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asktheadvocate210B

Welcome back to Ask your advocate here on News 12 as we continue to follow some breaking news out of City Hall tonight we are learning that the Department of Justice has asked federal prosecutors to drop the criminal charges that Mayor Eric Adams currently faces, and we are already getting some calls on the matter tonight. So public advocate, let's get to our first caller of the evening. I believe Courtney from Bushwick has dialed in. Courtney, thanks so much for your call and what's your question for the public advocate tonight? Hi Javani, great to see you. Um, I'm very concerned because it's kind of clear that Adams is compromised and in bed with Trump, and so I want to know what we as New York City residents can do because we in the majority did not vote for this. Well, thank you Corney. I think it's a, it's a great question. One, as I always said, um, what happened in the courtroom, um, you know, everyone has a right to that and so, uh, however that played out, um, I still believe that personally this wasn't the mayor that we needed right now and so what I would just tell Courtney is, however she feels, uh, there's gonna be an election in June and you can definitely send your messages, uh, in the ballot box and I would encourage you to. Uh, make sure your neighbors are as well. Uh, in the meantime, we have to make sure that we're working together to protect all of our neighbors, and so I would invite Courtney to get in touch with my office, our local elected official, or some of the advocacy groups, uh, because this is the time for all, you know, the saying I've been repeating for. Um, uh, Brazil, which is no one let go of anyone's hands, um, and I think people believed, uh, that this would only hurt the people they don't like anyway, um, but that's not how these things work and so we're seeing uh the massive kind of chaos and concern that this is meant to create. And it's actually just about creating uh a space where you're criminalizing people just for existence uh and that affects all of us so I'm hoping Courtney will link up with some other folks and um kind of just do what we can to protect uh as many New Yorkers as we can. You know when we were addressing this earlier you mentioned that like any person in the US, the mayor is entitled to his day in court to prove his innocence. however, should that not happen, would you. See this as a case of justice denied. Well, what I, what I do point out is the hypocrisy of this mayor, uh, to say that he should have a day in court, but other people who are here should not, and that's what he was specifically saying because we're now talking about in in the Lake and Riley Act, uh, is basically saying they want to deport people simply for being accused. Now they committed a crime. So literally shoplifting is one of a crime. So if you're a young person 1516, and he stole a bag of M&M's or some Snickers, the mayor wants you deported, uh, before you've even been found guilty, um, and that has nothing to do with murder and has nothing to do with rape, so the hypocrisy of his leadership. Is a bound, um, and again it's unfortunate so those are the things that I try to point out because what I want to focus on now and have been is trying less on this uh lack of leadership from the mayor and how can we fill the void because New Yorkers are scared they're concerned, both people who are uh trying to get services and live in the city and uh work. who are trying to provide it as well, uh, so that's what I try to focus on uh the most but you know everybody should have their day in court that includes the mayor, that includes uh our newest New Yorkers. All right, let's get back to some of the callers and tackle some more local issues here tonight. We have a call from Tony from BedSuy on the line. Tony, thanks for the call and what is your question for the public advocate this evening? All right, good evening. Um, I live in Bed Stuy in a rent stabilized building for 30 years. And I've been contacting my management as well as 311 about the violations in my apartment, and nothing has been done. violations such as no heat for the last two weeks as well as sewage backing up in my kitchen sink. What can I do about that to move further? Conditions no one should or clearly wants to have to deal with. Yeah, those are all sound like sea violations. This is the worst emergency violations. They have to be fixed really quickly, so I'm sorry Tony's going through that. And I wish she was the only one. there are a lot of people dealing with that in the city. Um, I would love to connect with, uh, Tony, so hopefully we can connect after. Uh, we can have our folks reach out and see what we can do to, uh, to either get the landlord to make the repairs. Uh, there are points in time where we can force HPD to come in and charge the landlord triple, uh, of what it would have cost, but we see this all across the, the city and, you know, particularly during heat and hot water season. It's really dangerous and life threatening. And you know it probably more than many because your office just finished putting together the worst landlord's list of last year that was released just a few weeks ago and some of these people on the list have amassed hundreds of violations per building and then they own multiple buildings. So like you mentioned, Tony's story, not an isolated incident of course awareness is huge knowing who these bad apples, so to speak, are is step one. What's the next step? How do we hold them. Well, you know, one, these are the worst of the worst, so particularly the top 10, but even the, the top 100, which we do the 100 worst landlord list, uh, Barry Singer was number one. Danny Oshalom dropped a few, uh, but he's still there, um, so one, we want to use this as a tool, as some of tenants did in the Danny Oshalom buildings. Uh, they organized, uh, they pushed, uh, Daniel Oshalom, spent some time in Rikers, uh, and we're trying to get the building taken away from him. Those are the things I think would be the most impactful. That should happen, you know, I wanna give, you know, credit to, uh, HPD and administration for doing the right thing here, but we have to do more. I think people like Barry Singer, um, you know, they might need to, uh, figure out what it's like to to feel an arrest, uh, more importantly they probably at some point should get their buildings taken from these folks, uh, you know, have not proven that they can be responsible owners and they have people like Tony with sewage backing up and they have people like Tony that has no heat and hot water. And they're still collecting rent and we have to do more so uh we have some bills to try to add some more teeth to the Westland on the list, but we are happy that tenants have started using it as a tool and an effective one hopefully that will inspire other tenants as well. Yeah, speaking about tenants, uh, there were some tenants of one of those who previously was on the list in the Bronx who recently were victims of a fire. He talked about what the city can do to respond to the worst landlords in the aftermath they've had difficulty finding permanent housing or. lodging, uh, can the city be better in assisting people in disasters but one, you know, this having no he know hot water leads can lead to these kind of disasters and, um, quite frankly, if we're irresponsible in removing this person as an owner, we should do even more to make sure that people have uh the lodging that they need and so I'm sorry that those tenants are still going with that, uh, but yes, there's a lot more we should be doing. Alright, and the conversation will continue right after this quick break here on News 12. Don't go anywhere. Ask your advocate. We'll be right back.

