Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to woke F Daily with
Speaker 1: me your girl, Danielle Moody recording from the Long Island Bunker.
Speaker 1: You know, I often say to you that you need
Speaker 1: to take a break so that you do not have
Speaker 1: a breakdown. And with all of the compacted crises that
Speaker 1: we are dealing with at this time and making the
Speaker 1: march to midterms, there never seems like the right time
Speaker 1: to take a break. But I say that you have
Speaker 1: to make that time. And so for me, dear friends
Speaker 1: here on woke F, I am going to be taking
Speaker 1: a much needed vacation so that I can rest and
Speaker 1: recharge as we head into what I believe is going
Speaker 1: to be one of the craziest falls we've ever seen.
Speaker 1: I have left you with eight amazing episodes that we
Speaker 1: have recorded back in twenty twenty one with some of
Speaker 1: the most thoughtful, engaging and insightful commentary that looks at
Speaker 1: our politics, our spiritual nature, our emotional well being, and
Speaker 1: a look inside frankly with some of the guests that
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Speaker 1: episodes and these interviews that I think will be enticing
Speaker 1: to all of you. They hit on all of the
Speaker 1: major topics that we consistently discuss here on woke F,
Speaker 1: from racism to gender inequality, to police misconduct to wealth inequality,
Speaker 1: which my God, and the need and the need and
Speaker 1: the need upmost for spiritual connection and wellness practices that
Speaker 1: allow us to successfully maneuver all of the things that
Speaker 1: have been thrown at us over the past couple of years.
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Speaker 1: Moody Underscore. I hope that you all enjoy these next
Speaker 1: fantastic episodes that we have. Do drop your thoughts in
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Speaker 1: Just don't draw my attention to anything that is terrible
Speaker 1: because I'm taking a break from the news. But dear friends,
Speaker 1: I really do hope that you enjoy these next eight
Speaker 1: episodes and I will see you with brand new episodes
Speaker 1: after Labor Day. It's no secret that the news is
Speaker 1: horsepill hard to swallow. Thankfully, there's The Bituation Room podcast
Speaker 1: hosted by comedian and commentator Francesca free Er and Tini
Speaker 1: for a lighter take on the heavy stuff. Each week,
Speaker 1: the Bituation Room brings you progressive comedians, experts, and activists
Speaker 1: to break down the issues in a way that won't
Speaker 1: just leave you crying under a weighted blanket. Get The
Speaker 1: Bituation Room on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and streaming on
Speaker 1: YouTube and Twitch. Hey there, I want to tell you
Speaker 1: about another podcast I think you'll love. The Brown Girl's
Speaker 1: Guide to Politics, hosted by a Shanty Gohler, the president
Speaker 1: of Emerge. BGG is the one stop shop for women
Speaker 1: of color who want to hear and talk about the
Speaker 1: world of politics join a Shanty this season as she
Speaker 1: talks to incredible women of color who are changing the
Speaker 1: face of politics and tackling some of the most important
Speaker 1: issues facing the United States, from reproductive justice to voting rights,
Speaker 1: to climate change and more. Tune in every Tuesday wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, Folks. I am so excited to
Speaker 1: welcome to wike F. I believe for the first time
Speaker 1: Maya Wiley, who is a friend of mine and you
Speaker 1: know her as a candidate for New York City mayor. Maya.
Speaker 1: New York City has been the epicenter for a lot
Speaker 1: over the past year. You know, at the height of
Speaker 1: the pandemic. And I fear to say the height because
Speaker 1: we see that things are changing all around the globe
Speaker 1: and all around Europe. But I will say the height.
