Georgia ‘Kingpin’ mayor, daughter escape prosecution involving missing city funds
Eight years ago, a grand jury believed a former mayor and his daughter deserved to stand trial after an audit discovered more than $500,000 went missing from a small town. It never went to trial.
More Videos
- Next up in 5Jonesboro decriminalizes marijuana possession
- Gwinnett officer killed, another injured
- Man shot multiple times in Atlanta
- Council passes legislation, urging Atlanta mayor to implement recommendations from the Edgewood Corridor Public Safety Task Force
- Next steps after FBI serves search warrant at Fulton County elections office
A former Georgia mayor and his daughter will likely never be prosecuted for their involvement in $500,000 that went missing from the small town of Broxton.
In 2010, a Coffee County grand jury indicted former mayor Bobby Reynolds and his daughter Tracy Lott, the town’s former city clerk. Lott was charged with felony theft and admitting to lying to law enforcement. Reynolds was charged for failing to monitor city finances.
Eight years after their indictment, 11Alive News discovered a judge dismissed the case this past July, because the district attorney failed to take the case to trial in a timely manner.
Credit: WXIA
The charges came after multiple audits identified mismanagement of city funds and missing money. In 2006, an auditor uncovered someone “embezzled $569,942” from city hall. That’s more than enough money to pay all ten city employees for a year and a half.
“Bobby was kinda like a kingpin around here,” said Hal Presley, a vocal critic of Reynolds who blames him for the town’s financial struggle. “That’s an awful a lot of money for this town. A lot of money,” said Presley.
The same audit discovered the town’s former city clerk played a part. The auditor wrote that he identified Lott overpaid herself $36,000 and strongly suggested Broxton City Council attempt to retrieve the money.
The auditor also wrote Lott had $21,683 in uncashed checks in her possession that “should have been deposited to the city’s bank accounts.”
In 2010, an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation interviewed Lott about the missing money. In the GBI interview by investigator Chad Lott, he told the former city clerk what he suspected.
“I think you knew this audit was going on, you knew you weren’t going to have a job,” said investigator Lott. I think you took advantage of the situation and wrote yourself a few payroll checks and wrote them down as vacation.”
More Videos
- Next up in 5Rain expected Tuesday | What to know
- Gwinnett officer killed, another injured
- Panel talks about FBI raid at Fulton County elections hub
- Bill to band cell phone ban in Georgia schools advancing through legislature
- Georgia Legislative Black Caucus discusses 2026 priorities
During the interrogation, the city clerk and the GBI investigator discussed the public’s perception of whether they were related because they have the same last name.
According to the investigator, his cousin was once married to Tracy Lott’s nephew.
According to audio of the interrogation, Lott admitted to lying about where she kept some checks and to paying herself more than she should, but disagreed on the amount and said it was an accident. According to the audit, Lott eventually turned over about $80,000 in uncashed checks to the GBI.
“I did wrong. I’m admitting to you, I did wrong,” Lott told the GBI investigator. “I realize every bit of it. But, as far as stealing…no I don’t.”
As of mid-November, city staff and its current mayor tell 11Alive they’re not sure where the remaining money went.
Broxton’s Missing Money
1/7×
WXIA
Pressley suspected there would be a trial based on Lott’s admission and evidence.
“If she wrote checks and she was not entitled to them, then she stole them and I would think that would be enough to prosecute her,” said Pressley.
This March, an attorney for Lott and Reynolds filed a motion to dismiss the charges for violating their right to a speedy trial. About four months later, the judge agreed and tossed out the case.
Reynolds declined to an interview, but during a brief phone call, he said having the indictment over he and his daughter’s head destroyed their reputation. He denied any involvement of the missing money.
11Alive left Lott repeated voicemails. When she didn’t respond, 11Alive attempted to interview her in person. Lott declined and asked us to leave her property.
The current district attorney is George Barnhill. He also declined interview requests, but explained in an email that wasn’t enough evidence to go to trial.
“The last two District Attorneys had not felt there was enough evidence to take the cases to a jury trial, we were not able to gain any additional evidence, and after extensive review neither I nor the Senior Assistant DA assigned to the cases thought we had enough to prevail in Coffee County,” said Barnhill.
Harold Ragsdale is one of the 21 grand jury members who indicted the mayor and his daughter in 2010. He says was surprised to hear a judge dismissed the case.
“It’s like a waste of our time, taxpayers time, and both for the Reynolds-Lott families and the judicial system,” Ragsdale said. “It failed us all.”
Former District Attorney Rick Currie was prepared to take the case to trial, but then requested a continuance, according to a local newspaper in August 2011. Currie did not explain why and did not set a new trial date. “I will try to put a priority on resolving these cases,” Currie told the Times-Union following the continuance.
This past September, Currie says he doesn’t remember why he didn’t take it to trial. “I remember that I was gearing up for trial and then something happened and I don’t remember what that was,” said Currie, now the city attorney for Waycross, Georgia.
Credit: WXIA
Broxton doesn’t buy it. “I don’t understand how he would not remember something like that,” said Currie.
Currie does remember it would have been a difficult case to get a conviction because the audit identified years of missing financial paperwork. “The word that keeps coming back into my mind is FUBAR – fouled up beyond recognition,” said Currie. Despite his lapse in memory, the former DA says he did everything he could to bring it to trial.
Kay Lavine is a former prosecutor and now an law professor at Emory University. “I think that response is puzzling, that he did everything he could, without having to document what else he did do following the grand jury indictment,” said Lavine.
Credit: WXIA
It’s important to note that Reynolds and Lott’s case dismissal is not the same as an acquittal, where a fact-finder has proven the government has not met its burden of proof, said Lavine. It’s also not a decision on the quality of the evidence at all. It’s purely a legal decision that the state failed to prosecute the case in a timely manner.
“When cases drag on and on, what we end up seeing is a very favorable plea deal for the defendant because the prosecutor’s case has gotten weaker over time,” said Lavine. “So, that may be very well for the defendant, [it] may not be well for society.
2nd grade teacher arrested after horrifying video of 22-strike beating surfaces
by WKRCThu, November 20, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Updated Thu, November 20, 2025 at 5:45 AM
(Mobile County Sheriff’s Office/WKRC file)
0Comment
Share
MOBILE, Ala. (WKRC) — A teacher was taken into custody after an unsettling video of a beating surfaced online.
According to WPMI-TV, 44-year-old Randi Nicole Staples, a 2nd-grade teacher at Cottage Hill Christian Academy in Mobile, Alabama, was arrested after a troubling video—reportedly showing 22 strikes over 14 seconds—was posted on Facebook.
The outlet reports that the video, filmed inside a home, shows Staples hitting her 12-year-old child with what appears to be a belt or strap before picking him up by his hair and berating him with profanity.
The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to WPMI that Staples is the child’s mother.
According to WKRG, another sibling living in the home recorded the video and sent it to an older sibling, who then posted it to social media. WPMI reports that the video was online only briefly before being removed.
A Facebook post from Cottage Hill Christian Academy shows that Staples was honored as Teacher of the Year in May.