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asktheadvocate210C

Welcome back to Ask your advocate here on News 12 on what's already been a whirlwind of an evening. We're breaking news here tonight, but I do want to revisit some news that made headlines last week specifically. We had Mayor Eric Adams out of commission. He was under the weather, according to his press representatives about a couple of weeks ago and then last week I believe he revealed to the. Press that he had been put under anesthesia during those days that he was out of the public eye. In response, he put out a statement that read, quote, this was irresponsible at best, deceptive at worst, and a violation of the city charter. Have you been provided with a reason why you were not informed as the public advocate that the mayor would be out of. Mission and your reaction to the fallout of this? Well, I mean it's clear that this mayor in particular leads by, you know, how far you can bend rules and perhaps break them. That's, that's what he does. So it's not, it's actually in this context over the past few years. It's not a one off. This is just how he operates, uh, and the charter is really clear what's supposed to happen, particularly in succession, um, but you know for me I always made clear this wasn't about trying to be the mayor for an hour, it doesn't make any sense, so you do kind of. You know, pretty sure that your people are in place for that hour to make sure they can, you know, do what you want, but technically speaking, I was the acting mayor for that hour, uh, with very minimal kind of powers, but it's important because the succession is there and the people of the city have lost faith in the way the city operates, and we wanna make sure they continue that faith and so what was even more insulting is that your communications director, the mayor's communication director at that time put out a statement saying. That we have put things in place in the unlikely uh scenario the mayor cannot discharge his duties. That's a huge thing to say that right there should be a flag that you should at least communicate to your uh your other partners in government, uh, particularly those in the last succession. You don't have to divulge what you don't want to, uh, but let them know that there's something happening and we have this in place. God forbid something happens, the first call should not be at the worst time. But this is just how they choose to lead the city. Is there any response or corrective actions that can be taken in response to a? We're looking at it now, legal actions, other actions, really, I just want to make sure moving forward um that there's a better line of communication. Not just for my office but for the people of the city of New York and we need that that charter to be respected and honored, particularly at a time when people don't trust government. All right, ask your advocate. We'll continue once again after this short break. 718-861-6800 is the number to dial if you have a question for the public advocate. We're getting back to your calls right after this.

