Andrew Yang’s N.Y.C. Mayor Endorsement Interview

Andrew Yang is an entrepreneur and the founder of the nonprofit Venture for America. He was a 2020 Democratic candidate for president.

This interview with Mr. Yang was conducted by the editorial board of The New York Times on April 30.

Read the board’s endorsement for the Democratic primary here.

Kathleen Kingsbury: Good morning. Thank you so much for joining us. We have a lot of questions for you, as I’m sure you can imagine, and not enough time. So I wanted to jump in but ask that we try for brevity whenever we can just because we don’t have enough time for all the questions we have. And we want to start by asking just why do you want this job? Why are you the best candidate in the field?

I’m running for mayor because our city’s in crisis and I believe I can help. I’m a public school parent and someone who’s raising his family here. And if you think you can help our city during this time, I feel like you should do everything in your power to do so.

Mara Gay: OK, that was definitely brief. Thank you. Andrew, you haven’t voted for New York City mayor in 20 years, including after the Sept. 11 attacks. You left the city during the pandemic. Tell us why voters should believe that you are connected and committed to New York City.

I put myself in a category with a lot of New Yorkers who have voted in national and gubernatorial elections here in New York City but haven’t been as actively engaged in local politics. I think that number is something like 76 percent of registered Democrats or so are in that category. And like many New Yorkers, I see that our city is hurting right now and we need to do more. We need to step up in different ways during the pandemic. I mean, one of the first things we did with my new organization, Humanity Forward, was distribute a million dollars in cash relief to a thousand struggling families in the Bronx, which I hoped would be something of a template for a national approach.

And at the time, I was a surrogate for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and was campaigning for them just about every day. And my focus at that point was getting Trump out of office. And I think we can all agree that him not being in office has been a tremendous thing for us all, certainly for New York City and the country.

And then after Joe and Kamala won, I then, as you probably know, moved to Georgia for a number of weeks to do everything I could to help win the Senate. And I think that those victories are already having profoundly positive effects here in New York City and also around the country.

Mara Gay: Thank you. If elected, you would be the first Asian-American mayor of the City of New York. Does that hold meaning for you, and what might it mean for New York?

One of the proudest things about my time running for president was when Asian-American families would bring their kids to me on the trail and want a picture and say, look, you know, like, you can grow up and do anything. And that was so touching for me.

I mean, I remember growing up the son of immigrants in the ’70s and ’80s and not seeing many people that looked like me when I turned on the TV. And so the fact that I may be the first Asian-American mayor in the city’s history has a lot of meaning for me. And, you know, when a New Yorker who, frankly, was not Asian actually said to me, like, hey, you know, I think having someone from your community be mayor would be really positive for the city, that also meant a great deal.

Mara Gay: What would it mean for New York? The second part of my question, sorry.

Not at all. So I was talking to my wife, Evelyn, about the fact that there is at least some chance that if I become mayor, there would be, like, a sign saying: Welcome to New York by Mayor Andrew Yang. And like, I thought, like, wow, that would be kind of positive, I thought, in terms of sending a message that New York City is the kind of place where people of different backgrounds can lead and contribute.

Mara Gay: That’s great. Thank you. As mayor, you would be running a city with more than 300,000 employees, a budget larger than that of many small nations. You’ve run two nonprofits, several small businesses and two campaigns, of course. How would you describe your management style?

I’m someone who wants to identify people who are passionate and dedicated and mission-driven, and then wants to give them room to run. The fact is, we have so many challenges we’re facing right now in New York. And you have 67 agencies and a mayor’s office of, as you said, you know, several hundred thousand workers. And so it can’t be the kind of organization where everything comes to you. Like, you need to empower leaders and managers and in different environments and different agencies so that they feel like, as long as their values are sound and their process is good, that they can make decisions on their own. And that’s something that I’ve tried to establish in every organization I’ve been a part of, for profit or nonprofit, that people feel like they’re able to make their own decisions, as long as it’s consistent with the vision and the values.

Mara Gay: And that would include hiring a former sanitation worker or, excuse me, Commissioner Kathryn Garcia. Is that — do we have that right?

Well, so to be very, very clear. It’s of course going to be up to Kathryn — if I do win this race — and she certainly would be one of the first people I call and say, “Hey, Kathryn, we need you.”

[When we asked Ms. Garcia about this idea, she said: “If Andrew Yang thinks I need to run his government, then maybe I should just run the government and we should stop having me actually do the job and you get the title. I just reject that.”]

