Ask the Brooklyn Borough President: September 2025

Ask Your Advocate Jumaane D. Williams: June 2025

Ask the Brooklyn Borough President: June 2025

Ask Your Advocate Jumaane D. Williams: April 2025

Ask the Brooklyn Borough President: May 2025

Ask the Brooklyn Borough President: April 2025

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News 12 Staff

0415askyouradvocatebblock_2024-04-15-19-26-34

Welcome back to ask your advocate here on News 12 with New York City public advocate Jumani Williams right before the commercial break, we were talking a little bit about retail theft and illegal smoke shops here in the city and the efforts to crack down on those while also trying to get to the root causes of crime and really address mental health struggles too. Yeah, I think it's and I, I'll just be honest, I think democrats suck when it comes to talking about this and they just have to do a lot better. So what we we we shouldn't be doing is ignoring the impact that retail theft is having. So you always wanna ma uh you know, acknowledge this is not made up, this is actually a huge problem, this is a problem across the country. Um But then we wanna look at to make sure we're not over uh talking about what's going on. And so when we look at the two year data, uh when the experience of recidivism, um that's actually, it's actually trending lower within a two year amount of which means just trying to set bail, just keeping someone locked up in and of itself is not what's going to help. So we have to figure out what's going on. So if someone is a, is a part of a large ring, I think you have, you may wanna have a little bit more of a law enforcement approach if it's something like that. But if it's individuals who are involved in this, we should really figure out what is happening with them. Why are they doing this and then try to that because what we know is just simply locking them up and then possibly getting out is not gonna change what's going on. And this is why we're seeing this happening time and time again. And as I mentioned, judges have the ability to mandate that people go into different types of programs. Why they're not doing that? We should have a conversation about that. But I think we have to stay away from the binary. You're either locked up or you're not because that binary hasn't worked for us in a long time when we know that. And with the smoke shops, it's interesting. This is the, one of the few times I've seen the left, the right and the center all agree. Shut the things down. We just to shut it down and I'm really wishing that the state would just give the city the power, particularly the sheriffs. I'm hoping it goes to the sheriff's not the NYPD because the sheriffs have been doing a great job even since the pandemic in shutting things down and need to be shut down. I don't know that we have to go back to as many arrests and incarcerated, but we should be able to just take the things that are there. They, they shouldn't be able to get it back padlock it and shut it down. Why are we having such difficulty doing that is, is a frustrating thing to me. And a lot of other folks, I believe the governor in her budget announcement today said that while due process plays out padlock stays on. So hopefully more conversation, I hope so. We've heard it before. We've heard it before. The state has not really done a good job with this. Just give us the power to shut these things down, these illegal ones in particular and actually help, maybe help some of the folks who are working there, uh find another place so they can get some employment to feed their families as well. Call to action for lawmakers there. We'll get back to some of our callers on the phone. I believe we have Lorna joining us from the Bronx. Hi, Lorna. Thanks so much for calling in. What's your question? Ok. My question is there is a stretch of um road on Boston Post Road between Bay Chester and I can't remember anyway, Dwyer Avenue, whatever under the train tracks, there's a bus stop right there, there is garbage on both sides of the street line the streets, the sidewalk everywhere and there's a bare, bare piece of land behind this. So it's wide open and people are standing there waiting on the buses mo right through the day and you look over there, I drive and when I look it's all garbage, trash. It's been there for months. Nobody even even tried to pick up anything. I'm, I'm even saying to myself maybe I should get two big black garbage bags and get one of those things that you pick up stuff with and start going there and pick up the garbage. We have to do something. Nobody cares about the Bronx. I realized that nobody cares about the Bronx. I hate to hear her say that, but she's ready to take action in her own hands. One I definitely care about the Bronx and I have a lot of colleagues that care about the Bronx. So I know that, but I can't imagine waiting for the bus and this trash all around you, not even to mention the smell. And so hopefully we can get the caller's information so I can really pinpoint where it is and make sure we're, we're at the right spot and see if we can get that cleared up. I do wanna applaud the thinking of trying to see what you can do yourself. We do have a lot of neighbors all across the city that plan their own clean ups and they're able to coordinate with sanitation themselves to come and pick up the garbage after the clean up, clean up. And we've seen this work uh time and time again and so government should step in and hopefully we can get that to happen. Maybe we can also assist with the neighborhood clean up because one thing is we have to understand it is gonna take all of us um to do our part. It shouldn't be up to her. but I just want to applaud that, that thinking about initiative and I'd love to encourage it. Meanwhile, we try to figure out what we can do to get the sanitation out there. Is this a problem that you see sometimes this excessive littering or perhaps even illegal dumping in specific neighborhoods across the city? Is there a reason it happens in certain places, in your opinion versus others. We do see it happen too often. Uh littering and illegal dumping or trash cans over flowed and no one's uh picking up. Unfortunately, we do see it happen a lot in a low income neighborhoods. Uh black and brown neighborhoods, which is a problem. Uh A lot of times neighborhoods where people may feel the political voice is not as strong and it lax and that's really unfair. We don't see it in some of the uh higher income neighborhoods as much. Um IEG dunk is a problem and it's something New Yorkers know all too well and we just have to do much better at enforcing it, enforcing against it. I wanna get to a quick question that we had come in on social media. Uh If we can get that comment pulled up right now, we'll try to get to it real quick before we can get to the break. It was talking a little bit about, um how can we get help funding with youth programs for at risk Children in the community? Again, this holistic approach we keep, I'm talking about, you know, I've always supported and try to continue to support evidence based models. And one of the things I'm most proud of is getting the helping get the initial funding for what's known as the crisis manage system. Now. Um They do uh they work a lot with um cure violence and violence interruption and it's really trying to get at the at risk youth uh as we'd like to call them opportunity, youth. Uh But I think there's some more building that we have to do on it now and some of the work has stagnated and we're trying to get this administration to really build upon that. There's some great work that was done outside uh in Brooklyn, in the DAS office. Um There's some, I mean, I always shout out my, my brother Kay Bain is doing amazing work across the country and many others uh on this, but we have to have the funding to do it. The only thing that gets more and more and more, even if it's not working is law enforcement. And so we have to give these things an opportunity to work and I'm not sure that we're doing that as well as we should. And this is the time to have those conversations with the budget in play more. Ask your advocate right after this.