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asktheadvocate210D_2025-02-10-20-07-21

Welcome back to Ask your advocate here on News 12 with New York City Public Advocate Jumani Williams. Time now to get to some of our callers and the questions that they've got tonight, and we'll kick things off with Michelle who has called in from East Flatbush. Michelle, thank you so much for calling and what's your question tonight? Yes, hi, how are you? I would like to know why did they decrease the service on the B103 bus on Flatbush Avenue and Junction. Transportation related issues always. Concern for our viewers, yeah, I'm, I'm not sure. I know the area really well. I representative parts of it. I'm not sure why they would have cut the service to B10103. So again, I'd love to connect uh with Michelle and try to figure out what's going on. I do know that uh transportation in that area, uh, is a, is a big thing, uh, and so it, it just seems kind of, kind of intuitive, uh, for that area to lose service. So, um, hopefully there's a good explanation for that, um. But I, I honestly don't know the answers so hopefully we can find out and dig in a little bit more because a lot of people use that uh that uh that bus. Well, to your point, especially at a time where the messaging from the city seems to be take public transportation to avoid the congestion pricing toll on that topic, there have been reports that the governor is having conversations with President Donald Trump about the future of that program. What do you think will ultimately come of it and of those discussions? No, we don't have a lot of data yet, um, so I'm. it, it does look like it's doing what it was supposed to do and so we wanna see that, uh, continue. I do wanna see what's happening with communities outside of the zone, particularly places like the Bronx, what's happening with uh additional cars, um, but my hope is that, uh, the governor will succeed. There are also some tweaks that need to happen and we've been pushing it, uh, in Manhattan going over the Queensboro Bridge for, for instance, you can just be, you cannot literally go over that bridge without paying a toll, and that's, uh, that's. Something pretty bad that MTA should fix and they refused to fix it. Looks like they just wanted to put a toll there to begin with. So there's a lot of things that we think need to be there's some things that I think we need to be corrected, but also wanna wait for the data. It seems to be working how we wanted it and so it's a little, a little too soon to be talking about pulling the plug now. Yeah, only about a month into the program and already these discussions ongoing, something we'll continue to keep an eye on. We also have Angelo from Throgs Neck who's dialed in this evening. Angelo, thanks so much for your call and what is your question for the public advocate? Oh, OK. Yes, it's about the high, high cost of Con Edison, and they're raising their rates. I saw the news on tonight. And your question in particular Angelo regarding that? Oh, they want to talk to me right now then. So like yeah, if there's anything that could be done to alleviate, yeah, that, that it's crazy. What I, and I, this what frustrates me is there are two groups of folks that just can and if they, if they have the ability, uh, when they can't pay their bills, they just raise the rent, uh, and that seems to be some of the more unscrupulous landlords and utilities and just say, hey, we'll just hike it up. But what is everybody else supposed to do? And with cotton in particular. Uh, when you compare to other people providing the services, theirs is going higher than, uh, their competitors inexplicably and folks in the Bronx are they don't have another option and so this, this sounds criminal in my in in my opinion, and we do know that many of these rate hikes are simply to pay investors. To make sure they get a certain level of return, it's not about providing a service, and that's pretty disgusting, uh, and particularly services that people uh need and are about health and safety. So you know my office always looks into this to see what we can do, uh, to support the effort of not making this happen, but too often folks. Go along with it. And so, uh, if I was in, I'd be really upset and it should be I know a lot of folks in the Bronx and people who depend on us are upset as well, but we're gonna do whatever we can to try to fight this back, especially this time of year and this year in particular we've had days on end of below freezing temperatures you really start to feel the effects of that. Let's get to another caller on the line this evening. We've got Gary who I believe is dialed in from Karsy. Gary, what's your question for the public advocate tonight? Yes, hi, good evening, folks. Actually, I'm calling from Crown Heights. Yeah, thank you. No, that's fine. Actually, one of the questions I have is that what we're going to do with the pedestrians jaywalking and not obeying the traffic law, but I know we complain a lot about cars, too many cars in the city, but again, the city is made. I mean, we need cars somehow, but pedestrians, we have a lot of people in the city. A lot of people came in the last few years, but they're not obeying the traffic law. What are we going to do about that? jaywalking. So we need to enforce it. You go to Europe, other countries, they enforce that law. People stay on the sidewalk waiting for their light to cross before. So but here we don't do that. What are we going to do about that? That's my question. to Gary's point, the city just decriminalized over the last few months. That's, uh, the city did, uh, decriminalize jaywalking. It actually didn't have the impact that people wanted, and it seemed that, uh, certain communities, uh, were the only ones that were jaywalking and others weren't. And so we know that was happening very inequitably. Um, we do want people to follow the traffic laws and to. Be safe. I, I found, I always say this whatever position I'm in, that's what I'm mad at. And so when I'm driving, I'm mad at the bicyclists and the pedestrians when I'm riding a bike, uh, I'm mad at the car drivers and the pedestrians. When