Live from LaGuardia Community College in Queens, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Liwa take the stage for the final general election debate in the race for Mayor of New York City. The candidates debate the biggest issues in the city, including the cost of living, the education crisis, and public safety.
00:00:56.000Welcome to the final general election debate in the race for mayor of New York City.
00:01:01.000I'm Errol Lewis, political anchor here at Spectrum News New York One, and we're coming to you live from the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center at LaGuardia Community College in Queens.
00:01:10.000Over the next 90 minutes, you're going to hear from the leading mayoral candidates about the biggest issues in New York, including the cost of living, the education crisis, and public safety.
00:01:20.000I'm joined tonight by Katie Honen of the news organization, The City, and Brian Lehrer of WNYC Radio and Gothamist.
00:01:30.000Tonight's debate is brought to you by the New York City Campaign Finance Board, the city agency that administers the public matching funds program.
00:01:39.000It's also sponsored by Spectrum News New York One, WNYC Gothamist, and the news site The City and Spectrum Noticias, and our co-sponsors, the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, the Center for New York City and State Law at New York Law School, the Museum of the City of New York, and John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
00:02:01.000You can watch tonight's debate without a paywall on ny1.com.
00:02:06.000It is also being broadcast on NYC TV, WNYC Radio, C-SPAN, the Spectrum News YouTube page, and thecity.nyc.
00:02:18.000It's in Spanish on Spectrum Noticias and YouTube.
00:02:22.000The candidates joining us tonight have met a fundraising threshold established by the Campaign Finance Board.
00:02:28.000The seat is currently held by Eric Adams, who has decided not to run for re-election.
00:02:34.000In alphabetical order, Andrew Cuomo is a former governor of New York, running on an independent line.
00:02:41.000Zaran Mamdani is the Democratic nominee, representing parts of Queens in the State Assembly since 2021.
00:02:48.000And Curtis Liwa is the Republican nominee and the founder of the Guardian Angels.
00:02:55.000The rules you see on your screen right now have been agreed to by all of the candidates.
00:02:59.000Each candidate will deliver an opening statement of up to 45 seconds, and then answers to our questions will generally be limited to 60 seconds with a chance for rebuttals.
00:03:10.000Candidates will have an opportunity to ask one opponent one question in our cross-examination round.
00:03:18.000This will be the last time all three candidates will be together on stage.
00:03:21.000The next mayor will be sworn into office 71 days from now on January 1st, 2026.
00:03:27.000He will inherit a city with an affordability crisis, a tense relationship with the federal government, and millions of New Yorkers who very likely did not support him.
00:03:37.000Let's begin our debate with your opening statements to viewers.
00:04:25.000Tonight, I want you to look at the content of my policies, to know that I've served this city for more than 50 years, the city that I love.
00:04:34.000And I'm going to share with you my vision to make New York City safer again, to make New York City more affordable again, and where everybody once again can live the American dream.
00:05:00.000New York is the greatest city on the globe, but we are at a pivotal moment.
00:05:06.000And the voters are going to have to decide in this election what candidate has the plan to save this city and what candidate can get it done, not just talk about it.
00:05:58.000Thank you to the moderators and thank you to New Yorkers for tuning in.
00:06:01.000I know you'd rather be watching the Knicks.
00:06:03.000While there are three candidates on this stage, you will hear only two messages.
00:06:08.000My opponents, who spend more time trying to convince the other to drop out than actually proposing their own policies, will speak only of the past, because that's all that they know.
00:06:17.000I am the sole candidate running with a vision for the future of this city.
00:06:22.000Andrew Cuomo will spend much of tonight attacking me.
00:06:25.000He is a desperate man, lashing out because he knows that the one thing he's always cared about, power, is now slipping away from him.
00:06:33.000He will amplify right-wing talking points.
00:06:35.000He will share conspiracy theories, and he will do these things to make you feel that this should keep you up at night.
00:06:40.000But I've been spending the last year listening to New Yorkers, and I know what actually keeps you up.
00:06:44.000It's whether or not you can afford to live a safe and dignified life in this city.
00:06:54.000Let's start tonight with some breaking news that happened yesterday afternoon when federal agents descended on Canal Street, arresting street vendors who have been selling counterfeit designer merchandise for as long as any of us can remember.
00:07:06.000This is the first time we've seen major federal law enforcement activity in the city outside of arrests at immigration court in lower Manhattan.
00:07:14.000And some critics are now ringing an alarm bell, calling it a dangerous and unprecedented use of federal agents in New York City.
00:07:20.000Others say that the vendors were a major quality of life problem in the neighborhood that the NYPD had ignored.
00:07:27.000So the candidate, I'll ask each of you to respond to this.
00:07:30.000How should the mayor and the NYPD have handled both the presence of the street vendors and then the federal action?
00:08:45.000ICE is a reckless entity that cares little for the law and even less for the people that they're supposed to serve.
00:08:52.000What we need to be doing here in our city is to end the chapter of collaboration between City Hall and the federal government, which we've seen under Mayor Adams.
00:09:01.000What we need to do is actually pass the street vending reform bills that have been in the city council, some of which that this mayor has actually overridden.
00:09:10.000That's an example of how we can both protect street vendors, ensure quality of life, and leave no stone unturned in delivering for the people of the city, as opposed to working with a president who's looking to declare war on those same people.
00:09:24.000Unlike both of my adversaries, I've patrolled that area many times, church and canal.
00:09:29.000And as you said, Errol, that activity has been going on for a long time, selling the knockoff, sometimes stolen contraband by a series of people.
00:09:38.000The local fifth precinct, they make arrests when they have obviously cause to do so.
00:09:45.000And they complain that they have to release them because of no cash bail, of which both of my adversaries are in favor of and I'm not.
00:09:52.000The feds should not have stepped into this situation.
00:09:55.000There is not communication between the local authorities and the feds.