But, you know, I think Katie asked me, like, if Kathryn wins and calls you, like, would you answer the call? And I said yes. I mean, like, this is a situation where you need all hands on deck. Certainly if you have someone like me as the mayor, one of the first things I should be doing is trying to find people like Kathryn who are very experienced in New York City government and the specific agencies, because you want to have that experience so that we can help move some of these bureaucracies, you know, towards action in different environments. But yeah, to be very clear. I mean, obviously, you know, like, it’s completely going to be up to Kathryn what kind of role she might have, if that’s the situation. But she’d certainly be someone I’d be thrilled to work with.

Nick Fox: Your interview with The [New York] Post made it sound like more than just that you would hire good people for roles. It gave the impression that your vision was that of unusually detached from day-to-day operations, and the mayor of New York has been called the most, or the second most, difficult job in the world. And what you described sounded more like — cheerleader might be a little too glib, but ——

So here’s my experience: The only way to make organizations work is to pay attention to what’s happening on the ground. And I think the leadership you don’t want, frankly, is someone who’s just in boardrooms making decisions, saying, “Do this, do that.” And then they’re having impacts, you know, blocks or miles away, and you’re not mindful of that.

And so my approach is actually, Nick, kind of the opposite, where what I like to do is I like to go to the ground and then talk to the people who are doing the work. And say, OK, like, “What are you seeing? What are you doing? What can we help you with? What can we do better?” And you learn so much that way. I mean, that’s the way, in my mind, like, effective organizations run.

So when I run an organization — so one of the lessons you do learn when you’re the C.E.O. of just about anything is that it’s easy for people just to tell you good things and not good things. Like, I remember the first time I called, like, an instructor when I was a C.E.O. — not the first thing, it was probably like, you know, I’d called people hundreds of times.

But then someone said something to me about, like, oh, you know, like, “I thought I was in trouble.” And then you’re like, you know, and then you think, like, oh, well, that’s not the message you want to send, but it’s like — and so you have to try and get information from the source, from the ground. Maybe it’s a little bit like what you all do.

Though I guess you’re not all journalists in that sense. But Nick, like, I am very, very much a hands-on operator. Like, I’m not someone who will frankly take for granted that operational realities are as we wish them to be. You know, like you have to get as close to the ground as possible and then figure out how to improve it.

Mara Gay: Some who have worked for you have publicly complained that you created a fratlike culture in which women and racial minorities were treated as outsiders instead of equals. Others who worked for you have complained that they were not paid fairly when compared to their male colleagues. What do you say to these women and former employees who have made these complaints?

Oh, I’m very open about the fact that I think every organization works better if you have men and women at the highest levels of leadership. My education company had a management team that was half women, including operations, marketing, instructor liaison. My nonprofit was majority women, both in leadership and on staff. You know, now, in the campaign, you know, there are two campaign managers. One of them is a woman. And so, you know, like, I think that’s the way organizations should run, and that’s the way I hope my administration runs as well.

Mara Gay: And do you feel that those women were fairly compensated for their work?

Well, again, I mean, you can talk to — and I’m sure in this case, because of, you know, The Times looking into it — you can find any number of people who will say that my organizations valued people’s contributions based upon what they did every day. And it had nothing to do with, certainly, someone’s gender or any other kind of attribute.

Mara Gay: OK, thank you. In terms of the campaign, how do you explain laughing at the Lawrence Reese joke about whether you, quote, choke bitches during sex? Is that how you confront misogyny? As mayor?

I was shocked and surprised and then ended the interaction as quickly as possible. Obviously, I don’t find that kind of language humorous or appropriate.

Mara Gay: Binya.

Binyamin Appelbaum: I’d like to ask you about the version of universal basic income that you’ve made a centerpiece of your campaign, the proposal to give about $2,000 a year to about half a million New Yorkers. That’s not enough to elevate anybody from poverty. What makes it more than a symbolic gesture? What’s the point? And how would you pay for it?

Well, you’re looking at targeting people who are in extreme poverty. And frankly, the most difficult part is actually going to be identifying some of the individuals and families involved. When we distributed a million dollars to families in the Bronx, for example, it was actually a little bit harder than you might imagine.

We went through a partner organization, Neighborhood Trust, that’s a financial services nonprofit and credit union that actually had relationships with the working families in the borough. And a lot of the families we’re talking about in this environment are going to be undocumented. They’re going to have very few formal attachments. And so one of our great tasks is, frankly, identifying them and getting them IDNYC cards and basic financial services so that they can even receive this money in any kind of practical way.

