Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Scott Stringer joins us
Speaker 1: right now, a former New York City Controller and a mayor. Ken.
Speaker 1: It is a primary, and there's an election in that.
Speaker 1: Let's get the primary out of the way right now.
Speaker 1: New York Times writes it up. The mayor's occupied, the
Speaker 1: governor's piled into the race, and the line is everyone's invisible.
Speaker 1: How does Scott Stringer get visible up the June primary?
Speaker 2: Wait till the mayor race actually started. You know, you
Speaker 2: mentioned my cousin Bella Abzug and the mayor's race of
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy seven when Ed Koch was barely a blip
Speaker 2: during that race until two weeks to go. And so
Speaker 2: everyone who thinks these races end in May, they don't.
Speaker 3: They actually end the end of June.
Speaker 2: And I have high favorable as a record of fiscal
Speaker 2: prudence and a government record that is unmatching this race.
Speaker 2: So I'm very confident going into the next couple of months.
Speaker 1: Is your constituency off of Naylor and Rest and you
Speaker 1: know the whole thing is your constituency as organized is
Speaker 1: it was twenty years ago. Is there a machine in
Speaker 1: New York City where the Liberal party that progresses can
Speaker 1: get behind one candidate or is it chaos.
Speaker 2: Look, I think times have changed in this city. I
Speaker 2: think people really want a mayor who knows what he
Speaker 2: or she is doing. They want someone who's competent. They
Speaker 2: want someone with experience.
Speaker 3: They're tired of the chaos.
Speaker 2: They don't want the current mayor, Eric Adams cast, they
Speaker 2: don't want Quomo casts.
Speaker 3: They want somebody here.
Speaker 1: You went after build a Blasio.
Speaker 2: I was controller during that time period.
Speaker 3: I went after.
Speaker 2: I held up to Blasio accountable three hundred and sixty
Speaker 2: four days a year. I gave him a day off
Speaker 2: due to Christmas. But I understand city agencies. I've exposed
Speaker 2: waste and corruption. I know how to run a government
Speaker 2: in the most competent way, and I think.
Speaker 3: That's what people want.
Speaker 2: But they also want to live here, to have affordable housing,
Speaker 2: to have economic opportunity. People who come here understand how
Speaker 2: critical it is to want to stay. We got to
Speaker 2: go back to the compact of safety, good parks, clean air.
Speaker 2: This is all what a mayor has to do, and
Speaker 2: we need someone to start focusing on it.
Speaker 3: From your perspective, Scott.
Speaker 2: What is the state of the city today.
Speaker 3: I think we're at a crossroads.
Speaker 2: I don't think people understand just how corrupt the last
Speaker 2: four years have been. And the first thing the next
Speaker 2: mayor has to do is literally reform the government. Bring
Speaker 2: in the best and the brightest, Bring in people who
Speaker 2: are competent, who want to see a better city. Look,
Speaker 2: we've got to hire three thousand more cops. We have
Speaker 2: to align policing and a mental health initiative. We've got
Speaker 2: to make sure that a strong mayor can take on
Speaker 2: Trump when he's going against New York City.
Speaker 3: We need somebody who.
Speaker 2: Has that experience, not just pie in the sky promises.
Speaker 3: And I think I positioned myself in that way.
Speaker 2: Metropolitan Transit Association, the congestion tax, what's your view there?
Speaker 3: Look, I think gets working.
Speaker 2: I think people want to pay a little more to
Speaker 2: move the city.
Speaker 3: We have a.
Speaker 2: City government that depends on goods and services how they
Speaker 2: get in and out of New York.
Speaker 3: But look, let's make let's make it clear we have
Speaker 3: work to do.
Speaker 2: Congestion pricing helps some, but we have to build out
Speaker 2: a fibroa transportation plan, and we have not done that yet.
Speaker 2: When I was supporting congestion pricing, back when Mike Bloomberg
Speaker 2: was mayor, we always said we would look at Queen's
Speaker 2: and Staten Island and how.
Speaker 3: We can close those transit deserts.
Speaker 2: So this is just the first step in a long
Speaker 2: transportation journey for New York City.
