kids and I
could be stable in this increasingly expensive city, then they
won't look at these new neighbors coming in and saying,
you know, how come there and getting what I don't have.
They'll know I've got some stability.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Let's see how we could do it for the next
generation too.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
How do you plan to get people to want to
go out and vote?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Because I feel like I hear so many people say
we get all these promises of what's going to happen.
People say these things, then they get in office and
they don't actually do the things that they say they're
going to do.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, first I hope people will go out and vote
this November. We're talking Mayor's election is next year, this November. Oh,
we got to get out of general. I think people
get very incree cynical.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
They really do.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
And look, this is on us, as you know, elected
officials and politicians who either haven't delivered or haven't shown
people why it matters have been really trying hard to
do that. In my neighborhood when I was city council member.
You know, we got a lot of new housing built
in Gowanas, so now people are, you know, getting ready
to move into it. I've tried to do some things.
Even the control roller's job can sometimes sound a little remote.
(18:02):
We took our audit power and for Nicha for public housing,
we said, let's create a Nische Resident Audit Committee, so
night your residents decide what the Controller's office is going
to audit about Nicha. And the first thing they said
is Controller, the repairs in our units, they don't get done.
The contractor gets hired. I think he's somebody's cousin. I
(18:23):
don't know, but I'd never see him. The work doesn't
get done, or when it does, it shoddy, and no
one even asks me if the work got done. So
we did an audit and what we're recommending in the
in our recommendations. But what I love to do if
I get elected mayor, is you know how you could
rate everything now these days, you could rate your Uber driver,
you could rate your food, you could rate your.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
You know on Yelp.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
We could have that for Nischa, where that contractor doesn't
get paid until the niche residence says yes, the work
was done and they were polite, or they did a
good job or a bad job, and that data would
add up to whether that contractor got more work or
didn't get more work. And I think if we could
do things more like that, where people really tangibly see
(19:06):
their voice matters, it matters in their own day to
day quality of life. Then we ought to be able.
Then people will be like, oh, I never heard of
a comptroller before. I don't know what an audit was.
I don't know why I would care about that. Now
I see how that connects to my quality of life.
So that's on all of us to do better.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Is that something that you could be doing now though
in your position.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Well, I don't get to. So I do the audits
and I make the recommendation. That's what I do. It's
they that makes the decisions about.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
A city council, right, How do you get along with that?
Because I know the council and the mayor do not
have a great relationship with each other, and I guess
that's by design.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
This is worse than I got to say that I
served in the council for twelve years with three you know,
with Mayor Bloomberg, and then two terms with with Mayor Deblasio,
and in the term when Melissa mark Rito was speaker,
we did a lot of things together. That's when universal
pre k happened. Every New Yorker knew their four year
(20:07):
old would have a full day pre k slot.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
We uh passed some law, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I was proud to pass the laws that give fast
food workers not a crazy schedule where you got no
idea when you're going to have to go to work.
Now you get two weeks advanced notice and a pathway
to a full time job. So I'm pleased to say,
you know, done a lot of work with council members.
Then you know, I'm not everyone you know always thinks
you know, but they and.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
You're not supposed to all think alike. But it feels
like such a contentious relationship. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
I mean, this one I have to say, the way
it is now seems I don't know what to say.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
The mayor is needlessly contentious with the council and with
me and with the public advocate. The goal is to
make life better for New Yorkers. It really is not
about us, So I don't know. Sometimes you got to
put a little bit of I mean, it's a business
that attracts people that are you know, out there, but
sometimes you got to put ego aside a little bit.
(21:06):
It's not about swagger. It's about safer neighborhoods, more affordable housing,
getting that childcare to people.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
You know, he's been saying, and he was a parent,
said that. He also feels like he gets extra criticism
because he's black. As a mayor, We've only had one
David Dinkins and now it's Eric Adams. Do you think
there's truth to that?
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I mean, David Dingins didn't have all his deputy mayor's
FBI raids or his police commissioner running a protection racket.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
I mean, Look, what I think New Yorkers want, at
least as I'm talking to them across lines of race
and neighborhood, is a.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Safer, more affordable, more livable, and.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Better run city. And I'm hearing people that are hungry
for that, that are frustrated with a loss of trust
and distraction at city Hall.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Now I want to talk about the transit system. My
mom works for New York City Ranger. She's been working there.
I was in elementary school.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
And what does she do there?
Speaker 4 (22:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Okay, sorry, she works from downtown in the Financial district.
But anyway, we were having a conversation the other day
because I do take the train to work. Sometimes it's
just faster, but a lot of people are talking about safety,
but another thing, and my mom actually called me about
this to have a conversation with some of the people
(22:26):
from her job. How do you stop people from jumping
the fair and not paying their fair because that's been
an ongoing situation now and it's costing like billions of
dollars for the trains the buses. People are just like
not paying their fare. There's less people working at train stations,
and even on the bus, the bus driver's not going
to get into it with somebody getting on. It's too dangerous.
(22:47):
So what do you think about that and what can
be done?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah, well let me say first, you know, I don't
know if you had a chance to watch the video
yeat from the Sutter Avenue subway the other night. That's
why I really definitely should not happen. Is that for
people not get shot from a turnstile jump, that just
is that was really, in my opinion, atrocious policing. At
the moment that they fired the shots, he was not
(23:10):
coming at them, and I believe that could have been
handled the okay, in which we wouldn't have four people
who got shot, including one officer and somebody who we
don't know if they're going to recover. Now, we do
need to address turnstile jumping and fair beating because you
can't have a system on the buses. It's now about
half the people that aren't paying the fares, So this
is an important issue.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
I heard an interesting suggestion, and I'm asking.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
The lawyers to look at whether this is appropriate or
not about maybe when someone jumps the turnstile, the officer
could just take a very long time to consider whether
or not to write them a ticket forty five minutes later.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Is dependent on an officer being there too, because a
lot of them are are stations where no one's there
to even monitor that.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
Yeah, you know, and so I mean what about that?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, I mean this is a challenge there. You know,
we want to focus on where there are real safety issues.
