Michael Blake Speaks Out: Housing Crisis, Cuomo’s Past, Banning ICE & Bold NYC Vision + More

Michael Blake Speaks Out: Housing Crisis, Cuomo’s Past, Banning ICE & Bold NYC Vision + More

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up?

Speaker 2 (00:03):
His way up with Angela? He and y'all know, I
keep on stressing the importance of voting. I even just
hosted a mayoral debate watch party because I'm not gonna lie.
These debates have been, I think, more interesting than fictional
TV real life. And Michael Blake is here here is
running for mayor of New York City. Early voting started

(00:23):
on Saturday, so let's get into it. By the way,
love the purple my favorite color.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
I appreciate that. I didn't even know that, so I
was ready. You know, I'm repping Northwestern, But now I
knows your favorite color, so we're rocking right here.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Now.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I was disappointed that you weren't in that second debate
that just happened the last one, because I.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Mean I won the first one, so they should have
had me in both right there.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, you were definitely most talked about during that first debate.
So you know, it's just interesting to me because I
feel like your name has been buzzing. But it's I
think it's a disservice not to see everybody in these
debates has been getting ready for Yeah, like the.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Well first, much love to you because you you always
killing the game. So let me start right there.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
The first debate. You know, I've been telling people when
you can have The New York Times, New York Posts,
Daily News all agree that one person wanted to debate.
They all said I want the debate. That that sent
the message to the city. And I think there's a
lot of people who before that night did not know
my name, and they woke up the next day like, okay,
there's a difference here. The second debate, the only reason
we weren't on stage, quite frankly, was a miscommunication. You know,

(01:25):
campaign Finance Board says raising on their public guidelines, they
had internal guidelines said raised. It was a question around finances.
In terms of that, we should have been on stage.
We feel pretty strongly about that. And even still every
single day since the debate, we've had people coming across
city like what you did that first night. You have

(01:45):
me focused now, right, yeah, because because people people want
to see someone being direct about what's happening, and they
have not felt that at all. And I want to
remind people you don't have to go back to Cuomo
just because you know his name.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
You know, it's interesting because the first time we really
sat down, it was a it was a conversation between
some of the nominees, but it was early.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
On at Brick and it was it was you did
you think? Thank you?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
And it was basically just talking about the arts and
how important that is for New York City. And so
you definitely shined in that one as well. But I
want people to know your background as far as where
you've come from, from working where President Barack Obama to
where we are today, if you had to give people
a summary, because I think part of the issue I
have is that you know our hosted that debate watch
party because I wanted people to really pay attention. It's

(02:28):
hard to get people to watch the debates and then
it comes time to vote.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
They don't even know what ring choice voting is. And
I feel like.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
There's been so much messaging going out to get people
to understand what it is, and I just want to
make sure that we're still pounding that message in So
for you, if you had to describe what your career
has been like to now, just so people know who
Michael Blake is, can you tell us.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
I start with full name, is Michael Alexander Blake named
after Jamaican politicians. My family's from Jamaica. I was one
of two that was born here. So named after Michael.
Like we're on Eastern Parkway right now, say Oxtail writes
and p vibes right now? You know, So Michael Manley
and Alexander Busta Monty that's what they named me after.
Born Christmas Night in the South Bronx North Central Bronx

(03:11):
Hospital and PSM nine one eighteen d with Clinton. So
I'm Bronx. I'm New York through and through in very
possible way. My mom forty years worked in manufacturing. She
raised four boys. I'm the youngest. My daddy, God rest
his soul. He was a janitor of Saint Barnabas Hospital.
You know, this is what I know, right And when
I left here, I went to Northwestern you know, shout

(03:32):
out to the purple out here, you know. And I
loved politics and I still do. I still think politics
is the best way to change the game at scale.
The moment you're born to the moment you get called
on home. There's nothing that happened in your life without politics.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
You know, I'm glad that you said that, because some
people feel like politics doesn't affect them, and some people
also feel like it doesn't matter what's going to happen
is going to happen anyway, and that everything is pre planned.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
No, no, we're not. We're out here, we're not living
in the matrix right now, right like you know, we're
watching this in real time, like this, this fool of
Trump is because people didn't vote right this disaster were
watching it. Same thing with Eric Adams, all this is
happening because folks sat on the sideline. So you know,
I originally was focused on TV, my degrees in journalism,
but I loved politics, and I had an internship with

(04:15):
a state centainemed Jeff Schoenberg. Woman walked in and she said,
if you don't help me lose my home, we helped
her keep her home. That turned everything around from me.
I applied for a bunch of jobs, and then I
was offering an opportunity for a training program led by
Barack Obama when he was a senator, and I was
one of ten people he trained. So two thousand and
six he had the Yes we Can program. He trained
us on how to run campaigns. He sent me to Michigan.

(04:36):
We won our state house races and then two thousand
and seven, I went to Iowa. You know, I always
tell people I was the other black guy in Iowa
with Obama, right, you know, we won. I went to
seven more states. He brought me to the White House.
I ran all his black outreach, his minority women business
outreach at the White House.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Brother's keeper, MBK.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
I mean that our that was our whole vibe. And
I came home, came home. I wanted to come home.
I wanted to show these young cats on the block
that you can grow up in the hood, go work
in a White House, and come back home.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
I do think it's important that we represent, that we
vote and support people who represent us for real, because
I think a lot of the disconnect when we see
politicians is we're like, they have no idea who we are,
what we go through. And sometimes people think it is
all about money, and some of it is like even
being able to raise money to be able to run,
that's not an easy thing to be able to do.