And if you’re looking at a population that’s struggling in extreme poverty, then even a modest amount of, let’s call it $200 a month can really be the difference between eating and not eating, or staying in a home or not being in that home. So if you’re looking at people at that level, it can actually be enormously impactful.

[Mr. Yang made so-called universal basic income the centerpiece of his presidential campaign, when he proposed to pay every American $1,000 per month. In his run for mayor, Mr. Yang has proposed annual cash payments of about $2,000 to half a million of the poorest New Yorkers.]

In terms of how to pay for it. We do have a bit of operating flexibility for the next two years, thanks to federal aid. We do want to close some of the property tax exemption loopholes enjoyed by certain institutions in New York that could generate tens of millions of dollars to help pay for not just this but other things.

But we’re in a city where if someone winds up on our streets, it’s extraordinarily costly, not just on a human level but on an economic level. Our sheltering system can cost up to $6,000 a month to house a family. And so, if you were keeping people in more stable situations and off of your streets and out of your shelters or other institutions, then it’s actually a very wise and prudent investment that can help pay for itself.

Mara Gay: Thank you. Jesse.

Jesse Wegman: Yeah. Can you talk to us about your view of the role of police unions in the city and how you would work to manage them as part of your efforts to reform the Police Department more generally?

We have to help the culture of the N.Y.P.D. evolve and advance, and I think that the police union, in some instances, has not exactly been a force for evolution.

Jesse Wegman: Yes.

And so, I mean, I think people sense that, like, my first goal is to work with people and to find common ground, to make changes that folks can agree with. But, you know, New Yorkers recognize that there have been consistent civil rights abuses on the part of the N.Y.P.D.

And as a numbers guy, one of the numbers that really hit me like a hammer was the fact that we’ve been spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year settling lawsuits against abusive cops each year, which you have to say must be just about the worst use of public funds that you can imagine on a consistent basis.

[In 2020, the New York Police Department paid out more than $200 million in settlements and judgments.]

So my goal would be to, frankly, to try and align the unions and say, look, it’s not good for the city or you or the public that we’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars in this direction or that crime rates are up and clearance rates are down. So let’s figure out how we can work together to achieve some of these goals and hopefully that they’ll be open to at least some of the changes and proposals that I’m going to be championing.

Jesse Wegman: How would your call for a special deputy to oversee the Police Department from City Hall work to make the department more accountable to the mayor?

Oh. Well, so I’m someone who believes that, one, we should have a civilian police commissioner, because I think that’s going to be helpful to help the culture evolve. But I’m also someone who wants that police commissioner to actually have central authority, which is something that I know some of the candidates have disagreed with.

But as someone who’s managed a lot of organizations, it’s very, very hard to lead if you don’t have that authority. And so the, like, I’m going to be heavily involved in issues of public safety, in part because it’s one of the first things that New Yorkers ask me about or talk to me about when I’m out and about. Like, people are very, very concerned.

And so I think having someone who’s focused on it every day in addition to me is a value add. I mean, certainly it’s going to be getting a lot of my attention. But I think having someone who’s specifically accountable for it and focused on it is not, you know, like doesn’t prevent me from spending time on it also.

Jesse Wegman: Does having a civilian in the position of commissioner deal with the problem that your predecessors have had of being effectively steamrolled by their own police commissioners?

I mean, that’s one of the things that I hope that we can change, is that if you want a culture to evolve, it’s, I think, very difficult if the leader is, frankly, a product of that and steeped in it. And if you look at some of the examples in other contexts, we have very significant defense agencies, for example, that are run by civilians, like at the national and federal level. And culture is changed from the top. You know, like if you don’t have that kind of leadership that’s consistently pointing to a particular direction, then, you know, it’s unlikely that an institution like the N.Y.P.D. is going to change in the way that we need it to.

Nick Fox: I’ve got to say, I really find your answer rather vague. There are statutory obstacles to police accountability. There are contractual obstacles to police accountability. You have a union that has been an obstacle to change every step of the way. And they have intimidated mayors for years and years. And just to say, well, you’re going to talk to them and they’re going to come around — it’s not very persuasive.

Oh, Nick, much of what you say is very true about some of the obstacles to change in the past. And both I and my commissioner are going to have a very strong vision for where we want the N.Y.P.D. to go.

