Scott Stringer, Former NYC Comptroller & NYC Mayoral Candidate Talks Mayoral Election
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Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. Scott Stringer joins us right now, former New York City Comptroller and a mayoral candidate as a primary, and there's an election in that. Let's get the primary out of the way right now. New York Times writes it up. The mayor's occupied. The governor's piled into the race. And the line is, everyone's invisible. How does Scott Stringer get visible up to the June primary?

Wait till the mayor race actually started. You know, you mentioned my cousin Bella Abzug and the mayor's race of 1977 when Ed Koch was barely a blip during that race until two weeks to go. And so everyone who thinks these races end in May, they don't. They actually end the end of June. And I have high favorables, a record of fiscal prudence and confidence.

a government record that is unmatched in this race. So I'm very confident going into the next couple of months. Is your constituency, off of Nadler and Reston, you know, the whole thing, is your constituency as organized as it was 20 years ago? Is there a machine in New York City where the Liberal Party, the progressives, can get behind one candidate? Or is it chaos? Look, I think times have changed in this city. I think people...

really want a mayor who knows what he or she is doing. They want someone who's competent. They want someone with experience. They're tired of the chaos. They don't want the current mayor, Eric Adams, chaos. They don't want Cuomo chaos. They want somebody... You went after Bill de Blasio. I was...

during that time period. I went after, I held de Blasio accountable 364 days a year. I gave him a day off due to Christmas. But I understand city agencies. I've exposed waste and corruption. I know how to run a government in the most competent way. And I think that's what people want. But they also want to live here, to have affordable housing, to have economic opportunity. People who come here are,

understand how critical it is to want to stay here. We got to go back to the compact of safety, good parks, clean air. This is all what a mayor has to do and we need someone to start focusing on it. From your perspective, Scott, what is the state of the city today? I think we're at a crossroads. I don't think people understand just how corrupt the last four years have been.

And the first thing the next mayor has to do is literally reform the government, bring in the best and the brightest, bring in people who are competent, who want to see a better city. Look, we've got to hire 3,000 more cops. We have to align policing and a mental health initiative. We've got to make sure that a strong mayor can take on Trump when he's going against New York City. We need somebody who has that experience, not just pie-in-the-sky promises. And I think I position myself in that way.

Metropolitan Transit Association, the congestion tax, what's your view there? Look, I think it's working. I think people want to pay a little more to move the city. We have a government...

a city government that depends on goods and services, how they get in and out of New York. But look, let's make it clear, we have work to do. Congestion pricing helps some, but we have to build out a fibro transportation plan, and we have not done that yet. When I was supporting congestion pricing back when Mike Bloomberg was mayor, we always said we would look at Queens and Staten Island and how we can close those transit deserts.

So this is just the first step in a long transportation journey for New York City. Should mention that Mr. Bloomberg, of course, of Bloomberg LP, is the founder of this radio station and signs my paycheck, you know. Exactly. Once a year or whatever. Good morning, Mr. Bloomberg. Scott-- I thought it'd be good to mention him. That's good. Yeah, and you mentioned him, I got to mention him. I'm not in speaking terms with him, but that's a separate issue. Scott Stringer, how can liberals be conservative

and be anti-crime? I mean, there's a whole modern theology. The last election was, to me, an El Domingo election. Long Island rose up and screamed, we're afraid. How do guys like you in a city that's become afraid support NYPD and support a tougher crime view? Why do you think that people...

People who are on the liberal side of the equation or even the conservative side can't come together and recognize a problem when you see it. It's not me. That's what we've got in the zeitgeist right now. But I've got to tell you something. It's very easy for me to look at the problem and say, hey, we are having trouble retaining the police officers we have. You know that young police officers are leaving the police force in droves.