(05:27):
I want to ask you this because sometimes I myself
think about when I see certain people like Cuomo's been
raising a lot of money and clearly, like for any politician,
when someone is donating to your campaign, it does kind
of mean that there I feel like people donate because
they are expecting something right, And how does that work
as a politician when people are supportive of you, but

(05:49):
you have to tell them no.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
Well, look, I mean they're expecting you to do the
right thing, right, that we work for you. When someone
gets elected office, we work for you, and you know, yeah,
they should have expectations, expectations that you're gonna have policies
that are good. You gotta have expectations that you're gonna
do the right thing. And there should be also the
expectation that I'm not gonna agree with you every single time,

(06:11):
and that's okay. I don't know any person that I agree
with every all the time, right from from my wife
to my mom. I ain't nobody in between that greeve
me on everything. And that's okay.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
So you do tell your wife you're right all the time.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
I'm very clear that I say, I understand, So I understand,
I understand, you know, I support the cause right here, right,
So it's like, look, you know, you know that is
what should happen. And I think what's going on is
people are so exhausted from politics they would feel not
even before Trump, but Trump is taking it to a

(06:43):
new level that it's this zone of well, we can't
rock with any of y'all. And I keep trying to
tell folks, don't let the small numbers who are doing
it the wrong way distract you from those of us
who try and do it the right way. And I'm
running from Mayor because we deserve better and I want
to lay out a clear vision. Affordability is the biggest
crisis that's happening, Yes, full stop catches like it's too expensive.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
And it's even how you got into the game, right
is a woman was about to lose her home and
that's why that was it. And I want to talk
about this balance too here in New York because, like
you said, affordability is an issue. Affordable housing is a
major issue. But at the same time, there's also the
issue of some people feel like some tenants are like squatting,
they have too many rights. It's hard to evict people.

(07:28):
Even this crisis, I'm seeing of houses and apartment buildings
sitting vacant because of people being locked into you know,
just basically not being able to raise the rent. And
they feel like I'm not even going to fix this up.
It's not worth it for me. If somebody is not
going to be paying rent, that would even help me
be able to pay my taxes and maintain a property.
And so what's the balance there that that can happen.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Everybody deserves to have a home you can afford, and
everybody deserves quality. My mama was homeless in Jamaica. We
sold dinners to pay rent in the Bronx, right, you know,
you got to have that connection. And so when I
talk through how do we do this better? I think
we should have a local media and income because area
median income is not working. Okay, right, because air meeting

(08:10):
income includes Westchester County, Suffolk, Rockland. I'm not trying to
cast shade on other places, but it doesn't make sense
that counties outside of New York City impact what's going
on here. We should end using credit scores for rent
and homer ownership applications. We should increase the income limits
because too often you have to make so much or
make just enough to get access to home. To me,
that's wrong. You take those kinds of steps, then people

(08:32):
have a better chance. Now, the next piece of this
is you have a lot of people, a lot of
these landlords that are holding on to properties and not
doing something that's right with that, And I said, there
should be a vacant apartment and a vacant commercial tax.
If this is not your primary residence, you have a
place here and you're not living here, then there should
be a tax on that so that either you come
back so that it's not just sitting there in or

(08:53):
you give us revenue for the city. That just makes
sense to me.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
What about a person who is not like saying, somebody
that's like they have a couple of properties, it's all
their money that they're invested in. They have a mortgage
that they have to pay, and it's really hard because
people aren't paying their rent or how does that Because
I've seen that happen too, and I've seen people like
actually lose their homes because of that. Because I do
feel like I agree definitely has to be affordable housing,

(09:19):
but then there are some people who they don't have
a lot and this is all they have and now
it's like I can't get these squatters out or this
person's what's the balance with that? Because I do feel
like there has to be something that can also help
somebody who this is like their income. They saved all
their life for this. They've taken out loans, they refinanced,
whatever it is, and now they're in danger percent.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
Look, you can't have someone that's just squat and not
paying you know, people out here not paying for months.
That's just wrong, right, there's a difference on I'm struggling
with this bill and I'm gonna be behind on in
like two weeks because something happened as an emergency in
my life, right versus well, I'm just not paying you
and you're going to take me to court. We need
to change these laws. You can't have someone just sitting

(10:01):
there not paying you. That doesn't make any logical sense.
And I think what has happened in the last few
years is that policies went too far left right to
the zone of we're just gonna protect this tenant even
if they've literally not paid for months. No, that's crazy
to me. That doesn't make any sense because what we're

(10:21):
doing then is saying to these homeowners, which is not
always these massive commercial homeowners out here. It's the small
mom and pop property owners who are like, yo, you're
hurting me right, right, And so that has to be
that balance. If someone clearly has the means to pay
and they're choosing not to pay. No, they got to
be held accountable on that. And he's like, no, you
got you gotta go right. I don't want anyone in

(10:42):
my crib just is sitting up with my crib paying me.
That that is making it like what do we like?
What are we doing out here?

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Right?

Speaker 3 (10:50):
And to that degree, housing and chalkhare, the two main
expenses happened in the city, and the deeper dynamic that's
getting even more real that people don't want to talk
about when you talk about the squads and homeowners. It's
also one out of eight kids going to New York
City public schools right now homeless.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
That's insane, Like it's crazy.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
It's crazy. And when we talk about the homeless dynamic,
it's not even just like people think about it like, well,
does that mean someone sitting on the street Now, I'm
talking about the cats that are bouncing around one to
and so because they can't afford it, because their families
can't afford it right now. And so to this degree,
if we don't fix housing and you don't get true
affordable childcare, then were playing games. So how do we
do that you're like Michael Blake Mayer, I was ready

(11:34):
for that right there. I'm just saying, look, there are
things that can happen right now in this city that
there's not a good reason why we're not doing it.
When people talk to me about ending credit scores for
home ownership, which hands down is the policy I say
the most that people love the most, they're like, okay,
help me understand it. We're already doing that a little