“It’s almost like a dual personality. Because by all accounts, I’m told she is a good teacher and well respected. And yet what happens in the home is clearly opposite of that,” Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch told WPMI.
Cottage Hill Christian Academy issued the following statement to WPMI after the video surfaced:
“Following the findings of law enforcement, which determined that the teacher had engaged in improper conduct unrelated to her school responsibilities, an arrest was made, and Cottage Hill Christian Academy terminated her employment in accordance with institutional policy.”
The school added that it will cooperate with the Department of Human Resources, the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, and the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office as the investigation continues.
Staples was arrested and booked into the Mobile Metro Jail. She is charged with the following, according to the reports:
- Willful abuse of a child under 18 (felony)
When speaking with the outlet, Sheriff Burch described Staples’ actions in the video as “repulsive.”
“People are entitled to discipline their children how they choose, but that went well beyond discipline. It was abuse,” he said. “And it was sickening to see somebody repeatedly strike their child, then grab them by the hair and yell and curse at them. I think the last strike was across his arms there was never any question or doubt that she was ultimately going to be arrested.”
Sheriff Burch told WKRG that the Department of Human Resources has placed all the children with a family member while the investigation continues. He added that he believes much more will be uncovered, according to WPMI.
Transcript: Mayor Adams Hosts Community Conversation
April 08, 2025
Commissioner Fred Kreizman, Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Fred Kreizman, commissioner of the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit, the Adams administration is excited to be here in East Flatbush. This is the mayor’s 38th community conversation. This is besides all the other town halls we’ve had with the older adults, and the youth town halls.
This community is such a diverse community and a bustling Caribbean community. We are excited to be here in the P.S./I.S. 109, and we want to thank the school’s principal, Kerdy Bertrand, and of course, the Superintendent Bove. Of course, I want to acknowledge Community Board 17 District Manager Sherif Fraser and the Chair Rodrick Daley.
This community conversation started at six o’clock. There are three parts. The first part from six to seven o’clock, we really had a conversation with members in the mayor’s office and community affairs office at every table. The reason being, the administration recognizes the value of your time. In case your questions are not asked, the folks at each table take down notes to bring it back to policymakers at City Hall to ensure your topics are discussed thoroughly.
The second portion, we ask the folks at each table to formulate your independent questions so you could ask it to the dais, to the mayor and the agency representatives. Also, you have a card in front of you. In case your question is not asked we ask you to write down your question, submit it to the facilitator at the table. We’ll make sure to track each question and make sure you get an agency representative reach out to you that’s monitored and tracked by the mayor’s office to ensure we get you a timely response.
The run of the show this evening will be the Councilmember Farah Louis will speak. We will give it over to the mayor, but I just want to go through quickly the DA and who we have here this evening. We’re asking everyone to hold your applause.
First person we have is the mayor of the City of New York, Eric Adams. Afterwards, we have the first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro. We have deputy mayor of Housing, Economic Development, Adolfo Carrión. We have deputy mayor of Public Safety, Kaz Daughtry. Deputy mayor of Health and Human Services, Suzanne Miles-Gustave. Deputy mayor of Operations, Jeffrey Roth. The deputy mayor of Strategic Initiatives Chief of Staff, Jason Parker. NYPD deputy commissioner, Mark Stewart. New York City Public Schools deputy chancellor, Christina Foti. DYCD commissioner, Keith Howard. Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, Commissioner Manny Castro.
Health and Hospital CEO, Dr. Mitchell Katz. Department of Health and Mental Hygiene deputy commissioner, Dr. Leslie Hayes. Office of Community Mental Health deputy executive director, Laquisha Grant. Department of Social Services, Department of Homeless Services administrator, Joslyn Carter. ACS General Counsel, Commissioner Joseph Cardieri. EDC assistant vice president of Brooklyn Borough Director, Gregory Vayngurt. New York City Emergency Management deputy commissioner, John Grimm. Department of Finance Director John [inaudible]. CCHR Human Rights commissioner and chief of staff, Jose Rios Lua, and Gender-Based Violence deputy commissioner, Tesa Arózqueta.
Of course, to my right, we have our councilmember, Farah Louis. We have our Small Business Services commissioner, Dynishal Gross. HPD acting commissioner, Ahmed Tigani. DFTA Department for Aging commissioner, Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez. Department of Probation commissioner, Juanita Holmes. DOB Deputy commissioner, Gus Sirakis. Department of Consumer Worker Protection, Assistant Commissioner Carlos Ortiz. Parks Borough Commissioner Martin Maher. NYCHA EVP, Daniel Greene.
DOT chief of staff, Ryan Lynch. Mayor’s Office of Climate Environmental Justice director, Elijah Hutchinson. Mayor’s Office of Non-for-Profits, Executive Director Michael Sedillo. DEP Borough commissioner, Mario Bruno. Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice COO, Candice Julien. Office of Asylum Seeker Operations director of External Affairs, Daniel Henry. Department of City Planning Brooklyn Office director, Alex Sommer. Sanitation Borough chief, Joseph Rainone. Fire Department, Deputy Chief Peter Irish. Rodent Mitigations director, Kathy Corradi. We also have Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, the new chief, Frank Giordano. 67 Precinct CO Inspector, Rachael Kosak. 71 Precinct CO, Captain Ronald Perez. 63 Precinct XO Captain Hussein. We want to thank all the members of the mayor’s office and community affairs sitting at each table. At this time, I’ll hand it over to Councilmember Farah Louis.
City Councilmember Farah Louis: Thank you, commissioner. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. I’m Councilmember Farah Louis, representing Council District 45. I want to thank Mayor Adams for organizing the first town hall meeting right here in the East Flatbush, held by the mayor’s office. I also want to thank Principal Bertrand for opening his doors and for offering this space to the community for tonight’s conversation.
I want to thank Superintendent Bove for being here as well. Tonight is an opportunity for me to sit back and listen, but a opportunity for you to share with the mayor and his entire team some of the pressing issues that are happening here in our community. There’s many, many issues happening in our community, but they are here to support and help us. This is not just about a conversation, but proactive approach to ensure that your issues and your concerns are being heard tonight. Thank you for the opportunity, Mayor Adams, for being here.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much, councilwoman. It’s good to be back in Brooklyn after eight years of being your borough president, now to be back here to talk about what we have done and what we continue to do. Go back to January 1st, 2021. Running, I had a series of things that I stated I wanted to do as the mayor. I really challenge everyone to go and look at what our wins have been.
We have accomplished and ensured that our city will move forward and I think one of the first indicators is to look and see who’s up here. This is one of the most diverse administrations in the history of this city. The most diverse in the history of this city.
January 1st, 2022, when I became the mayor of this city, crime was surging through the roof. We were dealing with the affordability and housing issue. We were not invested in foster care children, jobs were hemorrhaging, Black and brown communities, unemployment was high, Black community was four times the rates of White community in unemployment. Bond ratings was not giving us the bond ratings that we wanted and deserve.
NYCHA residents, when I was borough president during COVID, we would go door to door and learn that families did not have high-speed broadband. Children were not able to do remote learning. Parents were not able to do telemedicine. We were watching our foster care children slip through the cracks because they were not getting the support that they deserved. MWBEs, people talked about the program that David Dinkins put in place, but MWBEs, the dollars were not going to Black and brown businesses in this city. You look list after list after list. Where are we now?
