Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Michael Blake Talks Affordability In NYC, Housing Justice Plan, Cuomo's Corruption + More

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INTERVIEW: Michael Blake Talks Affordability In NYC, Housing Justice Plan, Cuomo's Corruption + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Everybody is DJ Envy Jess Hilarious, Charlamage, the guy we
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: are the Breakfast Club. Lona Rosa is here as well.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: We got a special guest in the building. He's running
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: for mayor of New York City. Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Blake.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Welcome, brother, what's good? What's going on y'all?
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: How you feeling?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Oh man, another day above grounds of Blessed Day. We're
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: rocking right now.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: And that's right.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: For people that don't know who you are in your background,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: give them a quick rundown of who Michael Blake is.
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: Born and raised in the Bronx, New York Public schools
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: K through twelve, PS. Seventy nine, one eighteen D with Clinton,
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: they go step back. Full name is Michael Alexander Blake.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: So for the Jamaican massive.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: As soon as you said Alexander, they knew.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: Exaggerated to understandt vibes. They understand what's going on out
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: here right now. Everybody has a Winston, Larryon or Dexter
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: and their family right here or Donovan you know, grew
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: up here, left went to Northwestern study Jerones and my mom.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: You know, blessings to my mom.
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: Forty years she worked at a manufacturing plant, raised four boys.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: My dad got rest his soul. It was the Janet,
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: the Saint Barnabas and after Northwestern, you know, life was
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: changed forever. When I was trained by this man named
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: Barack Obama. I was one of ten in the Yes
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: We Can program. They trained us how to run races,
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: went out to Michigan. We won races in Michigan and
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: then rocked with them. You know, life was changed from there.
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: I always joke I was the other black man in
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: Iowa with him right there, right and then after Iowa,
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: seven more states, went to the White House with him
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: for two and a half years, ran all his black outreach,
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: minority business outreach. And then I came back home because
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: I wanted to help my people. Quite frank, I wanted
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: to show these young cats on the block that you
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: can grow up on the block and still make it.
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: Go to a White House and come home. Came back home.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: Was elected to the Assembly for six years. My brother's
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: keep a program for boys and young men of color,
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: prompt pay bill raised the age. Kalleeve Broda was our constituent,
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: but now I was about, you know, doing more. So
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: I'm a husband, I'm a bonus father. Just having my
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: first Father's Day is a bonus dad. So it's been
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: a blessing right there. Much love to the father's all here.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: I'm now for a mason. I'm a reverend. You know,
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: we decided to hear do something special.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Now, Now, why'd you putting your head into this this uh,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: this New York City race?
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: I think I'm the best one prepared right now. The
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: biggest thing people are facing is affordability. You know, New
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: York is just is crazy expensive right and at the
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: end of the got full agreement right now. And if
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: we want to be serious about changing the game when
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: it comes to cost of living, then there's specific things
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: we have to do. We have to have ending credit scores.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Credit scores are being used for housing applications. Doesn't make sense.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: We need to increase income limits on these housing applications
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: as well. We need a local media and income because
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: area median income is not working. It doesn't make any
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: sense that you have Westchester, Suffolk and Rocklan count in
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: the calculation. That doesn't make sense at all. And then
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: when we think about what's happening. I do believe you
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: need to have someone who has White House, State House,
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: and local experience, and I have all three because we're
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: watching the foolishness of Trump and people are understandably scared
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: every day, whether it be in New York or LA
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: or anywhere in between. And so I jumped in because
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: I want to show people, Yes, you can have the
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: next generation of black leadership. Yes you can have someone
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: who was qualified at all the levels. Yes you can
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: have someone who's actually focused on affordability in a very
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: real way. And let's be clear, you got to talk
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: about how you're gonna pay for all this, and I said,
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: there should be a vacant apartment tax for people that
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: are not living in New York City. We should, you know,
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: focus on the NYPD accesses of overtime ye at one
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: point four billion dollars in that, you know, we can
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: do things to actually pay the bills and actually make
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: sure we change the game at the same time. And
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: that's why I say to folks, you know, if you're
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: looking for the candid who can do that, you should
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: be ranking Michael Blake first for mayor.
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: How did you feel about how Mayor Eric Adams we're
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: in New York.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: Well, I mean I wouldn't be running if I thought
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: he was doing his job. Mean, I mean he spent
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: more time trying to stay at of jail than actually
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: helping people.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Right, But what do you.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: Think he did good? If anything? And what would you
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: change immediately that you didn't like what he did?