I'm a pedestrian, I'm mad at the cyclists and the car. So your vantage point also helps who you're frustrated with, but it doesn't mean all of them. Not doing something they shouldn't be. I will say the car, uh, takes up the most space, uh, is the most protected and causes the most damage and so probably should have a little bit more burden to be a little more responsible, but everybody in that space needs to do their part to be more responsible, and we should do whatever we can to enforce the laws, particularly when it comes around safety, um, because, uh, you know, the, the increase in. But you know, uh, injury and harm with, with, uh, vehicle of violence is really bad, um, and I don't think people realize in certain spaces you, you're more likely to get hit by a car and God forbid to be shot, uh, but we don't have the same response, uh, and it's just as, uh, random uh as gun violence, but we don't have the same visceral response to it, and we should because all these things are preventable if people would follow the law, take their time, and if we would do some better things, uh, to. make the street a little bit more friendly to the folks who live in the city and to expand on that, Gary said you look at places in Europe and you don't see the same dangers to pedestrians in their city set ups and then we're coming off a year in which the city saw an incredible number of traffic related deaths. Is there any innovation to be drawn from other areas, be it here domestically or internationally, that we could implement here at home and make everyone safer as a result? There is, but you know the culture. Those cities are a lot different so you have cultures that welcome bicycles in a way that we don't, uh, we have very limited space and we have to make sure that we're giving that to everyone but you know we have an aggressiveness that just doesn't exist in the other city so people will actually if there's a bike coming they probably won't make that left turn as quickly as they might um pedestrians themselves also uh kind of treat the road a little differently so if we want to look at some of the other spaces we should mimic that type of culture as best as possible. We need to also invest changing. Um, what the street looks like daylighting, uh, you know, people get mad about the bike lanes, but they do keep, uh, cyclists to protect the bike lanes in particular, uh, cyclists safe, um, you know, the speeds that we, we just go so fast even when turning, those are things that some of those things we have control of and it's a culture that we have to pull back, um, but it's very, very difficult to do that. So yes, we can look at, uh, some of the other cities, but I don't know that we want to do what some of those cities are doing and how they've divided up the street to make sure that, um, cyclists. And pedestrians are protected in a way that's just not happening here. Yeah, that New York grit can be good and then that's not so good at time as I guess, um, to pivot from street safety to subway safety since the last time we spoke we've now seen this deployment of two officers on overnight subways. I believe last week the NYPD reported that in January they saw declines in transit crime. What's your reaction to this approach? Do you think it is truly having the impact that it set out to have? Well, declines in crime are great, so you know I want to celebrate that. I'm, I'm always interested in how they always find the money for the cops but not for the mental health infrastructure, uh, and for the other things that are needed always uh whenever we push for these things that we don't have the money, but whenever they, you know, some, some bad news that may affect a a campaign, uh, then they, we find the money for the, for the police. My, my thing has always been clear, um, you at times need our law enforcement, particularly for acute, uh, situations, and very much people may actually feel safer. Some people may feel safer when they see it and that's that's a part of it as well. In my opinion it's lazy leadership to have to continue to do that and so we're about the 10th surge in about 5 years, the 2nd for National Guard. If you have to continue to surge police in a subway 1, you're taking those resources from someplace else, and 2, something is wrong. You need to fix what's wrong. You can't keep sending. More police to a place and think that you provide the leadership that's needed. So what's happening if it is folks who are dealing with mental health crisis, let's deal with that. Let's get some of that money, uh, so that when folks are sent to the hospital, hopefully not Rikers, uh, sent to the hospital and they're let out whether it's 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, 6 months that they have a continuum of care, uh, that is needed in the first place. So my real thing is it's the lazy leadership of just saying how many. Please can we throw at it, uh, to try to move the problem somewhere else or at best punt and so that's the concern that I have. And then on the other side of that argument because you brought up the mental health component to all of this, the mayor has announced this big $650 million investment in mainly supportive housing. Your thoughts on that approach? I think part of that is great. He was part of the ones blocking this from happening in the first place, so I'm glad that you know there's a turnaround, but we need more. More than that as well, uh, we need to make sure that folks uh have a continuum of care and we have uh understanding of what happens after someone is in the hospital, um, and what happens to make sure they get the care that they need even in those units and we need, we definitely need some more beds and hospital beds for people to get the care that they need because that right now the biggest issue is the continuum of care that just doesn't exist so even now you can. Involuntarily hospitalize someone, but that's not the problem. The problem is after they come out, what happens? Yeah, and that has been really the crux of this conversation. All right, we're gonna continue things right after this. Stay with us here on Ask Your Advocate.