Speaker 1: Mention that mister Bloomberg, of course, of Bloomberg LP is
Speaker 1: the founder of this radio station and signs my paycheck,
Speaker 1: and you know, exactly once a year, Good morning, mister Bloomberg.
Speaker 3: Scott, I thought it'd be good to mention him. Just
Speaker 3: that's good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you mentioned him, I got to mention it.
Speaker 1: I'm not in speaking terms with them, but that's a
Speaker 1: separate issue, Scott Stringer. How can liberals be conservative and
Speaker 1: be anti crime? I mean, there's a whole modern theology.
Speaker 1: The last election was to me and Eldam out of election,
Speaker 1: Long Island rose up and screened afraid. How do guys
Speaker 1: like you in a city that's become afraid support NYPD
Speaker 1: and support a tougher crime view.
Speaker 2: Why do you think that people who are on the
Speaker 2: liberal side of the equation or even the conservative side
Speaker 2: can't come together and recognize a problem when you see it.
Speaker 1: Me, that's what we've got inst.
Speaker 3: But I got to tell you something.
Speaker 2: It's very easy for me to look at the problem
Speaker 2: and say, hey, we are having a trouble retaining the
Speaker 2: police officers we have. You know that young police officers
Speaker 2: are leaving the police force in droves, and they're not
Speaker 2: retiring from policing. They're actually going to Long Island or Mosquito.
Speaker 2: States like Texas and Florida. Paid well, it's not so
Speaker 2: much pay as it is how do you create a
Speaker 2: work life balance. You know, we've gone from six hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty million dollars in overtime for policing to one
Speaker 2: point three billion. We have the lowest head count in
Speaker 2: the NYPD in generations. We're down a thirty three thousand cops.
Speaker 2: So what should we do. It doesn't matter whether you're
Speaker 2: a liberal conservative monitor. We got to hire more cops.
Speaker 2: That makes financial sense and also from a safety perspective,
Speaker 2: makes sense. I want to put a cop on every
Speaker 2: train during in those high crime areas. I want to
Speaker 2: align policing with a mental health initiative because we see
Speaker 2: people languishing, suffering, dying on the streets. When I take
Speaker 2: my two kids on the subway most mornings.
Speaker 3: To go to school. You know what I see.
Speaker 2: I see what I saw in the nineteen seventies, people
Speaker 2: languishing side.
Speaker 3: It must admit well said, and it's actually true.
Speaker 1: Scott's tringer here with the primary in June, an election
Speaker 1: in November, of course, with his public services family service
Speaker 1: over the years to New York City.
Speaker 2: Pulse reading, Scott is, were you to be elected, what
Speaker 2: would be.
Speaker 3: The first one hundred days of your administration? What would
Speaker 3: be the focus? We bring in a whole new government.
Speaker 3: We reform these city agencies.
Speaker 2: We have a clarion call for people who want to
Speaker 2: serve this city to come into this government and do
Speaker 2: the people's business.
Speaker 3: That's the first step.
Speaker 2: Second, I want to build the same kind of housing
Speaker 2: that was built in a different generation called Mitchellama Housing Mitchellama.
Speaker 3: Two point zero.
Speaker 2: I want to take our thousand vacant lots in the
Speaker 2: city and let's put to work for affordable housing so
Speaker 2: families can come here, go to our best universities, and
Speaker 2: stay here in a way that's affordable. I want to
Speaker 2: put three thousand cops back on the street. Want to
Speaker 2: make sure we align that program with a mental health initiative.
Speaker 2: I want to make sure that we have people taken
Speaker 2: the police test again, eight thousand people took the police test.
Speaker 3: Do you know how many.
Speaker 2: People took the sanitation test? Sixty thousand. There's something wrong here.
Speaker 2: We're just not governing anymore. And also I want to
Speaker 2: make sure that we bring back something called quality of life.
Speaker 2: We'll have a Deputy Mayor for quality of Life, will
Speaker 2: initiate quality stat will break down the silos of all
Speaker 2: these city agencies. I've ordered all of them. And I
Speaker 2: got to tell you, mental health has to start talking
Speaker 2: to small.
Speaker 3: Business and vice versa.