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: How much time we have, look, I think how many
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: things can you change? I mean, you have a scenario
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: where you had unconstitutional stopping frisk on the rise, You
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: had a culture of corruption, you had a dynamic where
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: they were trading dynamics when it comes to ice raids
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: for him to again stay out of jail. That's not
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: me saying that's just the reality.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: You have. One out of eight New.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: York City public school students are homeless. Cost of going up,
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: I mean, like the list goes on on. I think
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: that you have a scenario where there was great talent
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: hired in I think sometimes what happens is that the
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: very select few who made a lot of mistakes cast
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: a shadow on everything else. You know, but you can't
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: ignore that when you have a dynamic where people were
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: getting promotions because of you know, sex deals at a
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: YPD and people getting paid off. That's nonsense, right, and
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: real talk. It makes it harder for all of us
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: that are black, that are trying to do some things
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: because you're going these conversations like, well, I'm not sure
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: if the city is ready for the next thing. Oh
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: it is, we are not him. And if we want
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: to talk through how do we do this differently? Then
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: you got to change the game on this.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I got to ask you what the hell is cross endorsing? Right,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: because it came out today that you are cross endorsing
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: zo Ran mcdonnie, What the hell is that? That's kind
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: of it feels like, look, we're going to battle together,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: but we're gonna be friends while we do it.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Like what is crossingdors You break it down.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: That's the vibes right there.
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: So all right, so eleven of us are Democrats running
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: in the primer. Eleven of us are Democrats running in
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: the primery? Correct, because we have ranked choice voting in
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: which started four years ago?
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: What is choice voting? For people that don't know?
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: So in New York City you don't have to and
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: you shouldn't just vote for one person. You should actually
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: rank five people. So whoever is your first choice when
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: you go to vote, which if that means if you
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: vote in absentee or if you're voting an early voting
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: early voting and goes to the twenty second, or if
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: you wait till the twenty fourth, your first choice, you
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: should circle in this is my first choice, your second choice,
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: second choice, all the way through.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Because now the.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: Only way someone can win is if you get fifty
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: percent plus one of votes. So whoever is the lowest
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: vote getter in the first round gets knocked out. If
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: Envy says, you know what, Michael Blake is my first choice,
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: and then you know, Raven Robinson's my second choice, and
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: hand is my third choice, Michael Blake gets knocked out,
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: then Raven then gets the vote. So it actually gives
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: the voter of New York more power because back in
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: the day, if you only voted for one person and
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: that person doesn't make it through a runoff, then you're
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: pretty much get done. So what we're saying right here,
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: in particular, when it comes to zon ran Zorn and
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: I talking about affordability the most right we're real clear
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: on if we're serious about the the number one issue
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: that New York is talking about is that it is
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: crazy expensive in the city. So who has the plans
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: around that? And I've said, you know, I'm making it
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: clear thinks are on there's gonna be my number two.
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm ranking him as my number two. You know,
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: grateful that he is cross endorsing us as well, because
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: he's also making it clear we got to break from
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: the corruption of Cuomo and we got to make it
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: clear that you can address affordability.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: You can do both.
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: Right, So we're gonna still figure out who's the rest
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: of the ballot. You know, I think I'm pretty clear
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: on the rest of that team, because you have other
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: great candidates, you know, Adrian Adams, you know zeld Nomyrie
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: brid Lander do out here, you know, doing their thing.
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: But I want to make it very clear in New
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: York City, you should rank Michael Blake first, especially for
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: all the folks out here are still trying to make
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: the decisions. But then the cross endorsement is saying, I
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: want you to know that there are other people on
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: the team that I also want to make sure on
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  Speaker 4: your ballot.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Now, question, this is just double the advocate, right, Talk
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: to me, why wouldn't they rank you number one? And
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: you tell everybody to rank Eric Adams number two. I
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: tell you why, if Zoran is your biggest competition, why
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: would you rank him to and not rank somebody that
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: is really no competition number two?
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: Because it's easy to win.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like you know when you're playing basketball, right,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: I wanted the Knicks to play the paces.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Come on, it's too soon.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: I didn't think the Pacers were gonna rock them. I
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: don't think nobody did, but soon you would want that
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: because you feel like that would be an easier win.
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: Well, so fair, So the one two is not necessarily
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: you are trying to battle with that person. It's really
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: making it clear to your voters that if I don't
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: keep going, this is who I want you to make
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: your next person. So like, this is the allegiance that
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: we want to see happen here. So when people are
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: thinking through, okay, help me to understand this. And this
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: happened last few days. You know, first debate we had
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: everybody Times Post Daily News said that I want the debate.