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asktheadvocate210E_2025-02-10-20-07-41

Thanks so much for staying with us here on Ask Your Advocate on News 12 and thanks so much for all of your calls throughout the evening. Great to be back with you here on News Public Advocate Jumani Williams on what has been a breaking news night and before we revisit all of the news that we're learning about the mayor and the future of his case at the federal level, I do want to get to one more caller this evening. We have Demetria from Konarsy who is dialed in. Demetria, thanks so much for your call and for tuning in. What's your question for the public advocate? Hi, yes, uh, thank you for taking my call. Um, it's about, uh, congestion pricing. So the congestion pricing, of course it affects people like myself and Karsi and other, um, people who live in areas like myself with limited transportation, but I'm calling on behalf of my family and friends who live in Manhattan. OK, they live in Manhattan, they live in upper areas of Manhattan and they're still being charged for congestion pricing and they live in Manhattan. So they're being charged to come from uptown to go downtown and they live in Manhattan and nobody has talked about it or addressed it. Your thoughts and I think the, the dichotomy that's presented there just to be clear, you're not charged unless you go to uh below 60th Street. Um, some of those areas actually have. The best access to mass transit, much better than what's actually in Canarsie where Demetria lives. Like there's there's not a lot of uh mass transit there, but in those areas they actually are, so that's exactly what it's intended to do is like try to get some of the cars off, particularly people who have access to mass transit, um, but you know what I would say is what I support us looking into is actually um getting residential parking permits for people who may live in space. Is that they're seeing their parking decreasing, so that's what I wanna try to do for some of the folks um in the areas around the zone and and and and around the boroughs close to Manhattan where may we we may now see people taking up more parking spots. So that's something I'm supportive of, but, um, exactly what Demetrio said is exactly what it was meant to do is prevent uh as many people as have been going into that zone and so if they come from uptown and they go to 61st Street, all good. Uh, below 60th is where that occurs. Is and is trying to encourage people uh to take mass transit where they can if they can, and there is a there is thankfully discount for people um who are low income but I think it's not enough and so I wanna make sure but I also am clear most of the people who go there on a daily basis are not the lower income folks of New York. Yeah, the idea of residential parking permits something that has been long talked about and discussed, so I think any movement on that would definitely be music to a lot of New Yorkers who drives ears. I do want to return. To the breaking news that we've been following throughout the program tonight that we learned just moments before we came on the air so I appreciate you being so responsive to it. We're seeing, um, circulating online some letters from the Department of Justice and and basically their directives is what's being deported deported, excuse me, reported, um, in terms of what they're telling the Southern District of New York to do with the future of Mayor Adams's case. They blame, or I should say they point to two key factors here. The first they say is the. Timing of the charges and more recent public action by the former US attorney responsible for initiating the case have threatened the integrity of the proceedings, including by increasing prejudicial pretrial publicity that risks impacting potential witnesses and the jury pool. Your thoughts on that explanation from the DOJ to drop the charges? I think what's hardest for me is what else is in there, um, you know, one, I again, firmly believe everybody needs to have their day in court. Um, from what I've seen, they literally said they didn't look at the legality of the, and the evidence in the case. And then they literally said, um, basically that they think this is interrupting with the mayor's ability to assist them with mass deportations. Uh, that's what I think I read and so I'm gonna, uh, you know, read a little bit more, but if that's the case, Nothing could be more disgusting uh than that. And basically the, the quid pro quo that everyone said was happening, um, is what it is and we have put New Yorkers in a dangerous situation. And if you're saying you hadn't even looked. And you're not even considering the evidence in the gallery that is kind of, you know, it's stunning and so I'm still trying to digest what I'm seeing and I honestly hope what I'm reading and saw was wrong and that's not what's there because you could not have something more horrific in terms of what was traded off for whom and who gets hurt. And to New Yorkers and you're the mayor of New York, not the assistant to Donald Trump and uh it is sad to see the state of affairs that we're in, uh, and what the type of leadership or non-leadership that Mayor Eric Adams is providing. And I guess he's just able to be his true self now and doesn't have to pretend he's someone else. Yeah, a reminder to those who are watching at home that this is news that we are all reacting to in real time. I do want to get to that second point that is highlighted in this letter from the DOJ as to why these charges should be dropped. They say 2. The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams' ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior administration reaction to that statement in this letter. I want you to think about. The response people have had to folks in Rikers who are literally waiting for their day in court um to uh undocumented immigrants who have not been dealing with anything to do with rape or murder, uh, I want you to think about those folks who don't have the access that the mayor has and how we talk about them. And this literally says it is disturbing his ability. To help them with mass deportation. This case that we should all look at in a courtroom and see what happens, well, we can't do that because he can't really help us with this. What about all of the other people. Who are poorer who don't have this access, who are sitting in jail because they can't afford bail or they don't have the connections. I want you to think about when the mayor speaks about these people and when the DOJ speaks about the these people, these people, um, and it's horrifying. It really is if that is truly what is being said, um, and we should all be disturbed and. Deserves a day in court. Um, this is not that though. This is, this is something else. Learning little by little tonight of these new developments and something that obviously we are all going to continue to keep a close eye on as we continue to learn more. Stay with us here on Ask Your Advocate. We'll be right back after this quick break.