(11:55):
bit right now Angela's happening. Housing Preservation Department is doing
a pilot right now on this. So there's no reason
why we can't go further and just say we're just
going to stop this practice. Credit scores that came up
like that's nineteen eighty nine. This is a young thing.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
I have to get my dad to co sign for
my first apartment that I ever got fresh out of college.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
My credit was.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
Wild wow, and like catch out here on something like okay,
so let me get this straight. So I can pay
the rent. I have the money to pay the rent.
I can pay them more than the money point. But
the reason why my costs are higher is because I
missed a phone bill twenty years ago. That doesn't make
any sense. So that's one next piece on this. I

(12:37):
do believe this should be a guaranteed. Then come around
housing and childcare to these expenses, because even if someone
doesn't have a child, you know someone that's impacted by that.
And if someone has the ability to be like, you
know what, I'm able to go out to that restaurant
and be out there a little bit later, I'm able
to work a little bit later. I'm able to do
these it because I know the kids are good. Changed
everything else, right, And so these are policies that are

(12:58):
in control. And there's eleven people that are running from
mayor loving Democrats that to run from mayor. Let's be
real clear about that, because the other cats that are
running that are not.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Running depending and Eric Adams.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
Right, you know, So for those of us that are
running as Democrats, right, who are for real about this,
I'm saying that you have a choice that you do
not have to just go back to a name of
Andrew Cmo just because you know that name. Real talk
black and brown folk who are right now trying to
figure out what to do. Look at my track record

(13:27):
on actually helping the hood. That's what I want you
to be a session, because if you want to understand,
how can you trust what's happening, Rock with the people,
Rock with you. And I tell folks during COVID, Culomo
was killing people. I was feeding people. There's a difference
between us.

Speaker 2 (13:43):
Let me tell you something. The fact that people are
the fact that he's even running.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
Is he only running because he wanted to run for
president's Let's just let's just be honest about this.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
Well, we see who's president now, so it feels like
he could be president.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
There's no standard. I mean, just like I mean, I
lack of it.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
It is a really crazy thing, just even I think
the treatment of women that's been an issue, the fact
that we can overlook that and be okay with it.
And I also feel like people think because I saw
him in the debate saying that that was disproven, that
wasn't true.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
It's not the case, so first debate. I think the
reason why we've gotten so much love the last two
weeks is I called him out and I was real
clear on the facts. Right, he still has not said
it didn't happen. I just want to make sure we're
real clear about that. He keeps saying you can't prove
that it didn't.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
Happen, right, and that what didn't happen.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
That these thirteen women who said that there was sexual
assault that was happening in a toxic work environment. He's
never said it didn't happen. He's like, Oh, they dismissed
the charges. Okay, did he relax. That's because that's pretty
much we're trying to do right now. That's what he's
what's trying.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
To Dismissing the charges does not mean did they dismiss.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
There was something that were dismissed because some of the
women said, I'm not pursuing the charges any longer, so
it's not that it didn't.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
And that's also very difficult for women to I want
to put that out there for people who think that, oh,
this is nobody I feel like wants to be in
that spotlight because the amount of threats that people get,
the amount of ways that this can actually ruin your
life and not let you pursue other opportunities because people
look at you like you're a problem, and it's a
hard thing to prove.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
When we put into context, it's a hard thing to prove,
and it would be a tense situation anyway but these
are women who came after a multiple time elected governor,
former attorney general, whose daddy was a governor. So it's like,
once you step out there, you understand you going after
the name. So they weren't just doing this casually. So

(15:41):
you have this. You have a man whose policies led
to fifteen thousand people dying in nursing homes because of
a book deal. Right. You have a man who in
two thousand and eight, during the presidential campaign says you
don't and shouldn't have to shucking jive. Clearly that was
talking about Barack Obama. But then he was saying the debate,

(16:02):
I didn't offend Barack Obama. Who the hell are you
talking about? Let's stop, let's stop. So we're in a
zone now where the fear of Trump is leading to
people saying, well, maybe we need a tough man, maybe
we need someone who's tough. It was like, no, you
need what who's best. And as the only one in

(16:22):
the race, I've actually defeated Trump when I was vice
here at the DNC. Let's think about the policies today.
Trump out here in the last few days, this foolishness
talking about we're going to send in more ice to
democratic cities.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
Right, only democratic democratic cities.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
Right. This is we're seeing what's going on. Right, Bill
Ackman just gave Cuomo another two hundred and fifty thousand,
The main person focused on ending DEI. These cats don't
give a damn bout chiall. We just got to be
clear about this. So at the end of the day,
I'm presenting myself as someone that's a different option and
saying I have white House, state House, local experience. We

(17:01):
know what it's like to actually lead. If you want
a new generation of leadership that is ready immediately, you
got one choice, you know, but you can also rank
other people.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yes, and I see that you and Mom Donnie have
now cross endorsed each other, which is you know, and
it is ranked choice voting. So just so people are aware,
you get to choose one, two, three, four, and five.
So you just have to know who's your first choice,
second choice. There are choice. One thing I've been seeing
is a lot of people who are running saying, whatever
you do, don't rank Cuomo dream and that's been the

(17:31):
main message that's been getting out there. So when it
comes to cross endorsing, I don't know that I've seen
that too much, or if I just haven't been paying attention.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
No, no, well, first, your promos are helping out here,
so please keep letting people know because a lot of
folks don't understand ranked choice voting. Still right, So just
so everybody's clear, New York City, we don't have runoffs
like we used to have back in the day. So
you're not going to show up on June twenty fourth
and then say I'm gonna ShW up three weeks later.

(18:01):
We don't do that anymore. Huwne up one time. So
either you're gonna vote absentee in the mail, you're gonna
vote early into the twenty second, or you're voting on
election day. There's eleven Democrats on the ballot. You can
choose up to five. So whoever is your first choice,
that should be your first choice. I want New York City,
I want everybody. I want you to rank me. Michael
Blake is your first choice. I'm real clear about that.