Gotham has just put out this map that showed that
just four percent of the city's one hundred and twenty
thousand blocks kound of for basically all the city's shootings
over the last few years. So of course we want
to focus our resources and the places where they could
really do the most to get illegal guns off the street,
(24:25):
to self crimes, to prevent violence and not have everybody
waiting behind to turn.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
And you know the people that are jumping fairs.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
It's not like it's it's like regular everyday working people
the most.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
You know, people who want Starbucks in.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Their hand once it starts going on the buses, once
everybody starts doing it, and.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
They're like, I see no one else is paying, why
should I pay? And so that's that is just something
that I felt. They were asking me like what I thought,
and I was like, I don't even know what to
tell you to do, because the only thing you could
say is put more police here. But you don't want
to put more police, you know, in the train stations
because you.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Gonna wind up with shootings like that, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, it doesn't feel like the best place to spend
your resources, but then it is impacting.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Now, let me give you one idea for something that
I think can make the subways a lot better. And
our neighborhoods too, were putting forward a plan to end
street homelessness of severely mentally ill people in New York City,
which has really grown through and after the pandemic.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
But it's only six or.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Seven thousand people, even if you count the fifteen hundred
who are rikers with severe mental illness. There are cities
that have used what's called a housing first approach. Our
strategies basically move them along. Maybe they wind up in
the hospital or in jail, but then they're back on
the street, and we might say move along.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
You can't stay here, no resource.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
So if they never get connected to housing, then they're
just going to be right back again. So there's places
that use this model housing first, where you take a
housing voucher that the city has already got from the
federal government and say, let's focus it on this set
of the most vulnerable folks who could be a danger
to themselves but also to others. Keep the money we're
spending on services, but wrap them in the around that
(26:01):
housing unit where the person now is seventy to ninety percent.
The data shows those folks can stay stably housed. And
I think if we could then not have subways or
streets or neighborhoods that have so many unwell folked sleeping
on them, we could see a city where maybe people
be like, all right, you know what, Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
I'll pay my swipe. I see the value of what
I'm getting.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I was like, maybe we got to have something where
they take pictures of them and then so that could
be embarrassing.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
That's interesting. I've heard that for people that don't pick.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Up after their dogs, you know, some kind of like
you know, shaping system.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Now you just brought up rikers and that's been also
a long source of controversy.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
And it's supposed to shut down in twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Right, do you think that we're on check to even
make that happen, because it doesn't feel like, okay, have.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
To make twenty twenty seven happen.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
The first the first of the borough based jails in Brooklyn,
they've now demolished the one that was there, but even
the very first one in Brooklyn, I don't think it's
going to be built until up until twenty thirty one.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
So we're already far.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Behind the schedule to get the Burro based jails. And
we're not taking the approach to reducing the number of
people that we have at rikers either, since in the pandemic,
court processing times went way up, so people are spending
much longer at rikers on the same charge, and so
we have to go to the courts and say let's
(27:25):
get back to the case processing times we had. It's
not supposed to be that you're stuck here. This is
kind of where all this got started. Remember Khalif Browner
who was alleged to have stolen a backpack right and
he said he didn't do it, but at worst, he
stole a backpack three years at Rikers, so much of
it in solitary it destroyed him when he came out.
(27:49):
Then he took his own life again. You could ask
a lot of questions, but one of them would be
three years you're waiting for, Like you wouldn't have served
three years for stealing a backpack if you had been
found to do it. So there's a lot we can do,
you know, we do, you know, want to take an
approach to building safety in our communities that gives people
(28:11):
better options, because look, we do need police to get
illegal guns off the street, to reduce filence, to solve crimes,
but no amount of policing and no length of sentences
is going to help address mental health and mental illness
or substance abuse or keep kids from skipping school. So
we need strategies that help make our neighborhoods better, and
(28:33):
then strategies when people do come into contact with the
criminal legal system process their cases in a timely way.
And I mean, I don't believe that the bail reform
that happened is responsible for the spiking crime that we've seen.
They you know, they've seen that in a lot of
(28:54):
other places where they didn't change the bail laws. The
goal is to have a fair system that moves people
through their process that when they you know, they get
their day in court. And there are some good efforts
going on around the city to figure out, Okay, if
this is a mental health or a substance abuse issue,
is there a way that we could address that and
(29:16):
solve the problem more durably than you know, what we're
doing right now.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Man, there's so many things happening.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
And since we're talking about that MDC, that's where Didty
is right now, that's right, And they're talking about the
conditions there, and I feel like I haven't heard them
discuss it as much as they are now, Like, he
can't be there. The conditions are terrible, they're awful, But
what about everybody else?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah, So I've been inside that place. I've been a
couple of times, you know that it was especially that time.
I don't know if it was this twenty nineteen when
the power went out.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
And it was when it was there when they were freezing.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I think there was actually both anyway, So yes, I mean,
and it shouldn't take Ditty being in there for people
to wake up and say, Okay, you know that's whatever.
That's the government providing that you know, we can't be torture.
That's the same, you know, the same as a rikers.
It's our responsibility to make sure you know that it's
not a place that's essentially torturing people.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Now, what did you think about everything with Donald Trump too,
and him being prosecuted here in New York?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Oh, my goodness, where do I begin.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Let's start just by saying Donald Trump is not a
New Yorker, So I mean, I guess that trial is
here is you know, and that was appropriate, but I
consider him having forfeited his New York.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
City citizenship at this point.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I mean, I was at the Democratic Convention in Chicago,
and I felt so much energy. I mean, seeing Kamala
up there and their families and what they want to
do for the country, and here in Michelle Obama speak,
it was the whole thing was great.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
I feel so hopeful about what we could have.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
And yeah, it's hard to wake up in a country
where basically half the people think it's so hey to
be a sexual assault or and a racist and whatever.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
I'm Jewish the things I've been.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Saying where if he doesn't get elected, it's going to be.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Jewish people's fault. That's what he's been saying.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Wild that people can justify why they think that he's great,
and he can make things up and say it like
get any pushback, like there the people who follow him
are definitely like I don't I just don't even know.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
It's like a cult.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Yeah, in a way, Kamala gave it to him pretty
good in that debate.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
He's better to do a second one, but he is not.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Yeah, well he's a coward on top of everything else.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
I don't know that it will help him in any way.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I mean, I hope he does, because he didn't look
good in the last one. Look, I hope everybody is,
you know, for the next few weeks doing everything we
can to be calling our friends and relatives in swing
states and making sure people get out and vote, because
there is a hopeful future for this country. What it
can look like if we have Kamala as the forty
seventh president.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
I really hope.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
So I always do still feel like there's a lot
of misogyny in this country, and you know, I hear
it and experience it at times too. So I just
hope that people are going to do what is best
for the country and not feel like a woman can't
do this, because you literally hear them say I don't
know if I feel comfortable with a woman running this country.