00:10:00.000This is a matter that should have been left up to the NYPD.
00:10:03.000But we can't tolerate citizens attacking our federal law enforcement forces in the street because then that will just lead to anarchy.
00:10:16.000President Trump has been commenting on this race and all of you on a regular basis.
00:10:20.000He's been less than glowing when talking about each of you, especially you, Mr. Mohamdani.
00:10:25.000I'd like you each to describe whatever combination of defiance, diplomacy, and cooperation you will use as mayor if President Trump continues to increase the federal government's role in the affairs of our city while also threatening to decrease funding.
00:10:41.000Start with you this time, Mr. Sleeward.
00:10:43.000Both my adversaries have decided to bump chess with President Trump to prove who's more macho.
00:11:54.000Yeah, the difference on this question is I've actually lived it and I've done it with President Trump over many years through the most difficult situation that this country has gone through, COVID plus.
00:12:28.000He was going to cut aid to federal programs and I stopped him.
00:12:32.000But you also want to be in a place where you can cooperate on good things because we need federal help if we're going to save our city and rebuild our city.
00:13:20.000We first just heard from the Republican candidate for mayor, and then we heard from Donald Trump's puppet himself, Andrew Cuomo.
00:13:26.000You could turn on TV any day of the week, and you will hear Donald Trump share that his pick for mayor is Andrew Cuomo.
00:13:34.000And he wants Andrew Cuomo to be the mayor, not because it will be good for New Yorkers, but because it will be good for him.
00:13:40.000Look, Donald Trump ran on three promises.
00:13:42.000He ran on creating the single largest deportation force in American history.
00:13:46.000He ran on going after his political enemies, and he ran on lowering the cost of living.
00:13:50.000If he wants to talk to me about the third piece of that agenda, I will always be ready and willing.
00:13:55.000But if he wants to talk about how to pursue the first and second piece of that agenda at the expense of New Yorkers, I will fight him every single step of the way.
00:14:59.000Yeah, and the cost of living is our next topic.
00:15:02.000You've all cited it as a major factor.
00:15:04.000And of course, so many New Yorkers are experiencing this, especially when it comes to rising housing costs.
00:15:11.000And many New Yorkers were shocked this week as a new report from the group Advocates for Children revealed that about 154,000 New York City public school students have been homeless at some point during the last year.
00:15:54.000This is a stain on our city to see this many children in our public school system be homeless and to know that this is the ninth consecutive year that it's more than 100,000 of those children.
00:16:05.000What we need to do is ensure that next year is not the same.
00:16:09.000And we are going to do that by building the housing necessary such that New Yorkers are not priced out of this city or forced to live in shelters.
00:16:16.000And that's why my campaign is going to deliver 200,000 new affordable homes across the five boroughs, all while freezing the rent for more than 2 million rent-stabilized tenants.
00:16:26.000Now, in the public school system, we also have a program called Every Child and Family is Known.
00:16:31.000It links a child who is living in a homeless shelter with an employee of the public school system.
00:16:36.000It also links that employee with the child's family.
00:16:38.000It's been shown to increase attendance records, self-esteem, a level of belonging in that school system.
00:16:44.000I am going to increase that pilot program to more than 200 schools, and we're going to do it because we have to deliver for these children.
00:19:28.000But let's get back on topic because I'm the only candidate up here who's been into many of the over 300 Department of Homeless Services shelters and the family shelters are unsafe for the families there.
00:19:42.000We have to bring teachers into the shelter.
00:19:45.000Many times, the mothers or the guardian have to get on bus after bus and take them to a school that's two or two and a half hours away.
00:19:54.000This is a horror situation that's taking place.
00:19:57.000And we have to prioritize this because this number of homeless children is going to grow.
00:20:01.000It takes five years to build affordable housing.
00:20:04.000We need to address it in the shelters itself to be able to handle it so that the teachers can come in, whether they're public school teachers, charter school teachers, and I know there are a number of parochial school teachers who love children who would volunteer their efforts to do that.
00:20:20.000We're going to give it to Katie Honen now to ask about another aspect of affordable housing.
00:20:26.000We're going to switch to the millions of New Yorkers who are renters, specifically those in rent-regulated apartments.
00:20:31.000There are more than a million New Yorkers living in these units, most of them rent-stabilized.
00:20:36.000Mr. Mamdani, you've proposed a rent freeze for these tenants.
00:20:39.000Mr. Cuomo, you don't support that, and you've proposed a new means test for having a rent-stabilized apartment.
00:20:46.000Mr. Mamdani, our question: How can you know in advance what the balance between landlord needs and tenant needs will be in future years?
00:20:55.000We've seen a lot of inflation in recent years.
00:20:57.000Haven't small landlords felt that pinch as well?
00:21:00.000And then we have other questions for the other candidates.
00:21:02.000You know, we've seen time and again mayors use their power with the rent guidelines board to hike the rent on those same more than 2 million New Yorkers.
00:21:11.000This same rent guidelines board did a study that found that landlords of those units had seen their profits increase by more than 12 percent.
00:21:19.000Their response: hike the rent on rent-stabilized tenants who have a median household income of $60,000.
00:21:26.000I believe that tenants across our city deserve relief, and I also believe that city government can work to alleviate the pressures for landlords of those units without having to put that burden on those same tenants.
00:21:37.000It's possible to keep New Yorkers in this city and to help landlords with rising insurance costs, water bills, Con Edison, and a broken property tax system.
00:22:01.000That's what the mayor can control right away.
00:22:03.000We need to move those families with children in.
00:22:06.000For those who live in rent-stabilized apartments and have their rent subsidized, Zoran Mandami, we need to make sure that the big realtors have to pay a vacancy tax because they're holding off on those apartments.
00:22:24.000They're not putting them out into the marketplace because they want to flip the building.
