Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Hosts Town Hall on MS Now's All In with Chris Hayes
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
You know, I think the biggest thing, first and foremost, is that New Yorkers trust all of the big ideas that we have about delivering universal childcare [and] about making the most expensive city in America affordable for working class people who help keep it running. That trust starts when you fill in those potholes, because you can't tell someone to trust City government and its ability to deliver free childcare for two-year-olds for the first time in its history if they can look out the window and see the same pothole unfilled as it was the day before, the week before, the month before, [or] the year before. And so, at the same time that we've been pursuing this agenda that would transform the lives of New Yorkers, delivering a pathway to universal childcare on day eight, we've also filled in 102,000 potholes in that same 100-day period. We started to repave more than 1,000 miles of roadway. And all of this comes back from a belief that there's no problem too big, no task too small and we call this "pothole politics."
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceVery much so. I think oftentimes people think of politics as an intellectual debate. Working people want to know if you can actually deliver for them. And one of those mayors in Milwaukee, their phrase was, "Go after it and get it." We've talked about this for long enough. New Yorkers want to see [if] can you actually deliver on these things? And they want to measure it in the way that they experience government on a day-to-day basis. That's why we're focusing on the little things while also pursuing the big ones.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWell, I think it goes back to what you were saying earlier, which is that the worth of an ideology is judged in its delivery. And to me, this is an incredible opportunity. We've been told for so long, even over the course of the campaign, that things like universal childcare could never be done. On day eight, I stood next to Governor Hochul; we announced $1.2 billion in funding that will now, for the first time in New York City history, deliver free childcare for two-year-olds. And that is something that you don't have to explain to a parent.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source2,000 seats this year, 12,000 seats next year, and then every single two-year-old by the end of year four. And the importance of that– It will happen. This is not an inshallah promise. This is definitely happening. And I say that to you because, you know, Senator Warren talks about childcare as infrastructure. The way that you deliver this, it's not just a question of securing the funding. It's also working with the childcare providers who have been at the heart of what's made it possible for so many families to be here and building out their capacity to deliver for more children than we've ever seen engaging in this kind of service in New York City.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWell, I think there's a few things. We're seeing that our approach to public safety is working, and not just in a sense of a general decline, but to actually correct you a little, it's not just the lowest number of murders in the last few decades. It's the lowest number of murders ever in recorded history [and] the joint lowest number of shootings. It's a decline of crime across major categories by more than 9 percent. It's also not enough. New Yorkers do not measure their lives by statistics. They want to know that you are doing everything in your power to deliver public safety. And the importance of public safety, is not actually divorced from the conversation around affordability. It's the cornerstone. It's the platform that allows you to do that work of affordability. Because if someone is not safe in their city, then that is the first concern they have, even before the other ones that we speak about.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI wouldn't say so. I'll push you on it a little bit for a few reasons. One of the reasons that I made the decision to retain our police commissioner was not just because of what she was delivering in terms of public safety, but also [because of] how she'd been able to uproot corruption from the upper echelons of the NYPD. We need a government that is not just efficient but also excellent, one that can be trusted in the work that it does. Now, my belief in the importance of disbanding the Strategic Response Group, continues just as strongly as it [did] during the campaign. The reason for that is I don't think we need to couple our response to protests with our response to counterterrorism threats. This is a modern conflation that has happened, and it's one that I'm committed to disbanding. The disbanding of it is one that we're going to do thoughtfully to ensure that we are also respecting the right to protest and keeping New Yorkers safe, but again, it's not an if for me. It's a when.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWell, you know, when you were introducing this and we were stepping out, you were saying, "These are New Yorkers. No one's going to be shy about their opinions." And in many ways, one of the few things the president and I have in common is that we are both New Yorkers. For all of our political disagreements, we have one agreement of chief importance, which is that we love this city. And with the president, I'm honest, I'm direct and I try and always bring it back to what would actually benefit this city. So, when I'm sitting there with the president and I'm talking about the opportunity to work together to deliver more housing than we've seen in a single housing development since the early 1970s, I'm also speaking about the fact that I think that ICE raids are cruel and inhumane, and that the fact that morning they had detained a Columbia student is part and parcel of why this is not something that is actually serving the interests of public safety. And so, I gave the president a list of five names of people who were detained in or around Columbia. He called me 30 minutes after the meeting and said, "I've made the decision to release the student that you brought up."