(18:21):
If for some reason I'm not your first choice, then
I want to be your second choice. If for some
really not SECD choice, wanna be your third choice. And
the way it works is if no one gets fifty
percent of first choice ballots, and that's only that's the
only thing that's gonna be announced June twenty fourth. The
only things we announced are first choices. If no one
has that, the lowest vote getter gets knocked out and

(18:44):
it keeps simulating after that point. So case in point,
we got handed here, we got Raven here, Mike here,
Kevin as well, then that's perfect. We got five right here.
Right If for some reason, Hannah was the lowest vote
getter and then Raven was after that, If Michael votes
for Hannah as the first choice and the votes for
Raven as a second choice, if Hannah gets knocked out,

(19:06):
my vote then goes to Raven. Sorry Hannah, Sorry Hannah.
We love you. That's my niece. But I'm just saying,
for an example, she gonna give me a look afterwards,
like why got voted off that? God damn right. Dan's like,
I'm cool with that. And so when people start to
hear that, they're like, oh, okay, now I understand why
my second and third choice matters.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah, because I will say for some people, they might
be like, Okay, I like Michael Blake, but if he
doesn't get it, I wouldn't mind. Mom, Donny being it
or I wouldn't mind Adrian Adams, and so yeah, that
is yeah, that's how you rank that.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
I have to rank them because if you don't and
your person gets knocked out, your vote's done. And I
don't think a lot of people internalize that. So there's
a lot of cats. This is why Clomo's in trouble
right now, cause I think there's a lot of people
that are voting for Culomo who are not ranking him,
and he won't be able to gain enough votes because
let's presume let's presume Clomo's at thirty percent, but if

(19:59):
no one else is ranking him, he can't gain anymore.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
I mean, and you know, it's interesting because I don't
this is one election that I really don't know what's
about to happen, because I think for a while it
felt like Cuomo was gonna win just when he announced it.
We all knew he was about to announce it, but
I felt like there's been so much strong pushback, and
I don't think that Donald Trump helps the situation at all.
It actually hurts it because there is a lot of like, oh,

(20:24):
if this happens, this isn't New York.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
At all at all. I think we're in a scenario
now when you were saying earlier that the coalition so Dream,
so you know, don't rank Evil Andrew from mayor. That's
what it is now, right, it used to be, don't
rank Eric and Andrew from Mayor. So everybody understands that.
So whenever you hear and see Dream, there have been
five people that have been put a part of that coalition.

(20:48):
So it's been myself, Zarmum, Donnie, Adrian Adams, Brad Lander, Zel, Normiri.
That's been the five that people are talking about for Dream.
And so what I'm saying is I want everybody listening,
Michael Blake rank me first. I'm the ninth one on
the ballot. If I'm not your first, I want to
be your second. But make it a point that your
Dream coalition gets ranked, because that gives the best chance

(21:12):
for one of those five to win.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
You know, you just brought up Ice and so I
want to talk about that because I do think this
is such a humanitarian crisis seeing how human beings are
being treated. It's been absolutely heartbreaking for me to watch that.
Like I literally walk past people on the street and
I see them like at hotels and I've also heard
so many stories about kids not showing up to school,

(21:33):
about people not being able to go to work, you know,
families being torn apart. And I do think a lot
of the issue is that the policies are just not there.
There has to be a path towards citizenship, but it
feels like Trump just wants to get rid of all
black and brown people. Yes, and you know, white South Africans,
come on and you're good to go. We got to
make sure you get whatever it is that you need.

(21:54):
But when it comes to black and brown people, whether
or not you are here legally, whether or not you're
on the path to citizenship, whether or not you're trying
to do the right thing, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
And everybody's in fear of what's going to happen.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Now for New York to fight against that, because I
do feel like New York is a place that we
do try to protect people. What do you think can
happen as mayor and what type of power would you
have to be able to help?

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Well, First, i think it's important that we make the
immigration conversation expand it out because we've allowed Maga Republicans
to make it a Latino non a Latino conversation, right,
they try to block it all in and so I
always say, as someone who's family's from Jamaica, it's Latino,
it's Caribbean, it's Africa, all of us.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
They're getting rid of everybody.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
They're going to have to everybody, right, So let's be clear.
So to that first piece, ban ice full stop ice
is only permitted if there is a signed judicial warrant.
There should be no the time when ICE is entering places. Now,
as mayor, we can make sure we maintain a sanctuary
city status, which we need to. And the primary reason
why we have sanctuary cities is that then you're not

(22:54):
turning over information to the FED that should not be
going to them. The Feds can find you anyway, there's
no reason to give them more accesses that we're saying
through this Trump elon foolishness. Right. Next piece, we need
to make sure that schools, places of worship, community centers
are designated as safe havens because if you do that designation,
then again they can't just roll in. You take those steps.
Then also hire more attorneys to represent our immigrants and

(23:18):
these immigration hearings because too often people are going to
these hearings and they don't have someone protecting them, then
it's a rap. Right, you had about one hundred and
eighty thousand who did not have someone representing them. One
hundred and eighty thousand just right there. You don't have
a chance at that point. So to that degree, those
are steps that we can take immediately, and that's what
I would take as mayor. Now the deeper piece that

(23:38):
people are regularly asking, how do you pay for all this?
When Trump tries to cut your money Vacant apartment commercial
tax that by itself gets you close to two billion.
We have two billion dollars right now of unclaimed fees
and fines, primarily from parking tickets. I don't want to
make folks nervous because of parking tickets, right, but I'm
just gonna say, I'm just saying, I see you Dan, Dan.