I've heard people say that, and I'm like, that's a
(32:21):
wild yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
And I mean that's why I hope there'll be one
more debate, because in that debate you could see she
can he.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Might he can't do it, but she can do it. Yes, totally.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
All right.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Now, so you're you're married, and your wife used to
work for Planned Parenthood, and so does that shape some
of your views too when it comes to like row
versus WAD and making sure that women have rights. I
would love to hear how that has contributed to your policy.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
So my wife, her name is Meg Barnett, and yeah,
we met, you know, thirty years ago, and she's incredible.
So I'm a lucky guy. And yeah, so she for
ten years was the General Council and Chief of Staff
at Plan Parenthood of Greater New York. And yeah, you
better believe that I'm a strong supporter of women's reproductive
(33:09):
rights and equality more broadly. And that's another thing that's
on the line right now in the presidential election. Even
here in New York, there's the opportunity to vote for
this kind of modern day version of the Equal Rights Amendment,
Proposition one. Not a lot of talk yet about these
ballot items. There's six items on the ballot. Two through
(33:30):
six are honestly some bologne that the mayor came up
with in this Charter Revision Commission as part of his
fight with the City Council.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yeah, fair enough, Okay, it's to.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
The city council was trying to get more oversight, to
have advice and consent of some of the mayors, and
he doesn't want that, so to block it, he empaneled
this bogus.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Charter Revision Commission. Those are two through six.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
I hope people will vote know on those. But Proposition
one is four is around gender equality, and it'll strengthen
the production the protection on abortion and reproductive healthcare as
well as advanced gender equality more broadly. In New York State,
and yeah, I supported, And some of that for sure
comes from what I learned from Meg.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
I would love to be what you've learned from your wife,
because I do think that's important that you know, you
guys got to learn from us.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Amen, Oh yeah, yeah, believe me. That list is long.
I mean, and my kids too. You know, we got
a son and a daughter. They're twenty one and twenty five.
And yeah, I mean, I think it's mostly got to
look out for each other. That this is if we are,
if we recognize women's leadership, whether that's our next president
(34:40):
or whether that's in having decisions over their own bodies
and their family choices, then we can have a flourishing
society in which lots of different kinds of families succeed.
I mentioned being at the convention and I kept texting
Meg and my daughter Rosa and my son at it,
thinking look at how these families, you know, Kamala and
and Doug em Hoff and also the walls is have
(35:03):
have made it possible for these very different kinds of
kids to thrive and flourish. That's what we want for
every kid in this country. Is a decent home, is
a safe neighborhood, is a good school and the ability
to be comfortable in their own skin. And no, that's
not going to prevent them from getting a loan from
a bank, or buying a home, or starting a business
(35:24):
or getting a city contract. And it's elusive to get there,
but New York City, we got the chance to come
as close as as anybody has.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
All right, And I have one more question for you,
controller Brad Lander. So according to this, you used to box.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
I do still box.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
You do to Okay, So how good are you not
having it? Okay?
Speaker 3 (35:45):
I mean I bought to work out one.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Of my favorite sports.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
And I'm you know, and I saw you were at
the Barclays the other day at the Liberty game, and
I know we do boxing at the Barclays.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yes, so I love the Liberty and they won the
other night. I hope they're going all the way. I
like seeing Phoebitch start. I really hope they get all
the way to the to the championship this year. I
go to a boxing gym in Brooklyn called Jukebox. It's
a woman owned okay boxing gym, first first woman owned
boxing gym in Brooklyn. That's nice And I'm in a
lot better shape as a result.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
But I don't it wouldn't probably go well for me
in the ring.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
Because they definitely sent over like, oh, by the way,
he used to box.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
There's a clip. Yeah, no, there's a clip in my
launch video. You can see me boxing. I'll take your
feedback on my form.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Okay, a fight I in life, we had to fight
anybody growing up.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Ever I never thankfully had to. I mean I spar
a little and I fight with words, thankfully. Yeah, that's
what I'm training for.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Look, this is why I go to the gym. You
never know, That's why I go to the gym.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
I'm ready, all right, Well, I appreciate you for coming through.
You know, I'm gonna be paying attention to all of this.
I'm from Brooklyn, and you know, Mayor Eric Adams was
our Brooklyn Borough president, so I have a relationship with him.
But I'm also making sure that we're looking at everybody.
Who else is running for mayor two.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I know there's Zellner Myrie's the state senator from Brooklyn,
Scot Stringer, the previous controller, Jessica Ramos, who's the state
senator from Queen's Uh. Some people are saying that soron
Mumdanie who's an assembly member, might get in.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Okay, that's the field. What it's looking like so far
at a lot of folk.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Last election was quite I would say there was a
lot going on with that last election.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Yeah, that was It was exciting one the first.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Time of rank choice voting with peopull rank. But yes,
I appreciate you having me on because my job is
to introduce myself to a lot more voters, and obviously
we got a big election in November's.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Choice voting again. It will be ranked icing like that process.
You think that's a better way.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
I mean, if you're going to have so many candidates,
it's nice to be able to kind of say, well,
you know, I look I like to be everyone's first choice,
but if I can't be your first choice, I'll be
happy to be your second.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
I'll take it, all right, all right, Well, thank you
so much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
It will be in touch.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
I really appreciate it. One
What's up is way up with Angela Yee. I'm Angela Yee,
And for the first time ever, we had Brad Lander
here with us today. You are running for a New
York City mayor, but you're also the city controller right now. Okay,
So for people listening and I'm aware of what the
comptroller does, you're like the CFO of the city. So
explain what your responsibilities are.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, and I will say most New York because I
don't know. My kids really know what they're smart kids.
So the controllers, both the chief financial officer the city
and the chief accountability officer. On the financial side, biggest
thing is managing the pension funds. That's the retirement promises
we've made to our teachers and public hospital nurses and
school crossing guards and firefighters.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
So two hundred and seventy.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Five billion dollars of money that we manage invest to
make sure that it's there when those teachers retire. So
that's a big responsibility. And we had a great year
last year, ten percent return. So everybody, if you're a teacher,
if you're a school crossing guard, if you're whatever, money
is in good shape. Your retirement is there and we're
investing it in affordable housing and good jobs and so
(01:09):
so that's a big part of the responsibility, and.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
That's a lot of budget oversight.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
We put out the annual audit every year, right, and
then on the watchdog side, we audit all the city
agencies to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to do,
they're not wasting our money.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
So do they get audited every year like constantly or
is it only if it feels like something's happening.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So we're required by the New York City Charter to
audit every city agency at least once every four in
the four year term. Okay, so we can't see everything
because it's a big city, but we could dig in
and really fine places where there's, you know, something that's
not right going on.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
And you are you know, are you from New York?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
No?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Right, Originally, I'm from Saint Louis, Missouri. I've been here
thirty plus years at this point.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Okay, Sant lo Isn't that where Sexy Red is from?