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: It was real clear that we handled the debate stage.
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: Now you have a lot of folks that are coming
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: through saying okay, I'm now trying to decide who's my five.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: So I want everybody in the squad to understand if
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: you are saying we can do this differently and you
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: don't want to go back to Cuomo you want something different,
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: then you should rank me first. You shrank Michael Blake first.
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: But then I need you to fill out the rest
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: of the ballot because if you don't, you actually helping
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: other cats. Gotcha, And that's the key right now and
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: the reason why we keep drilling this home. I made
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: a decision on who was most aligned with me on
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: that issue.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: And why don't you like Cuomo?
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've seen you take a shot at Cuomo
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: in his past and all the things that he did
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: with what's your major problem with Cuoma?
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: I mean, fifteen thousand people died in COVID nursing homes
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: because the policies that he did for a book deal.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: You had thirteen women who credibly said that he sexually
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: assaulted them and had a toxic environment. You have a
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: dynamic where he said shucking job in two thousand and
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: eight and made it seem like it wasn't about Barack Obama.
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: Barack Obama was the only black candidate that was real
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: in that scenario. He consistently is laying out all the
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: bad things about other people, and it's actually not talking
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: through what is good right here close hospital when it
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: comes to addressing the mental health crisis. So we don't
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: need to go back to a name, because because you
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: recognize the name, it's now time to change the game.
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: And so I'm saying, the folks, here's the difference you have.
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: He's saying that when I talk about public safety, I'm
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: saying there should be a thousand mental health professionals instead
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: of NYPD, because the NYPD will tell you they weren't
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: trained on doing that. You want to help these kids,
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: We should have civics, financial literacy, and mental health for
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: every student before they graduate. You actually want to help
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: people with their housing. Let's talk about what's going on
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: with credit scores and income limits. And at the end
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: of the day, Andrew Cormo, who real talk wasn't even
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: living in New York City for a minute, mean pretty
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: much was in Westchester the whole time. Now is saying
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: I should come back because he thinks he's the best option. Nah,
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: And I think people got to really ask themselves. Like
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: during COVID, his policies were killing people during COVID, I
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: was with World sun kid feeding people.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: That's right, That's what people got to be asking themselves.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: You're right now.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: You mentioned the police crime in New York City. It
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: seems like it's on the rise, right if you've.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: Been out and about. I think last week two people
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: got shot in Times Square.
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: Right, I mean that's the I mean, the numbers say otherwise.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: But the feeling is, the feeling is feeling.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: It feels, it feels horrible. What would you do for crime?
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: We had Zoran up here? He says he wouldn't necessarily
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: defund the police, but he said he would take some
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: finances from the police and give it to different agencies
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: and things like that. What would be your take on that?
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: Number one thing we have to do anybody that's walking
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: the block, whether if I'm in the Bronx at third
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: av of one four nine, if I'm in Harlem at
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: one two five and lex, the mental health crisis is real, correct,
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: you know it's it's like a zombie land out here
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: right now. And those cats need help. They don't need
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: to be locked up, right, And so what I say
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: to everyone, my main priority for public safety, we should
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: have a thousand mental health professionals on subways and streets
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: to help them immediately, as opposed to the NYPD who
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: is saying we're not trained on this. I came with
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: that number because a thousand istually the number for the
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: National Guard that's been put out there. National Guard and
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: more police standing there is actually not fixing anything right.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: And I want to be clear, I got much respect
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: for those that serve in uniform. But if someone is
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: struggling in need help them and they're telling you we're
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: not trained on this, so you do that, then people
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: feel safer to get on subways, they feel safer to
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: go outside. And we got to focus on involuntary commitment.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: When you know someone is clearly a threat to themselves,
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: why would you just let them be there? And so
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: if you do that, then you can do two different things.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: You're gonna have police with body cameras on, so it's
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: actually accountability on both sides. And simultaneously then you can
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: have more cops that actually walk in the street and
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: doing precision policing in neighborhoods that need to help. That's
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: what folks need right now. And look, I'm that cat
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: who had I enjoyed police brutality twice right, Once in
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: high school where a cop said, I want to deal
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: with Clinton High School. Once where a cops said that
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: they hurt me yelling at them while driving the other direction.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: I said, okay, so we're just looking to pick a.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: Fight right now, right.