(24:01):
Dan's like, oh right, I'm just saying here about one
point four of that two billion, it's just parking. I
just want people to like, the money's out here, right
NYPD last year someone say it was one point three
someone say one point four billion dollars of excessive overtime
that NYPD was paid for overtime. So we have the

(24:24):
money to make sure we're protecting our immigrant communities and
protecting all of us. And then lastly, that means stopping
this nonsense that we keep hearing what folks are like, well,
if you help the immigrants, you're gonna be hurting me.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
That's the main thing I want to say is people
feel like, well, what's going on with taking care of
New Yorkers who don't have a place to live, who
are struggling with housing, who are struggling with money, with
childcare and all of those things. People feel like that
takes away if we have money to pay. And I
see this quite frequently on my timeline because I still
am on X and I don't know why I see

(24:56):
certain things that I see, but anyway, I see people say.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
Elone trying to drive some stuff.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
To you, okay, all the time.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
But what I see is people saying, well, I don't
have housing, but you guys are providing hotels for immigrants.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
So this is the epitome of the mastery of Republican messaging,
right that they have allowed us to believe that in
the city of New York City, where we have one
hundred and fifteen billion dollar budget, that was this large
before the migrant situation, that somehow you not having heat,

(25:32):
hot water, better schools, better jobs for decades is because
migrants started showing up last year. That don't make any
damn sense, like in any regard. So the reality is
it's about priorities in lack of leadership. And I will
remind people one of the reasons I'm running from Mayor
is the day that Eric Adams was on the plane

(25:55):
to fly to DC to meet with the White House,
where he was taking selfie videos out how he was
going there to talk about the immigrant crisis. He did
not do that meeting because his fundraiser had been raided
and he came back to New York. So whenever I
hear this notion of DC is the reason why this
is not happening. Yo, my man, you literally canceled on

(26:15):
the White House because your staff was being raided. So
fall back, So when we're in this zone of what
are we doing here, how do you help our immigrants
pay our nonprofits on time that helping our immigrant communities?
How do you help our immigrants make sure that when
people are coming here, they're actually getting supported and protected.
Because this notion of like they're all criminals is just
nonsense at all, foolishness.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Listen, we have more criminals here then, and I think
in general, most people want to do the right thing.
And it's so interesting to me to see people crying
on social media about, oh, you know, I voted for Trump,
but I didn't think that I would be deporting the
people that work for my company. I thought he would
only be deporting criminals. To them, everyone's a criminal, Oh
yeah they are. They could look at you and be like, yeah,

(26:59):
you could tell he's you gotta go.

Speaker 3 (27:01):
That's who they are. It's in point, I think we've
treated life too often in this current social media environment.
In a twenty twenty five future, beyond mindset, let's make
sure we take a step back. Donald Trump and his family.
His family is included in KKK writings. That's not me
saying that that's public information. Him and his daddy were

(27:24):
sued because they wouldn't give black and brown people housing. Absolutely,
he took out a full page ad against the now
exonerated five.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
And still acts like he wasn't wrong.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
For that, so like legit, like that was his still.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
To this day has never said I was I'm sorry
at all.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
Let a birther movement against Barack Obama said his main
policy priority was to build a wall to keep the
Mexicans out, the criminals, the rapists. Like so when people
are like, I don't know how we got here, this
is who this man is.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
For people who are surprised, this is not what I
voted for it.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
To talk about, this is who he is. And so
connecting it to New York City. When you have someone
in Eric who is rocking with this talking about we're
gonna allow icon to rikers, that we're gonna allow these
things to happen, is crazy.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
Do you think Eric Adams is always like this or
do you think something changed?

Speaker 3 (28:18):
I think when you have someone who was a registered
Republican under Juliani, as a former NYPD captain, who has
had the increase of stop unconstitutional stopping frisk that did
not just happen this year, that's been consistent, Eric is
who he is.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
Because I felt like as Brooklyn Borough President, I had
high hopes for Eric Adams. I think a lot of
us did. But I don't know when things I don't know.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
I just Eric. I mean, look, Eric ran on a
post with real president. Eric ran on a posed for
State Senate, I think, coming back to the rank choice conversations,
I think if we all did a better job four
years ago of communicating about options, Eric wouldn't have one.
He barely won four years ago, and I just think
that what we are watching right now, especially that he's

(29:06):
now running as an independent.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Do you think he's even in the conversation to be
mayor again or you think that's.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
I think the fact that Donald Trump could win two
out of three times, it's impossible for someone to say
someone can't win. I think it's very unlikely, right. But
I do think New York City needs to really internalize
Eric Adams made a choice that put him in this
situation and then made a choice to run as an
independent because he knew he couldn't win as a Democrat.

(29:34):
So that should be telling you all you need to
know about where he stands, right, Because if he thought
I could still win this thing, then run your race, right.
And the notion of sitting on the sidelines in this
way is kind of crazy. And so what I say
to people is you want a different choice. You want
to have a black candidate that's ready. You want to
have someone who's the son of immigrants, you want to

(29:55):
have someone who's a husband, bonus father on the I've
done this and this is who I am. You don't
have to go to Andrew Cuomo, you don't have to
go to Eric Adams. You can choose Michael Blake and
then you should rank the rest of your slate. So
you actually have five people that believe in what you're
trying to say right now?