Are you familiar with Sexy.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
I got to learn more about Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Okay, girl, right, Okay, so you've been here, you live
in Brooklyn, I do what part of Brooklyn.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I'm on thirteenth Street in Brooklyn, tween Fourth and Fifth Avenue,
kind of between Park Slope.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Okay, all right, now I want to get into this
because obviously, right now you work with Mayor Eric Adams.
How is that relationship once you say, okay, I'm challenging you.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
I'm running for mayor.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
As well, but you guys still have work to do together.
How does that happen?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Well, there's long been tension between any mayor and any controller. Actually,
Harrison Jay, it is exactly the charter says, you got
to provide some oversight here. You're independently elected. You got
to be the watchdog, and when you see things that
aren't supposed to be going on, you got to call
it out. At the same time, you have to work
together because those pension funds I mentioned, the mayor and
(02:45):
the controller work together to invest them, or we issue
the bonds that pay for our parks and our schools
to get built.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
We have to do that together.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
So there's tension built in. And anytime it gets two
fears and somebody's like, oh you said something, I show
them an old quote from like a comptroller and a
mayor back in the nineteen seventies or nineteen nineties. So
it's a productive tension. Our teams are always working together.
The goal is to deliver for New Yorkers, to make
(03:14):
sure our schools are in good shape, but our parks
are safe, and then garbage is picked up. It's not
about the two of us, right, And I really try
to keep my eyes on the work.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
And listen, there's a lot to be done anywhere, because
you know, I live in Brooklyn, and so I have
my own gripes that I want to talk about. But
of course we should because even with garbage pick up,
sometimes that doesn't happen when it's supposed to, and then
we have a rat problem already.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, well like alternate streets, alternate side of the street cleaning,
at least on my block. Most people don't move their cars,
and then the sweeper can't sweep the block, and you're like,
why am I wasting all this time?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
My block's dirty? There's a rout your car, We move
our cars.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
I just want to make sure because sometimes you might
be one of those, and sometimes you take a chance.
I could get a ticket or I could not get
a ticket.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
For the last I feel a little bit less than.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
My wife flew in and I wanted to go pick
her up at the airport, but I was like, honey, I.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Got a spot. It's good till Thursday.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
She's like, no, no, nobody's can't move the car tomorrow morning.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
So yeah, So.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
What made you decide finally like, Okay, I'm planning to
run familiar Was this something you had been thinking about
or was it something that you said there's so much
going on because and we'll talk about Mayor Eric Adams
and his administration. He's had a lot of high profile
issues that's been in the news NonStop. But when did
you decide this is what I want to do.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, I was not planning on it. I like the
job of controller. It's really interesting. I could do it
again for four more years, and I find it fascinating
trying to make the city run better, invest those funds well.
So that was my plan, was run for reelection and
then see what comes in twenty twenty nine. But the
more often i'm out there talking to people, they're just like, Controller,
we need a safer, more affordable, more livable and better
(04:48):
run city. A couple weeks ago, I was in the
dentist chair, my dentist's office, and the hygenist, says mister Lander,
I thought there was supposed to be a childcare slot
for every three year old. Why am I one hundred
and fortieth on the waitlist for the program in my neighborhood.
That was not the novacane shot I was looking for.
And I just am hearing that more and more. And yes,
(05:12):
as these different investigations and FBI raids and you know,
allegations of corruption are coming up, it's a distraction from
focusing on housing affordability, getting those streets clean, keeping our
neighborhood safe. And I think we need new leadership at
city Hall.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Now, what would you say Eric Adams has done well
so far because I feel like with affordable housing, that's
been something he's been big on as far as getting
that done and new developments and new projects.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I like this city of Yes that he's proposing, which
would let a little more housing get built in every neighborhood.
But if you're just judging by the numbers, the rents
higher than ever a vacant you know, a unit that's
available on the market now, it's average thirty six hundred dollars.
Who could afford thirty six hundred dollars. One thing I
will say that I think is going well is some
(05:59):
of the the trash and garbage work. I have to say,
the sanitation finally getting to containerization, so you put your
trash out, not just in random bags. It is simple,
but no one had done before it.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
And I was saying, that's it when he did the
press conference and you saw him wheel out the garbage can,
and I posted it and so many people from all
of them were like, heity, hold, no, y'all, don't put
your trash and trash cans.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
That's why you have a rat problem.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yes, but so it is simple.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Obviously they're going to move forward to be able to
do it on much larger buildings and get the automated equipment.
But just telling every New Yorker don't put your trash
out in bags the rats are going to eat. Put
it in a can with a lid on it. It's
making a difference already on my block. So I give
the mayor and Dusty Tish credit for that.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I remember growing up, we used to not we have
to write our address on it because people were still
in trash cans.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
God, you know, Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Growing up that was the thing. That's why people were like,
I can't put my chest. People had their trash cans
like chained to the gates.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Now you got the compost bins, you got the recycling bins.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
So yes, hell, holding on to them is But.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Then once everybody has it, then I guess we don't
have to worry about that anymore. Now, another thing, I
want to talk about the pensions. Right, so you guys
invest that money and then it grows and then people
are able to have that.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
So how do you decide what to invest in?
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Does it matter to you what the organizations or the
companies or the private companies are like, how do you
guys invest that?
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
So I've got a great staff, about one hundred staff
in the office, and they're looking at all the different
asset managers people that are bringing us business. And of
course the first question is does this have a good
track record that it's going to deliver returns because we
have to hit at least a seven percent return every
year to make sure retirement.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Will be there.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
But we ask a lot of other questions as well.
We want asset managers that look like New York City,
So We've dramatically increased the number of black and Latino
and women owned asset managers. In my first year, we
got that number up by two point seven billion dollars,
so that's more money invested, and those managers, we did
(07:53):
a study outperform our other managers by five percent, so
we're looking at making sure our managers are more diverse.