Speaker 1: As of twenty twenty, New York City was the epicenter
Speaker 1: for crises, and a little bit before that, you decided
Speaker 1: to put your hat in the ring for mayor. I
Speaker 1: want to know before we start in pandemic talk, what
Speaker 1: howd you decide after your life of living in New
Speaker 1: York City, working in New York City, working in different administrations,
Speaker 1: decide to throw your hat in the ring decide that
Speaker 1: now was the time that New York City was not
Speaker 1: only ready for its second right, which is just embarrassing,
Speaker 1: its second black mayor, but what would be its first
Speaker 1: female mayor and first Black female mayor. Well, first of all, Danielle,
Speaker 1: I have to say, it's wonderful to see you, thanks
Speaker 1: to COVID. It has been way too long, and it's
Speaker 1: a pleasure to be here at long last. Yeah. Look,
Speaker 1: you know what can I tell you? Before COVID hit,
Speaker 1: this city already was experiencing a pandemic. It was a
Speaker 1: pandemic of an affordability crisis. It was a pandemic of
Speaker 1: systemic racism. It was a pandemic of division and spiritual
Speaker 1: exhaustion that then was deepened, expanded, fast tracked when COVID struck.
Speaker 1: And I think, like so many other women in general,
Speaker 1: and women of color, black women in particular, after watching
Speaker 1: for years, you know of the need for much more
Speaker 1: transformational leadership, leadership that pulls us together but also says
Speaker 1: we're pulling together to do things differently, you know, because
Speaker 1: it can't be that we're simply going back to the
Speaker 1: same old toolbox to fix problems. Those tools were never
Speaker 1: addressed to fix, and that when COVID hit, and when
Speaker 1: so many of our communities, black communities, Latino Asian remember
Speaker 1: that New York City as the largest Indigenous population Native
Speaker 1: American population urban in the country, that it was our communities,
Speaker 1: all of us were decimated, right, And we should say
Speaker 1: that out loud, because it is true. We're traumatized as
Speaker 1: a city where every aspect of our economy has been
Speaker 1: devastated as a city. But it is also true that
Speaker 1: like in every crisis, every single one, whether it was
Speaker 1: the Great Recession of two thousand and eight or Hurricane Sandy,
Speaker 1: that we are always the communities there hit hardest first
Speaker 1: and with the longest lasting impacts. And we are so
Speaker 1: critical to this city being what it is, being the vibrant,
Speaker 1: innovative place it is, being the exciting place it is,
Speaker 1: and that we have been at risk of losing that
Speaker 1: for a very long time. And I just as someone
Speaker 1: who's spent my entire career committ into dismantling structural racism,
Speaker 1: to focusing on what pulls us out of you know,
Speaker 1: the crises that are a crisis of creation. It's not
Speaker 1: necessarily natural condition, it's one we recreate and we can change.
Speaker 1: And you know, I just said it's time. It's time
Speaker 1: for change, and I stepped in to make it. You
Speaker 1: know there, I love the term that you use. Just
Speaker 1: a a kind of spiritual pandemic, right, A kind of
Speaker 1: hopelessness I feel sets in in varied communities around New
Speaker 1: York City. I mean, as it is as it has
Speaker 1: been across the country, but definitely within New York City.
Speaker 1: People look to New York right as as a beacon,
Speaker 1: I think in many ways. And yet what the COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen crisis did was open our eyes in so many
Speaker 1: ways to the systemic forces that have been at play
Speaker 1: that have kept many marginalized communities down right and under
Speaker 1: the thumb of egregious systems that would have them there.
Speaker 1: For me, I worked in New York City. I worked
Speaker 1: under Mayor Blueberg in the public education system largest in
Speaker 1: the country. And you know what I noticed as we
Speaker 1: are going through this pandemic is just how many young
Speaker 1: people out of the one point two million children that
Speaker 1: are in the New York City public school system don't
Speaker 1: have access to internet. So how were they going to
Speaker 1: be able to learn remotely when we had to make
Speaker 1: this enormous shift when you look at New York City
Speaker 1: public schools, for instance, as just one of the many
Speaker 1: areas that need an overhaul, what do you see as
Speaker 1: some of the first things that need to be done.
Speaker 1: Because we know, and I know this from lobbying for
Speaker 1: New York City public schools at the federal level, is
Speaker 1: that where New York City as the rest of the
Speaker 1: country follows. So what do you think need to happen
Speaker 1: after us seeing this pandemic, seeing the fault lines that
Speaker 1: have been ignored for so long need to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, this is such a critical question as someone
Speaker 1: who not only went to an overcrowded, underfunded black elementary
Speaker 1: school when I was young and saw firsthand and felt
Speaker 1: firsthand what that felt like, how much it felt like
Speaker 1: we didn't matter and we weren't important, how our teachers struggled,
Speaker 1: And then being a public school parent myself with kids
Speaker 1: between the two of them, spent fifteen years in the
Speaker 1: public school system, and I navigated everything from elementary school
Speaker 1: to middle school to high school in the public system.