00:22:27.000Not for the mid-sized landlords or the small landlords.
00:22:40.000And they're deciding not to put them in the marketplace when somebody either leaves or dies because they have to deal with tenant-landlord court, which is an absolute nightmare for small landlords.
00:22:51.000We got to make sure it's a fair playing field so that the tenants are protected, but the landlords are protected so they're not stuck with squatters for four, five, or six years, which destroys their equity and forces them to leave.
00:23:08.000Mr. Cuomo, you signed a law in 2019 repealing a means test to live in a rent-stabilized apartment.
00:23:15.000What's your position now and what changed in that?
00:23:18.000The 2019 law was added tenant protections that had never been added before and protections against tenant evictions.
00:23:30.000But to answer your question, you cannot, Zoran said, the tenant doesn't have to pay more rent, but we're going to cover the landlord's costs.
00:24:32.000You know, if you want a candidate for mayor who tells you everything that he cannot do, then Andrew Cuomo should be your choice.
00:24:41.000If you want a candidate for mayor who will use every tool at their disposal, including the nine appointees at the Rent Guidelines Board, all of whom are appointed by the mayor, then I am the candidate for you.
00:25:23.000Candidates, right now, we are just blocks away from the site of the Long Island City rezoning plan, which has been under consideration for a decade at this point, and in its latest version would create 15,000 new apartments.
00:25:35.000That plan, like the recently passed City of Yes five borough rezoning, reflects a reality that hundreds of thousands of units, as many as 1 million new units, will be needed in New York City over the next 10 years.
00:25:49.000What is your plan to get new units built quickly?
00:25:52.000And the order of this will be Mr. Cuomo, then Mr. Sliwa, then Mr. Mamdani.
00:25:58.000Sliwa said before it takes five years to build affordable housing.
00:26:21.000You have to change the entire organizational structure.
00:26:26.000You have the zoning, but you have to start hundreds, if not thousands, of sites simultaneously.
00:26:34.000Private sector developers, partner with not-for-profits, partner with CDCs, use city-owned sites, use air rights, make a deal with the unions.
00:26:46.000But this has to be the number one priority.
00:26:49.000The way I did Second Avenue Subway or the Mario Como Bridge or the Kosciasco Bridge, this project is thousands of housing developments being accelerated, expedited, facilitated at one time.
00:28:01.000You set up a partnership with developers.
00:28:04.000It'll put men and women to work and you'll get your affordable apartments a lot quicker and not be a burden to the outer boroughs and the residential communities because you're in the back pockets, Andrew, of the developers who wine-dined and pocketlined you.
00:28:20.000Let me ask you a follow-up on that, Mr. Sliwa.
00:28:22.000Do you think each elected city council member should have basically veto power over whether or not housing gets built in their district?
00:29:05.000We need to do this by streamlining the processes of private sector construction across the city, by ensuring we're building more around hubs of mass transit.
00:29:13.000And we also need to ensure that the public sector is building truly affordable housing.
00:29:19.000And what I mean by truly affordable is housing that is built with the median household income in mind, which is $70,000 for a family of four.
00:29:27.000And that's why my administration will do exactly that, scaling up programs we already had in HPD, like senior affordable rental apartments, SARA, like ELA, extremely low-level affordability.
00:29:38.000These are the kinds of programs that will deliver a city that New Yorkers can actually afford.
00:29:43.000There was reference to the three housing-related charter amendment questions.
00:29:47.000I know Mr. Cuomo is on the record as saying he favors them.
00:29:50.000We just heard Mr. Sleewa say that he's against them.
00:29:54.000I'm appreciative that those measures will be on the ballot and that New Yorkers will be able to cast their votes for them.
00:29:59.000I know that we desperately need to build more housing in this city, and I also know that the jobs we create in the building of that housing should be good jobs as well.
00:30:07.000Lady Flancho, what is your opinion, Zoran?
00:30:51.000Candidates, the rhetoric on the campaign trail has become more heated in recent weeks.
00:30:55.000We have reached a point where two of the candidates on stage here tonight have armed security.
00:31:00.000I would like to spend a few minutes to see if we can dial down the rhetoric.
00:31:04.000Mr. Mamdani, some Jewish New Yorkers continue to say that your comments on Israel and the war in Gaza leave them feeling unsafe and concerned about their future in our city.
00:31:13.000Recently, several prominent New York rabbis took the unusual step of denouncing your candidacy, including the rabbi of the Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan and Rabbi Michael Miller, the longtime leader of the Jewish Community Relations Council, who is a friend to many of us.
00:31:27.000Do you have any regrets about how you've dealt with these issues?
00:31:30.000And will your long-standing views on the subject get in the way of your ability to be an effective mayor?
00:31:36.000I look forward to being a mayor for every single person that calls this city home.
00:31:41.000Not just those who voted for me in the Democratic primary, not just those that vote for me in this general election, but all 8.5 million New Yorkers.
00:31:48.000And that includes Jewish New Yorkers who may have concerns or opposition to the positions that I've shared about Israel and Palestine.
00:31:55.000You know, just a few weeks ago, I was on the M57, the slowest bus in New York City.
00:32:00.000And as I was seated there, there was a speech therapist who was sitting next to me.
00:32:06.000She said that her daughter was a huge fan, but that she was not yet decided on who she was going to vote for.
00:32:11.000And she shared to me about her fears in this city about rising anti-Semitism.
00:32:15.000And I told her what I will tell New Yorkers today, which is that I will be the mayor who doesn't just protect Jewish New Yorkers, but also celebrates and cherishes them, who doesn't just increase funding to hate crime prevention programs by 800%, who doesn't just ensure that the NYPD are outside of synagogues and temples on the high holy days, but also actually delivers on the implementation of the hidden voices curriculum in our school system so that children in this city learn about the beauty and the breadth of the Jewish experience right here in the five boroughs.