We try where we can to invest in things like
affordable housing. When Signature Bank collapsed and put thirty five
thousand units of rent stabilized housing at risk, we decided
to team up with Community Preservation Corporation and related and
(08:16):
we bought the mortgages so we could stabilize those buildings
even as we made a good return. We look at
climate issues because the CA's a rising and the temperatures
a rising, and as we invest our money, we've got
to make sure we're moving a in a better direction.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
We look at workers' rights.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
We were the investor that supported the Starbucks workers in
their unionization and we're still making a good return.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
You had that whole employer violation dashboard, right, Can you
talk about what that is?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Absolutely, This just went up a couple of weeks ago
on Labor Day it's called the New York City Employer
Violations Dashboard, and it's all built on existing data. We
just said, okay, if you're an employer in New York City,
we're going to pull these data sources down. So if
you have violations from the Occupational Self Safety and Health Administration,
so you're putting your workers' lives at risk, you're a
(09:07):
construction company that doesn't make sure everybody's safe, and you
have violations, that's going up. If you violated their rights
to organize, and you have un for labor practices, if
you've stolen wages from your workers. The biggest thieves there,
unfortunately our home care companies. And if you steal from
a home care worker, that's somebody who's taking care of
(09:28):
our elderly and majority women of color, Like, what.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Is wrong with you? So you're going on the wall
of shame. So we've got a dashboard.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
There's about over two hundred thousand employers in New York City,
only forty five hundred of them, so only about two
percent are in the dashboard. And then the top eleven
worst ones are on a wall of shame that we
have and it won't surprise that's Gucci and Chipotle and
Uber and Lyft, but also a couple of these home carecraters.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
Then what happens after they're on that, Like, then what happens?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yeah, Well, we just put it up a couple weeks ago,
and it's you know a little like you know, there's
the ten Worst Landlords. A little of it is name
and shame and say, I don't want to be on
this list next year, so hopefully clean up your act.
But we're also reaching out to the city agencies that
do contracting and saying, hey, maybe you want to think
twice before you give a big city contract to a
(10:20):
company that's stealing from its home care workers or putting
its workers construction safety at risk. And so we're going
to be looking to use it not just for transparency,
which is where it's starting, but as a tool to
have the city do business with people that care about
their workers.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And you just spoke about city contracts, and that's something
that also I think when it comes to getting these
mwbees and making sure that people are getting these contracts,
who are people of black people, people of color, women,
that's been something that's been challenging too.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Stays really challenging.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
People have been trying it for a long time, going
all the way back to Mayor Dinkins, but we still
are stuck at about five percent of all city contracting
going to minority and women own business.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
Really, why do you think that is?
Speaker 1 (11:04):
It's interesting to me because people act like DEI is
not necessary, and a lot of companies are getting rid
of all of those initiatives. But as we can see,
people are not in an equal footing right. There's certain
people that are getting these contracts, which has given them
a lot more financial opportunities, and some people are being
boxed out and it's not because they can't perform or
they can't do it.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah, no, look look at the money that we're spending
on shelter and services for asylum secrets. So they used
emergency procurement, which means they don't even bid it out.
And almost all of the firms are.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
These big publicly traded.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Firms that are almost none of them owned by people
of color, women.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
And yeah, the agencies just kind of grab them.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I think it's easier obviously, if you're a business that
already has a lot of capital, already has a lot
of relationships, already is doing business.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
With it, they get that big, it's much easier.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
So yeah, that's an area that we put out an
annual report and we suggest recommendations for things we could do.
I give you one example. We have a lot of
nonprofit organizations and they might get a contract for shelter services,
but then they subcontract the security business, the cleaning business,
the food business, the transportation. Those could all be opportunities
(12:17):
for a somewhat smaller black.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Owned business or woman owned business. But we don't even.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Track the subcontracts on the nonprofit businesses. So we're looking for,
you know, recommendations of just real practical We want to
make big change because the racial wealth gap in New
York is fifteen to one. Let's look for concrete steps
forward where we could really make change.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
And you did just mention housing, right and the migrants
who are here. That's been something that Mayor Adams has
gotten a lot of flak for. So what's the plan
moving forward to make sure again people are getting you know,
have been getting bussed here. I think that's stop now
if I'm not mistaken. But it still is an issue
in the city because we already have a housing issue.
(13:00):
But again, as human beings, we also don't want to
leave people who are trying to get their citizenship with
no place to go and no place to live. But
then sometimes they can't work. There's just so many different
things that are happening. What's the plan for that? Because
I feel like we really need to focus on that.
It feels like it's been a little all over the place.
People were really critical of those food vouchers and you know,
(13:21):
money that's been given to migrants who are coming here.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
What is the plan?
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Yeah, I wish there were a better plan.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Honestly, this was one where if we focused and let's
just take one step back and remember, you know, it's
an extraordinarily diverse city. You know, I'm out at the
West Indian Day Parade. You know, Jimani Williams and I
share a float there the Public Advocate, and you know,
so we got.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
A whole lot of folks who have.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Come from everywhere around the planet here, and that's true
of this current generation of asylum seekers too, a lot
from Latin America, but a lot from West Africa as well.
They come here they want to work, so the number
one thing is helping them get work authorization. It's stupid
that the Fed governments makes you wait six months. But
if the city were helping people file their asylum application
(14:06):
and then file their work authorization six months later, and
in the meantime saying let's get you some English classes
and some workforce development. We've got employers begging for certified
nursing assistants or people to work in restaurants or those
home care jobs I mentioned, and we could have a
lot of folks getting on path to get those. And
(14:28):
you know, our employment, our labor force participations at all
time high, so those folks don't are going to take
jobs from people here. And if we do that, if
we help those asylum seekers get jobs, then I think
we can focus our affordable housing resources on long standing
New Yorkers who are desperate to just have a safe, decent,
(14:49):
affordable place to live.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Yeah, because I see that as a big conversation with
people feeling like, well, they're coming here, they're getting things
that I don't even get. And I don't know if
that's misinformation, love for you to explain that better, because
I see all the time, well I'm not getting vouchers,
Well I'm not getting free money.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I hear this too, And New Yorkers are really feeling,
and of course we should be doing better for those
New Yorkers. We are not giving housing vouchers to the
set of asylum seekers where they are they can stand now,
they're getting kicked out of shelter in only thirty or
sixty days, even if they've got kids in our public school.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Now, I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
I feel bad sometimes and I walk past and I
see little kids sitting outside.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
With you know, families.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
If to me, I don't see how you can people
can feel so heartless that they are like, just get
out of here, you know, because we don't know what
people's situations are. But I also can agree that we
have to do better with people are here, pop and look.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Housing, I think is issue number one I'd like to
get back to. When you know, we mentioned Mayor Adams
program to build a little more housing. I'd like to
see us build housing that's like the old Mitchell Lama
developments where somebody could a working class family could own
an apartment like in co Op City or Penn South
or amalgamated houses. If we're going to up zone and
(16:02):
make a neighbor make it so there could be a
lot bigger buildings built let's say to families, a big
chunk of that is going to be affordable co ops
for people like you and your neighbors. That's what saved
our neighborhoods and the abandonmic crisis. That's where I got
my start. I didn't start in politics. I worked fifteen
years first in affordable housing and community development. And the
people who schooled me were people like Ebone Mohammed, who
(16:26):
brought back, like saved this neighbor that the Saint John's
Place in Brooklyn, that whole block was being a band
and I They didn't quit on their neighbors. They organized,
They took over the buildings, took it away from a
private landlord who was neglecting it, and made it affordable
co ops for working class Black and Latino folks right
in the heart of Park's Lope.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
And it's still there all these years later. Let's help
people like that.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Let's build the kind of buildings that let people own
a piece of this city.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
If we could do.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
That and working class folk could see I got a
chance to have a place where my kids and I
could be stable in this increasingly expensive city, then they
won't look at these new neighbors coming in and saying,
you know, how come there and getting what I don't have.