Speaker 2: We got to get a handle on this government. You
Speaker 2: need somebody who actually knows how to govern. And as
Speaker 2: borough president for eight years, is controller for eight years,
Speaker 2: I know the fiscal situation in the city like the
Speaker 2: back of my hand. I'm not over promising like others
Speaker 2: in this campaign. I'm just going to be me and
Speaker 2: be the lifelong New York I've always been to fix
Speaker 2: the city taxes. Pretty Much everybody you walk into on
Speaker 2: the streets say my taxes are too high.
Speaker 3: What do you say, what's your tax.
Speaker 2: Well, let's give people some value for those taxes. Let's
Speaker 2: go back to the compact we've always had in this city,
Speaker 2: which is if you come here, you pay a little more,
Speaker 2: but you're going to get a clean city. You're not
Speaker 2: going to have rats running around, garbage piled high. I mean,
Speaker 2: we've got rats walking upright right now. They've come up
Speaker 2: to me on more than one occasion at night saying, hey,
Speaker 2: can you beat Cuomo. I mean, this is a real crisis.
Speaker 2: People say, what am I paying for? What's the value
Speaker 2: of my taxes? And we have to go back to
Speaker 2: making people understand that what they get in return is
Speaker 2: a real New York City that they'll never leave.
Speaker 1: What is your policy on immigration and migration and the
Speaker 1: emotion here of people coming in that are new troubled.
Speaker 2: But we've always had people come, like my grandparents came
Speaker 2: to this city and came to this country. So let's
Speaker 2: not start filtering out who comes and who doesn't. Let's
Speaker 2: be very smart about this. Look, you bring gang members
Speaker 2: in here, get them out. I'd be the first one
Speaker 2: to stand and say we want you out of here.
Speaker 3: No guns, no violence.
Speaker 2: But for people who flee persecution, for people, I mean,
Speaker 2: come on, we were so much better than this, and
Speaker 2: we can Good government means we can absorb people. We
Speaker 2: can absorb crises. It doesn't have to be a meltown.
Speaker 1: I gotta ask you one final question, Harry. I think
Speaker 1: it's hugely emotional for everyone across this nation.
Speaker 3: There is an.
Speaker 1: Uproar among liberals over a generational shift, as identified by
Speaker 1: Senator Schumer, over to something new. John Ferrell mentioned to
Speaker 1: Glenn Young Kenne Virginia the Utah event of Senator Sanders
Speaker 1: the other day. Help me here with what the new
Speaker 1: generation of Democrats look like.
Speaker 2: Look, we've always had a new generation of Democrats. You
Speaker 2: mentioned the starting at the show, Very very smart, right,
Speaker 2: Bella Abzug was a new generation.
Speaker 3: Of course, you can't imagine. No one can shock and
Speaker 3: this mouthy woman was. It was for the products.
Speaker 2: And look, I was a twelve year old kid running
Speaker 2: around campaigning with her during the Vietnam War.
Speaker 3: And you know what happened. A few years into her term.
Speaker 2: The US News and World Report, not the most liberal
Speaker 2: newspaper or magazine, named her the number three most competent
Speaker 2: and effective member of Congress. I am I embrace the
Speaker 2: new generation, but right now we need somebody in New
Speaker 2: York City who represents vision, experience, and competence. Make no mistake,
Speaker 2: this is a moment where we have to rate the
Speaker 2: ship so that the.
Speaker 3: New generation can come in do it all generations.
Speaker 1: Some would say you just describe God or Cuomo. I mean,
Speaker 1: the basic idea is he's been around his father's iconic.
Speaker 1: You're up against Cuomo. What's the biggest stetriment there?
Speaker 2: Oo he's chaotic and he's not prone New York City,
Speaker 2: and he doesn't like people, and he's running the worst
Speaker 2: kind of campaign. That makes him unelectable.
Speaker 3: In my mind. But no one's going to realize that
Speaker 3: until June first.
Speaker 2: And I hope to come back on this show as
Speaker 2: your mayor elect and talk to you, especially about the
Speaker 2: history of mayoral politics and what went wrong in his campaign.
Speaker 2: But I am not feeling him diskettering.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, former running here for mayor this morning.