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think the president knows exactly where I stand on these issues, and I know where the president stands on these issues. I ran a campaign speaking very plainly about the fact that in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the world, it's unacceptable that one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty. And as we're facing a generational fiscal deficit, I believe it's only right to ask those who don't live in New York City but who own a second home in New York City, and that second home is worth more than $5 million in New York City, to pay a little bit more so that everyone can afford to live here.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWe don't have exceptions in our taxes that we propose.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI mean, my relationship with the president is important to deliver for New Yorkers, and I've made it very clear to the president that increased ICE presence, would just be an increase on what we've seen with ICE raids, which is just cruel and inhumane. I've also been honest about the fact that I think ICE is an agency that should be abolished. It's a modern creation. Our country has had answers to immigration long before we had ICE. And we also see that these kinds of raids – just a few nights ago, ICE detained a delivery worker. This is a man who came to this city with the dreams of building up a life for himself and his family. No active investigation, no warrant. He finished a Grubhub delivery and then was taken by armed, masked federal agents. That's what we're talking about here in New York City. It's the public school student, Dylan Contreras, whose family we worked with to ensure that he would come home; that's the kind of person that's getting detained in this city, and that's why New Yorkers are sick of this approach – one, frankly, in a complete absence of humanity.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think that's at the heart of what we're looking to do, because what the middle class represents to so many, not just New Yorkers, but Americans, is stability. It's dignity. It's the ability to not just go out there and work but also have somewhere to come home to at the end of the day and be able to rest on top of that. And–
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWell, I think the beauty of a public good is that it should be so good that everyone uses it. To me, I don't want public goods to be something that you only use if you don't have enough money in your pocket. The dream of New York City is in many ways the dream of the subway at its best. It's the fastest way to get around. [It] doesn't matter how much money you have; that's how you get to where you're going. And that's what we want childcare to be. That's what we want so much [for[ this city to be so that working class New Yorkers are not worried about whether they can survive in this city, but actually, can they build a life in this city? That's what we want the answer to be.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceAnd you're not alone in that. This is the story of so many parents who a good deal would be if they found $20,000 a year for a child. That's a good deal in New York City. And this is not something that just affects working class New Yorkers or middle-class New Yorkers. We have people making north of six figures for whom that is still going to have a huge impact on their ability to live in the city.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceAnd I think it is something that I think about often. Because as much as I think about public goods, I think about public excellence. We don't want to try and convince a New Yorker in a conversation about the worth of something; we want to be able to prove it to them through what it is that we're delivering. And I think that's where it comes back to: the taxes that we're calling for on the wealthiest of the wealthy, the most profitable corporations of those that do business here in New York, are ones that we would then use that revenue to transform the lives of every New Yorker. Because when we go back to it–
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI don't think there's anything where we should look at it and say, "I'm satisfied." Everything is something that has to be improved upon. And this is one place where I actually have a point of agreement with Jamie Dimon. I believe that none of us should rest on our laurels. [For] a long time where people have thought that greatness is something that can be inherited. You have to fight for it and earn it every single day. Whether it's our schools, whether it's our streets, whether it's our subway, we have to win the trust of New Yorkers by what we're delivering to them, not just tell them, "Trust me, this is actually as good as it can be."
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI'm confident, and I'm confident because of the fact– If I wasn't confident – I wouldn't say that we should be doing this. I think at the end of it, we're talking about something that's not negotiable: food. This is not something that is a nice-to-have for New Yorkers. This is what they build their lives around. And since the pandemic, we've seen grocery store prices increase, and they haven't come back down. And we're talking about one city-run grocery store in each borough of New York City. Five in total. And La Marqueta, the site that you mentioned, close to 100 years ago, [is] where Fiorello La Guardia opened up a market with the explicit intention of reducing the price of fruits and vegetables. In that very neighborhood, close to 40 percent of the residents in the surrounding area are on public assistance. These are New Yorkers who – they do not know if they can afford to get eggs, bread, chicken when they next go to the grocery store. We want them to be able to build a life around some certainty when it comes to the essentials.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI really – first of all, appreciate the work that you do. Grocery stores, New Yorkers build their lives around. I would say a few things. The first is, yes, there are food deserts in New York City. And also, we said that we needed to ensure that we were providing affordable groceries to the New Yorkers being priced out of it. When we talk about East Harlem or El Barrio, we're talking about a neighborhood where so many are being priced out of the basic essentials. My vision is not that there isn't room for multiple grocery stores. My vision is that there is a grocery store within New Yorkers' reach where they know that they can afford certain things. The other thing I would say is the business model of a grocery store or of a bodega; these are business models also that have the revenue raisers of sometimes, whether it's selling alcohol or lottery products or tobacco– –That's not what a city-run grocery store is going to be selling. What we're talking about are the essentials that you can actually build a healthy life around. And what this comes back to is a lot of times in our country, we're condescending towards working people. We say, "Why don't you eat healthier? Why don't you eat better?" It is cheaper to eat worse in this country. We want to actually make it easier to be healthy.