Speaker 1: And it's of deep importance to me because it's fundamental
Speaker 1: to our democracy, frankly, and we have to understand our
Speaker 1: public education system as that and New York is it
Speaker 1: sees itself as exceptional, right, because we're a miraculous, wonderful
Speaker 1: place where the most diverse in the land, and the
Speaker 1: center of capital, the center of innovation, the center of
Speaker 1: so many things. And we're also the center of segregation,
Speaker 1: where the center of far too few students getting the
Speaker 1: education they deserve, and the vast majority being students of color.
Speaker 1: And so one of the things I see is what
Speaker 1: happened during the pandemic was predictable, were predictable, and so
Speaker 1: that should be the thing that makes us most upset. Right.
Speaker 1: We knew before the pandemic that one point eight million
Speaker 1: New Yorkers either didn't have broadband access at home or
Speaker 1: lacked a computer or a cell phone or both. Right,
Speaker 1: that is its own pandemic. And as someone as a
Speaker 1: racial justice advocate who worked on digital divide issues and
Speaker 1: then went into city Hall in twenty fourteen and with
Speaker 1: a mayor that said, it's universal broadband is on you.
Speaker 1: You're the person who's worked on it before. We want
Speaker 1: communities of color to get what they deserve, and plotting
Speaker 1: out a plan including getting every single apartment in Queensbridge
Speaker 1: houses free broadband, finding the money, showing the city it
Speaker 1: had the resources and working collaboratively to make that impact
Speaker 1: was so important because what it said is we know
Speaker 1: there's a problem, but we're going to confront it now,
Speaker 1: and there ways for us to do it differently, be transformational.
Speaker 1: I left in twenty sixteen and the rest of the
Speaker 1: plans for other public housing developments did not occur, and
Speaker 1: I just think about the lost opportunity there when we
Speaker 1: think about what happened when the pandemic struck. But what
Speaker 1: it also tells us is that we can. We can.
Speaker 1: It just requires leadership that keeps the eyes on that
Speaker 1: prize and keeps government working in a way that is
Speaker 1: different from the way it usually works, so that our
Speaker 1: students who are in homeless shelters, A We're moving more
Speaker 1: people into permanent housing that's safe and affordable, but be
Speaker 1: that they have, even if they're in transitional housing or shelter,
Speaker 1: have what they need to learn. And that's something we
Speaker 1: can accomplish and that we will lay out a plan for.
Speaker 1: But I say it because I've done it, and I
Speaker 1: just you know, getting this year back that our students
Speaker 1: have lost, recognizing that that spiritual exhaustion is now trauma
Speaker 1: is now trauma, and that that trauma requires trauma informed
Speaker 1: care in our schools because that's about educational outcome. You know,
Speaker 1: if we're not treating the whole child and the whole
Speaker 1: family as a unit that has to be engaged in
Speaker 1: there in the child's education, and we're not seeing nutrition
Speaker 1: and we're not seeing mental health as key parts of that,
Speaker 1: we're gonna miss the boat. And so I've also created
Speaker 1: a plan to put trauma inform care in schools and
Speaker 1: have social workers because we have to have students support
Speaker 1: teams that support our kids through all our kids, but
Speaker 1: particularly kids that are in communities that were deeply impacted.
Speaker 1: You know, when you talk about trauma care, I you
Speaker 1: know again, I go back to my days in the classroom,
Speaker 1: and everything that you're saying is exactly right. Is that
Speaker 1: you know, we always want to focus on the ABC's,
Speaker 1: but we don't understand that in order to get there right,
Speaker 1: a child would have needed to have a good night's sleep,
Speaker 1: would have needed to have a hot meal, would have
Speaker 1: needed to have you know, the ability to move their
Speaker 1: bodies and get out their energy, and an absent all
Speaker 1: of that ABC's don't come right. Absent understanding what it
Speaker 1: is that parents need, our caregivers need in order to
Speaker 1: be able to parent and care give. We don't do that.