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: And then when I was an assemblyman, there was a
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: fight that was happening. We de escalating the fight. They
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: grabbed me. They tossed me against the gate, and another
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: cop comes over and says, get off of him, get
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: off of him.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: He's the assemblement. And I said, what would happen if
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: you want to recognize me? Right?
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: Even still, I'm saying you need to have police out here,
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: but it's got to be smarter policing, right. The last
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: thing that has to happen repeat offenders. Right, there's an
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: underline current. If we help people make and keep more
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: money in the front end, then we're not talking about
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: people shoplifting on the back end. So if you do
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: those steps, then you have more cops to come back
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: on the force, actually try and do it the right way.
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: I don't know any person that doesn't want to get
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: home cop and community. And if we're serious about the
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: fundamental issue around public safety. To me, it is underline
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: around mental health.
• 13:57
  Speaker 6: Well, what do you say to people, because sitting here
• 14:00
  Speaker 6: talking to you, you explain what you mean when you
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: say defund the police, and we understand that. But on
• 14:05
  Speaker 6: phase value, someone like a Cuomo, he shoots back at
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: you guys with the fact that you say defund the
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: police because the messaging is not interpreted the right way.
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: How do y'all get around that in this race? Because
• 14:15
  Speaker 6: people here defund the police and they don't understand what
• 14:17
  Speaker 6: you just said to.
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: Me, and I'll remind them that. In twenty twenty, Andrew
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: Clomo set out of his mind at a press conference
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: that defund the police is a legitimate movement. Andrew Cuomo's
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: hoping folks have amnesia, so I want to help remind
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: them that Obamacare can help them with that. He gets
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: real confused about things. So when we talk through it,
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: there is no one out here saying eliminate the police
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: department right when they're using the phrase, it's about how
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: do you change the funding that's happening to focus on
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: preventative measures, violence interruption work, you know, life camp, save
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: our streets until freedom with To me, I mean you
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: got so many dope groups that are doing that work.
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: That's what people are really trying to say. And at
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: the end of the day, what we're talking through is
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: everybody wants to be safe. So we can keep talking
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: about this random one liner is or how do you
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: actually fix this?
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: You know?
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: My thing has always been when we talk about budgets, right, yeah,
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: and people say defund the police, to take money from
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: the police, But I always feel like we find money
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: for so many.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Different everything that we want.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: If we want to start an agency where we have
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: more mental health professionals on the street, why don't we
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: pay for it. I'd just seen somebody spend forty five
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: to forty eight million dollars on a parade that only.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Had five people out there.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: So if we can find all that and even with
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: congestion pricing, right, what are your thoughts on congestion pricing?
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: The intent congestion pricing is the right intent because at
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: the end of the day, it was to reduce traffic
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: and improve the environment. The implementation was clunky, right, they
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: didn't do that right. But at the end of the day,
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: when we think about from a budget perspective, a budget
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: showed someone's values.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: There's no way.
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: We can say at one hundred and fifteen billion dollar budget,
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: we can't find what we got to pay for. And
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: so when I'm talking through, yes, you can have that
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: one point four billion dollars excessive overtime at NYPD and
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: put that towards the kids. Yes, you can actually reclaim
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: back to two billion dollars of unclaimed fees and fines
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: and actually help the community. We can do these things
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: and the reason why it's not happening is because the
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: lack of leadership into the early question about Eric Adams.
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: We've got to ask ourselves for four years, what was
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: he doing on this? That's why we're all running because
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: it's not working. And so when I talk through, how
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: do you make sure that you help nonprofits get funding
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: up front so they're not waiting for reimbursements on the
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: back end. What are you doing to make sure that
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: our immigrants being protected? Because yes, we're gonna stay as
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: a sanctuary city because that's the right thing to do. Yes,
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: we're gonna put safe havens on our schools because we're
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: gonna ban ice from coming on in. You have to
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: put that kind of money in place to actually help
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: people because to the underlying piece. You got Trump, and
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: you gotta worry about Medicaid cuts and Medicare cuts and
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: all these things that are happening. And that's why when
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: people are saying to me, all right, Michael Blake, why
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: you I'm seeing these other names. There's a lot of
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: people out here why you. You got to ask yourself
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: January first, next year, who is best prepared to make
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: sure we can actually battle against Trump, help our city,
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: but also keep our focus on what we're doing around
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: afford the billion people of color.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Now, you talk about congestion price and you said it's
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: a great idea, right, but executed horribly. My question to
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: you is, I feel like we go for the money
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: before we care about people's feelings.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: People are scared to take the train, right, They're scared
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: to take the bus, And you even said that it
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: seems like sometimes it's wild.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Wild West out there. Right.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: So you're forcing me to take the train in the
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: bus when I have to because I can't afford congestion pricing.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: But you're forced.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: Me to get on the trains with sometimes mentally ill
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: people and fighting for myself. But then also you're forcing
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: me for a lot of these mom and pop businesses
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: to close down because people can't afford to drive in
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: anymore for a nice lunch.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: They can't afford to come in and.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Conduct business in my spot anymore. So why do we
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: do the congestion prices where it affects people? It hurts
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: people before we make sure that the ordinary people are
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: the ones taking care of When oh, okay, the.