00:33:06.000It was 650 rabbis who signed the letter, not several.
00:33:12.000Let me ask you a related question, Mr. Cuomo.
00:33:15.000Many New Yorkers have serious grievances with Israel and the way the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu has conducted the war in Gaza and expanded settlements in the West Bank.
00:33:25.000What would you say to and how would you handle New Yorkers who are in the streets, if you were mayor, protesting the actions of the Netanyahu government?
00:33:41.000And there is no doubt that there's two sides on what's going on and the passions are very high.
00:33:46.000That doesn't, that doesn't justify anti-Semitic behavior in New York.
00:33:52.000It doesn't justify having a Jewish population that feels unprotected in New York.
00:33:58.000It doesn't justify leaders who stoke the flames of hatred against Jewish people, which is what Zoran does, in my opinion.
00:34:08.000Give him a chance to answer, and then we'll go to Mr. Sliwa.
00:34:12.000You know, I've heard from Jewish New Yorkers about their fears about anti-Semitism in this city.
00:34:19.000And what they deserve is a leader who takes it seriously, who roots it out of these five boroughs, not one who weaponizes it as a means by which to score political points on a debate stage.
00:34:48.000The mother of my two youngest sons who were raised Jewish.
00:34:51.000Melinda Katz is prosecuting this person who came up and tried to do you harm.
00:34:56.000But let me speak on behalf of my two sons.
00:34:59.000When they've heard some of the statements you've made, like in support of global jihad, and I hear some people out there saying the Jews, their time is due, which means the same thing.
00:35:31.000Their family, their friends, many in the Jewish community are concerned if you could become mayor because they don't think when anti-Semitism rears its ugly head, which it's now doing more than ever before, that you will have the ability to come in and put out those flames of hate.
00:35:51.000I think there is room for disagreement on many positions and many policies, but I also want to correct the record.
00:35:59.000I have never, not once, spoken in support of global jihad.
00:36:04.000That is not something that I have said, and that continues to be ascribed to me.
00:36:07.000And frankly, I think much of it has to do with the fact that I am the first Muslim candidate to be on the precipice of winning this election.
00:36:15.000Now, I all the same, Curtis, I do still want to be the mayor that will keep your sons safe, that will keep every single New Yorker safe.
00:36:27.000And it is my job to not only deliver on that commitment, but also to ensure that New Yorkers feel it every single day that they live in the city.
00:36:46.000Then Katie will ask a question to Mr. Sleewa and Mr. Mandani.
00:36:51.000Mr. Cuomo, the last time most New Yorkers saw you before this campaign was when you resigned your seat as governor under scandal in 2021.
00:37:01.000The most recent Quinnipiac University poll in this race shows that 54% of likely voters say you're unethical.
00:37:09.000Meanwhile, you also have strained relations with Governor Hokul, State Attorney General Letitia James, and others.
00:37:15.000What would you say right now to New Yorkers who have questions about your moral compass and concerns that you cannot effectively work with other elected officials?
00:37:25.000Yeah, well, first, you somewhat misstated the facts, but I resigned because there was allegations made.
00:37:34.000I didn't want to waste the time and distract state government.
00:37:38.000I knew it was going to take a long time to sort out.
00:37:41.000I left, which I thought was respectful to state government.
00:38:14.000They haven't gotten one done on time since I was there.
00:38:19.000So don't tell me who knows to work, who knows how to work with the legislature.
00:38:23.000And a mayor being able to deal with that legislature is key, because don't kid yourself, I've watched every governor and mayor since Ed Koch.
00:38:33.000There is a tension between the city and the state.
00:38:49.000Mr. Sleewell, to many New Yorkers, you've often presented yourself as more of a well-known New York character than a serious policy expert.
00:38:56.000Your critics have said your candidacy is making it more likely that Zaran Mamdani can win the election.
00:39:02.000What do you say to them and to others who feel that while your name recognition has seen a boost, your candidacy is not helpful to New Yorkers, including those who share your views?
00:39:12.000Number one, I have 13 campaign offices open throughout the outer boroughs.
00:39:20.000You see the excitement and energy of the working class people that I represent.
00:39:25.000I am the Republican populist candidate representing the working class.
00:39:30.000And I'm also, Katie, the candidate on the independent line, first ever put together by my wife, Nancy, who loves animals like so many.
00:40:02.000I'm out there every day tending to their needs with their guardian angels, doing things that the city and state should have been doing a long time ago, but neglected them and instead spent $7 billion on migrants that we don't even know.
00:40:21.000We should be there for our own people who are suffering and wallowing in desperation and despair.
00:40:29.000Okay, Mr. Malgani, you have criticized the politics of the past where leaders either avoid taking a stand on a key issue or try to be all things to all people.
00:40:38.000But at times during this campaign, you've carefully avoided answering tough questions.
00:40:43.000We saw an instance just a few minutes ago when I asked about how you plan to vote on those ballot initiatives next month.
00:40:50.000We've asked whether you support a major rezoning push for part of Queens, some of which is in your district.
00:40:55.000You've been unclear about how you think the city's schools should be run, its governance structure.
00:41:00.000How is that different from politics as usual?
00:41:04.000When it comes to our schools, I believe that every single child deserves to have an excellent public education.
00:41:13.000And we have not seen that under the stewardship of those schools with this mayoral administration.
00:41:17.000We have not seen it because we are not fully funding those schools.
00:41:20.000We are not on track to comply with the class-size mandates of those schools.
00:41:24.000We are not even on track to ensure greater literacy levels across those schools, despite the strides that have been taken with NYC REITs.
00:41:31.000When it comes to rezoning, I've been very clear that I will always celebrate the addition of additional housing units across the city.
00:41:38.000I also believe that Gantry State Park and Queensbridge Park should be one contiguous park.
00:41:43.000Those are things that one can believe at the same time.