We built more affordable housing in the City of New York in year one and year two, and we’re going to do it in year three, in the history of this city. More people moved from homeless shelters into permanent housing in year one and year two in the history of this city. More people were able to use FHEPS vouchers, about 32,000 in the history of the program. We invested in foster care children paying their college tuition, giving them a stipend after graduating from college. We have more jobs in New York City in the history of this city.
We just announced this quarter, we have the least amount of shootings in a quarter in the history of this city. Second lowest homicides in the history of this city. All of our major crime categories have decreased. Subway system, continuous crime, five quarters in a row, every quarter is three months, five quarters in a row we saw a decrease in crimes in this city, and we continue to do that.
100,000 summer youth jobs. We tried for years to get 100,000 summer youth jobs. Finally, we came into office. We did that. 110,000 summer rising programs. Invested in justice-involved children. $19 billion in M/WBE to women and minority-owned businesses in this city. Record after record after record. Bond raters has raised our record.
We did this coming through COVID, remember COVID? Coming through COVID and coming to 230,000 migrants and asylum seekers that hit this city without any support on a federal level. I couldn’t stop the buses from coming in. It was against federal law. I could not allow people to work. It was against federal law. A group of migrants came to me and said, “Can we remove graffiti, clean the streets, and just get a stipend?” Federal government said, “No, you cannot do that. That’s against the law.”
I had a requirement to feed, clothe, house, educate 40,000 children, and my north star was one thing, not one child or family was asleep on the streets of the city of New York. 180,000 of them have now taken the next step on their journey. We turned this city around. You won’t see it by what you’re reading. You’re reading total disorder. Nothing is happening. Nothing is getting done, but the numbers speak for themselves, what we have accomplished in this city.
You go back to 30 years ago when David Dinkins was mayor, that’s the same thing that you read every day. That’s the trick people want to play. This city was in a dark place. This administration with this team that’s up here, we turned it around and we’re going to continue to turn it around. We’re going to do it by getting on the ground, and so tonight, I want to hear from you. You don’t have to sugarcoat. You don’t have to be kind. I’m from Brooklyn, so you can’t hurt my feelings.
When you speak, I’m going to listen. When I speak, I want you to do the same. When your neighbors speak, we want to do the same. Allow us to communicate and not just get into the point that we’re not listening to each other. I’m a deep listener, so I could be ja deep understander. I look forward to a nice engaged conversation this evening. Where are we going first, [Lamona]?
Lamona was a police officer with me. Now she’s an assistant commissioner and liaison for the Community Affairs.
Question: Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Esteemed mayor. Thank you for giving us the time. My name is Hartwell Alleyne. I represent 671 students at P.S. 235 Janice Marie Knight in East Flatbush. I also represent the residents of East 42nd Street between Lenox and Linden. I’m the block association president there, and I’m the PTA president at P.S. 235. I’m coming to you this evening representing those children. I am their voice tonight.
In our neighborhood, a block and a half away, just a block and a half away, there are three men’s shelters that were opened. As far as I know, it’s not supposed to be the case. Our children have been subjected to vagrants wandering through the neighborhood, stopping in front of our schoolyard, mingling in with the parents that are dropping off their children in the mornings.
On one occasion, I had to ask our principal. I said, “Is this one of our parents?” Because I got to know many of the parents. I know who comes in the morning. This one individual was not a parent. When I approached him, he became argumentative. He said he had a right to stand there. I said, “Not if you’re not dropping off a child.” I ended up having to call 911 to have him removed.
We had a child menaced in the bodega at the corner of Lenox and Albany Avenue. When in the store, a man kept the child in there. The NYPD crossing guard, [Nyasha Gray], intervened because she knew who the children were. When she approached the individual, he said he was their uncle. She knows the family well. He was not. NYPD had to be called.
It turned out that that vagrant who was from the shelter had an open case for menacing on top of what was going to come to him that day because he was arrested. She did receive a commendation at 1 Police Plaza. You can actually look into it. Her name is [Nyasha Gray]. I am appealing to you. I don’t know how this happened. You don’t see this in any other community where you have homeless shelters so close to our children.
Our children should not be subjected to men masturbating on the corner of Albany and Lenox, but it has happened. I have physically gotten involved with the individual that was doing that on the corner. It shouldn’t be the case. Our children are supposed to be able to go to school in peace. I shouldn’t have vans parked a block away from the school, and when I stop and I look, they drive off. It shouldn’t be happening.
How? I ask you. How did three shelters come into our community, come into the lives of our children? We have those men now coming up and down our blocks, locking shopping carts on the parking signs. I’ve had to go out with bolt cutters and cut the chains to remove the items that they’re leaving, the shopping carts, the bikes.
The shelter on Clarkson and Albany is lined with those scooters. At all hours of night, the men are out there. My wife was working the night shift, and she would have to leave at night to go out and catch the B12 and be subjected to those men out there at those hours.
Mayor, something has to be done. It was not supposed to happen. They were not supposed to open up, not that close to a school, not so close to my daughter, our children, your children. It shouldn’t have happened.
Mayor Adams: First of all, thank you for all of the volunteerism that you’re doing. You listed a number of things. Let’s peel this back for a moment. When we came into office, we already had an overburdened homeless system. Overburdened. Thousands of people were already in care. Then on top of that, we got 230,000 that came to our city. There was a moment we were getting 4,000 a week, 8,000 every two weeks, the buses were coming around the clock that we had to, required by law, to give a housing to.
Then when you do an analysis, when I’m on the subway system, looking at who’s homeless on a subway system or street homeless, overwhelmingly Black and brown, particularly men that are coming home from correctional facilities for the most part and don’t have housing when they come home.
We have a 1.4 percent vacancy rate in the city, 1.4 percent, functionally zero. That’s why we did City of Yes, the most comprehensive housing reform, because there were many communities that were saying, “We need housing, but you can’t build it on our block.” We had to find spaces and creativity to build more housing.
When I first came into office, I brought all the city councilmembers together and I said, “Why do we have certain communities where you’d have no shelters?” You go up to the Bronx, they got 30-something shelters. You go out to Queens, they got 30-something shelters. We have overburdened certain communities with shelters, and now we are equalizing. There’s some folks we open one shelter, they want to protest and say they shouldn’t have any at all. It’s imperative for your local elected to talk to their colleagues and say, “You got to share this burden. Can’t be just in one community.” Our goal is to find the best places and give the best services to make sure we deal with a serious homeless population.
You know what’s aggravating this even more, folks? I was just sitting down to DSS Commissioner Molly Park. We are now getting people from outside other cities that’s overburdening our shelter system. Everyone is moving to New York, and that’s adding to the already shelter population that we have. Now someone tell me about these three shelters that was just mentioned. Who do I have here from DSS?
Commissioner Kreizman: Joslyn Carter.
Joslyn Carter, Agency Administrator, Department of Homeless Services: I’m here, Mr. Mayor. How are you?
Mayor Adams: Okay, good. Good to see you.
