Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Holds Press Conference to Prepare New Yorkers for Extreme Heat
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good afternoon. I want to thank Commissioner Farrell and other leaders of our administration for joining me as we prepare for the extreme heat wave that we are expecting this week. Beginning tomorrow, New York City will enter a heat emergency that will last through the 4 of July weekend. Temperatures will climb into the high 90s and triple digits. With humidity, it will feel even hotter, with a heat index that could peak around 112 degrees. If the forecast holds, this could be the hottest 4 of July since 2010. These are extremely dangerous conditions, and they will affect every part of our city. To prepare, I have activated the City's Heat Emergency Plan. Since last week, our city agencies have been proactively coordinating to keep New Yorkers and tourists safe. We will also issue targeted alerts through our city's advanced warning system to protect our most vulnerable neighbors, like older New Yorkers and those with chronic illnesses. Beginning tomorrow, the city will open hundreds of cooling centers across the five boroughs, including locations at the Javits Center, our schools, a number of library branches and right here at NYCEM headquarters. Visit nyc.gov/beattheheat for a map of cooling center, including accessible and pet-friendly options and for more information on how to stay safe. Our plan also includes several first-of-their-kind measures. To protect our most vulnerable New Yorkers, we are activating more than 2,200 link NYC kiosks to display real-time directions to the nearest NYC cooling center within a 10-minute walk. We are also launching a fleet of 15 never-before-used Cooling Outreach On-location Vans. These vehicles, known as COOL vans, are operated by New York City Health + Hospitals and will be open to any New Yorker who needs medical care; resources like water and electrolytes; meals including vegetarian, kosher and halal options; and transport to cooling centers. They will be staffed by medical providers who will also be checking in on older adults in their homes to provide them with relief from the heat. As we activate a Code Red tomorrow, we are intensifying our street canvas and outreach efforts from noon up until 8 p.m. A total of 600 outreach workers will reach out to New Yorkers in need. Shelters are available system-wide for anyone who is homeless. Walk-ins are welcome. And with conditions this dangerous, I am asking every New Yorker to make a heat plan before the worst of it arrives. The single most important thing you can do in these temperatures is to stay indoors with air conditioning. If you can avoid going outside during the hottest hours of the day, please do so. Start figuring out your work and childcare arrangements and know where you will go to stay cool. A few minutes of planning now could help your family stay safe later. Once you have your heat plan, check in on your neighbors, especially seniors, to make sure that they have one too. And if you see someone outside and vulnerable to this heat, call 311 and an outreach team will be sent to help. I'm also asking every employer to plan ahead with their teams, build in flexibility and make sure no one is put at risk during their jobs this week. City government will contact 75,000 licensees to encourage heat illness plans, reiterate labor laws and remind workers that they are entitled to protected time off for heat-related health issues. Our Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is also partnering with community-based organizations to expand pop-up cooling stations for outdoor workers, including street vendors, delivery workers and day laborers. Last week, I signed an executive order focused on protecting workers from the hazards of heat. Our administration is hard at work developing guidelines that will keep workers safe. While we finalize these guidelines, I want to urge all employers in New York City to develop those plans to protect your employees. It is not enough to say that they can take breaks when their paycheck is on the line. Workers cannot cool down when they have quotas to meet; they cannot go into a cooling center when they are on the clock. Please make a point of ensuring that your employees know their rights and that they will not face consequences for staying safe. And to every business owner, please set your thermostats to 78 degrees to alleviate the stress on our power grid. Every worker in New York City has the right to a safe workplace and that includes safety in extreme heat. For New Yorkers looking for other ways to stay cool, our Parks Department offers hundreds of spray showers and thousands of drinking fountains across the five boroughs. They also maintain about 50 free outdoor swimming pools with general hours of operation between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. And during the heat emergency, Olympic and intermediate-sized pools will be open until 8 p.m. To find one near you, go to nycgovparks.org/facilities. Our 14 miles of public beaches will also remain open during this heat wave, with lifeguards on duty between 10 a.m. and 6p.m. And for those who want to keep cool with a fire hydrant, anyone 18 or older can obtain a free, city-approved fire hydrants spray cap from their local firehouse. However you plan to spend these next few days, the best way to stay up to date is by signing up for Notify NYC. All you have to do is to text NOTIFYNYC to 692-692. Finally, we know that these temperatures are arriving during what should be a week of celebration, gathering and outdoor fun. New York City is welcoming the world this week with World Cup