00:41:46.000And my critiques of the politics of the past is right here on the stage.
00:41:52.000You can see in Andrew Cuomo someone who had 10 years to deliver on so much of what he's spoken about.
00:41:58.000He says that taking five years to build affordable housing is the sign of an incompetent government.
00:42:03.000By his own words, that means he must have led an incompetent government.
00:42:07.000That is what we are seeing because that is the record that is actually on offer.
00:42:14.000I understand my friend doesn't really understand government.
00:42:20.000The governor doesn't build housing in New York City.
00:44:34.000We're going to move now to public safety.
00:44:36.000And there was some breaking news from the New York Times that you, Mr. Mondani, would ask Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch to stay on as police commissioner if you are indeed mayor.
00:44:46.000I wanted to confirm that that was true.
00:44:47.000And for Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Sliwa, would you ask the current police commissioner to stay on if you were elected?
00:44:56.000My administration will be relentless in its pursuit of safety and affordability for every New Yorker.
00:45:03.000And the delivery of that will require us to put together a team of the best and the brightest.
00:45:07.000Eric Adams stacked the upper echelons of the NYPD with corruption and incompetence.
00:45:12.000Commissioner Tisch took on a broken status quo, started to deliver accountability, rooting out corruption and reducing crime across the five boroughs.
00:45:20.000I've said time and again that my litmus test for that position will be excellence and the alignment will be of that position.
00:45:27.000And I am confident that under a Momdani administration, we would continue to deliver on that same mission and do so while creating the Department of Community Safety to ensure that mental health experts were the ones responding to the mental health crisis because safety and justice is at the cornerstone of our pursuit of public safety and in doing so we will also be able to deliver our agenda for affordability.
00:45:49.000Thank you and very briefly, quickly, Mr. Sliwa and Mr. Cuomo, would you ask Commissioner Tisch to stay on if you are elected mayor?
00:45:57.000Yes, I would for stability, but then again, I don't think she would serve with either Cuomo or Zoron because she has railed against no cash bail.
00:46:07.000Cuomo, the architect of no cash bail, Zoran, the apprentice of no cash bail.
00:46:13.000That's why criminals are running in the streets.
00:46:15.000And Mr. Cuomo, would you ask her to stay on?
00:47:01.000The issues of crime and disorder on the streets, the NYPD says the crime is going down in all major categories, most major categories, but to New Yorkers, they're still concerned with disorder and their own unique perception of crime.
00:47:14.000Do you think addressing quality of life concerns helps prevent more serious crimes?
00:47:18.000And how would you deploy the city's police force to deal with those serious violent crimes and also quality of life offenses like disorderly conduct and retail theft?
00:47:52.000We need to get police officers in the subways actually patrolling the moving cars where people are most threatened and most frightened.
00:48:01.000And we need to bring back the homeless outreach unit that was disbanded when de Blasio took a billion dollars out of the budget.
00:48:08.000These were men and women police officers who already had with them medical nurses and health care practitioners, but it was de Blasio who abolished it and they've been talking about bringing something back ever since, but they never do it because I'm out there in the subways every day and I never see it.
00:48:26.000And when I'm mayor, it gets done on day one.
00:48:29.000The homeless outreach unit is put back into the NYPD.
00:48:35.000You know, when I hear from New Yorkers of where they feel least safe, they will often tell me the subway system.
00:48:41.000And when they explain those moments to me, what they are often explaining is a mental health crisis in our city and a crisis of homelessness that has only continued to grow.
00:48:50.000And that is why, at the heart of our public safety agenda, is a groundbreaking proposal to not only reduce crime, but address these very moments of unease for New Yorkers across the five boroughs by creating a Department of Community Safety that will be focused on the mental health crisis, focused on homelessness, and will ensure that police officers can focus on serious crimes.
00:49:11.000Because in 2020, the response time for those officers was less than 11 minutes.
00:49:18.000And that's because every year they are now responding to 200,000 mental health calls when those are calls that could by and large be taken by experts trained on responding to that very crisis.
00:50:42.000No matter how many times Andrew Cuomo describes it as my idea or my policy, I have never once stated that we were not going to prosecute misdemeanours.
00:50:50.000And that is what you see from the former governor is someone who spends more time talking about the platforms of other organizations and other individuals than the one that I've actually put forward or the one that he is supposed to be running on.
00:51:03.000Now we'll hear from Brian for another question.
00:51:21.000You'll get your opportunities, I think, because I want to bring up a particular crime concern, and that is violence among younger New Yorkers, specifically teenagers.
00:51:30.000My question is, what is your stance on the statewide raise the age law, which increased the age of adult criminal responsibility from 16 years old to 18 for most crimes?
00:51:42.000Police Commissioner Tish says, quote, the mentality on the street is that nothing happens to those under 18 who possess a gun.
00:51:51.000So would you support modifying raise the age in any way?
00:51:55.000And Mr. Mamdani, since you just announced that you would invite Commissioner Tish to stay on, would you go along with her on this?
00:52:03.000I would not support changes to the state's legislation, and I would not support them because the major issue with the implementation of that legislation has been the fact that there is hundreds of millions of dollars that was supposed to be delivered alongside that law that is still languishing in Albany.
00:52:19.000And I am excited to be the next mayor of the city to finally fight for the money that this city is owed to ensure that we deliver it to our young people across the five boroughs.
00:53:55.000I almost lost my oldest son to gang violence, and the perpetrators went to family court and got a little pat on the wrist and was sent home to do it again and again.
00:54:07.000No, we need to start charging juveniles who commit violent crime in criminal court, and I'll appoint criminal court judges who follow the law and don't just release them because of no cash bail.
00:54:21.000A clear difference between you on that.
00:54:25.000Okay, candidates, I've got individual questions for you, and we're going to try and pick up the pace a little bit here.
00:54:30.000I'd like you really just explain kind of where you're coming from.