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0415askyouradvocatecblock_2024-04-15-19-28-55

Welcome back to ask your advocate here on News 12 with public advocate Jumani Williams. Again. The number to dial with your question is 7188616800. If you haven't already right now though, I wanna take a moment to touch on a topic that I know you're very passionate about. We are in the middle right now of Black Maternal Health Week. I know that you were involved in a package of bills that was passed back in 2022 by the City council, which was considered historic in terms of the, the accomplishments that really wanted to achieve for black mothers as of right now. Have you seen any impacts of that start to play out? And what do we still need to do to remove these biases that black mothers face? You know, it was historic. Sadly, it was historic. It shouldn't have been. It took way too long. I wanna shout out the city council. That's a majority women council. I wanna shout out uh speaker Adrian Adams, who was the first black woman speaker. There's a lot of moms in there that I had before and it shouldn't have taken all of that to address this, but it did. And I'm proud to have had some piece of legislation that went in there. You know, this is an issue that was brought up to me about a year before. Um I had my own kind of interaction with it and my wife. And so that was another one plug to make sure you have diversity in your office so they can bring an issue that you may not hear of. And then, you know, shout out to everyone who knows my story, prayed for my family. My wife is uh still cancer free and Amani just turned two years old. So we're very proud of that. But having experience and going through it and came out to the side with a much better story than so many people. You know, 4 to 5 times, black mothers across the country are dying during childbirth in the state is upwards of 9 to 12 times. That's just an unacceptable number for completely prev preventable death. And uh we, we do know this is across social, economic like race is the thing that we see. So the question is uh have we moved? I think one, we're talking about it more than we ever have. I think people like President Antonio Reynoso, dedicating a money for doula services, uh elected officials across the country across the state uh Assembly Senate Council are focusing on. So I'm hoping that focus will turn into additional funding, changing systemic uh issues and, and changing infrastructure. So that next year we have less names uh that are coming out and I think we can do it if we stay steadfast, but there's still some time we have to go. Unfortunately, I think like you said, though, it is a part of the conversation now more than ever and it starts there with people coming to the tables with ideas being willing to talk about it and that hopefully spurs more action on the issue. All right, more ask your advocate coming up right after this, stay with us.