But I will say that, you know, your first move starting out when you assume leadership and command is not to come in and say, “Hey, like, this organization or union that has been heading a particular direction. Like, I’m going to approach it, frankly, as like, as far as, like, an adversary, an enemy of progress from Day 1.” You know, I just don’t think that’s what you want to lead with.

Mara Gay: Eleanor, do you want to talk about the land use process here?

Eleanor Randolph: I do. You know, we watched your video on housing and saw the proposals that you had for housing — I mean — and it’s taking away the deference to City Council members for development. It’s changing the ULURP [Uniform Land Use Review Procedure], removing a lot of the environmental sections of the process, sort of cutting back on some of the NIMBY meetings. So then at the end of that, you said that this would be the will of the people. So the real question I have there is, if you’re going to change all the processes for housing and development, how are you going to get the will of the people?

So, Eleanor, I think we all know what’s been holding back the development of affordable housing in New York City, which is that everyone’s for it in the abstract. And then when you say, “Hey, it’s coming to your district or community,” then all of a sudden their enthusiasm heads the other direction. So when you talk about the will of the people, if you go to folks citywide and say, “Hey, you know, it’s clear that we’re short tens, hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units, like, do we want them built?” The vast majority of New Yorkers will say, “Heck, yes.” And so that to me is where we should be leading. And if you look at the process right now, unfortunately, it just emphasizes the negative incentives, where if you are an individual City Council member — and there are going to be people that are very animated against a particular project — then your easiest path is to be against the project. But if you extrapolate that citywide, then a lot of very worthy projects get stalled or worse. And so when you say “the will of the people,” I guess that’s what I’m describing — that, you know, we need to be operating in a larger context than on a particular block or district.

Eleanor Randolph: So you’re saying that the local community won’t have as much voice under your administration?

I’m saying that we need to be in position to build and address our city’s needs in various ways. And if you look at a process that is leading you not to actually be able to address these needs, then it’s something that we should be re-examining.

Mara Gay: Thank you. And what’s the right number of units every year to build, in your estimation?

So we’ve committed to 30,000 units a year of new affordable housing. That, of course, includes preservation of units, too. So that’s not all new ground construction when you look at the big opportunities right now.

[New York City announced a plan in 2015 to build 15,000 units of supportive housing by 2030, which would increase the total supply by roughly 50 percent. As homelessness continues to increase, the Coalition for the Homeless has urged the city to accelerate and hit that target by 2025.]

So while you’ve probably all heard me say this, because you might have been forced to listen to a forum at some point, our city is badly wounded. We’re down 600,000 jobs. And even though I’m going to be championing in-person and get back to the office and come to New York and visit hotels, we should be looking at converting some proportion of both hotels and — to the extent it’s possible, because a lot of commercial office buildings make terrible housing conversions, so you shouldn’t pretend that this office building can become apartments — but to the extent that there are commercial office buildings that make suitable housing conversions, we should be moving in that direction as quickly as possible. We’ve committed to 30,000 affordable housing units per year.

Mara Gay: Thanks. Brent has some questions for you on education. Thank you.

Brent Staples: One of the recurrent problems in New York is the screening in high schools, especially the specialized high schools, that keep kids in poor communities out. It’s a festering problem. There’s a complaint, I think now still pending, at the Education Department and the Legal Defense Fund and a lot of sort of agita about that. What’s your approach to that problem?

I mean, there are a lot of issues around educational inequities in New York City. I’m a public school parent, and I think just about every family has the same goal, which is to send their kids to a local public school that provides an education they’re excited about and represents the community. And we’ve been failing to deliver on that in many parts of the city, unfortunately, far too many.

[This year only a tiny number of Black and Hispanic students received offers to attend New York City’s elite public high schools. As The Times reported: “Only 9 percent of offers made by elite schools like Stuyvesant High School and Bronx High School of Science went to Black and Latino students this year, down from 11 percent last year. Only eight Black students received offers to Stuyvesant out of 749 spots, and only one Black student was accepted into Staten Island Technical High School, out of 281 freshman seats.”]

And so to me, my goal is to help invest in schools all over the city, to try and help make it so that parents can have that very simple and straightforward goal actually satisfied.

Brent Staples: Have you looked at the teachers’ contract at all, the teachers’ contract?

I have not dug into the teachers’ contract, no.