Speaker 1: I see schools as community centers, right the center of community.
Speaker 1: And you know, but when I look at where the
Speaker 1: investment goes in our cities, where the money goes, there
Speaker 1: is a blatant disparity. And so how do you think
Speaker 1: about right sizing right? When we look at right sizing budgets,
Speaker 1: we see and you know, we'll talk in a minute
Speaker 1: about our policing in New York and the criminal justice
Speaker 1: system in New York. But when we look at the
Speaker 1: budget of let's say the NYPD, which is in the
Speaker 1: billions of dollars, right, the six and seven billions of dollars,
Speaker 1: and we look at the largest school district in the country,
Speaker 1: if not in the world, and we don't see that.
Speaker 1: We don't see those bees following and following the dollars signs.
Speaker 1: How do you begin to right size something that seems
Speaker 1: like there's such an enormous gap for us to close.
Speaker 1: That is a question I haven't answered to. And I
Speaker 1: do want to focus it on policing because I've already
Speaker 1: said and and this is as someone who has a godson,
Speaker 1: who I've been, who lives in public housing, who have
Speaker 1: has been you know, who's had experiences with police officers,
Speaker 1: who have cared, but has also been hit by police officers.
Speaker 1: Is a child I have had to a young adult now,
Speaker 1: but I've had to accompany to court on things like skateboarding,
Speaker 1: on things like being in the park after dark, things
Speaker 1: that are not things that should result in me going
Speaker 1: to court with him with my law degree. So number
Speaker 1: one because as interrupted his educational experience that has traumatized him,
Speaker 1: and he will graduate from high school, but only with
Speaker 1: a lot of support because of those experiences. So we
Speaker 1: want our kids to learn, particularly our black boys and girls,
Speaker 1: who far too often are criminalized in our system or
Speaker 1: treated as problems rather than being treated as people deserving
Speaker 1: of support for the problems they have, that we have
Speaker 1: to that we will not be successful, and we can't
Speaker 1: afford to fail our children. So it starts with taking
Speaker 1: eighteen million dollars out of the police department budget and
Speaker 1: putting it in participatory justice funds for communities that have
Speaker 1: high rates of gun violence. Because when I had a
Speaker 1: friend who lost his nephew, his nephew was shot and
Speaker 1: killed at four thirty pm in bedsty just going to
Speaker 1: the neighborhood store. Now, what the family, in its trauma
Speaker 1: and pain called for was things like trauma informed care,
Speaker 1: was more employment opportunities for young people. Was all the
Speaker 1: things that are about investing in communities and in our kids.
Speaker 1: So that Participatory Justice Fund is one where communities can
Speaker 1: say what helps it solve it's problem. So that could
Speaker 1: be after school programs, that could be additional trauma in
Speaker 1: foreign care in addition to what I'm going to make
Speaker 1: sure goes into those school tools. That could also be
Speaker 1: for more workforce development and other programs that communities want
Speaker 1: in their school's mentorship. But the point is communities know
Speaker 1: what they need, and the reality is government can be
Speaker 1: a different partner by helping provide those resources that community
Speaker 1: can direct to problem solving. But the other thing I
Speaker 1: will say is we've already looking at it as a
Speaker 1: caring economy, right because our economy has been broken for
Speaker 1: so many of our communities and people. And so we
Speaker 1: are also going to reduce the incoming class sizes, cadet
Speaker 1: class sizes, take advantage of the savings and corrections we're
Speaker 1: going to get by not prisoning people for poverty and
Speaker 1: closing rikers, as well as taking some other dollars that
Speaker 1: are still on the table and childcare black rents to
Speaker 1: create community drop off centers for childcare and elder care
Speaker 1: in communities. That also creates care jobs that will be
Speaker 1: union jobs, there'll be good jobs. But we will also
Speaker 1: create a five thousand dollars a year grant program for
Speaker 1: the neediest families in order for them to care for
Speaker 1: their family members. And we're not good, by the way,
Speaker 1: you don't have to be a documented immigrant to benefit
Speaker 1: from that grant, because that's also important for our communities.