Speaker 1 (30:10):
What do you think about City of Yes, City Yes.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
Didn't go far enough. City of Yes and City for All,
and they reframed it. The vision of it of needing
to build more housing. The vision of it is right,
but they didn't execute it well. I think at the
end of the day, you have about five hundred and
fifty thousand units you need right now to address the
affordability crisis, and about ten years is about nine hundred
and sixty five thousand for us to achieve that you

(30:34):
have to build. So I've always said you have to
build more units to address affordable housing. It's linear, right. However,
I'm also saying you must have local media and income
because it doesn't matter if you build if the rates
are still the same. City of Yes didn't fix that,
so they didn't fix the main problem of affordability. So

(30:57):
you didn't build enough that you need and you didn't
change the formulas. So how is that a city of Yes,
how's that city? For all? That doesn't make sense to me?
And it's things like that when people are saying, yo,
what are your politicians doing? Right, I'm saying to you,
I can't afford this, and your win, your big win
that they're out here talking about, didn't fix the problem. Again,

(31:19):
it doesn't make sense to me. So when we talk
through what are we trying to make happen, what we
need to be making happen is build responsibly. You know,
have the incentives for landlords and developers who are doing
get the right way, because I do think you have
to have an economic incentive and if they do it
the right way and then you keep your incentive and
if you don't revoke.

Speaker 2 (31:38):
It, and the right way is for them to have
a certain percentage of affordable housing.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
Absolutely that is specific to the middle class in a
very real way. Right now, we've incentivized a system where
you have to be essentially poor enough for them to say,
you know what, I'm going to do it based upon
areamedia income or a market rate if you're in between,
you're pretty much jammed up. And so to me incentivized

(32:05):
to build towards the middle class, why are so many
people working in New York but they liveing in Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania.
They're like, they're like, I can't, I cannot afford this.
I want to be in New York, but I can't, right,
And a lot of it is because of just quite frank,
just dumb ass policies that just don't make logical sense.
We have a scenario right now where we know, you

(32:28):
do three or four specific things, you change the game immediately,
but we're not doing it because of lack of leadership.
We're not doing it because people want to be aligned
to these developers, these large scale developers. And when you
ask me about city of Yes and other policies, I'll
even switch it to to nights in New York City
Housing Authority, public Housing. You had cats right now who
were arrested and have lost their jobs because they were

(32:50):
banking in bribes to not fix units. Like your job
was to actually fix these units and they weren't doing it.
So like the scenario that we're in right now is
that people are not helping the people, you know, and
I try to give real practical examples. I think we
should have a technology for good that every single resident
should be able to track how their ticket is closed

(33:11):
out for repairs in their home.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Yeah. Absolutely, and that should be public so that yeah,
not doing it.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Then I can order food, a flight, a car on appliance.
I can do all that on my phone to my
house right now, But I can't track in one place
how you fix something in my home in a service Again,
doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
You know what?

Speaker 2 (33:36):
I want to ask you to a casino in New
York City. We've been seeing all these bids going in.
Is it Hudson Yards, is it Times Square? What do
you think about a casino in midtown?

Speaker 3 (33:45):
I think it makes a lot of sense, whether it
be Midtown or around in Queens, I know, I mean Queens. Definitely,
there's this space that would make sense because they've been
able to demonstrate that, you know, you know, data point
like the US Open. I've seen this the last few years.
US opening that two week peer gets more foot traffic
and attendance than the Yankees and Mets getting through their
home games. Okay, right, so like we know they can

(34:07):
handle that kind of quantity.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah, because I was thinking Midtown is going to be crazy.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
You're crazy, So I think you got to look at
other places, maybe out of boroughs to me, creating a
casino where you clearly will generate revenue, right, people are grown.
If I can trust people to go play the lot
of the little bodega and go get their big red
right and do whatever they're doing, for me to then
say the same time, I'm not trusting you to go

(34:33):
to a casino that doesn't make logical sense to me. Right,
so we could get revenue, people can exercise their rights
as adults responsibly. You naturally will then have restaurants and
other commercial activity that would happen there. Why not do this?
And I think a lot of times what's happening is
people like, well, I don't want that in my area, right,

(34:53):
And it's like, okay, so you don't want more money
in your area, you don't want more foot I think
in your area, you don't want more positive benefit here.
But we're acknowledging that we don't have enough money for
the services we need. Doesn't make sense. And I think
a lot of that is just poor messaging. And this
is a scenario where not only do you need to

(35:14):
have the right policies, but you have to have better
messengers to get people to see there are benefits to this.
It may seem very disparate, but I actually treated very
similar to the Rikers conversation, because we need to close Rikers,
but we need borrow based jails, and folks be like,
I don't want to borrow based jail. So I was like, okay,
so then where are these people going to go?

Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, because they've been talking about closing Rikers for so
long now, and yeah, it's like, okay, you know what
I do want to ask you, as a Brooklyn resident
and a New York you know, lifelong resident, I want
to talk about a lot of the businesses closing, because
that is one thing that I hear. You know, I
have a business in Brooklyn, Coffee Upless people, and.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
We pulled up there with our crew. You know, we
did an event a few weeks ago, so shout out
to you again, thank you.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
And we've been seeing a lot of businesses in the
neighborhood closing, which has been really tragic and sad. There's
places that have been like neighborhood you know spots for
so long We've seen bedvine clothes, you know, we've seen
the grill and park slow clothes, We've seen lovers just
so many different places.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
I just saw, like I think Nightmark is about to close.
I've just Sawted earlier today in BK, which is like.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
That's crazy, Yeah, it's wild. What's happening right now? What
is going on with our small businesses? Because we all
know that is the heartbeat of New York City, But
it's been really challenging, and I have to say as
a business owner myself, it has been really challenging with
the cost of goods going up, people not wanting to
spend as much money as they wanted to, but then
also with gentrification, people in the neighborhood complaining.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
More than half of Americans do not have five hundred
dollars in their account of the emergency happens. So I
want to start there to your question, more than half
of Americans don't have five hundred dollars emergent happen. So
we talk about small business. When small businesses are waiting

(37:03):
to get paid from the city government, when small businesses
are battling terrible regulation and red tape, when small businesses
are not having people addressed the mental health crisis, so
that you have people defecating and pissing on your sidewalks
and kicking in windows, right when you have a scenario
where people don't have enough money to spend the way