Brent Staples: Do you have a sense of how the teachers’ union has, you know, been helping or hindering education policy in the city? Do you have any sense of that at all?

I do have a sense of that, Brent. And you all probably know I publicly expressed my frustration at the rate of schools opening, and I think that that’s something that the union has obviously been a part of. And in my mind right now, unions like the teachers’ unions are doing what they’re designed to do. They’re designed to look out for teachers’ welfare and interests, and that’s great. They know that they’re necessary.

But to the extent that there are changes that we can make that help our kids learn, to me, again, the hope is that the teachers’ union is a partner in that. But we should be prioritizing how we are delivering quality education to our kids first and foremost. Brent, I have to say, you know, I have some sense of the dynamics in regards to the union.

Mara Gay: Brent, do you want to ask the follow-up on yeshivas, or would you like me to?

Staples: OK, you go ahead.

Mara Gay: You were endorsed by a coalition of key Orthodox leaders in Brooklyn this week. A city investigation, though, has found that dozens of ultra-Orthodox yeshivas have failed to give children a basic education. Former students have said that they graduated from some of these schools unable to read or write their names in English. Why have you suggested that you would give these schools more leeway to operate as they see fit, even if they violate state law?

Well, first, let me say I visited maybe seven or eight yeshivas over the last number of days and weeks, both scheduled and unscheduled. I know that, at least from what you can gain from that kind of cursory observation, the schools are functioning in a way that at least the kids themselves are excited about. And I will say to that, the kids were in school. And it’s something that like you can’t necessarily say for some of the other schools in the city.

[In 2018, when there were 57,000 students enrolled in yeshivas, The Times reported that “in parts of New York City, there are students who can barely read and write in English and have not been taught that dinosaurs once roamed Earth or that the Civil War occurred.” The editorial board supports efforts to bring these schools into compliance with state law.]

I approached this issue with the perspective that it’s much, much more difficult to do what many of these Jewish communities are doing, which is to, frankly, invest resources and energy in establishing these schools that are educating their kids in a way that they are happy with and excited about.

And so my approach to them is one of both deference and partnership, which is like, OK, you’re working incredibly hard at trying to teach our kids in this way. And if there are failings, then we should come to you and say our interests are aligned in that we all want to see your kids get an education that you’re both happy about is working for them. That’s my approach. I think right now the conversation, unfortunately, has become a bit more adversarial or contentious than you’d want it to be.

Nick Fox: You know, you’re running for mayor at a time when the Department of Investigation has — and correct me if I’m wrong, Mara — said that the vast majority of those schools are not preparing children properly. And you say you visited a few and they look good to you.

[According to The Times, an investigation by the Department of Education in 2019 found that “only two of 28 yeshivas that city officials visited are offering secular education that is considered ‘substantially equivalent’ to classes found in the city’s public schools.”]

Mara Gay: It’s a group of schools. It’s two dozen schools.

So, Nick, again, I would be the first to say that, obviously, my visiting these classrooms isn’t anything other than like a very, very tiny data point. But to me, we should be trying to focus in on specific institutions that have some form of deficiency and then try and solve it together. I do think that there is a little bit of a predisposition toward these schools that isn’t taking into account both the investment on the part of the community and some of the benefits.

Mara Gay: You’ve said that you want to make New York City fun again. We are all looking forward to enjoying the city we love ——

Sort of like this ed board meeting.

Mara Gay: But how can you make it fun for everybody? Including the more than 400,000 people who live in public housing, the New Yorkers who are struggling to recover from Covid or the loss of loved ones, after 32,000 people are dead, and the more than half a million New Yorkers who still don’t have their jobs because of Covid?

Our problems are very real. Our wounds are deep. It’s one reason why I’m expressly running as the anti-poverty mayor, because there’s so much suffering in New York City. But if you look at our path to recovery, we are missing 90 percent or so of the 66 million tourists that the city enjoyed pre-Covid. Those tourists generated $46 billion in revenue and supported over 300,000 of the 600,000 jobs that we’re missing, many of which were, frankly, relatively low barrier-to-entry service jobs in restaurants, bars, hospitality, tour bus operators and the like.

So if you’re going to try and drive our city’s recovery, we have to get people back. We have to get people back to the office. … New York City is the place where they can come together to celebrate, experience culture, have the best food in the world. There are a lot of problems that we’re facing. Drawing people back is actually critical. If we don’t do that, then it’s going to be much harder for us to take care of our people and solve some of the problems that we see around us every day.