Speaker 1: People forget that black community has immigrants too, and that
Speaker 1: the immigranty of all races is also our community, our neighbors.
Speaker 1: So we'll do that. But that's about investing in opportunity,
Speaker 1: investing in solutions, solving problems, and looking at our budget.
Speaker 1: And I will tell you that will also produce more
Speaker 1: public safety because so much of what we see in
Speaker 1: violence is trauma induced. Is induced because it's easier to
Speaker 1: get a gun than a job. We're going to flip
Speaker 1: that script and we're going to focus please on the
Speaker 1: job of policing, which is not mental health crisis calls.
Speaker 1: It is not running into school buildings. It is less
Speaker 1: absolutely necessary, but certainly not for students support needs. And
Speaker 1: we're going to make sure that we have counselors instead
Speaker 1: of cops in our schools and that our kids can
Speaker 1: get jobs critically important if we're really looking at what
Speaker 1: investment in our communities mean, and then the police can
Speaker 1: focus on things like keeping illegal guns out of our
Speaker 1: city and out of our communities, which is something that
Speaker 1: is absolutely important and that we want police officers to
Speaker 1: be able to focus on. You know, I think that
Speaker 1: we have, over the course of decades conflated what it
Speaker 1: is that we believe that policing was supposed to be right.
Speaker 1: And we know the historic the historical understanding and birth
Speaker 1: of policing in this country. But what we have seen
Speaker 1: is that much in the same way that I'm talking
Speaker 1: about lopsided budgets, you're talking about lopsided justice. Right where
Speaker 1: you know your few or godson can be skateboarding in
Speaker 1: a park and then end up in a court of
Speaker 1: law and thankfully he had you. But if he hadn't right,
Speaker 1: where would he have been? Would he been like Calif Broader,
Speaker 1: who would have ended up in Rikers, and you know,
Speaker 1: and the key would have been thrown away, never to
Speaker 1: be heard from again. When we talk about this term
Speaker 1: of defund the police right and and and of creating community,
Speaker 1: creating investment in community, we see that there is incredible
Speaker 1: pushback from the police. We see incredible pushback from police unions.
Speaker 1: And I want to know, how do you both create
Speaker 1: a city that is that is equitable in terms of
Speaker 1: the fact that my tax dollars go to funding them police,
Speaker 1: just like my white neighbors tax dollars go to funding
Speaker 1: the police. Except I would be fearful to call the
Speaker 1: police if I needed them because I don't want to
Speaker 1: end up as a hashtag. And so how do we
Speaker 1: look at this the readjustment in terms of the relationship
Speaker 1: that police have with the communities that they are policing,
Speaker 1: the excess violence that we have seen over the course
Speaker 1: of decades with too many black lives lost, and then
Speaker 1: also recognizing that we are not putting money in the
Speaker 1: right place. But when we talk about defund that spins
Speaker 1: off into something else. So how does your campaign, how
Speaker 1: would your administration deal with this balancing act that has
Speaker 1: been that we've seen play out across the country. Yeah. Look,
Speaker 1: I start with it from the perspective of a moral budget.
Speaker 1: A moral budget and a moral budget requires us one
Speaker 1: to look at how we build revenue effectively, but in
Speaker 1: ways that solve problems, not create them. Right, So revenue
Speaker 1: generation means thinking about as I said, you know, we're
Speaker 1: going to take ten billion dollars, actually didn't say this
Speaker 1: part the caring economy is one piece of that. Right,
Speaker 1: We're actually putting money back in people's pockets. They can
Speaker 1: care for themselves, they can care for their communities. They
Speaker 1: can put money back into the economy when we help
Speaker 1: them get those jobs, when we help them work because
Speaker 1: or deal with emergencies, because they have a safe place
Speaker 1: to leave family members. We also, by giving them those grants,
Speaker 1: are ensuring that they can put money back into the economy.
Speaker 1: That's good for everyone, and that actually brings revenue back
Speaker 1: into the city. Coffers, it's also looking at it from
Speaker 1: what our resources are that we control. That creates more
Speaker 1: of those opportunities. So I'm going to spend ten billion
Speaker 1: dollars capital construction budget that is separate from the expense budget.