They'll know I've got some stability.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Let's see how we could do it for the next
generation too.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
How do you plan to get people to want to
go out and vote?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Because I feel like I hear so many people say
we get all these promises of what's going to happen.
People say these things, then they get in office and
they don't actually do the things that they say they're
going to do.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, first I hope people will go out and vote
this November. We're talking Mayor's election is next year, this November. Oh,
we got to get out of general. I think people
get very incree cynical.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
They really do.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
And look, this is on us, as you know, elected
officials and politicians who either haven't delivered or haven't shown
people why it matters have been really trying hard to
do that. In my neighborhood when I was city council member.
You know, we got a lot of new housing built
in Gowanas, so now people are, you know, getting ready
to move into it. I've tried to do some things.
Even the control roller's job can sometimes sound a little remote.
(18:02):
We took our audit power and for Nicha for public housing,
we said, let's create a Nische Resident Audit Committee, so
night your residents decide what the Controller's office is going
to audit about Nicha. And the first thing they said
is Controller, the repairs in our units, they don't get done.
The contractor gets hired. I think he's somebody's cousin. I
(18:23):
don't know, but I'd never see him. The work doesn't
get done, or when it does, it shoddy, and no
one even asks me if the work got done. So
we did an audit and what we're recommending in the
in our recommendations. But what I love to do if
I get elected mayor, is you know how you could
rate everything now these days, you could rate your Uber driver,
you could rate your food, you could rate your.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
You know on Yelp.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
We could have that for Nischa, where that contractor doesn't
get paid until the niche residence says yes, the work
was done and they were polite, or they did a
good job or a bad job, and that data would
add up to whether that contractor got more work or
didn't get more work. And I think if we could
do things more like that, where people really tangibly see
(19:06):
their voice matters, it matters in their own day to
day quality of life. Then we ought to be able.
Then people will be like, oh, I never heard of
a comptroller before. I don't know what an audit was.
I don't know why I would care about that. Now
I see how that connects to my quality of life.
So that's on all of us to do better.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Is that something that you could be doing now though
in your position.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Well, I don't get to. So I do the audits
and I make the recommendation. That's what I do. It's
they that makes the decisions about.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
A city council, right, How do you get along with that?
Because I know the council and the mayor do not
have a great relationship with each other, and I guess
that's by design.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
This is worse than I got to say that I
served in the council for twelve years with three you know,
with Mayor Bloomberg, and then two terms with with Mayor Deblasio,
and in the term when Melissa mark Rito was speaker,
we did a lot of things together. That's when universal
pre k happened. Every New Yorker knew their four year
(20:07):
old would have a full day pre k slot.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
We uh passed some law, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I was proud to pass the laws that give fast
food workers not a crazy schedule where you got no
idea when you're going to have to go to work.
Now you get two weeks advanced notice and a pathway
to a full time job. So I'm pleased to say,
you know, done a lot of work with council members.
Then you know, I'm not everyone you know always thinks
you know, but they and.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
You're not supposed to all think alike. But it feels
like such a contentious relationship. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
I mean, this one I have to say, the way
it is now seems I don't know what to say.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
The mayor is needlessly contentious with the council and with
me and with the public advocate. The goal is to
make life better for New Yorkers. It really is not
about us, So I don't know. Sometimes you got to
put a little bit of I mean, it's a business
that attracts people that are you know, out there, but
sometimes you got to put ego aside a little bit.
(21:06):
It's not about swagger. It's about safer neighborhoods, more affordable housing,
getting that childcare to people.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
You know, he's been saying, and he was a parent,
said that. He also feels like he gets extra criticism
because he's black. As a mayor, We've only had one
David Dinkins and now it's Eric Adams. Do you think
there's truth to that?
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I mean, David Dingins didn't have all his deputy mayor's
FBI raids or his police commissioner running a protection racket.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
I mean, Look, what I think New Yorkers want, at
least as I'm talking to them across lines of race
and neighborhood, is a.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Safer, more affordable, more livable, and.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Better run city. And I'm hearing people that are hungry
for that, that are frustrated with a loss of trust
and distraction at city Hall.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Now I want to talk about the transit system. My
mom works for New York City Ranger. She's been working there.
I was in elementary school.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
And what does she do there?
Speaker 4 (22:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Okay, sorry, she works from downtown in the Financial district.
But anyway, we were having a conversation the other day
because I do take the train to work. Sometimes it's
just faster, but a lot of people are talking about safety,
but another thing, and my mom actually called me about
this to have a conversation with some of the people
(22:26):
from her job. How do you stop people from jumping
the fair and not paying their fair because that's been
an ongoing situation now and it's costing like billions of
dollars for the trains the buses. People are just like
not paying their fare. There's less people working at train stations,
and even on the bus, the bus driver's not going
to get into it with somebody getting on. It's too dangerous.