Mara Gay: Thanks. Greg, are you here?

Greg Bensinger: Yeah. OK, can you clarify what you meant in The Washington Post when you said that Asians confronting racism should embrace their Americanness? That rubbed some people the wrong way. What did you mean by that, particularly in these times?

So, Greg, first I took Asian-American Americanness as, frankly, a given. I know that some people took that message as somehow that we have to prove our Americanness, which I find ridiculous. Of course we’re American. I started with that as a starting point.

And the message of that Op-Ed was that we should be donating, volunteering, voting, contributing, trying to help other people during this time as an expression of … to try and get us through this crisis. I think that’s a message that most people would agree with, you know. Like, we need to do more. That was the fundamental message. But, you know, I always took our Americanness for granted.

MG: Thank you. Over the years, you’ve built your brand by frequently doing radio and other appearances with right-wing media personalities. At times you said that the Democratic Party should gravitate away from identity politics. You’ve supported automating fast-food workers at times. Why appear on shows like “The Dave Rubin Show,” who regularly hosts white supremacists?

First, I think that the interviews you’re describing may not have done that at the time that I appeared on their platform. I think most people know that at the time when I was running for president, I was willing to talk to just about anyone that, frankly, would help get the message out about how Trump was the symptom of a whole series of problems and that we needed to unite to defeat him. And that’s something that I think my campaign did make some contribution to.

I’m someone who thinks that talking to people of different backgrounds is not necessarily always a bad thing. But certainly my goal was just to try and make the case to different people who could help defeat Trump. And that includes some people that, frankly, might have supported Trump. I’m not sure that was the wrong approach. I will say, too, that if I had a choice between a New York Times podcast and one of these podcasts that we’re describing, I would have chosen you.

Kathleen Kingsbury: I think you’re on a few of our podcasts. But, yes.

Mara Gay: Nick, you have a quick question, I think.

Nick Fox: Can you tell us what you accomplished as an entrepreneur?

Well, certainly I started out as a not-so-successful entrepreneur. I started a dot-com that failed during the first bubble. I then worked on a couple of other early-stage growth companies and started a couple of very small side businesses. I then ran an education company for a number of years that became No. 1 in its category and was acquired by a public company. And I then started a nonprofit that became a multimillion-dollar organization that had an impact I’m really proud of.

And then I ran for president and started an anti-poverty campaign and movement that I think virtually no one thought was going to be as successful as it was. We outcompeted our current mayor and half a dozen nationally known political figures. I see myself as someone who has tried to identify problems and tried to galvanize energy around solving them. I also did write two books, one of which was a New York Times best seller, on the impact of technology on the economy, which spoke to some of the ideas behind my campaign. We continue to make progress. Frankly, 55 percent of Americans right now are for some version of cash relief in perpetuity. If that number had been that high when I was still running for president, who knows?

Mara Gay: Thank you. We have a little bit of a pop quiz for you. Just answer the best that you can. What percentage or about what percentage of New York City schoolchildren are homeless or living in temporary shelter?

Oh, gosh, I saw this number relatively recently, and it’s garishly high. I want to say there are — so there’s 60,000 people in the sheltering system. A lot of them are kids. But that’s too low a number. What is the category, Mara?

Mara Gay: It’s New York City schoolchildren who are homeless or living in temporary shelter.

Homeless or living in temporary shelter. So, I mean, the temporary shelter would be in the tens of thousands, and then homeless would be a similar number. We have about a million schoolkids. So I would say maybe 10 percent are homeless or in the shelters, would be my estimate.

[In the 2019-20 school year, that figure was just under 10 percent, with about 111,600 homeless students attending district and charter schools in New York.]

Mara Gay: That’s exactly right. What is the median price for a home in Brooklyn?

Oh, my gosh. Brooklyn! Such a diverse place.

Mara Gay: You’re the math guy.

I know. I am the math guy. But this is, like, a median. This is, like, blowing my mind, this question. So median home — could be any size, right? So some of them would be very substantial. But you’re looking at the median, so you have to, like, whittle down.

I would just say that the median — it’s going to be something, like, much higher than it should be. So the number that popped into my mind is $900,000.

Mara Gay: That’s exactly right.

No way! I was going to go with $800,000 or $900,000.

Mara Gay: What’s the median rent for an apartment in Manhattan?