(37:24):
they normally did, where they're saying I just got my
check and two days later, I don't know how I'm
making it for the next twelve to thirteen days. All
of that is intertwined that we have to help more
small businesses. And as someone who runs small businesses myself,
you know we have Atlas Strategy Group, we have our
effort at Cairos like I notice myself, you have to

(37:46):
understand that all these pieces need to have a mayor
that's actually helping you. And it may seem disconnected, but
in this environment, I do believe being an immigrant of
color who runs a business also makes me uniquely qualified
because I have felt the ramifications of the Trump agenda
of contracts being canceled. Yeah, because people afraid of DEI

(38:08):
and what that may mean to them. Are folks saying,
you know what, I don't have enough money to be
the customer that I used to be, so I can't
pull up at your storefront, right I can't shop the
way I used to because I just don't have it
like I used to because they just cut off my
deal out here.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
And it's hard because coffee beans cost more save for us,
So now we're paying way way higher, pricing much more.
And then who do we pass that cost on to fundamentally,
And it's just.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
It's a vicious, vicious cycle based upon a man who's
creating policies and stating policies that are hurt in us,
right and so when you're intertwined that, then it's like, Okay,
how do we fill that gap? We have three point
one billion dollars in cash reserves right now in the city,
not including pensions. So I'm just talking about in that
rainy day. There are some in the race who are
saying we shouldn't touch that at all. I completely disagree

(38:53):
with that because I'm in a zone. We are in
a cost of living emergency right now.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
It is a rainy day like right now every weekend,
past twelve weeks, it's.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
Pouring pouring out here and to the small businesses right, look,
yours is a perfect example because you're you're right there
on the corner, right, So when you have a spot
right on the corner. Clearly, y'all know I've been there.
Cut no, exactly the vision right there, like when you
have a spot right on the corner, and especially when
you have a coffee spot with so much glass like that.
Like at any moment, if someone acts a fool, yeah,

(39:25):
it's happened, changes the dynamics immediately immediately, because now folks
are like, okay, well hold on, you know, you know,
do I pull up? What's going on? Now? You got
to pay expenses and repairing this and there are ramifications
in the cycle of that all intertwined. So for me,
how do we help small businesses? One of the specific
things I do think a thousand mental health professionals on

(39:45):
the streets and subways actually fixes this because then you
do two things the people who need help who are
creating challenges out here, as well as you can then
have NYPD with body cameras on, do more walk and patrol.
It calms things down.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Take the subway.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Yeah me, two thousand percent. I'm on that too far regularly.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
That'd be wild. Sometimes I'm not gonna lie it.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
Let me tell you.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
As much as the MTA is saying they need to
fix the trains and they want us to take the
train or it is definitely Sometimes I'm like, oh today.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
Was it's it's and you got to think about these
things and you do you'd be like, okay, let me
get this straight. So like okay, my man is out here,
no shirt, no pants, just sitting on it like okay,
all right, and I'm wondering how's this is gonna go
out here?

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Right?

Speaker 3 (40:29):
Which impact small business impacts because the worker workers like
I don't have a choice. Yeah, I gotta make this
move this way. This morning, I was making moves down here,
had to make the decision quick. Okay, how do I
get down here best? That's why it was taking the
d from one to six to one down to fifty

(40:50):
ninth right now? Oh Paul, that's kind of crazy, but
but like the reality is right, so like fall off
the way back okay, So like you know we at
here right now, Brooklyn b X out here okay. So
it's like it's that quick moment of like all right,

(41:12):
it would be more expensive, more traffic, more chaos going
that way. Let me ride the train. Let me make
but I ride the train, and you've seen some.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
Things I definitely do go fran Jasmine. She comes from
DC and I take her on the train with me.
She actually enjoys taking a train because she's not from here,
so it's not like and.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
She's like, oh my god, Angela's smoking crack. I'm like, bro,
just look the other way.

Speaker 3 (41:34):
Just just keep it moving. Mind your business, Mind your business,
don't don't get involved going out and ask questions. Help,
just just keep your eyes locked in right now.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
But you know, I know that's also another issue that
the MTA is having with people not paying their fare,
and that's been something that's caused huge financial issues for them.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
We gotta do. Look, I think there's three things we
gotta do. One, you got to help people make more money.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
M hm, right, But it be people who make money.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
That's not I mean, it's like, but that's the next
poit people, it's people with the Starbucks and you know,
jumping the train.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
That's better. The next piece, help people make more money.
Then actually change these laws and all beeny for repeat
defenders so that if cats are regularly jumping turnstiles, I
think you can give someone a summons made the first time,
and if you say they do it regularly, I do.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
You got to because there's no one there a lot
of times. Yeah, because but the cops.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
Are not doing things. They see anything, they're like, ya, I'm.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Good because I've seen people say why would I pay
my fair? Nobody else paid before me. I'm watching that.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
Which and and and the cops that are there effectively saying, well,
why would I waste my time doing this? It's a
lot of paperwork, paperwork, and they're going right back out.
So it's like, okay, you consistently jumping these turnstiles. You're
consistently doing this. Okay, I'll give you some of the
first thing that I'm not someone is saying you got
to ticketed to someone every single time for every single thing,
and then we got to you know, you want to
over criminalize. But if someone's doing it five six, seven times,

(42:52):
ah yo, my man, let's have this conversation, like what
are we doing right here? Right? But I think the
other piece, and you're starting to see this at some
of these train stations, we have a nineteen hundred mta
in twenty twenty five, right, Like it's so arcane. I mean,
we want faster trains. We got to have better signal system.
That's a whole other piece, but like actually have turnstiles
where it's a little bit higher so that you can't

(43:14):
be out here just jumping, right, So if someone tries
to go to the gate, if you have an officer there,
and then you change the laws so that repeat defenders
are not able to just walk way easily, then people
don't think twice because cats are right now effectively saying, yeah,
I'm gonna do this because there's no accountability you're gonna have,
and the cops are effectively saying, I'm not gonna risk
losing my job because you jumped the turnstile and you're

(43:37):
going to be back out tomorrow tonight. Doesn't make sense.
And again I just think it's a scenario where our
policies didn't make logical sense.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
Yeah, you got a lot of work.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
I feel like, aside from COVID, this is one of
the craziest times to be mayor of New York.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
It's safe because there's.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
So many different challenges now with the presidency and bumping
heads with that, and you know, just the needs that
we have right now, the financial crisis that we're in,
you know, just so many different things, and even back
to the small businesses, you know, gentrification has I feel
like in Bedstye from what I see and have experienced.