Carter: Oh. Good to see you too.
Mayor Adams: Even before you speak, what she accomplished, what Molly Park’s accomplished, what Zach Iscol accomplished, folks, we were having people come into this city nonstop that we had to house. They were up all night coming through COVID, and they were up all night fulfilling the law and the obligation. Those same folks that handled our COVID crisis and couldn’t take care of their family, they went right into the migrant asylum seekers crisis. That’s what these city workers did. Can we talk about these three shelters?
Carter: Sure, Mr. Mayor. I think one of the things that we know is that, like you said, people who come to us need shelter. I know that definitely the one in Albany is one that definitely run by us DHS, I’ll follow up with that immediately. I do know that our outreach teams are out multiple times per week. Out really seeing who’s experiencing homelessness on the street. I will check in to see how often they’re coming to that area so they can engage those folks who are out around the school just to make sure that we are doing the work that we need to do.
I will be following with that immediately as soon as we– during this meeting, actually to make sure that our teams are out there, but we are making sure that our teams are out 24 hours a day with the outreach teams. We’ll make sure to do that piece.
Mayor Adams: So what I’m going to do tonight, I got to run to another meeting, but I’ll meet up with you in the next day or so and go to the exact locations you’re looking at and see the conditions over there.
Let me tell you something folks, I have never had one elected official that when we state we need to open a shelter somewhere and they raise their hand. Everyone says the same thing, “Not here. Not on this block. Not in this area.” It has to go somewhere. What I have to do is make sure it is evenly distributed so it’s not overwhelming one community.
When I speaking with Councilman Salamanca. Councilman Salamanca have over 30 shelters in his community. Councilwoman Won has I think 35 shelters in her community. We can’t overburden communities. Everyone must share this. Again, when you do an analysis, everyone, they’re open to women and children shelters. Do you know what no one is open to? You try to open a men’s shelter anywhere, no one wants men’s shelters, no one. They got to go somewhere, and that’s the obligation I have to fulfill.
DJ, connect with him. I’ll meet up with you. I want to see the conditions there. We can’t put it in your community and have deplorable conditions at the same time. No one should have to watch someone public urination, defecating on the street, injecting themselves with drugs. You shouldn’t have to live through that. You should not have to live through that, and that’s why I fight hard to do it in spite of everyone yelling at me for doing it. I want the same quality of life for my block and for my children as you want for yours.
Question: My name is [Hazel Martinez]. We want to know what are the plans to improve the quality of life in this community? We have a lot of event spaces, particularly one on Farragut Road, XXXL Event Space which is causing a lot of pain to the residents that live there. Our sewers need upgrading, some of our parks are dismal. We have a lot of dollar buses abandoned, and trailer homes, people living in trailer homes next to residences, and the residents are not happy. There’s plenty more but we can tell you those.
Mayor Adams: I want to pull out of the park for a moment, particularly the trailers. We saw that on 3rd Avenue was it, Kaz? We saw it on 3rd Avenue. People were lining up with trailers and living in them, that can’t happen. I just need for you to zero in and tell me where the locations are that we could address it.
Kaz, let’s make sure we get over there, look at those locations with trailers, we knock on them, tell people you can’t live there, don’t even try to start that. We were able to clean up 3rd Avenue, that was the same problem. We had about 15 trailers where people were sitting inside there. It’s not acceptable. If you pinpoint the location, we’ll deal with that. DEP? Who I have for DEP?
Commissioner Kreizman: We have Mario Bruno.
Mayor Adams: Hold on, one moment, just let me finish answering her question and then you can come back and do your thing. Talking about the sewer issues over here, it’s going to take a while for us to build out the sewers. Our sewer system was not made to handle the rainfall that we are receiving.
We have to find different ways now to deal with the water that we’re experiencing, the level of rainfall. Our sewer system, it was not built to handle the flow of water that we are receiving, but we’re doing a lot of things to do water mitigation. You want to go into some of that?
Mario Bruno, Staten Island Borough Commissioner, Department of Environmental Protection: Thank you, mayor. Mario Bruno from DEP. In the community, we actually have a lot of investments in this area. Chief among them is a water maintenance sewer project, BED834. It’s a $43 million project, and we’re building new water and sewer mains on Nostrand Avenue from Dean Street to Prospect Place, including 32,000 feet of water and sewer mains.
We’ve built a lot of rain gardens, green infrastructure over 1,043. What those do to serve, to reduce flooding in the community, and also clean up our waterways. Then we also have a special GI project on Kings Highway between Farragut Road and Avenue D. We’re going to be doing green infrastructure in the median, but if you have any specific issues, I can talk to you after the event, and we’ll get whatever help you need.
Mayor Adams: That’s the goal. The goal is to pinpoint. Some of the other tables when you speak, if there’s specific areas that you pinpoint a problem that allows us to utilize our resources better. I don’t want to just say in this esoteric way that everything is bad, everything is bad. No, we’re having a problem on Kings Highway. We’re having a problem on Nostrand Avenue. If you pinpoint, then we can zero in. There are some major sewer projects that are happening here as was just explained.
Department of Parks, someone talk to me. No one loves their job more than you, man.
Borough Commissioner Martin Maher, Department of Parks and Recreation: Sure, Mr. Mayor. For the first time in my 41-year career, we have a brand new $144 million recreation center, the Shirley Chisholm Center, thanks to our great councilmember over here and thanks to you for funding that. It’s going to have an indoor pool. It’s going to have a gym. It’s going to have classrooms, fitness center, dance, all kinds of programs that’s going to open this coming fall. We’re very excited about that.
Also, down the block on Foster Avenue, Paerdegat Park is getting a brand-new cricket and baseball and softball field. Also, funded by the councilmember, $6 million. That work starts this coming fall. That’ll be finished a year later. Our ratings in the parks are 98 percent for cleanliness, 91 percent for overall condition, and we’re getting it done, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you. Listen. Listen. Did y’all miss that? Every community I go in, they ask for a community center, this councilwoman delivered one. She delivered one. That’s deserving, a state-of-the-art, ground-up construction. When did we did it, in two years? Two years. She delivered. When we were on the campaign trail, she says, “Eric, I need a community center.” I’m not in one community that they don’t raise that, and she delivered it.
She also delivered $6 million for the park. This is what we send people to the council for. This has been a solid, solid councilwoman, and so when she brings home something, we got to show her some love. Got to show us some love.
Borough Commissioner Maher: We also spoke with Ms. Martinez. We’re going to be doing some flowering and greening up with some volunteers on Kings Highway.
Mayor Adams: Love it. Love it. Love it.
Question: Good evening, everybody. My name is [Aminatu Noah]. I’m the mother of my only son, [Elijah Chandler], and his friend [Christian Perkins] drowned last year at Riis Beach. My question is to you, what can we do to bring swimming education in the school system, and what about getting more lifeguards intact?
Mayor Adams: My condolences. I remember that like it was yesterday. I have one son, Jordan, and words cannot even express the pain to experience something like that. It kicked into gear. A lot of things happened. The governor started doing a major swimming program. You know, and I know that our community, our children were not getting access to swimming programs. With all this water around, it was a real problem. That incident really put us in gear, and we’re doing some amazing things.