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asktheadvocate210F_2025-02-10-20-07-58

Welcome back to Ask Your Advocate with New York City Public Advocate Jumani Williams here on News 12. So much of this evening has really been about the intersection. Of federal policies and city politics. So with that in mind, I want to ask you because since we've last seen you, we now do have a new president in office, and he has come out with a wave of executive orders since he has taken that oath of office. Are there any in particular that catch your attention because of the effects that they could have here in New York in everyday life? Yeah, you know, I think it's the executive orders. I think it's dismantling of, uh, agencies, um, I think the plan is to flood the zone to try to cause and present so much chaos, you know, to his credit he's doing what he said he would do. He's also doing what we said he would do so when it comes to things like immigration, we said this is just not about undocumented they're trying to. Changed immigration as we know it so the repealing of birthright citizenship, uh, the taking away of temporary protected status, those are all legal ways, uh, the impact, uh, that we said the tariffs are gonna have on the economy, uh, we're going to see it and what's most frustrating is the things we said are going to happen are happening and the price of eggs have not gone down. They've only gone up uh as he's flooding the zone and so why did you really vote? What did you really vote for, you know, removing, uh, the, the ability to to have diversity, trying to remove Martin Luther King Day and and celebrating Black History Month. This is, this is wow. It is about erasure of communities and it's about criminalizing uh. People just for existing, um, and. He has decided to help minorities who are being discriminated against, except he did that for white South Africans uh who he now says can come to the US as refugees. So if we're not clear about what's happening now, I don't know what else. Would make us clearer and I need people to just acknowledge that the things that we were talking about were not exaggerations at all um that actually happened. We've covered a lot of heavy news on this program tonight. I want to flip the switch, leave off here with a moment of levity. You just swore in New York City's new dog mayor. What is this? And let's pull up a picture of of the cutie. OK, Simon, I think is who we have here. I didn't even know we had one of these. That was, that was a lot of fun, I will say, um, by the way, there was some. Scandal in the voting apparently yeah it was, it was people like it was wild. It was a wild scandal, but we have a new mayor quite frankly, uh, this one might be better, uh, suited to the challenge that we are now, uh, that we have than the mayor we have now, but that's a whole another story. Not even the dog mayor from scandal in city politics. Public Advocate, thank you so.

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News 12's Amanda Bossard sits down with New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams to answer YOUR pressing questions in this month's edition of Ask Your Advocate.

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