00:54:33.000Mr. Mamdani, you've called for reorganizing the NYPD to create this Department of Community Safety that, among other things, would handle calls involving people in mental health distress.
00:54:43.000Your opponents have disparaged this as sending social workers rather than cops into dangerous situations like domestic violence disputes.
00:54:50.000Explain really what you have in mind, and please include any evidence that this approach would work.
00:54:57.000What my opponents are clinging to is the past, because that's all that they know.
00:55:02.000What I am proposing is something that will address the needs of New Yorkers in the present.
00:55:08.000We speak and hear from New Yorkers across the five boroughs who outline how the mental health crisis is one of the major challenges in this city.
00:55:15.000And yet what we have in our city is asking those same police officers who are being asked to respond to shootings, respond to murders, to also respond to these calls.
00:55:24.000I trust the dispatchers who would be receiving these calls to make the determination as to whether there was any indication of violence.
00:55:31.000If there is no indication of a threat of violence, then we would set the mental health experts and providers to respond to those same incidents.
00:55:38.000The reason I believe in the efficacy of this approach is because of the fact that it has been delivered elsewhere in the country.
00:55:45.000So no matter how often you hear those on this stage tell you that something cannot be done, know that there are others in this same country who have seen it, and it is time for that same policy to come to New York City.
00:55:56.000Okay, Mr. Schliwa and Mr. Cuomo, I have a similar question for both of you.
00:56:01.000The department currently feels about 33,000 officers down from 37,000 in 2018.
00:56:14.000Each of you, make the case for why you think that's necessary, especially given the fact that for crime decline, for much of New York City, crime declines over the last 20 years happened while the size of the force was also declining and not rising.
00:56:29.000Errol, I have to revisit the last debate for a second when Joran was basing this policy on what they do in Eugene, Oregon.
00:56:43.000This is New York City, a major metropolitan area with thousands of 911 calls, domestic abuse, emotionally disturbed persons, and you want to have social workers go out there and risk their life.
00:56:57.000And by the way, they're not going to get the results that a trained professional police officer can get.
00:57:03.000That's why we so desperately need 7,000 new cops.
00:57:07.000We'll use the Boston motto, which is pay now in lieu of taxes.
00:57:11.000They do it at Harvard University and the other universities.
00:57:14.000We'll raise a billion dollars, get them vetted, trained, and out into the streets so they can be seen in all the neighborhoods and most importantly, do the job they were sworn to do.
00:57:24.000And I will make sure that their insurance, the qualified immunity that was stripped from them, the only civil servants who are not protected by the taxpayer, is returned so that they can freely go out and do what they were trained to do.
00:57:37.000It's to protect all of the people of New York City.
00:58:37.000You need more police, first of all, Errol, because they're quitting because there are not enough to staff the force and they're working overtime and weekends and their family life is destroyed.
00:58:51.000So you have the highest attrition rate in modern history.
00:58:56.000You have to hire 5,000 just to slow down the attrition.
01:00:40.000The city recently enacted a 15-mile per hour speed limit for e-bikes.
01:00:45.000And of course, there are the other motorized two-wheelers that also frequently ignore red lights and other traffic laws.
01:00:52.000If you are mayor, would you direct the NYPD to ramp up speeding tickets and other moving violations on the motorized two-wheelers, Mr. Cuomo?
01:01:08.000I would actually build on the city council's progress in holding the apps accountable, like DoorDash and Grubhub, to ensure that there weren't incentives for breaking those street tax rates.
01:01:17.000You would not increase ticketing the riders.
01:01:20.000I do not think the police should be the ones dealing with the failures of these app companies.
01:04:23.000We're going to begin with Curtis Lewa.
01:04:26.000Zoran, you talk about free, free, free.
01:04:32.000But we know that somebody's got to pay for it, and that's you, the taxpayers.
01:04:38.000And that's going to lead to bankruptcy.
01:04:40.000The only reason that Zoran is on the stage is because of the failed Governor Cuomo, who was rejected by the Democrats in the primary and rejected by 13 women who charged you with sexual harassment.
01:05:28.000If anyone has a legal situation to talk about, I think it's Mr. Sliwa, who runs the Guardian Angels, and apparently has a charitable donation, but never filed any tax returns for the Guardian Angels and has been accepting charitable donations, which is just a crime and tax fraud.
01:05:52.000So I think that's the person who I was explaining to do.
01:07:12.000My politics is consistent, and my politics is built on a belief in human rights for all people.
01:07:20.000And that extends to queer and trans New Yorkers, and it extends to queer and trans Ugandans.
01:07:26.000And had I known that the first deputy minister was the architect of that legislation, I would not have taken that photo.
01:07:32.000And yet I also know that this constant attempt to smear and slander me is an attempt to also distract from the fact that unlike myself, you do not actually have a platform or a set of policies to protect those same New Yorkers here.
01:07:47.000All you have are the insults that you have lobbed at every single opportunity you have.
01:08:03.000Mr. Cuomo, in 2021, 13 different women who worked in your administration credibly accused you of sexual harassment.
01:08:13.000Since then, you have spent more than $20 million in taxpayer funds to defend yourself, all while describing these allegations as entirely political.
01:08:25.000You have even gone so far as to legally go after these women.
01:08:30.000One of those women, Charlotte Bennett, is here in the audience this evening.
01:08:35.000You sought to access her private gynecological records.
01:08:41.000She cannot speak up for herself because you lodged a defamation case against her.
01:09:55.000The next mayor will oversee the largest school system in the United States, as you know, with roughly 900,000 students, thousands of schools, and billions of dollars in budget.
01:10:06.000We have an education question for each of you.
01:10:08.000Mr. Mamdani, you said you would give up mayoral control of schools and share decision-making with various stakeholders.
01:10:16.000But in the last debate, you said you're still for mayoral accountability for educational outcomes.