matches, 4 of July events and Sail4th 250 commemorations. City agencies are currently coordinating here today at the Emergency Operations Center for the World Cup match, and no one is better prepared to handle complicated events and dangerous weather. Together, we will continue managing the heat, this month's celebrations and whatever comes our way. We also want to ask New Yorkers to look out for tourists who may not be used to this heat. Help someone looking for a water fountain, bring someone you may see struggling into the shade and, yes, share your sunscreen. And if you or someone you know has hot, dry skin, trouble breathing, rapid heartbeat, confusion, disorientation, dizziness, nausea or are vomiting, do not hesitate, call 911 immediately. Our city has faced heat like this before and each time we have gotten through it by looking out for one another. This weekend will be no different. Make a plan, stay hydrated and check on your neighbors. Thank you. I will now pass it over to our NYCEM Commissioner, Christina Farrell.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source So, I appreciate the question, and I also appreciate the focus. We have been in conversations with our partners in labor. I think one of the key things I do want to highlight is that our lifeguards are out there for hours in this intense heat, and they are doing so while providing what are oftentimes life-saving services to New Yorkers. And so, we are also looking to negotiate their safety as well as that of New Yorkers at large. At this time, as I shared earlier, it is still the standard hours. However, we have made an extension at our city pools, and some of that also comes as a reflection of the unique challenges when it comes to our beaches. And then the first question that you asked, we are doing something which city government has not done before, which is that we are reaching out to more than 70,000 licensees of both DCWP and DOHMH, reminding them of their obligations under labor law and also encouraging them to put forward plans to deal with heat-related illness as well as guidance for their employees. The executive order that I signed a few days ago or a week ago — to be honest with you, I'm not sure what time is at this moment. That is one that spoke about us promulgating rules over a period of time. That is obviously continuing, but the heat is not waiting for anyone. I'm going to just call up our DCWP Commissioner Levine to add some additional details.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source We will always look to be direct with New Yorkers about the dangers that they will face from this level of heat. As I've said, we know that on an annual basis we lose about 500 New Yorkers due to heat-related illness. However, we are speaking about conditions that go beyond that of an annual basis. We are speaking about what could be the hottest day in more than a decade. And we will continue to communicate with New Yorkers over the course of these next few days.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source As you have mentioned, we are speaking about not just the next few days, but also a federal holiday coming up with July 4. And we have worked with a number of libraries [that] will be open throughout the entirety of this period of heat. As was said earlier, the most intensive period of the heat is tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. It continues to be hot, but slightly less over the weekend. For New Yorkers who want to have the most up-to-date information of where each and every cooling center will be available, go to nyc.gov/beattheheat. Whether it's tomorrow or it's Saturday or it’s Sunday, there will be more than 200 cooling centers available. And for the first time, we are going to have not only these cooling centers in fixed physical locations, but also busses that will serve as cooling centers as well as vans that will transport people to cooling centers and also, most importantly, checking in on older adults that anyone has called with concerns about.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source My recommendation to all New Yorkers is to stay inside and stay cool, and if you happen to be getting married at Madison Square Garden, you will be staying inside and you will be staying cool. And I think it's a good example to set for the city at large. These temperatures are extraordinary temperatures. Yes, we are proud to be hosting World Cup matches. I think France and Sweden is kicking off shortly. And we are proud to have Sail4th 250 as well as [celebrating] the 250th anniversary of our nation. And we also know that even if this were just any other year — to be breaking into triple digits over the course of these many next days, it is of immense concern given that too often the heat is something that is underestimated. You know, we have heard from commissioners across a wide variety of city agencies [and] departments. We cannot emphasize enough how important it is to stay safe, how important it is to take this heat seriously. Many of us grew up watching commercials where they would tell us to “stay thirsty, my friends.” I think the recommendation for this weekend is to stay quenched. Drink as much water as you can [and] put on as much sunscreen as you can find. This is a time to try and stay indoors as much as you can. And for those who want to be outside, we always want to do whatever we can to make sure that's safe, whether it's extending the hours at New York City swimming pools, or it's ensuring that we are providing as much guidance as possible to get to a place with air conditioning. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Holds Press Conference to Prepare New Yorkers for Extreme Heat.