(22:47):
So what do you think about that and what can
be done?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah, well let me say first, you know, I don't
know if you had a chance to watch the video
yeat from the Sutter Avenue subway the other night. That's
why I really definitely should not happen. Is that for
people not get shot from a turnstile jump, that just
is that was really, in my opinion, atrocious policing. At
the moment that they fired the shots, he was not
(23:10):
coming at them, and I believe that could have been
handled the okay, in which we wouldn't have four people
who got shot, including one officer and somebody who we
don't know if they're going to recover. Now, we do
need to address turnstile jumping and fair beating because you
can't have a system on the buses. It's now about
half the people that aren't paying the fares, So this
is an important issue.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
I heard an interesting suggestion, and I'm asking.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
The lawyers to look at whether this is appropriate or
not about maybe when someone jumps the turnstile, the officer
could just take a very long time to consider whether
or not to write them a ticket forty five minutes later.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Is dependent on an officer being there too, because a
lot of them are are stations where no one's there
to even monitor that.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
Yeah, you know, and so I mean what about that?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Yeah, I mean this is a challenge there. You know,
we want to focus on where there are real safety issues.
Gotham has just put out this map that showed that
just four percent of the city's one hundred and twenty
thousand blocks kound of for basically all the city's shootings
over the last few years. So of course we want
to focus our resources and the places where they could
really do the most to get illegal guns off the street,
(24:25):
to self crimes, to prevent violence and not have everybody
waiting behind to turn.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
And you know the people that are jumping fairs.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
It's not like it's it's like regular everyday working people
the most.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
You know, people who want Starbucks in.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Their hand once it starts going on the buses, once
everybody starts doing it, and.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
They're like, I see no one else is paying, why
should I pay? And so that's that is just something
that I felt. They were asking me like what I thought,
and I was like, I don't even know what to
tell you to do, because the only thing you could
say is put more police here. But you don't want
to put more police, you know, in the train stations
because you.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Gonna wind up with shootings like that, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, it doesn't feel like the best place to spend
your resources, but then it is impacting.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Now, let me give you one idea for something that
I think can make the subways a lot better. And
our neighborhoods too, were putting forward a plan to end
street homelessness of severely mentally ill people in New York City,
which has really grown through and after the pandemic.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
But it's only six or.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Seven thousand people, even if you count the fifteen hundred
who are rikers with severe mental illness. There are cities
that have used what's called a housing first approach. Our
strategies basically move them along. Maybe they wind up in
the hospital or in jail, but then they're back on
the street, and we might say move along.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
You can't stay here, no resource.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
So if they never get connected to housing, then they're
just going to be right back again. So there's places
that use this model housing first, where you take a
housing voucher that the city has already got from the
federal government and say, let's focus it on this set
of the most vulnerable folks who could be a danger
to themselves but also to others. Keep the money we're
spending on services, but wrap them in the around that
(26:01):
housing unit where the person now is seventy to ninety percent.
The data shows those folks can stay stably housed. And
I think if we could then not have subways or
streets or neighborhoods that have so many unwell folked sleeping
on them, we could see a city where maybe people
be like, all right, you know what, Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
I'll pay my swipe. I see the value of what
I'm getting.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I was like, maybe we got to have something where
they take pictures of them and then so that could
be embarrassing.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
That's interesting. I've heard that for people that don't pick.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Up after their dogs, you know, some kind of like
you know, shaping system.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Now you just brought up rikers and that's been also
a long source of controversy.
Speaker 4 (26:40):
And it's supposed to shut down in twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Right, do you think that we're on check to even
make that happen, because it doesn't feel like, okay, have.
Speaker 3 (26:47):
To make twenty twenty seven happen.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
The first the first of the borough based jails in Brooklyn,
they've now demolished the one that was there, but even
the very first one in Brooklyn, I don't think it's
going to be built until up until twenty thirty one.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
So we're already far.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Behind the schedule to get the Burro based jails. And
we're not taking the approach to reducing the number of
people that we have at rikers either, since in the pandemic,
court processing times went way up, so people are spending
much longer at rikers on the same charge, and so
we have to go to the courts and say let's
(27:25):
get back to the case processing times we had. It's
not supposed to be that you're stuck here. This is
kind of where all this got started. Remember Khalif Browner
who was alleged to have stolen a backpack right and
he said he didn't do it, but at worst, he
stole a backpack three years at Rikers, so much of
it in solitary it destroyed him when he came out.
(27:49):
Then he took his own life again. You could ask
a lot of questions, but one of them would be
three years you're waiting for, Like you wouldn't have served
three years for stealing a backpack if you had been
found to do it. So there's a lot we can do,
you know, we do, you know, want to take an
approach to building safety in our communities that gives people
(28:11):
better options, because look, we do need police to get
illegal guns off the street, to reduce filence, to solve crimes,
but no amount of policing and no length of sentences
is going to help address mental health and mental illness
or substance abuse or keep kids from skipping school. So
we need strategies that help make our neighborhoods better, and
(28:33):
then strategies when people do come into contact with the
criminal legal system process their cases in a timely way.
And I mean, I don't believe that the bail reform
that happened is responsible for the spiking crime that we've seen.
They you know, they've seen that in a lot of
(28:54):
other places where they didn't change the bail laws. The
goal is to have a fair system that moves people
through their process that when they you know, they get
their day in court. And there are some good efforts
going on around the city to figure out, Okay, if
this is a mental health or a substance abuse issue,
is there a way that we could address that and
(29:16):
solve the problem more durably than you know, what we're
doing right now.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Man, there's so many things happening.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
And since we're talking about that MDC, that's where Didty
is right now, that's right, And they're talking about the
conditions there, and I feel like I haven't heard them
discuss it as much as they are now, Like, he
can't be there. The conditions are terrible, they're awful, But
what about everybody else?
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah, So I've been inside that place. I've been a
couple of times, you know that it was especially that time.
I don't know if it was this twenty nineteen when
the power went out.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
And it was when it was there when they were freezing.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
I think there was actually both anyway, So yes, I mean,
and it shouldn't take Ditty being in there for people
to wake up and say, Okay, you know that's whatever.
That's the government providing that you know, we can't be torture.
That's the same, you know, the same as a rikers.
It's our responsibility to make sure you know that it's
not a place that's essentially torturing people.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Now, what did you think about everything with Donald Trump too,
and him being prosecuted here in New York?