And they're not retiring from policing. They're actually going to Long Island or mosquito states like Texas and Florida. Are they underpaid? Well, it's not so much pay as it is how do you create a work-life balance? You know, we've gone from $650 million in overtime for policing to $1.3 billion. We have the lowest headcount.

count in the NYPD in generations. We're down to 33,000 cops. So what should we do? It doesn't matter whether you're a liberal, conservative, or moderate. We've got to hire more cops. It makes financial sense. It also, from a safety perspective, makes sense. I want to put a cop on every train in those high crime areas. I want to align policing with a mental health initiative because we see people languishing, suffering, dying on the streets. When I take my two kids on the subway most mornings to go to school, you know what I see? I see what I saw in the 1970s.

people languishing outside. I must admit, well said. And it's actually true. Scott Stringer here with a primary in June, an election in November, of course, with his public service, his family service over the years to New York City. Paul Sweeney. Scott, as you

Were you to be elected, what would be the first 100 days of your administration? What would be the focus? We bring in a whole new government. We reform these city agencies. We have a clarion call for people who want to serve this city to come into this government and do the people's business. That's the first step. Second, I want to build the same kind of housing that was built

in a different generation called Mitchell-Lama Housing, Mitchell-Lama 2.0. I want to take our thousand vacant lots in the city and let's put it to work for affordable housing so families can come here, go to our best universities and stay here in a way that's affordable. I want to put 3,000 cops back on the street. I want to make sure we align that

program with the mental health initiative. I want to make sure that we have people taking the police test again. 8,000 people took the police test. You know how many people took the sanitation test? 60,000. There's something wrong here. We're just not governing anymore.

And also, I want to make sure that we bring back something called quality of life. We'll have a deputy mayor for quality of life. We'll initiate quality stat. We'll break down the silos of all these city agencies. I've audited all of them. And I got to tell you, mental health has to start talking to small business and vice versa. We got to get a handle on this government. You need somebody who actually knows how to govern.

And as borough president for eight years, as controller for eight years, I know the fiscal situation in the city like the back of my hand. I'm not over promising like others in this campaign. I'm just going to be me and be the lifelong New Yorker I've always been to fix the city. Taxes. Pretty much everybody you walk into on the street say my taxes are too high. What do you say? What's your tax? Well, let's give people some value for those taxes.

Let's go back to the compact we've always had in this city, which is if you come here, you pay a little more, but you're going to get a clean city. You're not going to have rats running around, garbage piled high. I mean, we've got rats walking upright right now. They've come up to me on more than one occasion at night saying, hey, can you beat Cuomo?

I mean, this is a real crisis. People say, what am I paying for? What's the value of my taxes? And we have to go back to making people understand that what they get in return is a real New York City that they'll never leave. What is your policy on immigration and migration and the emotion here of people coming in that are new and troubled?

But we've always had people come, like my grandparents came to this city and came to this country. So let's not start filtering out who comes and who doesn't. Let's be very smart about this. Look, you bring gang members in here, get them out. I'd be the first one to stand and say, we want you out of here. No guns, no violence. But for people who flee persecution, for people, I mean, come on. We're so much better than this. And we can, you know, good government means we can

absorb people, we can absorb crises. It doesn't have to be a meltdown. I got to ask you one final question here. I think it's hugely emotional for everyone across this nation. There is an uproar among liberals over a generational shift as identified by Senator Schumer

over to something new. John Farrell mentioned it, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, the Utah event of Senator Sanders the other day. Help me here with what the new generation of Democrats look like.

Look, we've always had a new generation of Democrats. You mentioned starting at the show, very smart, right? Bella Abzug was a new generation of elected... Brandon, you can't imagine how shocking this mouthy woman was from the Bronx. And look, I was a 12-year-old kid running around campaigning with her during the Vietnam War. And you know what happened a few years into her term? The U.S. News & World Report, not the most liberal newspaper or magazine, named her the number three...

three most competent and effective member of Congress. I embrace

the new generation. But right now, we need somebody in New York City who represents vision, experience, and competence. Make no mistake, this is a moment where we have to right the ship so that the new generation can come in and do what all generations have done. But some would say you just described Governor Cuomo. I mean, the basic idea is he's been around. His father's iconic. You're up against Cuomo. What's the biggest detriment there?

Look, he's chaotic and he's not pro-New York City and he doesn't like people. And he's running the worst kind of campaign that makes him unelectable in my mind. But no one's going to realize that until June 1st. And I hope to come back on the show as your mayor elect and talk to you, especially about the history of mayoral politics and what went wrong in his campaign. But I am not feeling him. Scott Stringer, thank you so much. Former Compromiser running here for mayor this morning.