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: Train, that might be the only time I can listen
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: to my music. So sometimes that's like that getaway you
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: have right there. But like when we talk about what
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: we have to do here, way too often are not
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: thinking through the integration of life.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Right. It goes back to COVID.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: People will say I want for everybody to be able
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: to figure things out during COVID and have social distancing. Well,
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: how does someone have social distance and when they have
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: seven people living in their crib?
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Right, Like, some of these things don't make sense.
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: Hey, I want for these kids to be able to
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: figure out remote learning, but they don't have a tablet
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: and don't have Wi Fi.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: So to that same vibe we talk through around congestion
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: pricing these other policies, I'm trying to reverse engineer and say,
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: let's think about how does impact people, Right, how do
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: we think through that? If I'm making that turn on sixty,
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: if but there's no real ways to turn off before that,
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: you're effectively forcing people to go into that zone and
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: taxing them. That doesn't make sense, That doesn't seem right.
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: I think there should be an exemption on people that
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: live in these zones, and I think there should be
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: an exemption on people that are public servants.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Right. That just makes sense to me. Right.
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: If someone is coming in and they're like, Yo, I'm
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: driving into the zone because I want to go to
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: a show, I want to get a meal, then that's.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Their choice, right.
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: But for the casts that are like I'm just trying
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: to get by, that doesn't make sense at all. And
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: a lot of the argument has been where we're making
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: so much money from congestion pricings that that makes it
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: worthwhile know if people are struggling still, right, And so
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: to me, I'm reimagining what this city can look like
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: and trying to show people that you have a different
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: option out here, and that if you actually want to
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: show people, yes, we can have an affordable city where
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: we don't lose who we are as black and brown folk,
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: then you have an option, and that's me.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: How could you eliminate credit scores for apartments and home ownership?
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Sounds amazing, But I think you and I both know
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: that anytime you go to fill out a loan, whether
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: it's a housing loan, a bank loan, an apartment loan,
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: the number one thing they check is credit score. Number
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: two is probably if you actually have a job and
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: you're pace.
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: Stuff, and sometimes for good reasoning too, just to see
• 20:00
  Speaker 6: kind of like what your payment history is like and
• 20:03
  Speaker 6: all of that stuff. Like as a like, I get
• 20:05
  Speaker 6: did you answer the question first in and out come?
• 20:07
  Speaker 6: Because I'm thinking about it all.
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: Out go ahead.
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: Credit scores is a recent thing that started in nineteen
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: eighty nine. This is not something that was like back
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: in the day, we had many ways to assess how
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: someone was able to pay their rent and their mortgage.
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: The notion that a credit score, which could be impacted
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: because you missed a phone bill a credit card bill
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: twenty years ago, is more important than are you paying
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: your rent consistently?
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: Well, I agree with you.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Doesn't make any one bad month and then.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: Anything one bad month somebody steals your eyes.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Anything happened one bad month and your credits down in
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: the drain, and I think that's yes.
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: And the reality is I might actually go back to
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: twenty earlier questions. This is one of the things that
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: Eric has done well that needs to be expand upon.
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: We're not assessing these credit scores on some of these
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: HPD units right now in New York City, So it's
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: not an argument that we can't do it.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: It's a choice.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: So you know, transparently, I'm on the board of Ready Life,
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: which is where this is why I learned about it,
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: cheered by doctor Bertnanese King led by Ashley Bell, where
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: it was like, okay, let's use some common sense. What
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: is the best way to determine if you can pay
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: your rent on mortgage on time? Have you paid your
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: rent mortgage on time? That's more important than did I
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: do something? So to me, if we actually want to
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: help more people have a chance, eliminate that completely across
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: the board and then assess, okay, how do I help you?
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: But then the second pieces you have to do.