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Oh, my goodness, where do I begin.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Let's start just by saying Donald Trump is not a
New Yorker, So I mean, I guess that trial is
here is you know, and that was appropriate, but I
consider him having forfeited his New York.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
City citizenship at this point.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
I mean, I was at the Democratic Convention in Chicago,
and I felt so much energy. I mean, seeing Kamala
up there and their families and what they want to
do for the country, and here in Michelle Obama speak,
it was the whole thing was great.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
I feel so hopeful about what we could have.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
And yeah, it's hard to wake up in a country
where basically half the people think it's so hey to
be a sexual assault or and a racist and whatever.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
I'm Jewish the things I've been.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Saying where if he doesn't get elected, it's going to be.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Jewish people's fault. That's what he's been saying.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Wild that people can justify why they think that he's great,
and he can make things up and say it like
get any pushback, like there the people who follow him
are definitely like I don't I just don't even know.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
It's like a cult.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Yeah, in a way, Kamala gave it to him pretty
good in that debate.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
He's better to do a second one, but he is not.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Yeah, well he's a coward on top of everything else.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
I don't know that it will help him in any way.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I mean, I hope he does, because he didn't look
good in the last one. Look, I hope everybody is,
you know, for the next few weeks doing everything we
can to be calling our friends and relatives in swing
states and making sure people get out and vote, because
there is a hopeful future for this country. What it
can look like if we have Kamala as the forty
seventh president.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
I really hope.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
So I always do still feel like there's a lot
of misogyny in this country, and you know, I hear
it and experience it at times too. So I just
hope that people are going to do what is best
for the country and not feel like a woman can't
do this, because you literally hear them say I don't
know if I feel comfortable with a woman running this country.
I've heard people say that, and I'm like, that's a
(32:21):
wild yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
And I mean that's why I hope there'll be one
more debate, because in that debate you could see she
can he.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Might he can't do it, but she can do it. Yes, totally.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
All right.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Now, so you're you're married, and your wife used to
work for Planned Parenthood, and so does that shape some
of your views too when it comes to like row
versus WAD and making sure that women have rights. I
would love to hear how that has contributed to your policy.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
So my wife, her name is Meg Barnett, and yeah,
we met, you know, thirty years ago, and she's incredible.
So I'm a lucky guy. And yeah, so she for
ten years was the General Council and Chief of Staff
at Plan Parenthood of Greater New York. And yeah, you
better believe that I'm a strong supporter of women's reproductive
(33:09):
rights and equality more broadly. And that's another thing that's
on the line right now in the presidential election. Even
here in New York, there's the opportunity to vote for
this kind of modern day version of the Equal Rights Amendment,
Proposition one. Not a lot of talk yet about these
ballot items. There's six items on the ballot. Two through
(33:30):
six are honestly some bologne that the mayor came up
with in this Charter Revision Commission as part of his
fight with the City Council.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yeah, fair enough, Okay, it's to.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
The city council was trying to get more oversight, to
have advice and consent of some of the mayors, and
he doesn't want that, so to block it, he empaneled
this bogus.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
Charter Revision Commission. Those are two through six.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
I hope people will vote know on those. But Proposition
one is four is around gender equality, and it'll strengthen
the production the protection on abortion and reproductive healthcare as
well as advanced gender equality more broadly. In New York State,
and yeah, I supported, And some of that for sure
comes from what I learned from Meg.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
I would love to be what you've learned from your wife,
because I do think that's important that you know, you
guys got to learn from us.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Amen, Oh yeah, yeah, believe me. That list is long.
I mean, and my kids too. You know, we got
a son and a daughter. They're twenty one and twenty five.
And yeah, I mean, I think it's mostly got to
look out for each other. That this is if we are,
if we recognize women's leadership, whether that's our next president
(34:40):
or whether that's in having decisions over their own bodies
and their family choices, then we can have a flourishing
society in which lots of different kinds of families succeed.
I mentioned being at the convention and I kept texting
Meg and my daughter Rosa and my son at it,
thinking look at how these families, you know, Kamala and
and Doug em Hoff and also the walls is have
(35:03):
have made it possible for these very different kinds of
kids to thrive and flourish. That's what we want for
every kid in this country. Is a decent home, is
a safe neighborhood, is a good school and the ability
to be comfortable in their own skin. And no, that's
not going to prevent them from getting a loan from
a bank, or buying a home, or starting a business
(35:24):
or getting a city contract. And it's elusive to get there,
but New York City, we got the chance to come
as close as as anybody has.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
All right, And I have one more question for you,
controller Brad Lander. So according to this, you used to box.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
I do still box.
Speaker 4 (35:41):
You do to Okay, So how good are you not
having it? Okay?
Speaker 3 (35:45):
I mean I bought to work out one.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Of my favorite sports.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
And I'm you know, and I saw you were at
the Barclays the other day at the Liberty game, and
I know we do boxing at the Barclays.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yes, so I love the Liberty and they won the
other night. I hope they're going all the way. I
like seeing Phoebitch start. I really hope they get all
the way to the to the championship this year. I
go to a boxing gym in Brooklyn called Jukebox. It's
a woman owned okay boxing gym, first first woman owned
boxing gym in Brooklyn. That's nice And I'm in a
lot better shape as a result.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
But I don't it wouldn't probably go well for me
in the ring.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
Because they definitely sent over like, oh, by the way,
he used to box.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
There's a clip. Yeah, no, there's a clip in my
launch video. You can see me boxing. I'll take your
feedback on my form.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Okay, a fight I in life, we had to fight
anybody growing up.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Ever I never thankfully had to. I mean I spar
a little and I fight with words, thankfully. Yeah, that's
what I'm training for.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Look, this is why I go to the gym. You
never know, That's why I go to the gym.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
I'm ready, all right, Well, I appreciate you for coming through.
You know, I'm gonna be paying attention to all of this.
I'm from Brooklyn, and you know, Mayor Eric Adams was
our Brooklyn Borough president, so I have a relationship with him.
But I'm also making sure that we're looking at everybody.
Who else is running for mayor two.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I know there's Zellner Myrie's the state senator from Brooklyn,
Scot Stringer, the previous controller, Jessica Ramos, who's the state
senator from Queen's Uh. Some people are saying that soron
Mumdanie who's an assembly member, might get in.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Okay, that's the field. What it's looking like so far
at a lot of folk.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Last election was quite I would say there was a
lot going on with that last election.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Yeah, that was It was exciting one the first.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Time of rank choice voting with peopull rank. But yes,
I appreciate you having me on because my job is
to introduce myself to a lot more voters, and obviously
we got a big election in November's.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Choice voting again. It will be ranked icing like that process.
You think that's a better way.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
I mean, if you're going to have so many candidates,
it's nice to be able to kind of say, well,
you know, I look I like to be everyone's first choice,
but if I can't be your first choice, I'll be
happy to be your second.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
I'll take it, all right, all right, Well, thank you
so much for joining us.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
It will be in touch.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
I really appreciate it. One
Host
Angela Yee
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