Department of Parks, who I have from Parks? Do you know the swimming program that you guys are doing?
Borough Commissioner Maher: The swimming program actually starts registration this coming week. Riis is a federal park, but we have been doing lifeguard recruiting and training, not just in one location but in all five boroughs. This coming season at Coney Island, Rockaway, all of the city beaches, we should be in much better condition than we’ve been.
Mayor Adams: I think the number is, I believe we put– I don’t know the exact number, but I think we put $5 million into free swimming programs. I was at Flushing Meadows Park with two and three-year-olds teaching them how to swim during school hours. They come to the pool for recreation.
Our goal is to make sure all these children know how to swim. That’s crucial that they do because you’re right. What happened at Riis, we had some things, I remember when I was borough president in Prospect Park, we lost a child. Just take one minute to go through something like that. Really, my condolences. To lose your babies like that is just really unfortunate.
Matter of fact, we’re going to name the swimming program after them. We’re going to name it after them to always have people remember. To remember. We’re going to always remember them. Always remember. There’s nothing more devastating than a mother losing their child.
You know what? I can’t even tell you. In my first week in office, I had an 11-month-old baby that was shot in the head. Thank God that baby lived but sitting in that hospital– When I leave these events folks, I sit in the car, my drivers say all the time, “Mayor, are you alright?”
Night after night, Officer Mora and Rivera, seeing their family members, this case here, that’s that vicarious trauma. All night, every night, the hours I spend in hospitals. I don’t just send my team up there. I’m in those hospitals. That tore me up when those babies, we lost them, tore me up.
When you lived through this experience, folks. Let me tell you something. You just don’t go home. I feel this vicarious trauma, and I can’t bring back the children, but I could do everything possible to eradicate it. That’s why we have this swimming program, where we’re teaching our young people how to swim.
Commissioner Kreizman: Before we go to the next table, Councilmember would like to ask.
Councilmember Louis: Mayor Adams, I just wanted to remind you, you are going to have an announcement at Brooklyn College for funds that you’ve allocated for swim safety here in the district. Just to add to that.
Mayor Adams: First Deputy Mayor, we want to name this program after this family because that reminds people over and over again.
Deputy Mayor Kaz Daughtry, Public Safety: Also, just wanted to let everyone know in regards to the swimming programs that the city is going to be offering. We’re going to be bringing back again the drones, which is going to be on each beach and extra officers along with the fire department, with OEM, with the Parks department, where actually, the NYPD, I believe, is training some of your personnel in regards to how to fly the drones in the park.
What does that mean? Officers will be responsible for a certain area along the beach as well as the fire department, as well as OEM, as well as Parks. They are going to have the Parks department radios so in the event that one of the officers does see an anomaly in the water, whether it be a shark, whether it be somebody that’s trying to stay above water, they are going to radio into the lifeguards.
Also, the drones are going to be equipped with what’s called a Restube. This tube will be dropped from the drone. As soon as it hits water, it opens up into a 6-foot flotation device. There’s a lot of technology that we’re putting on the beaches this year. We don’t want anyone to suffer what you suffered too, mom.
I don’t know if you remember me, I was at the beach with you and that was probably one of the most painful days in my career, working for the city. I’m so sorry for your loss. I don’t have any words to explain, but I’m really sorry. We’re going to do our best so that this doesn’t happen again to anybody.
Mayor Adams: We kicked in gear. I remember Kaz calling me from the beach. We just kicked in gear. He put that whole program together of monitoring the beach, going up and down the beach with the drones and the drones had cameras attached to the drone. You are able to identify it. Then he came up with a flotation device that’s attached to the drone. You could go out in the water, drop the flotation device. This impacted us. This impacted us.
People often believe these folks that sit up here at the table are just professionals. They have children. Ryan, what do you have? Two children now? I remember your son was born, and growing up. These are parents here and we take home this trauma, folks. We take home this trauma and we kick in gear. When you lost your children, we kicked in gear and came up with ways of rectifying it.
Question: How you doing? My name is Minister Chris. I serve as a minister at Alliance Tabernacle here in East Flatbush. I’m here with some mothers and a father who have family members that have dealt with gun violence and has affected their family.
Mayor Adams, our communities are in crisis. We’ve lost too many of our young people and children to gun violence. [Christian Montrose] in Canarsie killed Christopher in Bushwick, [Storm Hughes] in East Flatbush, and several others whose names we continue to carry in our hearts. These murders remain unsolved and the families and communities are left without justice or closure.
On top of that, after these tragedies, the blood and remnants are not cleaned up properly, leaving visible trauma in our streets and for these families. What immediate steps are you taking to bring justice to these families, hold city agencies accountable for proper cleanup, and most importantly, will you push for stricter legislation and hold those who commit these crimes fully accountable?
Mayor Adams: Thank you. When a bullet leaves the barrel of a gun and it hits an intended target, the pathway may stop physically, but emotionally, it rips apart the anatomy of a community. That’s something that we have to stop. Let’s first peel that back.
Number one, Commissioner Daughtry and DSNY, let’s make sure there’s a real protocol in place that if there is an instance of violence, it doesn’t have to be a shooting, it could be an accident, no matter what it is, we got to immediately respond and clean it up after the crime scene carried out or the accident scene carried out.
There needs to be an immediate response because people don’t want to walk past to see blood, body parts, and everything that’s associated with it. Can we coordinate that and make sure we have an immediate response?
Second, we had a press conference today with the district attorney of Manhattan. 16 people were arrested. In the precinct of arrests during that particular time, they committed 50 percent of the shootings in that precinct. We have a recidivism problem. It’s a small number of people who commit the crimes over and over and over again. I have been fighting this for three years now. Of all of these reforms we are doing that protect people who commit crimes, how about protecting people who are the victims of crimes? That’s what we need to be focusing on. We don’t do that enough.
In many ways, you have a family member who is murdered, and they are the primary breadwinner to that family. What are we doing for them? Why aren’t we paying their mortgage for a year so they can stabilize themselves? Why aren’t we paying for them and give them the assistance that they need for the year? The victim service law on the state level needs to be fixed to make sure we look after people who are the victims of crime, particularly when they’re the primary breadwinners in the household. We pay for funerals, but that’s not enough. We got to go further in what we’re doing.
Then we have to zero in on recidivism. That’s the problem. We don’t have a crime problem in the city, folks. We have a recidivism problem in the city. You got folks that are being arrested over and over again for gun possessions, for shootings, and they coming in and they coming out. That’s the problem we have.
Do you know in New York City, we had 575 people arrested for shoplifting? They were arrested over 7,500 times. When you look at this revolving door and some of the legislation that has come out of Albany, it’s real problematic. To have these parents deal with the trauma and pain of shootings in this city is a problem.
We took over 22,000 illegal guns off our street, and some of them were ghost guns. At one time we had to worry about guns that were being made by manufacturers. Now with these kits, the 3D printers and kits, people can make guns right inside their own homes. It’s a problem. Albany must catch up to what working-class people want. That stuff they passing in Albany is not what you want on the ground in your communities to allow people who commit serious violent acts to be part of a revolving door criminal justice system. That has to stop.