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: We got to increase the income limits on these housing
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: applications because what's happening right now is you either have
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: to be really rich or poor enough to get access
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: to a home and people getting boxed out. The reason
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: why so many people are leaving the city because housing
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: and childcare. So to me, if there's anything that someone's
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: trying to think through, what is the main policy I
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: want to make happen and credit card is when it
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: comes to housing applications.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Expand that out.
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: You do that which we know we can do because
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: the city is doing it to a limited degree. Increase
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: the income limits, do that, and then have a local
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: media income that out the gate changes the game. And
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: each of those three are happening in other places. The
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: only reason why we're not doing it right now is
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: lack of leadership. And if you're asking someone, yo, right now,
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: I'm struggling to pay these bills. I'm trying to figure
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: out how to make this all happen. But my life
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: is going to be impacted by something I forgot to
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: pay twenty years ago.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Or it could be something as small as hey, my
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: mother got sick and I had to use my money
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: for rent to help to help someone catch up next month.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: Happens all the time, all the.
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: Time, Like you know what, hey, landlord, yo, I don't
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: have you on the first I got you a little
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: bit later because I do X, Y and Z. And
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: the the other thing about credit score is that people
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: think through is like you have different agencies creating different numbers.
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: So again that's just not fair and how this all works.
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: And I want to show people if we're serious about
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: having housing, which I do think, we got to build
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: about six hundred thousand units at least current numbers say
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: it's about five forty just to hit the current apply demand.
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: But for you to build the housing, you then got
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: to make sure people that actually could afford it when
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: they get there.
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: That was gonna be my question to you.
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: And that's so I said for sometimes good reason only
• 23:21
  Speaker 6: because I'm thinking, like, all right, so you say we'll
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: make it where these people can afford it, we'll give
• 23:26
  Speaker 6: them better money, better income, right, so they're able to
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: pay their bills and the credit raises, and then we'll
• 23:30
  Speaker 6: have better more housing for them. But a lot of
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: times it feels like politicians will say things like that,
• 23:35
  Speaker 6: but you can't do everything at once. So maybe you
• 23:38
  Speaker 6: create more jobs for people with better pay rate, but
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: then that middle point where they can't get they they're
• 23:43
  Speaker 6: not making enough money for certain places, but they're not
• 23:46
  Speaker 6: broken enough to get into or the income isn't low enough.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: To get into stay there.
• 23:50
  Speaker 6: Yeah, okay, so you get what I'm saying, Like, you're
• 23:52
  Speaker 6: in this place where it's like I might be making
• 23:54
  Speaker 6: more money, but I still don't qualify for these margins
• 23:57
  Speaker 6: of like three or five times the rent.
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: So I'm still struggling.
• 24:00
  Speaker 6: So it's kind of like as a landlord, you're looking
• 24:02
  Speaker 6: at it like, well, I just got to do the
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: best I can do by determining who I can let
• 24:05
  Speaker 6: in here. So it's like we always called in this
• 24:07
  Speaker 6: like circle of things, how do you know for a
• 24:09
  Speaker 6: fact that you can do both at the same time
• 24:10
  Speaker 6: if you get an office.
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: Well, first, I'm Jamaican, so I'm used to three jobs, right,
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: so so we regularly make it happen. Second, I'm not
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: a normal politician. I've actually made things happen. I run
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: small businesses right now. I helped get Barack Obama elected.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: I served in the White House. I saw how to
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: make these things done, get these things done. And when
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: I was in the Assembly, every single year and I'm
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: gonna come back to the housing piece, but I think
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: context is the point. Every single year we did something
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: major that they said couldn't get done. My brothers keep
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: a program knowing the state in the country has that
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: they're black and brown boys right now going to school
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: and graduating school that did not have fun.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: That we made that happen.
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: Prompt paid bills so that businesses get paid in fifteen days,
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: stayd of thirty days, bipartisan bill.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: They said they couldn't make that happen. Raise the age leaf.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: Broda was our constituent New York and enough Online our
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: last two states for sixteen seventeen years. We tried as adults.
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: We changed that when they say that couldn't happen. So
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: to the question of how we know right now that
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: there are easy fixes that would help people be able
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: to stay in their homes and for all the black folk,
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: brown folk, low income folk who are leaving New York
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: City because of housing, fundamentally raising the income limits on
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: these applications, which would be a huge help for our
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: seniors as well, huge help for those that are disabled as well,
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: so that it is actually proportional to your neighborhood, then
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: you actually give someone a chance. The wilder thing is
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: actually I'm going back and forth on the Eric good
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: bad right. We voted on true costs of living, so
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: we can actually understand what are the costs by your neighborhood.