Speaker 1: We're often talking about budgeting, is if we don't have
Speaker 1: two different budgets, but we do the capital budget. That
Speaker 1: just means money we borrow to build things we need
Speaker 1: built and fix things we need fixed. And what do
Speaker 1: we need. We need affordable housing that's deeply affordable for
Speaker 1: so many of our workers who work hard but can't
Speaker 1: afford the rent. We need, you know, to make sure
Speaker 1: that they're creating. We're solving the problem with nitscha. So
Speaker 1: we'll put two billion dollars into renovation and rehabilitation. As
Speaker 1: I said, my god son lives in public housing. This
Speaker 1: ain't be a radical for me. People are unsafe and
Speaker 1: unsanitary conditions and they deserve better h green economy, green jobs.
Speaker 1: You know how we're thinking about building resiliency when you
Speaker 1: know two thirds of our people who are in flood
Speaker 1: zones or low income people of color. So these are
Speaker 1: all ways where we're fixing problems we have as a city.
Speaker 1: But we're doing it by creating a hundred thousand jobs.
Speaker 1: We're going to do local targeted hiring. We're going to
Speaker 1: think about local procurement buying the things we need for
Speaker 1: those projects. We're going to be thinking about how that
Speaker 1: creates jobs for artists and creatives as well, so that
Speaker 1: while we're while we're spending and borrowing, to spend in
Speaker 1: a way that is stimulative that we know from the
Speaker 1: Great Recession to the Great Depression has helped us come
Speaker 1: back in the past. We're also going to focus it
Speaker 1: on art what I call communities of concern, which were
Speaker 1: the communities that were worse off before COVID, and we're
Speaker 1: worse off during COVID, and we'll have a long trajectory
Speaker 1: to recovery and deserve investments post COVID. And so that's
Speaker 1: really looking at our budget differently, and we've already talked
Speaker 1: about it on the police side. It means that when
Speaker 1: we make cuts, and we will, that we're making choices
Speaker 1: that are about investing in our future, because that's what
Speaker 1: a moral budget is. It is investment in the kind
Speaker 1: of city I think we all want to live in.
Speaker 1: When I talk about it in that way, when I
Speaker 1: talk about what is just good common sense, like nobody
Speaker 1: thinks that police officer's job is responding to a mental
Speaker 1: health crisis. Everyone agrees that it's a mental health professional
Speaker 1: that should be responding to a mental health crisis with
Speaker 1: the ability to ask for police backup if the expert
Speaker 1: thinks he or she needs it. But that should be
Speaker 1: a call by a mental health expert, not by the
Speaker 1: police who don't sign up for the force to become
Speaker 1: mental health experts. That's not why they're signing up for
Speaker 1: the job. And there's so much that we can focus
Speaker 1: policing on that's appropriate and that we know our communities
Speaker 1: want police focused on. I use the legal guns because
Speaker 1: that's such an obvious example, and it's such an example
Speaker 1: that police officers also want to work on. But putting
Speaker 1: more police officers on a street corner doesn't stop the
Speaker 1: shooting it. Oh, it just moves it over a block.
Speaker 1: Why would we keep doing it that way? Yeah? You know.
Speaker 1: One of my last questions for you, Maya's with regard
Speaker 1: to housing in New York City, which is probably on
Speaker 1: top of policing, is probably one of the toughest issues.
Speaker 1: We have some of the highest rents of anywhere I
Speaker 1: probably outside of San Francisco, that I have ever seen.
Speaker 1: But during this pandemic, we also saw a massive fleeing
Speaker 1: out of very wealthy white areas of New York City
Speaker 1: where people can leave and go to their second and
Speaker 1: third homes. And so we've seen in some places prices,
Speaker 1: rents drop, while in others they stay steady or they're
Speaker 1: continuing to rise, which is a product then of gentrification.
Speaker 1: We see who gets to stay and who gets pushed out.