That is why we continue to push forward. Your voice, go into Albany and speaking one-on-one with these lawmakers and say, “This is not acceptable to us.” We need to go after those dangerous recidivists that are committing these crimes. Without even knowing the cases specifically, I bet you if you look at the person who committed that crime, I bet you they have been arrested multiple times before. That’s the pattern. That’s the pattern that we’re facing.
Now, what Commissioner Stewart is doing, we want to take kids off a bad pathway. Commissioner Stewart is teaching children golf, teaching children real estate license, teaching children how to fly planes. What DYCD is doing with our summer youth jobs, teaching children financial literacy, going after justice-involved young people. We’re not saying just be reactive, we want to be proactive. We want to prevent the shootings from taking place in the first place. That’s the combination that we are facing.
But those who have made up their minds that they’re going to be violent in our community, we got to stop acting like we could just hug them out of their pain and turmoil. That just can’t continue to happen. We are failing in Albany to deal with this crime that we’re seeing on our streets.
Deputy Commissioner Tesa Arózqueta, External Affairs & Community Initiatives, Mayor’s Office to End Domestic & Gender-Based Violence: Me, Mr. Mayor. Sorry. I don’t want to interrupt the applause.
Mayor Adams: You could always interrupt.
Deputy Commissioner Arózqueta: Thank you. My name is Tesa Arózqueta. I’m one of the deputy commissioners at the mayor’s office to end domestic and gender-based violence, ENDGBV for short. I just wanted to mention that our office oversees contracts for community programs. One of our contracted partners, Rising Ground, just opened a trauma treatment center in Flatbush. One of the things that our office does, we have a hotline, 1-800-621-HOPE. It also has a chat feature that you can access through our website, nyc.gov/endgbv. One of the things that they do is they don’t only serve survivors of gender-based violence, we serve all victims of crime. After a tragic incident like this happens, there’s so much to do.
To your point, there are so many expenses and so many other impacts long-term and short-term to a family, including the need for maybe mental health counselling, the need for someone just to support everything that’s going on in the home after something like this happens, including connecting you to services to help reimburse the family or cover certain expenses. For example, the Office of Victim Services, the state office, we help connect you to that, help manage applications that can pay. They don’t have a cap on any medical expenses, mental health supports that you might need. They don’t have a cap on paying for that after an incident like this.
I just wanted to mention that as an additional support. I think there are so many things to manage, and we sometimes forget those additional things like how to just support a family mentally, emotionally, and financially through that. Through our hotline and through our community programs, those services are available.
Commissioner Kreizman: Just to add one thing with regards to the mayor’s sensitivity on the issue, he wanted to ensure there was a person designated to dealing with every shooting victim that takes place in New York. We have a designated person in the mayor’s Community Affairs Unit under our emergency response team that deals with shooting victims and reaching out to families and dealing with the aftermath and following up. We work with all the offices of mental health, we work with the office of end gender-based violence to ensure the services are there to provide the support needed. Whether it be burial assistance or other support that might be needed.
Commissioner Keith Howard, Department of Youth & Community Development: This amazing family has approached DYCD and we are working with them in healing circles and victim services. We’ve wrapped our arms around them with the investment that you have provided in the crisis management system. They’re actually going to be going on a retreat this weekend with a whole bunch of other families. As you always say, take your pain and make it into purpose. Amazing family here, strong-willed family, but we got them, and they continue to have the mental health support that we’re providing.
Just shout out for the strength of the family sitting down, meeting with us, having their young people part of the healing circle as well. We don’t like to be able to have a survivor’s group. That’s nothing that we encourage. When it’s here, we want to make sure that we fold into the services that are offered with your $131 million of investment in the crisis management system. I just wanted to say that. The family is just magnificent. We’re working with them, and we’re meeting with them on a regular basis.
Mayor Adams: So important. I’m glad you raised what we doing, both of you. Listen, it doesn’t dissipate. When you lose a loved one like this, it doesn’t dissipate. Parents are not supposed to bury their children. Being able to bury Mommy was my– I didn’t want to see her leave in her ’80s, but I’m supposed to bury her. You’re not supposed to bury children. We are going to do the things we have to do to eradicate the problem, but at the same time, if the problem happens, we need to be here to support it.
Pastor, I want to thank you for what you are doing as well, and all the pastors that are here. Some of the pastors stand up. There’s a couple of faith-based folks that are here. Give them a hand for what they’re doing, going beyond the call of duty. Thank you so much.
Before we go to the next table, I want to talk to this brother in this sharp uniform. Stand up, brother. Good to see you. Commissioner Stewart, talk about this captain that’s here. This is the stuff that Commissioner Stewart is doing. We’re not just reactive to crime. We’re proactive. What this commissioner has done is unbelievable what he has done. Let’s talk about this brother that’s here.
Deputy Commissioner Mark Stewart, Community Affairs, New York City Police Department: Hello. I have seen this young man grow in three years and he’s just succeeding every rank in the explorers. I just want to tell you that we are very proud of you for what you do and how you do it and how you carry yourself. A lot of times that we don’t see our kids in these opportunities. We turn on the TV, we see five minutes of violence and we see our kids. Our kids are doing great things.
When I first came here about three years ago, the mayor tasked me to turn the Community Affairs Bureau into something besides just basketball. In three years, we have an aviation program, we have a harbor program, we have a real estate license from a program, and want to know, an 18-year-old kid just got his license.
College tours that we do with CUNY. We work with DOE. We take our kids from the high schools to college. It’s not just a visit. There’s a staff there waiting for them, showing them how could they apply for college. I have two daughters. When I took them around the school, what was missing? Transportation and opportunity. We’re providing that.
We have the SYEP with DYCD Howard. We have over 1,100 kids with summer jobs this year. We have a YPA, Youth Police Academy, and we have over 800 kids ages from 10 to 15. We also have an older adults program. I’ll be there soon so we got to set this up right. We have an older adult officer in each precinct and each PSA, so that means anything you need, we are the liaison. We work with Commissioner Vazquez, Mr. Community Affairs Cop. If you go into a precinct and you need help, ask for them.
We also do baby showers, which the mayor loves. Three years every borough, we were able to service 40,000 new mothers, and we’re doing it again this year too.
Mayor Adams: Don’t skip over that. Tell them what you do with those new mothers.
Commissioner Stewart: Diapers, bassinets, cribs, prenatal care. We have vendors, over 100 vendors there for them. I don’t know if anybody in this room has ever been to one, but it’s usually close to 1,000 to 1,500 mothers.
I like sports. Basketball’s good, but I play golf. Our kids should learn how to play golf, too. We have a program, which we have about 70 kids now that joined. We have an e-commerce program. I know a lot of people know what e-commerce is, but if you shop on the internet and you buy and you trade the money, you could go to any precinct or PSA in transit. There’s a monitor that monitors the transaction. You don’t have to go into the precinct. You don’t have to make an appointment. There’s a big sign that says e-commerce. You go there in a transaction because what a lot of people are doing, trying these transactions in desolate areas, parking lots, no longer. The cameras are there 24/7, and somebody’s always watching it.
