NEWYORK: New York city Mayor Eric Adams said that we have the reduced fare MetroCard for low-income New Yorkers. “You can apply for it. You can get a reduced fare so that you don’t have to hop the turnstile,” Mayor Adams said while appearing live on “The BEAT 139” podcast.
“Once we identified with the MTA how much money we were losing from fare evasion, the police commissioner and Chief Kemper made a clear decision that we’re going to send the right message that you have to pay your fare if you use the system,” he said.
He said many people, when they think of the heat, they only think about the adults, but it also impacts young people. It is important to us to have alternative places for our young people. Mayor Adams said that pools will be open soon.
“Our beaches are open. The lifeguards are up. Parks will announce the exact dates when the pools will be open. We normally, believe it or not, we don’t get this intense heat this early,” he said.
“We’re looking forward… Once they do open, they’ll be fully staffed with lifeguard personnel. In the meantime, we have a whole list of cooling centers that people could attend and be a part of to stay cool during these months,” he pointed out.
Mayor Adams said that cooling centers are huge and we encourage our seniors to be indoors where cooling centers are located. “We encourage them to, if they don’t have an air conditioner, to go to a location where it is. We have many of our senior and our older adult facilities where you can do so. Everything from our libraries to other locations,” he said.
“We have over 500 cooling centers open across the city. We just tell them, if you’re feeling hot, rest. Use the shade a lot. During the day, when the heat is at its intense level, those are moments where you should try to stay indoors and try to do whatever errands you’re running closer when it starts to cool down in the city,” Mayor Adams said.
“Also be aware of the symptoms, medical symptoms for being heat exhaustion. You should be aware of them: hot, dry skin, or sometimes, believe it or not, you could have real cold, clammy skin at the same time. You’re feeling disoriented, confused, nausea and vomiting. If you have trouble breathing, rapid heartbeat, weakness or dizziness, those could be signs of being overheated. You should get the necessary assistance or go into a cool place immediately,” he added.
Mayor Adams asked citizens if they don’t have no business being outside, it’s best to be indoors.
“The goal is to be out when you should, when it’s needed, particularly in weather like this. That’s why we have so many alternate locations for people to go to stay cool. It’s about staying cool, and as I indicated, it’s earlier this year than in previous years, you’re seeing this level of heat. That’s what climate change, when people talk about climate change, this is what we’re talking about, that we have to be aware of. That’s why we push so hard to make sure we’re improving our environment,” he said.
To a question about the summer youth program jobs, Mayor Adams said that we’ve had over 100,000 for the first time when he became mayor. “Normally we were dealing with 75,000. We’re now over 100,000 summer youth jobs, 100,000, I should say, summer youth jobs, it’s really exciting. It’s more than just a job, it’s teaching them really life skills, like financial literacy, communication skills, other things,” he said.
“When I did my summer youth employment as a child, I wasn’t getting this full approach on to developing my skills. We did not want to leave it vague like that. With 100,000 summer youth, a lot of city agencies are now hiring our summer youth. We have a lot of partners in business that are also assisting us in summer youth, and we’re doing a large number of internship programs. We are really focused on giving our children the skills that they need,” he added.
Mayor Adams said that they were really leaning into young people, not only the summer employment. “We have what’s called Summer Rising. This is an educational-style, all-year program during the… I should say, during the summer months. It gives the children, our young people, a full day. It allows parents to know where their children are while they’re working,” he said.
“People are really excited about this program. 110,000 young people. There was a real learning loss during COVID. This has given them an opportunity to stay grounded throughout the year. It’s one of the most popular programs. We leaned into NYCHA facilities and other facilities where we were dealing with low-income New Yorkers. This is a real benefit for the city,” he said.
To a question about the crackdown on the subways stations, Mayor Adams said that oftentimes people don’t connect the dots between money that’s lost through fare evasion and how it raises our fares on the train.
“It’s wrong when you have those New Yorkers who participate with the rules, who swipe that MetroCard or buy it. Then you have those who have money in their pockets that have just decided they’re not going to pay their fare. They don’t feel they should. That’s wrong. Once we identified with the MTA how much money we were losing from fare evasion, the police commissioner and Chief Kemper made a clear decision that we’re going to send the right message that you have to pay your fare if you use the system,” he said.
“Now, the city has ways, if you can’t afford to pay your fare, there are things you can do. One thing that we have done and we’re proud of, we have the reduced fare MetroCard for low-income New Yorkers. You can apply for it. You can get a reduced fare so that you don’t have to hop the turnstile. Even if you, for whatever reason, someday you may not have the money to ride, there are provisions when you go to the token booth clerk and talk to that token booth clerk, there are provisions to allow someone to use the fare if they don’t use the subways or buses if they don’t have the money to do so,” he said.
Mayor Adams said that employment is really, to him, the foundation of making sure that the popularity of our brand turns to prosperity for everyone. He said that when they started in January 1st, 2022, their Black unemployment rate was four times the rate of whites. “We cut that in half. For the first time since 2019, Black unemployment is less than 8 percent.”
“We have been doing a real job initiative, pushing jobs, doing what’s called hiring halls, partnering with DC 37. We’ve been going out into the communities and showing people how to apply for not only city jobs, but private sector jobs. We have more businesses in the city in the city’s history and we have more small businesses open in the city’s history under our administration. We want to put people into these jobs. The way you do it is, I like to say you build the pathway to employment. We’re really excited about what we’re doing,” he said.
“We made a major announcement today of what’s called community hiring. This would allow us to use our city contracts to tell people if you’re doing business or you’re a city vendor, certain jobs you have to get employees from either NYCHA or low-income communities. That is a huge advantage. We’re putting, to start, $1.3 billion into the program. We see in the future anywhere up to $80 billion will be used. This is going to start using the resources of the city to work on hiring,” he said.