(44:17):
You know, people calling, They're not from the neighborhood, but
they're here and they're making a lot of complaints.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
But it's like, you know, it's best die like we outside.

Speaker 3 (44:25):
We outside outside. It could be best side, could be
South Ronks. Yeah, you know, look, it could be slapplush
all the time. You ready know. We got a lot
of love flab show us lat love, y'all gon to
see us out here a lot in the next few days.
It's but I go back to one of the reasons
why I decided to run. It's not just you electing
someone for twenty twenty five, right, it's come January first,

(44:48):
twenty twenty six. Given everything we talked through, who is
best prepared and has the best vision for what's coming.
And we have a man in d See who is
making it very clear he does not give a damn
by New York City and he's going to attack us
every possible way. So you have that, you have a

(45:10):
financial crisis, you have a mental health crisis, you got
all these different things happening. Going back to an Andrew
Cuomo is not the answer that is not the answer.
You got to pick someone and pick people who are
actually showing you. And what I say to folks, look
at the track record, look at the vision. During COVID,
we partner the World Central Kitchen and small businesses shout

(45:31):
out to beat stro Bronx draft House. We fed folks
across New York City. Right, that's what we did. Think
about what we trying to do for these kids, civics, financialists,
and mental health. Talk through the mental health conversation we
just had about public safety, right like you know. And
then the credit scores. I just I think credit scores
and changeing income, you change the game immediately. That's the

(45:52):
vision I want to have. And I keep telling folks,
do you want to see what we're doing, go to
our website, you know, BLAKEFANYC dot com. They'll be able
to see all that there. But if you want to
change the game, you have to change the mayor.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
All right, Well, I appreciate you, Michael Blake for coming through.
Who is your two, three, four and five?

Speaker 3 (46:06):
Well, I said, Zorn's my two, right. You know I've
been clear about that. I know who are in those
other three spots. I'm still deciding on order, and I'm
not trying to be based on the question.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
I want an hour. Who's in the other three spots
in no particular order?

Speaker 3 (46:20):
So Adrian xellnor Brad right now, you know those are
those there?

Speaker 1 (46:25):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (46:25):
You know Scott might sneak in somehow, right, so we're
still figuring that out. I really do want to see
how people make some decisions and answers this week, right,
like you can't watch you can't watch what's going on
in LA and now thank you know that could happen here.
So what are you saying about this?

Speaker 2 (46:47):
Those are all people. I like that you said that.
You know, as I'm trying to put together my my
starting five.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
You gotta find your five. I want to be your
number one. I'm trying to be your You a number
one yet, Angela.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
I don't know yet.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
I told you That's why I've been paying attention to everything,
talking to everybody. I've been doing my research because I
like to go in with my plan set because we're
not just voting for mayor either, you know, so we
just have to make sure we know exactly what we're
doing all the things.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Mayor Borough President Comtroller, public Advocate, City Council racist and
in some parts of the city. They also have district
leader races happening here. So there's a lot that's going on.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
See what's on that ballot.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
First votes go in y C Votes. NYC Votes has
also individual videos for us. But I'm also gonna make
a plug. There's a great quiz on the city, the
city and gothamis. They made avatars. It actually pretty dope
where you can type in, it has the questions and

(47:43):
then it pops up the percentage match to the candidate.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
Oh okay, I like that.

Speaker 3 (47:47):
It's really really dope.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yeah, because I'm so torn right now because I do
think there's some like great candidates. I'm trying to figure
out what order I'm putting things. I know who I'm
not voting for, you're not voting for. Talked about this.
I'm definitely not in Clomo in my top five. Yeah,
so that's I'm a woman, So that alone is reason enough.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
Yo, no quomo, no paper boy.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
Pen rhyme with that.

Speaker 3 (48:13):
Yeah yeah, yah yah, you've already you've already been out
of pocket once in this conversation. You know, that's what
y'all here doing right now. So we can don't listen
to Angela. Right there, that was good, right there. You
can pick five people. Uh yeah, like I said, ny
votes again, I'm not just saying this because you've been
killing the game here. You've been a You've been a

(48:34):
necessary voice and getting people understand rank choice voted yes.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
Well, no, thank you. I appreciate it. That is my goal.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
That's why I was like, let's have a debate party,
let's talk about it, let's watch it as a family.
We got to watch all of this because I think
people go in there, like you said, and they don't
know who the candidates are. And it's so important to
look for yourself and hear the words come out of
people's mouths, and then hold them accountable.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
Afterward, hold me accountable, elect me mayor then hold me.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
Accountable absolutely that purple time. You're not a cue, right
just what I'm just playing with you.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
I know, you know I'm an Alpha all day every day.
I don't even know Angela is just choosing violence during
this right here, Jeuz, I need you to vote for
me though.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
Shout out to the alphas.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
Shout out to the alphas. You know, we got our
black and gold all day and I got my alpha
pen right there.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
Okay, perfect, It's way up

Speaker 3 (49:18):
Always way up.