Speaker 1: How do we battle against this because we know that,
Speaker 1: you know, look, I don't want anyone's life expectancy to
Speaker 1: be based on their zip code. I don't want any
Speaker 1: child's future to be based on where they are stationed,
Speaker 1: based on the tax dollars, the income tax that is
Speaker 1: coming in. But we know that that is the reality
Speaker 1: of the situation. But there are young, brilliant black and
Speaker 1: brown people that are being pushed out that New York
Speaker 1: City actually needs. And so how how do you plan
Speaker 1: to come back? This this is and this is this
Speaker 1: is a decades, decades a long problem that hasn't been
Speaker 1: dealt with. How does your administration plan to deal with that?
Speaker 1: This is such a such a critical crisis, and it
Speaker 1: was a critical crisis before COVID to your point, Danielle,
Speaker 1: and I think that's important for us to recognize and
Speaker 1: a big part of what was calling me in. You know,
Speaker 1: I was in Staten Island yesterday and talking to a
Speaker 1: young man turned out from East Harlem who was commuting
Speaker 1: two hours each way to a service job, a minimum
Speaker 1: wage job in Staten Island because there were no jobs
Speaker 1: in his community or closer to his community. And so
Speaker 1: if you think about that, I mean that's and he
Speaker 1: lived in public he lives in public housing, and he's
Speaker 1: lucky to live in public housing because that's permanently affordable.
Speaker 1: The problem is it's crumbling around him, right. So one
Speaker 1: is we have to recognize public housing is one of
Speaker 1: our greatest assets in terms of permanently affordable housing, and
Speaker 1: we have to keep it public to ensure that the
Speaker 1: people who have helped build this city, empower the city,
Speaker 1: and who have been essential to this city can stay
Speaker 1: in this city and live in the city with dignity.
Speaker 1: The other thing we have to recognize is that we
Speaker 1: have a thousand acres roughly a vacant land that the
Speaker 1: city owns. That's our opportunity rather than selling it off,
Speaker 1: to make sure we're utilizing it for one hundred percent
Speaker 1: permanently affordable housing to meet the needs that our folks have.
Speaker 1: It also means looking at the opportunity that is unfortunately
Speaker 1: created by shuttered hotels or about two hundred shuttered hotels
Speaker 1: in the city. But we deferately have to recognize that
Speaker 1: homelessness is an eviction crisis. Homelessness is an affordability crisis,
Speaker 1: which is why it's an effiction crisis. And so by
Speaker 1: creating more deeply affordable housing, thinking about and supportive housing
Speaker 1: for those who are mentally ill or have substance addiction issues,
Speaker 1: that that's also something that creates more public safety for
Speaker 1: folks who've been afraid of the mental illness that we
Speaker 1: have seen on our streets. And many people are legitimately
Speaker 1: afraid that, but that's also a humanitarian problem we can
Speaker 1: solve with a humanitarian solution that puts people in housing
Speaker 1: with support services. Those hotels represent an opportunity there, as
Speaker 1: does other vacancy. And asking for more from our private
Speaker 1: developers rather than being counting the number of affordable units
Speaker 1: we're creating, creating and asking for more deeply affordable units
Speaker 1: from the private sectors something the city can do. And
Speaker 1: I want to say one other thing about this. We
Speaker 1: know that we are a city with everyone right eight
Speaker 1: hundred different languages. We speak about almost forty percent of
Speaker 1: our residents born somewhere else in another country. Our diversity
Speaker 1: is a deep part of what makes us an exciting city.
Speaker 1: And I haven't talked to anyone wealthy who does not
Speaker 1: value or agree with that, which also gives us the opportunity.
