NEWYORK: New York city Mayor Eric Adams said that city hall and the Mayor’s office did not make any determination of closing libraries on Sundays.
“Everyone was looking at efficiencies and the libraries determined how they were going to utilize those efficiencies. We’re still in the process of negotiating the budget with the City Council. We are extremely comfortable that we’re going to be able to provide the services that the city needs, but we won’t do anything that’s going to impact the safety and the well-being of the people of the city,” he said during an interview on 1010 Wins’ “The PM Rush”.
Mayor Adams said that we encourage those who have air conditioners at home to use them and you don’t have to be on the highest temperature.
“We’re going to make sure we have a clear indication where all of our cooling sites are located. During a weekend, you may have a smaller number than during a week, but we are really getting the information out through the Department of Aging, the commissioner there. During the week, normally we have about 500 cooling centers open across the city. It will be a slightly smaller number on Saturday and Sunday, but there will be locations in each neighborhood.”
To another questioner about budget cuts, Mayor Adams said that we had a over $4 billion migrants and asylum seeker cost we had to pick up, as well as sunsetting dollars that came from the previous administration. “Those COVID dollars sunsetted and they were no longer available on the federal level,” he said.
“Then settling all of our union contracts. We want to make sure the men and women of this city that keeps it operating are paid a decent salary. We’re looking at all of these items. This is the budget dance. It happens every year. I have so much confidence in Speaker Adrienne Adams and her team and my team here. We’re going to land the plane and everyone is going to come out fine.”
When asked about migrant crises, Mayor Adams said that he does not think anyone can state mission accomplished at all.
“I think that we need real, true immigration reform. We need to make sure we monitor the movement at the border and we need a decompression strategy that allows those who come into the country to also address the needs of the country.
“Many of our municipalities, they have needs of workers, their populations have dropped. I think that we can turn this into a positive if it’s properly implemented. I’m hoping that both candidates will look at how to get it right. Republicans have made it clear they blocked real true immigration reform. I think we need to do a better job in handling this,” he said.
To a question regarding city’s first community hiring effort a $ 1.2 billion investment to connect underserved New Yorkers with better paying jobs, Mayor Adams said that this is something that we were able to get Assemblywoman Zinerman and Senator Kevin Parker to push this legislation through for us.
“ It’s called local hiring. We spend billions of dollars on procurement contracts for goods and services in the city. What we’re saying now to those who win those contracts that you must look at NYCHA residents and low-income communities to do your hiring,” he said.
“We were joined by 32BJ and Local 79 unions who was with us. The call is if you need a security guard then you should be hiring from the local communities, particularly in those low-income communities. This is going to allow us to use taxpayers dollars to leverage employment. January 1st 2022, when I became mayor, Black unemployment was four times the rate as white unemployment. We were able to cut that in half for the first time since 2019. The employment unemployment numbers are below 8 percent and we’re going to continue that progress,” he added.