We have a culinary program for our kids too. We just started. We had 18 kids. We have to diversify. Our kids just can’t dribble away out of basketball and play sports. Kids that we were missing, we are getting a lot of kids back in recruitments.
The last program that we also have is very important, Deputy Mayor Kaz, drones. We’re teaching our kids how to use drones. Everybody always asks, “How do you find out?” Community affairs officers, go to the precincts, after I leave here, you come and see me, and I’ll definitely tell you. All right. Thank you.
Mayor Adams: Good stuff. Good stuff.
Captain Blair, Commanding Officer, 67th Precinct, Police Department: Good evening, everyone. I’m Captain Blair. I’m the commanding officer of the Explore program for the 67th Precinct. This is about my fourth year in Explore program. In total I’ll be nine years with the NYPD, since I was nine years old in the Youth Police Academy.
The first year I actually started Youth Police Academy is the year that Junior, the incident with Junior in the Bronx happened. We had to sing for his passing, and each year there’s a scholarship in his name and things like that. Have my explorers here with me today. I thank you guys for being here.
Mayor Adams: Tell them to stand up.
Captain Blair: You got to stand up. Just bear with me. I didn’t think I was going to speak tonight. Ever since I’ve been in the Explore program, I’ve attended a variety of different events. I’ve been to every Labor Day carnival event. I’ve been to every Veteran’s Day parade in Queens. It’s a pleasure to be in the Explore program, but there’s a lot of things that people don’t know about the Explore program and it’s not seen.
As we go into times of subway surfing and a lot of youth are being arrested nowadays, it’s very tough times for the Explore program. Especially when those budget cuts happen for the migrants, so many funding went away. There’s no uniforms. There’s no headgear. There’s no boots. There’s no things to wear. When we have to go to parades in so many places, what do we have to wear? What do we have to represent?
It’s very challenging on me, too, as a leader, every time I speak to many different people in the community. By the time that I get a student that has trouble in school, it’s not a job of disciplinary action. It’s about guiding the student. It’s about caring for them in a different way. It’s about loving them, too. Love comes in different forms.
Youth programs are not car wash programs, right? That means that if youth are having trouble, it’s not putting them in a youth program. I put them in tutoring and they’re washed clean, right? It’s a process. I learned that myself in leadership. I speak confidently about that and what I’ve learned in my time in leadership. It’s very hard when you can’t assess every situation, but the best thing you can do is be the change you want to see, right? Change doesn’t happen just because you moved something from point A to point B, change doesn’t happen like that. You’ll be the change you want to see.
I’m actually a proud graduate of P.S. 235, myself and my 11 junior high school, my lovely principal here. I now teach at my old middle school and I’m doing furthermore things. The point of what I’m saying is that youth programs are not car wash programs, and that’s very important, especially with subway surfing. [Jevon Fraser] was one of my students in Explore program. I taught him about three years ago, and he was a victim to Subway surfing, and that itself is a big issue.
They even came out with the police commissioner for a day essay to talk about that, how can the NYPD and the MTA officials collaborate about that. It’s such a touchy topic, but if we keep looking at the things that go unnoticed, what are we really looking at, right? We have many people in high places speaking, but come down to the ground and actually speak to the community, and then you’ll really know.
Mayor Adams: Right. Thank you so much. It’s just a real powerful testament. Those are the seeds that we are planting. Those are the seeds that we are planting, these explorers teaching golf. You got a golf club in your hand, you don’t have a gun in your hand. Those are the seeds that we have continuously planted because I’m telling you, this group of people who are up here, they’re so personally invested. They’re so personally invested.
I sit down and I talk about the personal narrative of folks that are up here, and it blows my mind. Look at Commissioner Castro. Many of you see him as another commissioner. He’s a Dreamer. He came across from Mexico with his mother as a young boy. Now he’s the commissioner in charge of the dreams of others. Here is a Dreamer.
He and I traveled to El Paso to see the border issue. Then we went to South America, to the Darién Gap. We went to Ecuador, we went to Mexico, we went to Colombia to speak with people on the ground. When we talk about migrants, we talk about immigrants, we’re not talking about from this philosophical place that he did a thesis in college someplace. This man lived it. He lived it. Everyone here from the Caribbean community, you know what it is to come here and carve out a way the right way. That’s who this team is. You go down the line, each one of these people who are here, you should listen to their personal narratives. This is real, authentic leadership.
You know what? That’s why people hate on me. That’s right. That’s why they hate on me because I got everyday working-class people deciding that they’re going to come and do authentic work because you can’t do this rote if you’re not real about it. You think about this, Deputy Mayor Carrión, you got to hear his story. His mother and father coming here, of going up through the system. You go down the line and listen to the story the people who are sitting behind this table and what they stand for.
This is authentic leadership. There’s never been an administration like this administration with authentic everyday people, fighting on behalf of everyday people. That’s what all this hate is about. Said, “We got to get this guy out of here. We got to get him out of here,” and then do what they did to Dinkins. “We’re going to let his own folks turn on him.” You know that? He was going to write these stories, “Oh, he’s under Trump’s fingers. Oh, he’s doing that.” Man, I was under no one’s finger when I was in the Police Department. If I was scared of people with guns, why the hell am I going to be afraid of anything now? I’m here to fight for this city and this community. Don’t get me started. Next table.
Question: Hi. Good evening, everyone.
Mayor Adams: How are you, ma’am?
Question: I’m doing well. My name is [Christina Yana Croswell.] I would like to say that I’m a daughter of East Flatbush, originally raised on East 58th by Tilden High School, then moved to East 51st between I and J and Kings Village. I’m also a proud graduate class of ’06 of PS 235, the Janice Marie Knight School. I also went to IS 240, Andries Hudde Junior High School. Since then I’ve always been understood of the idea of Sankofa, which is mean even though you go away, you always know how to come back. Most recently I came back having graduated with my JD/MBA from the Howard University School of Law and School of Business. I’m currently working as a corporate associate at a big law firm.
However, my pro bono practice as a first-year associate spends most of my time looking at three things: housing, business formation for creative entrepreneurs, as well as real estate issues that our people have. I’m particularly coming to you, mayor, with the third, the latter, which is the real estate issue. Having come back now, now I’m going into my 30th year of life, thank God, I came back with the hopes of wanting to own. I’m seeing that instead there’s only a right to rent. Not only that, but hedge funds are actually buying up this very community that this group of people that you speak of helped to create, helped to build, helped to found, and now the same place that the white flight happened here is now coming back to retake and reclaim our community.
My question to you is, how do we ensure that not just my generation, but that generation of explorers and the future generations get to own in their own community that their forefathers and foremothers built as opposed to having to rent in unsafe conditions in these high rises that we don’t even know if tomorrow that they’ll still be standing?
Mayor Adams: No, no, no. Hold on. Hold on. Hold the mic. Hold the mic. Hold the mic because I don’t want you to drop the mic. I want you to hold the mic.
Question: No, I’m here to have a conversation with you.