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0415askyouradvocatedblock_2024-04-15-19-43-23

Back to ask your advocate here on News 12 with Juan Williams joining us this evening. A reminder that the number to dial if you have a question for the public advocate is 7188616800. I believe we have some callers lined up on the line right now. So let's get to carry on from woodlawn carry and thanks so much for tuning in. What's your question? Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Um I was just wondering, there appears to be a direct correlation between their bail reform and the funding the police to an increase in crime, which has also I feel really reduced quality of life in the Bronx. I'm a lifelong Bronx resident. I've lived here my whole life with three generations living here. My parents have lived in the Bronx since the uh thirties and it just seems that so many people we know are leaving because crime seems to be out of control. So I'm just wondering, Mr Williams, is there any possibility of amending any of the bills that were put in place or tweaking them to address the uptick in crime? Thank you. For that question. And it's interesting, the kind of the mayor actually ran this message and we asked him not to because it, it wasn't an accurate message. And so it's interesting to see him trying to now, uh go backwards and we're like, you know, you said it and people believed you and now you're having trouble uh uh retracting that. Um And I understand why people like the caller would say that because this is what they heard. This was played. Uh So one, the NYPD was never defunded. It just, it just didn't happen. There were other agencies that were defunded, um but not the NYPD and two, the biggest impact on crime has been dependent, that just is just a real statement. So people are focusing on bails because they've been told that the caller may be surprised to learn that there are more people on Rikers Island now than there were before barrel reform. That barrel form has been tweaked two or three times already. Uh, since the initial, and the problem with focusing on barrel reform is that even if you change it, it, it wouldn't affect the crime. And so we still have to fix that. And as I mentioned, there was a study that came out with the two year um, recidivism rate and, and it really wasn't that much different and in some cases, it went down and in cases where we still have work to do, we need to present something that is more than the binary carceral. Now, sometimes people need a time out. Uh, we know that and so law enforcement incarceration, there are, there are things and, and tools there, but the over reliance on those things have never worked out for us the way we wanted to. Um, and again, we unfortunately losing people from this city and state, we're losing them because they can't afford to stay here. That's the number one reason people are leaving. And it's interesting because sometimes people are going to places like Florida that actually have a higher crime rate than us. But they didn't have a mayor that ran making believe that uh, it was something that it wasn't. And so we have to be able to talk about the real fear that this caller has and the real victims that are happening with crime, which is not, you know, it's not lies on the front pages. Uh, but sometimes it's more than what's actually happening in the city and that gives the wrong impression. So we have to be able to address the concerns of the fairs, uh address the real victims and the perpetrators, uh but not do it in a way that is harmful that we then apologize for like the three strikes and you're out that we did, didn't really do what we wanted and then apologize for 30 years later. So it takes a real concerted effort to do that to not ignore it and put out a plan. Unfortunately, I haven't seen that from this administration. We just keep seeing more of the same. Uh, and, and I think this caller, but victims in particular deserve more than that. And I want my daughter when she's on the train, uh, almost daily and taking mass transit to be safe and to feel safe. And those are two different things. And I don't know that we're doing really good on either one of them right now. Do you think that if the public perception correlates higher crime with the bail reform changes that in and of itself could spur changes to the bail reform law down the line. It unfortunately could. The problem is it then does more damage because that same study showed that people who go into place like Rikers Island um are more likely to do something later on and it may be more harmful to them um later on and particularly when it's unnecessary. And so what we, we, we should all be able to look at the same information and say this or that, what we do know is that New York State's bail laws can't affect Florida, they can't affect other states where we're seeing higher rates of crime, particularly violent crime. And so I, I wish we had leaders that were less concerned about winning an election by still in fear but were more concerned about actually making this place a place that people feel safe making this place, a place that is actually safer, uh, than where we are right now. We can do those things that call on others. Absolutely. Know that our law enforcement partners have a role to play in public safety and they also know that other things play as well. Those other things are never built up. And then we try to send in law enforcement to solve all those problems. People inherently know that mental health uh is a, is an issue that doesn't need law enforcement yet. That's what we keep sending