01:10:22.000This has confused some people about how you can give up final authority but still hold yourself accountable.
01:10:30.000I remain opposed to mayoral control, and I also believe that the mayor is accountable for that which happens in this city.
01:10:37.000I will not shirk that accountability, even when we are putting together a system that has greater involvement for parents, for educators, for students.
01:10:46.000Look, one in 300 Americans is a student in the New York City public school system.
01:10:51.000This is a system where we are failing to deliver excellence to students, to teachers, to parents, and it is time to have a mayor who understands not only the crisis in front of us, but the fact that we have to change our ways if we want to change our results.
01:11:07.000And that is what we are running on, a plan for the future, not to simply relitigate the past.
01:11:12.000Mr. Sleela, you recently proposed reducing the education budget by $10 billion, or about 25%, to help pay for tax cuts.
01:11:21.000But your website includes things like, quote, hire more therapists, expand services for students with learning differences, build new vocational high schools, restore arts programs, expand athletic programs, and increase teacher pay to attract and retain top talent.
01:11:40.000Those are all exact quotes from your website.
01:11:42.000How do you defund the Education Department by 25% to cut taxes, add in the Trump administration's various cuts, and do all those expansions at the same time?
01:11:53.000Well, let me tell you, you have a bureaucracy at the Tweet Courthouse, perfect place to house the Department of Education because of the corruption in the top ranks.
01:12:07.000Nobody at this school level ever deals with them.
01:12:10.000$41,000 we pay per student, and teachers still have to reach into their pockets to pay for basic supplies.
01:12:18.000You cut at the top contracts that have been negotiated that have not been overseen.
01:12:24.000You will save millions and millions of dollars.
01:12:26.000And yes, you open up the schools as it was when I went to public school, after-school center, night center, weekend center, not just sports, but culture, plays, musicals.
01:12:37.000People used to be able to take instruments home when they were in band and orchestra.
01:13:24.000And if you close existing schools rather than work to improve them, what specifically helps the kids learn more and where?
01:13:32.000The common denominator on all these things is the question is, what is your plan to change things and what is your ability and experience to do it?
01:13:43.000These are management challenges and I have managed large bureaucracies.
01:13:51.000The Department of Education, we lost 1 million students.
01:13:55.000What's happening is young families have to make a decision when their child has to go to school.
01:14:00.000They're deciding to go to the suburbs, go to Jersey.
01:14:02.000They're not going to sacrifice their kid.
01:14:04.000So it is a terrible problem for the entire city, the shrinking public school system.
01:14:11.000I would double the gifted and talented programs, double the number of specialized high schools, keep the SHSAT, and keep mayoral control.
01:14:23.000It is wholly inconsistent to say, I think it's a top priority, but I want to give up mayoral control, but I want to be a mayor who runs grocery stores.
01:16:29.000We keep the inmates on Rikers Island and we turn those four units in the neighborhoods into affordable housing that we've all been clamoring for.
01:16:38.000What about the law that requires the closing?
01:16:40.000Oh, you go into court, you fight, fight, fight.
01:16:43.000You fight for the taxpayers and you fight to keep inmates on Rikers Island so that we don't just have to lock up toothpaste in New York City, but we lock up inmates.
01:17:19.000They are years late, billions over budget.
01:17:23.000I would say scrap the county jails, build new jails on Rikers Island, provide ferry and bus transportation for people from the other boroughs to visit on Rikers Island, and then use the existing four sites for commercial residential.
01:17:43.000But you cannot close Rikers on 2027 because there's no place to put the people unless you're going to release 7,000 people.
01:17:52.000Well, you're familiar with the idea that a law is passed.
01:17:55.000It's supposed to be followed even if it's difficult, even if the timeline is screwed up, even if the money's not there.
01:18:02.000Yeah, so then, which is Zoron's position?
01:18:05.000Then you're saying, release the 7,000 people.
01:18:08.000And I'm saying, I'm not going to release 7,000 criminals into New York City.
01:18:14.000There is no one on this stage that is saying that.
01:18:18.000Yet Andrew Cuomo will repeat it again and again.
01:18:20.000What I have said time and again, I'll repeat it again, is that yes, we have to close Rikers Island.
01:18:26.000Rikers Island is a stain on the history of this city.
01:18:31.000And that this current administration has made it nearly impossible to do so by the stipulated timeline.
01:18:40.000So what I will do is everything in my power to try and meet that deadline, knowing that Eric Adams has made it so difficult because he's had no interest in actually following through on it.
01:18:50.000And as much as you will hear about experience and running a government, what Andrew Cuomo doesn't seem to understand is the city has already entered into contracts for these borough-based jails, and to end those contracts would be to incur massive fiscal penalties, but that's not something that he seems to care about, even as he speaks about the fiscal stewardship of this city.
01:20:57.000My next question is about another law that's already on the books.
01:21:00.000The city has a climate law, Local Law 97, that will require a large percentage of the buildings in the city to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 or face financial penalties.
01:21:15.000As you know, some co-ops, condos, and landlords are afraid of crushing expenses, but buildings account for 70% of the city's climate pollution emissions, so reduction would need to include that sector.
01:21:29.000You all have taken different positions on this.
01:21:31.000I want our viewers and listeners to hear each of you, starting with Mr. Cuomo in this case.
01:21:37.000Would you abide by and make others abide by Local Law 97 as it stands?
01:21:43.000As it stands, is as it stands, you're going to have to be flexible in the application.
01:21:55.000What's going to happen now is many, many companies will just pay the fine because it's cheaper than actually following the rules.
01:22:43.000The climate crisis is one of the most pressing crises facing this city, and we deserve to take it on with the urgency it requires.
01:22:51.000It is right now easier to pay the fine than to actually comply with this legislation.