Speaker 1: And I've had this conversation with many folks who were
Speaker 1: able to shelter somewhere else other than New York City,
Speaker 1: and they recognize the privilege of that, particularly as they
Speaker 1: were watching the news and seeing the images. This is
Speaker 1: an opportunity for us to pull together and to say
Speaker 1: to folks with resources, we all love the city, and
Speaker 1: we all have something to bring to the table. And
Speaker 1: some folks have no how and elbow grease and just
Speaker 1: kind of a commitment that's just raw and can innovate
Speaker 1: and get things done in community. Some of us have resources,
Speaker 1: some of us have money. And what I've been asking
Speaker 1: folks everywhere I talk is like, we've all got to
Speaker 1: put on the table what we have to give, and
Speaker 1: for those with resources, we're going to ask that you
Speaker 1: give to help us recover the city in a way
Speaker 1: that holds on to exactly that, because it's what's dear
Speaker 1: to all of us and what makes us New York City,
Speaker 1: and that we can't lose. Maya. The last question I
Speaker 1: have for you is you know, folks have been so
Speaker 1: they've been paying attention to literally what's in front of
Speaker 1: them right over this past year, and maybe now they
Speaker 1: are starting to get engaged with this race. What sets
Speaker 1: you apart from the rest of the field, and what
Speaker 1: do you want people to know about you? I've had
Speaker 1: the distinct honor and pleasure to get to know you
Speaker 1: throughout the years of being on TV with you and
Speaker 1: understanding your strategic and brilliant mind and analysis. But what
Speaker 1: do you want others that are just maybe just tuning
Speaker 1: in to know that separates you from everyone else? Well,
Speaker 1: thank you for those kind words, Danielle, and right back
Speaker 1: at you. You forgot to mention the green room conversations,
Speaker 1: which yeah, we often that MSNBC should just put a
Speaker 1: camera in the green room. They should have done that.
Speaker 1: They should have done that. But look, I am really
Speaker 1: honored to be a top tier candidate in this race,
Speaker 1: which is no small thing because we've never elected a woman,
Speaker 1: let alone a black woman to be mayor of New
Speaker 1: York City. And what sets me apart isn't just that.
Speaker 1: Part of it is having been the child of activists,
Speaker 1: you know, and spending a career working on exactly how
Speaker 1: we transform our city and our community so that they
Speaker 1: work for all of us and we remain a city
Speaker 1: that is on a shining hill of opportunity in a
Speaker 1: pluralistic democracy, meaning one that looks like the globe. Is
Speaker 1: what I have done with my whole career as a
Speaker 1: change maker twenty five years before I ever went into
Speaker 1: city government. But I'm the only candidate that has both
Speaker 1: the experience of going to a segregated public school, of
Speaker 1: watching a neighborhood be displaced from gentrification when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, to doing it as a civil rights lawyer,
Speaker 1: as a racial justice advocate, and then going into city
Speaker 1: hall as the first black woman counseled to a New
Speaker 1: York City mayor to show city government exactly how to
Speaker 1: be transformational for our communities, like getting broadband into public housing,
Speaker 1: like getting the first sanctuary cities legislation passed when it
Speaker 1: was logjammed, Like creating a table where we had advocates
Speaker 1: talking about how we reduce the school to prison pipeline
Speaker 1: because government wasn't sufficiently listening as it was thinking about
Speaker 1: its memorandum of understanding with the police department, so that
Speaker 1: we were starting to get those numbers down and stop
Speaker 1: seeing our kids as problems. But it's that kind of
Speaker 1: approach that's also about listening and learning, because I am
Speaker 1: a candidate in this race that says very explicitly, I
Speaker 1: don't have all the answers, and that's not the point
Speaker 1: anyone in a historic crisis, and our crisis has been
Speaker 1: it's historic for generations, but particularly at a time like
Speaker 1: COVID that says they have all the answers is not
Speaker 1: telling the truth. And I will never lie to the
Speaker 1: people of the City of New York, nor to anyone.
Speaker 1: And I will always be Maya Wiley, and that's the
Speaker 1: person who's been a change maker outside of government and
Speaker 1: in but in partnership with communities, and that's what sets
Speaker 1: me apart. Well, I am so excited about your candidacy.
Speaker 1: I think that the city is ready for a revolutionary
Speaker 1: such as yourself, and I'm just so grateful and appreciative
Speaker 1: for you taking the time to join us on wike
Speaker 1: A f today. Well, and Danielle, I'm so appreciated for
Speaker 1: your voice, You're intellect the way you cut through things
Speaker 1: because as you know, we only get through this because
Speaker 1: we do it from many different perches. And you have
Speaker 1: had a powerful one in them. I'm proud to be
Speaker 1: able to call you my friend. Thank you as always,
Speaker 1: dear friends. Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck. See after Labor Day.