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWhat we see in this city is that grocery stores can exist alongside other grocery stores. We know [this] in a lot of parts of New York City. My vision is not that this become the only grocery store, [but] rather that this be an option amongst an ecosystem that includes our brother's grocery store and so many others.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThere have been a number of settlements. There was a settlement that Gustavo was speaking of. Overall, the settlements all come out to about $9.3 million. These are settlements for delivery workers [and] for low-wage workers at fast food restaurants. These are also settlements for small businesses who were ripped off by these delivery apps. And we're talking about being ripped off sometimes of wages, sometimes in terms of protections and sometimes making it harder for customers to give tips, which many delivery workers are relying on to actually make ends meet. And I just want to say, brother, thank you for your advocacy, because the work that you and so many other delivery workers do in this city is incredibly difficult. And thanks to you and so many others, that's work that finally the city has to actually recognize.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI mean, this is where it comes back to, which is that we have to build more affordable housing and preserve more affordable housing, right? Right now, we're in the midst of putting together our housing plan, which is looking to chart out how we can make this a city where not only the tenants of today can be able to remain, but also we can build for the New Yorkers of tomorrow. And so, for us, it's the capital of investing in building this housing, and then it's also the operation when we're talking about ensuring that we're actually having the inspectors to ensure the habitability of this housing. I mean, the first time that so much of what I've been able to see personally over the last few months has been accompanying inspectors as they've looked at so many of the conditions tenants have had to live through and found it far from habitable.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWhen I say that I care about the cost of living, I care about it for everyone, for tenants, for landlords– For everyone, truly. And what I've heard from a lot of landlords of affordable housing is one of the costs that has really been skyrocketing in the last few years has been insurance. We're seeing that go up to levels that have not been seen before in this city. And so, one of the things that we put forward was the creation of a city-backed insurance program that will finally be able not just to save the city money but also these landlords who have been price gouged at the insurance rates that they're paying across the city.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWe want to use every tool we have to actually reach New Yorkers. A lot of times in politics, it feels like you're just speaking in an echo chamber. And New Yorkers are very busy. They don't have time to tune into the exact way you want them to listen to you. You have to reach out to the way that they're engaging with the world. And I think about the greatest mayor in our city's history, Fiorello La Guardia. One of the hallmarks of his approach was the use of the cutting-edge technology of the time to reach out to every New Yorker. That's what we're looking to do. For all the focus on the medium, though, I would say that sometimes the message does get lost.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWell, you have to eat healthy. You can't only eat red meat.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think what it's a reflection of is that we're speaking about a city that's the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty. We're speaking about people who can't afford their basics. Our vision of a city is not one where we push anybody out of it. Our vision, rather, is one where there's room for everybody to stay here. Because for all of the back-and-forth about the question of capital flight– and when we have a disagreement around fiscal policy, a lot of times it will come to that question – we don't spend as much time talking about the already existing exodus of working-class New Yorkers. We're seeing New Yorkers leave this city, and a lot of it comes back to the cost of housing [and] the cost of childcare. I mean, we're talking about childcare, families – 80 percent of families with children under the age of five can't afford childcare in this city. They're leaving to find a place where they can afford it.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI don't think that we are talking about that at this time, frankly. I don't think that – you know, when we talk about increasing personal income taxes on the top one percent of New Yorkers by two percent, or we're talking about increasing the corporate tax on the most profitable corporations, a lot of times what we're talking about doesn't even come close to what the tax rates used to be in this city or used to be in this country, right? For all the conversation of the now, we forget where we were in terms of this country's relationship to the tax.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think that we're looking to get right up to that limit of everything that we can do. And the reason I say that is that one of the most frustrating things you can tell a New Yorker when they ask you for help is, "That's actually not my jurisdiction. That's a federal issue. That's a local issue. That's a state issue." New Yorkers don't have time for the technical differences between what government sector is responsible for what thing. They want to know, what are you going to do about it? And so, I know that this federal government has not had much interest in providing in the kinds of things that we're talking about. You know, they have provided incredible tax cuts for the wealthiest across this country. And we're looking at a level of inequality right here in the engine of this country's economy. So, we're going to do everything we can to make this a livable city, and we're going to do it by asking ourselves, what are the non-negotiables for New Yorkers? How can we deliver them?
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think this actually goes back to the question that we had earlier from the New Yorker that I had met on Fordham Road, where he said, "I want to know where these taxes are going." For me, the importance of this is to deliver a quality of service that is unparalleled in this country. We're talking about earning people's trust of living in this city.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Hosts Town Hall on MS Now's All In with Chris Hayes.