01:22:56.000We have to ensure that we make it easier for condo and co-op owners to follow these laws, and we do that by eliminating the application fees for J51, by extending that tax credit, by also creating a one-stop shop in New York City government that procures at a large scale heat pumps and the very kind of infrastructure needed to comply.
01:23:16.000We've seen this happen before with clean energy work that's been done in Woodside houses.
01:23:21.000It's time to bring that kind of work right here so that we can ensure full compliance with local law engineers.
01:23:26.000I read that you're proposing the city buy those heat pumps and other tech in bulk and give them to landlords and other buildings for free.
01:25:34.000When FGC rates are too high to pay because of you and Jewel Justin, yes or no, you need to support new nuclear power plants to help bring down the rising cost of utilities in New York State.
01:26:02.000We're going to move on now to the economy.
01:26:04.000Ms. Condani, you're proposing to raise the city's minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030.
01:26:10.000How would you get the state legislature to go along with your plan?
01:26:13.000And do you think it's realistic to feel that a small business owner would have to pay every employee this amount, especially when the city currently doesn't mandate that figure for its own public employees?
01:26:24.000And I have separate questions for Mr. Sleewan.
01:26:27.000So this would be something where the city would have to start doing so as well, because any law that we want New Yorkers to follow, the city should be following it itself.
01:26:35.000And the reason that we put forward $30 by 2030 is that that's the minimum that a New Yorker needs to be paid to be able to afford to live in this city.
01:26:44.000And what we are looking at right now is the possibility of the place that we know and love becoming a museum of where working class people used to be able to live.
01:26:53.000Our proposal that we've put forward would be phased in over a longer period of time for small business owners to ensure that they could deal with this.
01:27:00.000And it's also one that we are confident we would be able to accomplish because of the fact that we are seeing from New Yorkers time and time again the absence of it is pushing them to live in Jersey City, to live in Pennsylvania, to live in Connecticut because they can't afford to live in New York City.
01:27:16.000And for Mr. Sleewa and Mr. Cuomo, if you're not in favor of a $30 minimum wage, what are your plans to raise the salaries of workers in New York City?
01:27:39.000AI that's going to be wiping out so many jobs, especially for young men and women who went to school, got their four years of college, two-year degree, and they're making $155,000, and then they get wiped out.
01:27:52.000You know what the corporate sector is going to do.
01:29:20.000You're talking about basically doubling payroll.
01:29:24.000And you can have a negative effect where literally businesses close and people lose their jobs.
01:29:30.000And overall, again, it's another tax on corporations, another reason to leave New York, another reason to pack up the family and get our I-95 and go to South Carolina and Florida and Texas.
01:29:48.000Candidates, we are coming down the home stretch.
01:29:50.000I want to alert our media partners, especially we're going to go over by five minutes, and we're going to have Brian lead a conversation about transit.
01:30:00.000And we're going to have to do this very briefly to each of you because you each have transit things to answer to.
01:30:06.000Mr. Cuomo, you say the city should take partial control of New York City transit away from the MTA, which is mostly controlled by the state.
01:30:15.000Would the city then have to put more of the bill?
01:30:18.000And if this is a good idea, why didn't you propose it as governor?
01:30:24.000The capital thing is, first of all, New York City owns the New York City Transit Authority, not the MTA.
01:30:31.000It leases the trains and subways to the MTA.
01:30:36.000And then the question is the division of responsibility.
01:30:39.000New York City does the safety along with the MTA.
01:30:43.000The problem the MTA is having is the capital construction projects.
01:30:51.000I came in, I took over Moynihan and finished it.
01:30:54.000I came in and took over Second Avenue subway, the L-Train tunnel.
01:30:58.000The capital construction projects are way overdue.
01:31:04.000I would say, no, there is a budget set.
01:31:07.000My only point is the MTA, which is a labyrinth bureaucracy set up by Rockefeller, which should have never been done in the first place.
01:31:16.000It's an overwhelming task for the greatest managers, and I hired both of them.
01:31:21.000But let the city manage the capital construction from the MTA budget.
01:31:27.000Mr. Mamdani, make your case briefly for your proposal for free buses for everybody, even those who can afford to pay.
01:31:36.000You know, first I'll just say that one of the most celebrated leaders of the New York City Transit was Andy Biford, who had such a terrible experience working under Andrew Cuomo that he would rather work under Donald Trump right now.
01:31:49.000The proposal that we have put forward addresses the fact that today, in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, one in five New Yorkers cannot afford the bus fare.
01:32:00.000It would cost $700 million a year to make the slowest buses in the country fast and free.
01:32:07.000And by doing so, we would generate more than double an economic revenue for New Yorkers across the city.
01:32:14.000It would be something that would reduce assaults on bus drivers.
01:32:17.000It would increase ridership on those buses.
01:32:19.000And it would actually have environmental impacts as fewer New Yorkers would drive their own car or take a taxi and would instead get on the bus.
01:32:26.000And I know all of this because I delivered it as a state assembly member who won the first free buses in New York City's history.
01:32:32.000And Mr. Sleeb, your website, according to my reading, has a section on transit safety, but nothing on transit service.
01:32:40.000Do you have any core proposals for improving it?
01:33:27.000Everybody pays their fare, enforcement, more cops in the subway system.
01:33:32.000And by the way, we can get more people to voluntarily actually sponsor their subway system stations, clean it up, and beautify them and add some life so the community has input into the subway that they have to go through the sleaze and slime all the time.
01:35:49.000That is going to do it for this debate.
01:35:52.000I would like to thank the candidates and our partners and all of you at home.
01:35:56.000If you missed any part of this debate, you can watch it in its entirety at ny1.com and the Spectrum News YouTube channel.
01:36:02.000Early voting is set to begin across the five boroughs on Saturday with several other races on the ballot as well, including city controller, public advocate, the five borough presidents, and members of the city council, as well as six ballot initiatives.
01:36:15.000There's some district attorney races as well.