it to and that's where we need leadership. Let's get to another caller. We have Courtney on the line from Williamsburg. Courtney, thanks so much for calling in. What's your question for the public advocate this evening? Hi Ji, we've talked about this before and you just kind of said to me that the basically our, our elected officials are in the pocket of the real estate industry. We have over three, there are over 300,000 affordable apartments that were illegally destabilized that are being warehoused, that people live in and do not know that they're supposed to be stabilized. We need legislation around this to stop these landlords from doing this. Is there any push for this? So um thank you for that call. I think like the officials are in the pocket of real estate. So I stand by that. Uh There have been some changes that makes it harder to deregulate. Uh we did lose a lot of apartments. And one of the reasons I said earlier is is you have to focus on mostly on uh preservation at least 60% because we can never build faster than we're losing these units. And so we have to work on the preservation. And what this call is talking about is a deregulation that's happened for such a long time. The 2019 rent regs really helped, which is one of the reasons we're fighting not to uh go back on any of those because um, the big real estate, they want you to believe that those rent laws were the problem. But quite frankly, businesses have suffered since the pandemic. Real estate is no different. And so the problem is, um, if you're having an issue with people who can't pay rent, it's not because of the rent regulations, that's because the pandemic has affected us all and taking away those protections would only make it worse for this quarter. So, yes, there has been some things that were done. Um There has to be more and that quarter should watch just like all of us to see what comes out of that housing deal because there's some concern uh that we go backwards. We wanna make sure we don't, uh we go forward and we go forward better. I think one issue that she touched on specifically was the warehousing of apartments, which is something that we've really seen pick up I feel like in recent years, uh how do you think we go about mitigating that issue? But we have warehousing, we have Frankenstein. So we have warehousing where they're just holding it and Frankenstein where they're combining it to actually deregulate and we're fighting to get the right reg regulations in place so that it doesn't violate constitutional rights of, of ownership. Uh But we, we can put um uh things in place to make sure that people are getting access to the departments. Uh They're looking now at changing, at least some of the uh uh things in, in, in some of the rent bank to give landlords the ability to make repairs that are needed. But I would say la most landlords are making more money. That's just a real thing than they were before. But there are some owners, particularly some of the smaller owners that are struggling. Uh And we have to make sure that we have a product for them and the product can't be just raise the rents because we have people that are struggling just like everyone else. So where are they going to get the money from? They're going to get evicted and then have the same cycle. So my hope is that government will step in uh with more products to help any struggling owners so they can make the repairs that are needed so they can bring those units online. But a lot of times they're not being bought online because people know they can hold out. Uh and it's more cost effective for them. And, and again, we want people to make money, you just shouldn't be able to make all of the money on the backs of people during a housing crisis because it has cascading effects uh with people who can't find housing and public safety, I have to ask another follow up because I feel like housing is on the minds of so many right now, how do you balance those protections for tenants? But then, as you mentioned, also, those landlords too, especially those of smaller properties. Well, what big real estate likes to do is actually hide behind the small owners, particularly black and brown immigrant owners, they hide behind them, they put them in the front. Uh Those are not the biggest, those are not the best representation of what's going on in the real estate industry. Big real estate is still making money in some cases, making more money than it was before the pandemic. And so what we need to do is really figure out um how we can help some of those smaller owners who often are more aligned with some of the tenants that they, that, that are struggling as well and not let them be put in front. Uh But what we do know is that we have very low vacancy rates. We do know that big real estate is still making money. We do know that we have a housing crisis and what we need to do is try to prevent that from happening. And so we have to push back on some of the profit as the main motive and really provide housing that people need. When you add profit to health care and housing, people literally die. Public safety looks a lot different. And so we have to make sure folks can make money, but we have to take away some of that incentive as the only thing um the profit of social profit has to be something that we look at. And we're not because big bucks are, are paying people to make bad decisions. It's a very multifaceted issue, but like I mentioned one on the minds of so many right now, given those vacancy rates, more questions coming up here on, ask your advocate right after this, stay with us. We'll be right back.