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: He hasn't implemented it. The reason why that's important is
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: that you can understand not just housing costs, but groceries,
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: you know, transportation, education, because if you know all of that,
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: then what we put in these applications is proportional to
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: that number. What's going on in the South Bronx is
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: not the same as South Short Staten Island. What's going
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: on in Central Brooklyn, it's not the same as Southeast Queens.
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: What's going on in East Harlem's not the same thing
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: on what's going on Upper west Side. And so we
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: should base it upon that. And to do that you
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: need someone who's actually talking about it, and I'm the
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: only one that's talking about that in that very real
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: way and talking through how you make this happen. These
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: are policy changes through legislation, this is administration changes through leadership,
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: and then this is fun the changes in the budget.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Full stop.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: What's your relationship with President Barack Obama?
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: Now still my dude, you know, he's consider man consistently
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: be un blessed to me.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: What's been in his advice when he knows that you're
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: running for this because he's faced some of the things
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: that you face it now that he was far behind
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: at one time, What is his opinion to you.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: Be very clear about why you're running and giving people
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: choice in contrast. Right, you know that you can't just
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: talk through big ideas. You got to make it clear
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: to folks that there's a difference. Right when we were
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: in Iowa thinking about this here and we were in Iowa,
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: there was a point where he was down like thirty.
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: He flew in, got everybody together and he told this
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: story about how he was at the Saint Patrig's DA
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: Parade run for US Senate and he was the last
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: entry in the parade. And so what that meant was
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: that everybody was saying Barack husain Osama saying wow things.
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: And you know they were a little drunk, so people
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: saying wow things. A year later Saint Parade, he was
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: the Grand Marshal and he was like, if you put
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: in that work and you make a clear round choice
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: and contrast, then people will remember. And I always took
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: that and he stays with that. It's like when people
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: voted for him, he said, I'm going to end the war.
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna get you health care. Make it real clear
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: on your big ideas, then everyone can rock from that.
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: And that's why I'm being consistent. Same way when I
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: talk through credit scores, we talked through a thousand mental
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: health professionals. We talked through civics, because when you have
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: so many people in the race, if you don't give
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: people that clear choice, then the easy thing is just
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: pick a name you've seen before, right, And he stays
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: with me. I mean the screensaver that I have is
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: when we brought him to the Bronx. We launched my
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: brother's keeping lines in the Bronx, and he would joke
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: with me. He was trying to get me a shout out.
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: I was trying to be cool. He said, Yo, the
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: President says, your name is stand up, get TV time.
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: He still is in that same zone of follow the vision,
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: make it clear, but make it clear about choice and contrast.
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: And he's also shown us and tell him me like,
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: be that messenger.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: I don't know if we brought the signs, but there
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: was a time when we were in the White House
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: for a legislative event.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Wrap him up.
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: He's about to walk by and he tells people like,
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: we would not be here without Michael Blake, and I'm
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: forever grateful of what he did for me, and I'm
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: gonna take that kind of energy.
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: He's also I mean, everybody likes to criticize Obama too.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: At the same time, who's everybody?
• 29:05
  Speaker 6: There are people criticize There's a lot of people that
• 29:08
  Speaker 6: criticize Obama, but I mean not me personally, But I'm
• 29:11
  Speaker 6: saying that we hear the criticism. So I'm asking you,
• 29:14
  Speaker 6: is there things that he says, you know, just as
• 29:16
  Speaker 6: a mentor almost that I would advise you not like
• 29:20
  Speaker 6: something he learned, that he would advise you to approach
• 29:22
  Speaker 6: differently or not to do while on your run.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: I mean, look, at the end of the day, you
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: have to stay true to the numbers and how you
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: organize right, And it's it's easy to get distracted by
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: noise and that could take you off your plan, and
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: and that kind of to your point, You're gonna hear
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: a lot of folks who are just like, yo, why
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: are you doing this right? Why are you doing this?
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: Two three weeks ago a people saying why why are
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: you even out here doing these things? And and by
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: the end of that night and the next day, pretty
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: much every publication said I.
• 30:04
  Speaker 5: Wanted to debate, oh when you came in Cuomo.
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: Right, So it's like you gotta stay locked in even
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: in the midst of the noise.
• 30:13
  Speaker 6: A lot of times with politicians, I feel like they
• 30:15
  Speaker 6: don't speak straight to things, especially like Democrats.
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: But so I learned about you or found out who
• 30:22
  Speaker 5: you were.