Mayor Adams: No, and I like that. What we have to do with people who, leaders like yourself that you are very much invested, you and Du Bois’s theories of The Talented Tenth that go out and come back, our grandmothers and grandfathers listened to Louis Rawls soothing voice that a mind is a terrible thing to waste. They sent jars of [pennies] to the United Negro College Fund so that we could produce individuals like yourself. Give us some of your ideas of what you’re seeing on the ground.
We have our ideas, but nothing is more insulting to a community for us to come in and dictate. It’s a combination of some of the ideas you want, give Deputy Mayor Carrión on the microphone who has built more affordable housing, move more people out of homeless shelters into permanent houses, more people in the [inaudible] vouchers program into permanent housing. More people who needed this housing, he has been involved in. If you have some ideas that we could do and go into some of our home ownership initiative.
What happened in many of our communities, well, we saw that predatory lending scandals when they were allowing people to purchase homes with no money down, knowing that they did not make the money to keep up the mortgage, people were losing it, destroying their credit. We don’t need a repeat of that. We need to really show how to fix our credit, how to be a home buyer, how to make sure we buy within our income level. My first ownership was a little small co-op. I was eventually able to escalate to buy my brownstone and be able to grow from there.
Our money, as you just explained, without that brownstone, I would not have been able to pay Jordan’s college tuition. I was able to get that equity loan to do so. We want to partner with folks like yourself who are professional, back in the community so we can empower people to own their homes.
Question: May I respond to that, mayor?
Mayor Adams: Yes, ma’am.
Question: My response to that is it’s unfortunate to come back into a community where all single-family house, where I would want to have a family, is now $800,000 to even purchase. It’s unfortunate that co-ops, even now, the very place where I said that my mother is living, is going for $200,000, $300,000, $400,000 for a co-op, which is just out of the price range here, particularly because they’re not just being sold from one to one, individual to an individual, but rather hedge funds that do not know our community are coming in and purchasing these houses causing now flight of our own community for a quick cash. As a result, we cannot come back in and purchase it. Instead, we have to rent from them.
Now that’s taking away our opportunity to even own like you did. You had an amazing opportunity in the times that you were in to be able to go from a co-op to a brownstone. You had that opportunity. That opportunity, especially in the times that we’re in, is just not present. What we’re seeing is that not only are they now forcing us to rent the very house that we could potentially own, sometimes they’re flattening them all together and creating things like Utica Crescent, where we’re now having three luxury apartment-style housing of people that will come into our community, don’t know anything about our community, but want to benefit off of the backs of our community at a place where we also cannot own.
Once again, everyone else is coming in to own our community, but yet, look who’s in the room, the people here that actually are about this community, that know about this community, that are raising issues about this community. I’m happy I’m willing to talk to you, Mr. Carrión, deputy mayor. However, I would like to also have a conversation with those hedge funds. I would love to have a conversation with the current owners to talk about why is it that we are building up these new buildings to bring in people that do not live here, but then the people that already live here cannot afford to live here. Where do we go?
Mayor Adams: Listen, we must be in a position of results. That’s very important because the emotion that’s tied to many of these issues, we can feed our emotion or we can feed the results. We do not control the course of a person that have a private location and where they build. We don’t control that. I don’t control if someone wants to do whatever the income would take or the price would take on a house. I don’t control that. If someone has a house, the worst thing we could ever want– Many people here that are from the Caribbean, they came and they bought in communities–
Question: My mom is from the Caribbean.
Mayor Adams: They bought into communities. I bought into [inaudible] when no– People ask me, “What are you doing moving there? You could afford not to move there.” I bought there when others didn’t want to. Some people have invested in their homes, and now they’re seeing a return on their investment. They may want to go back to the South, they may want to go back to the Caribbean. They may want to go somewhere. I’m not going to go to them and say, “You cannot charge this amounts,” after they sacrificed and invest to be here when no one wanted to stay. We don’t control the cost of what a person is going to sell their home for. That’s the free market of the country that we live in.
What we need to be doing, build more housing, give programs where you could do home ownership. Look at how we allow people to build housing that people could own and put them on a pathway of owning, and put on the pathway of owning. It’s a process, making sure your credit score is solid, making sure you went to first-time home buyers seminar, make sure you are buying something within your price point. It’s not automatic. I didn’t just buy that [inaudible]. I had to go through a process and educated myself. It was many things I sacrificed. I never owned a new car in my entire life. I’m not wearing my assets on me. We can’t say, “Why am I not having something?” There’s a way to get there. Talk about some of the home-buying stuff. I mean, some of the investments we’re making.
Deputy Mayor Adolfo Carrión, Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce: Thank you, mayor. Christina, I just want to say to you, you are an inspiration. You really, really are an inspiration. The energy, the clarity of understanding that you demonstrate is powerful. We need you as a city, and I’m glad you came back home, after going away to school. You know what? That deserves a round of applause.
I’m going to say a couple of things, and then I’m going to have the acting commissioner of HPD, Housing Preservation and Development, talk a little bit about our affordable homeownership opportunities and what we’re trying to do. Number one, one of the saddest stories that I ran into early in my 10-year as commissioner of housing, before I became deputy mayor, was a woman, a mother of three wonderful adult young Black men from Harlem. They all went away just like you did. They went away to school. She still lives there. They all left the city, They left the city because of exactly your story, they couldn’t find an affordable place to live.
When the mayor came in he gave us a charge. He says, “Look, we’re facing a housing crisis. We’re going to beat every record of production that’s ever been established,” and we have done that. We have done it in two ways. One, building new construction of affordable rentals. The opportunity for people to rent apartments, working-class people, rent apartments and raise their families here in New York. We don’t want to lose them. We want to continue to be the best place to raise a family. Then he said, “We need to create homeownership opportunities, affordable homeownership opportunities.”
I’ll give you a short story. My parents came from the Caribbean in the 1950s. They didn’t speak a lick of English. They came from Puerto Rico. They lived in a subbasement apartment on South 2nd Street in Williamsburg. They went to Jacob Riis houses because there was an opportunity for affordable rentals in Lower Manhattan. They went to 12th Street and Avenue C, because HUD created an opportunity for affordable housing on 12th Street, brand new beautiful buildings, Haven Plaza. In less than one generation, with the help of the federal government, a government program, they became homeowners with a 3 percent down payment in a row house up in the North Bronx, in what we consider then, the country. It was beautiful up there.
We need to repeat that story over and over, which the is mayor’s charge to us. He says, “I want to see that story of success that in one generation– In less than one generation, a family in New York City can enter home ownership and enter the middle class.” Ahmed Tigani is the acting commissioner at HPD. Talk just a little bit about some of the efforts that we’re undertaking, including legislation to fight that kind of raiding of a community by hedge funds and other real estate funds that are taking away opportunity from our city.
Acting Commissioner Ahmed Tigani, Department of Housing Preservation and Development: Hi, Christina. Just to build up on what the mayor and the deputy mayor has said. HPD’s focus on home ownership is three-part. One, we’re looking to create opportunities. Under the opportunity section, downpayment assistance is one of the most important tools we can give people to get access to all types of homeownership opportunities. In this administration, we took the original program of $40,000 per household and we increased that to $100,000 per household for access to down payment assistance. It comes with it the kind of–