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0415askyouradvocateeblock_2024-04-15-19-54-11

Much, but sticking with us here on, ask your advocate here on news. 12. So many great callers that we've gotten through already and we're going to dive back into the list right now. We've got Miss Jackson from the Bronx on the line. Thanks so much, Miss Jackson for tuning in to ask your advocate. What's your question? Um Thank you for taking my call. My question is what is being done when you call 311 about all of the smoking that's occurring in the playground. I live right next to a park and many times I have to walk across the street because all of the teenagers converge on the park. They're smoking weed. And I mean, I understand that it's legal but if there's no smoking allowed in the park, why, why isn't anyone policing the park to stop it? I can't even take my son to play because it, it's just inappropriate. We're talking about the illegal smoke shops before another facet of a similar conversation. I'm, I'm sorry, I'm dealing with that. That sounds terrible. Uh, if I'm bringing my child to the park. Yeah, you can't smoke cigarettes and you can't smoke marijuana in the park. It's just something you can't do. And I'm sorry that's happening. Teenagers do some rambunctious things. If, if it wasn't marijuana, it might be cigarettes. So we gotta figure out how we address that. And I'm sorry, you're calling three and one that's not happening. I, I, I'm not working. I'd love to get information in there because we may have some community organizations that can go over there and try to figure out if these folks can move along so people can play in the park with the young people. Sometimes we try to see if we can get it that way. Um Because again, law enforcement, they only have a certain amount of tools and so sometimes we'll uh get law enforcement out there and then people will react negatively to the tools that they used. Uh But they only have a certain amount of tools that they can use. So uh there might be a way we can address the young people uh with one of the community groups that are there. So I'd love to know where this park is and see if uh who the nearest group is that we can, we can uh connect with. Yeah, we'll connect you with Miss Jackson, get those details for you off line and see if we could get some movement on that front. I do wanna take a, a serious turn here and touch on something that's been getting a lot of reaction. Over the last few days here on Friday, we learned that almost five years after a Bronx man, Kawai Trawick was killed in a police involved shooting when they responded um to what has been described as a mental health crisis um that they would be facing no disciplinary action from the NYPD, the commissioner making that announcement. I know this is something that you stood alongside the family while they've been processing their pain. You were there advocacy groups today. What was your take on that move from police commissioner Kaban and I do wanna clarify. Kowalski was in support of housing building that was known to people who were dealing with mental issues. Kawai wasn't in a mental health crisis when the NYPD for folks who don't know, broke into his house, they literally broke into the house. He was in his kitchen cooking and they kept yelling, drop the knife and Kawai was saying, why are you in my house? They never even answered the question. Can you imagine someone breaking into your house and tasing you and then shooting you dead? And there's no accountability for it. He was locked out of his home. Just so folks know the FDNY came, he had the knife in his hand in the hallway and people were able to let him in his house with no incident. NYPD came and broke in the door and shot him dead. I'm exasperated. Really? I'm not usually speechless, but it's tiresome to see, for multiple mayors and multiple, uh, commissioner, they really drag this out as long as they could to the point where they said it's some of it is past, uh, past the statute of limitation. And I also think about what Mayor Adams when he was the head of 100 blacks in law enforcement when he was actually Brooklyn Ball president, what he would say to himself about this and it would be shame. This is a shameful stain on the city at a time when we had another shooting of Win Rosario who called himself asking for assistance because he was in mental health crisis. He was shot dead in front of his mother and his siblings. We have said numerous times that we have to remove police uh from the initial response of people who are either dealing with mental health crisis or in Kawai case or responding to supportive housing building because that's not, that's not what law enforcement should be doing, nor is it, by the way, what law enforcement wants to be doing? They don't wanna be responding to the school. So now we have no changes that are real. Um Even though there are programs within the NYPD, um that program was not sent out to win Rosario's home and we have no accountability. How can you have those two things? And how can you have it from a mayor that prides himself and that the diversity of the administration? What's the point of having a diverse diversity change. If you don't have a change in the results, I've seen the video. This is one of the clearest cut cases where everything went the wrong way and wrong decisions were made. There's no accountability. So what would we expect if we have no accountability? And we don't change how the responses are going and we have a mayor that won't even say Kawai Tra's name won't say win. Rosario's name. It's a, it's a really tough day. It's a sad day. And uh you know, I'm sorry for tho for those families, but I'm, I'm hoping at some point, we see a turnaround here, not just in diversity but in action, you talk about the response and like you mentioned, it's been part of the conversation, time and time again, initiatives have been announced about uh incorporating mental health outreach teams instead of law enforcement to be dispatched to these calls. What do you think needs to happen to actually cross the finish line with that approach? We have to have the political will, the political courage and we have to put money behind it. Uh The callers who calls, I guarantee you, they would agree with what I'm saying. This is another space where we have a lot of agreement, what we should not be doing. Uh My office has put out plans on number of occasions how we can actually build out an infrastructure that looks different and we just have to do it since it's never been done. It's going to take, uh, uh, some dedicated energy to do it and what we normally do in those cases, they just say most police let them handle it. Um, because we don't wanna put that elbow grease in, we don't wanna put that the funding that needs to do that and the real life and death consequences and it hurts when that happens and there's absolutely no accountability for someone breaking into your home and shooting without even answering the questions of why you're here in the first place. More to come here on, ask your advocate right after this where the conversation continues here on news 12, when we come back.