• 30:23
  Speaker 6: Or I guess maybe you start paying attention more when
• 30:25
  Speaker 6: the Cuomo thing happened, because I like, even though.
• 30:28
  Speaker 5: Not to be messy, but I just like you were.
• 30:31
  Speaker 6: You said what you meant you said to him, the
• 30:32
  Speaker 6: people who don't feel safe are young women, mothers and
• 30:34
  Speaker 6: grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo, right, and you said that straight shoot,
• 30:38
  Speaker 6: straight shooter. Do you plan to still be that way
• 30:41
  Speaker 6: as a mayor because a lot of times once people
• 30:42
  Speaker 6: are elected, they have to like step back and filter
• 30:45
  Speaker 6: what they say.
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: And nah, I'm this is who I am all day,
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: every day, right, whether it be in the family, you know,
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: whether it be on the block. Yeah, you can grow
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: up on Creston and Burnside and then go back on
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: these kind of things. And I would say that whether
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: it be on a debate or if I'm just talking
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: to people at the restaurant. And I think one of
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: the reasons why we've been successful in office is that
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: people see that I'm consistent in what I'm doing. That's
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: what folks can't stand about politics right now. They feel like,
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: yo ya, to your point, you just say something, you
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: just kind of keep it moving, and you're not real
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: about that. And it is easier to be consistent in
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: who you are than try to move around and shift
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: by neighborhood.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: That's just not how I get down.
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: And that's why I say to people, give me the
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: chance right now, tell folks number two in most of
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: these polls, if it's not Zoron is undecided, right, you
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: got a lot of times to still make a decision.
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: And it feels like a lot of people are still
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: trying to understand, well, who can I rock with in
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: this moment, And I'm trying to show you you got
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: a choice.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Should undocumented immigrants be allowed to vote in local New
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: York City elections?
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: Uh, potentially for municipal ones itself. We've got to figure
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: out how this all gets incorporated collectively itself, right to
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: that degree, because there's a it's a fascinating piece, right
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: because a Green card holder is able to contribute to
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: campaigns right in New York City. So it's just like
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: we've got to figure out a way to make an
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: equal balance across the board.
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: Should Right Island be closed?
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Has to be closed? Why?
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: It's an inhuman place. It's the second largest mental health
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: facility in the country, only La County being larger. You've
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: got to find more ways. And most people there haven't
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: even been convicted any They just waiting, right, And so
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: if we actually reduce the population so that more people
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: can actually be closer to their homes while they're waiting,
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: and you can actually help the people who have the
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: mental health concerns, then you can take the real steps
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: of getting into the space where you can build burrow
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: based jails, which is what we actually need. Burrow based
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: jails makes much more sense than just sending people off
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: to rikers to sit there.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, get out there and vote for the last thing.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Tell people why they should vote for Michael Blake.
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: Michael Blake is the only candidate saying the truth around
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: and then credit scores for housing applications. Michael Blake's the
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: only one that is out here saying that we need
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: a thousand mental health professionals instead of NYPD. Michael Blake's
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: the only one that's saying civic, financial literacy and mental
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: health for these kids. I'm the only one that was
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: that truth teller on that stage, not afraid of Trump,
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: not afraid of Cromo, not afraid of the noise. If
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: you want someone who has the ability to change the
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: game at all levels, and you want the handsome Jamaican
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: who actually comes from the Bronx right now, right, who
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: can talk about hip hop and talk about housing at
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: the same time, I want to be your first choice.
• 33:44
  Speaker 4: And if I'm not your first choice, I want to
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: be your second choice. But most importantly I want to
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: be on your ballot. That's why Michael Blake should be
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: your mayor.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: All Right, well, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen,
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: Michael Blake. Do your research. And if they want to
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: donate to your campaign, how can they do that?
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: Oh man, much love on that to the website Blake
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: fo R NYC dot com Blake for NYC dot com.
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: You can sign up to donate, you can sign up
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: to volunteer. We have offices all across the city. Our
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: headquarters in the Bronx at one BRUCKN the boulevard, but
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: we have satellite offices on five boroughs. And just again
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: remind and remember everybody, fill out the ballot. Don't just
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: rank me first. Fill out all five spots of your
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: five choices. That makes it a point that your candid
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: is gonna win.
• 34:25
  Speaker 5: Tell them don't message your donation money because you'll follow lawsuit.
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, let me tell you something. I'm man. People play games,
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: play games, and you know and find out and find.
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: Out you have play super games, win superprises that.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: It's Michael Blake. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, good luck.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.