Scott Stringer, Former NYC Comptroller & NYC Mayoral Candidate Talks Mayoral Election

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Scott Stringer joins us right now, a former New York City Controller and a mayor. Ken. It is 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 the June primary?

Wait till the mayor race actually started. You know, you mentioned my cousin Bella Abzug and the mayor's race of nineteen seventy seven 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 favorable as a record of fiscal prudence and a government record that is unmatching this race. So I'm very confident going into the next couple of months.

Is your constituency off of Naylor and Rest and you know the whole thing is your constituency as organized is it was twenty years ago. Is there a machine in New York City where the Liberal party that progresses 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 cast, they don't want Quomo casts.

They want somebody here.

You went after build a Blasio.

I was controller during that time period.

I went after.

I held up to Blasio accountable three hundred and sixty four 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 understand how critical it is to want to stay. 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 three thousand 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 positioned myself in that way.

Metropolitan Transit Association, the congestion tax, what's your view there?

Look, I think gets working.

I think people want to pay a little more to move the city.

We have a.

City government that depends on goods and services how they get in and out of New York.

But look, let's make let's make it clear we have work to do.

Congestion pricing helps some, but we have to build out a fibroa 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 Queen's 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.

Mention that mister Bloomberg, of course, of Bloomberg LP is the founder of this radio station and signs my paycheck, and you know, exactly once a year, Good morning, mister Bloomberg.

Scott, I thought it'd be good to mention him. Just that's good.

Yeah, and you mentioned him, I got to mention it. I'm not in speaking terms with them, 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 and Eldam out of election, Long Island rose up and screened 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 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.

Me, that's what we've got inst.

But I got to tell you something.

It's very easy for me to look at the problem and say, hey, we are having a 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. Paid well, it's not so much pay as it is how do you create a work life balance. You know, we've gone from six hundred and fifty million dollars in overtime for policing to one

To go to school. You know what I see.

I see what I saw in the nineteen seventies, people languishing side.

It must admit well said, and it's actually true.

Scott's tringer here with the primary in June, an election in November, of course, with his public services family service over the years to New York City.

Pulse reading, Scott is, were you to be elected, what would be.

The first one hundred 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 Mitchellama Housing Mitchellama.

Two point zero.

I want to take our thousand vacant lots in the city and let's put 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 three thousand cops back on the street. Want to make sure we align that program with a mental health initiative. I want to make sure that we have people taken the police test again, eight thousand people took the police test.

Do you know how many.

People took the sanitation test? Sixty thousand. 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, will initiate quality stat will break down the silos of all these city agencies. I've ordered 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, is 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 York I've always been to fix the city taxes. Pretty Much everybody you walk into on the streets 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

What is your policy on immigration and migration and the emotion here of people coming in that are new 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 were so much better than this, and we can Good government means we can absorb people. We can absorb crises. It doesn't have to be a meltown.

I gotta ask you one final question, Harry. 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 Ferrell mentioned to Glenn Young Kenne 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 the starting at the show, Very very smart, right, Bella Abzug was a new generation.

Of course, you can't imagine. No one can shock and this mouthy woman was. It was for the products.

And look, I was a twelve year old kid running around campaigning with her during the Vietnam War.

And you know what happened. A few years into her term.

The US News and World Report, not the most liberal newspaper or magazine, named her the number three most competent and effective member of Congress. I am 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 rate the ship so that the.

New generation can come in do it all generations.

Some would say you just describe God or Cuomo. I mean, the basic idea is he's been around his father's iconic. You're up against Cuomo. What's the biggest stetriment there?

Oo he's chaotic and he's not prone 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 first.

And I hope to come back on this 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 diskettering.

Thank you so much, former running here for mayor this morning.