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0415askyouradvocatefblock_2024-04-15-20-01-06

Come back to ask your advocate and I can't close out the evening without bringing out basketball at least a little bit. We've got the W NBA draft underway right now in Brooklyn. Big names. We've got Caitlin Clark, uh, uh, excuse me, Angel Reese, also gonna find out their futures. What does it feel like to have all of the next generation of these female athletes congregated here in Brooklyn to find out where they're gonna land. It's amazing and shout out to South Carolina for that win in that historic coach, uh, and, and her journey. So, you know, shout out to Amily, my, uh, daughter, 16 plays high school ball and she's just amazed about what's going on with the sport. Uh, the amount of people who watch the college, uh, uh, basketball is historic. I think that's gonna lead into the W NBA and it's great for her to see the pathway that can happen. Uh, if you put the hard work in, I have, I have two daughters. So it's great. Uh, for both of them, only one is gonna remember. Uh, so I think it's really exciting and so the fact that we have it in New York City. You have it in Brooklyn, I think is even more exciting. And of course, this weekend, my New York Knicks, uh, won a historic 50 games, uh, and the number two seed and we're not playing the heat in the first round, which is exciting for me. Uh, so this is just a, it's a really good, uh, I think sports in general, but basketball in particular month it's a good time to be a New York sports fan. Let's fingers cross that it stays that way. I wanna also, speaking of sports, think back in time, we've got Jackie Robinson day today across the country, but it really all started right here in Brooklyn. What do you think it means the legacy that he left behind and what kids should know about his groundbreaking career. You know, it's a, it's a obviously Jackie Robinson icon in my former council district. There was a house where he lived and we tried to get it landmarked and we weren't successful in doing that. But obviously, the legacy of Jackie Robinson uh is around uh integrating that sport and we're very proud of that. We're also proud of the Negro Leagues that happened even before that, I do think we have to do some more work. We've kind of gone backwards in the amount of, of, of black people who are actually playing the game. So we wanna be able to remind folks of what happened. So we can encourage and make sure we have structures that bring folks back into it. Um, but, you know, we've come some ways as a country and unfortunately in a lot of ways we haven't. So be interesting to think about what Jackie Robertson would be thinking now, what other areas he would be getting involved with, to make sure the communities he represented, uh, are living lives, even off better lives, even off the field. I'm sure a lot of the topics we touched on today would be top of mind for him that 2024 public advocate Jumani Williams, it was a pleasure having you back here with us. Thank you so much and we look forward to next time. Thank you all for tuning in to ask your advocate until next time.

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News 12's Amanda Bossard sits down with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams to answer YOUR questions for this month's edition of Ask Your Advocate. 

Ask Your Advocate: April 2024 Edition

News 12's Amanda Bossard sits down with Public Advocate Jumaane Williams to answer YOUR questions for this month's edition of Ask Your Advocate.

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