Again, you’re looking at, like, you know, different types of apartments and all the rest of it. The number that’s popping into my head — I really should hone in on one-bedrooms because I figure that’s the median. Right. So, like a one-bedroom in Manhattan probably costs you — there’s been something of a decline — but the range in my head is, like, $2,800 to $3,000 a month.

Mara Gay: Very good. It’s just under $3,000. We’ll take it.

Alex Kingsbury: Did someone feed you these questions?

Mara Gay: You should be on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” Where were you in the pandemic?

I was mostly in our house upstate in New Paltz. I was campaigning for Joe and Kamala, which was mostly virtual, though there was some in person. I did drive to Pennsylvania multiple times. I also had some broadcast duties for CNN, most of which I handled from upstate. But occasionally they would have me come into New York City, so I would drive into New York City periodically for that.

Mara Gay: Thank you. And who is No. 2 on your ballot right now?

Oh, you all know the answer to this. We already discussed it. Kathryn Garcia. You know, my question is whether other candidates are now formulating whether they have a No. 2. I’ve been kind of mystified that they haven’t expressed that. So I hope they start expressing that. And I hope I’m on their list somewhere.

Mara Gay: Alex has the final question here for you.

Alex Kingsbury: I’m just going to say it really quick, before we turn over the floor for your final remarks. What do you think is the biggest mistake Mayor de Blasio made, and what do you think will be the hardest thing about being the mayor of New York?

You know, I’m going to share a little bit of news with you all. So Bill and I became kind of friendly on the trail. You know, like I said, I’ve seen him around. We’ve been on at least one debate stage together. So the first time I saw him here in New York, after I started running, he came up to me, shook my hand, held me close, leaned into my ear and said, ‘Welcome to the zoo.’ I don’t know if that’s interesting or newsworthy.

If I look at, like, I think, at — one of the issues I’ve had with Bill de Blasio’s leadership is that, like, I feel like there are certain New Yorkers who don’t feel like he’s necessarily been reaching out to them or including them over the last number of years. And the group I’m specifically thinking of is folks who work in industry or business. Like, I called the C.E.O. of JetBlue, as one example, because he’s talking about moving jobs to Florida. And he didn’t say this, but someone like him said, “I’ve not heard from anyone in the city for seven and a half years.” And that’s not good. You know, some of these enterprises and organizations employ thousands of people. They’re making decisions right now about whether to invest or, frankly, disinvest in New York City.

And so if I were mayor, I’d be calling some of them every day, being like, “Hey, you know what? Let’s expand. There’s some great values. Like, that office you were considering, you might be able to make it even bigger and grander than you had in mind.”

So I think that’s something that a lot of New Yorkers are waiting for, someone who’s just going to be able to call people of any background and say, “Look. Like, we need, we need you. We need us all.” There’s no guarantee the city is going to recover in the form we want it to. But the odds get longer if you’re not including people in that recovery effort.

Mara Gay: The last minute is yours. If there’s something we didn’t ask or something that you’d like to say.

Oh, wow. Well, thank you. This was delightful. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. You know, like, I’m not sure, but I think you might have advised me to pursue local politics. I’m not sure, like, who cops to that of this group. So you have only yourselves to credit.

But my goal genuinely is to do everything I can to help get our city back on its feet, help move it forward. I think one of the reasons why some people are drawn to me is that they sense that I will be a break from some of the institutional politics of the past. And I want to pursue that. Like, this is a real opportunity. You know, I hope I strike you as someone who is well intended, like sincere, reasonable for the most part. And my goal is just to do everything I can to get us back on our feet in the time we have.

And we don’t have that much time. I mean, like, this federal aid lasts us two years. And then after that, even the current administration is projecting a $4 billion deficit. And if we don’t get ourselves back on our feet in two years, there is a real danger that we might end up in a dynamic that other cities have experienced. And that dynamic is made all the more powerful by the context of this call today. It’s like, is Zoom the workplace of the future? Like, how many of you are excited to go back to the office — and then you extrapolate this, like, across organizations.

Katie’s excited, and that’s what we need, Katie. I’m going to Mr. In-Person, Mr. In-Office because New York City needs it. We are a place-based economy. But there is no guarantee that folks are all unanimously like Katie on this. You know, you’re seeing it now with the schools. Like, some of the schools are ostensibly open. And then a teacher goes in, and they have, like, five of their 30 kids who are back in the classroom, and they’re still Zooming from that classroom. There is not necessarily a straight line on our path to recovery. There’s going to be some pent-up energy. We’re going to get some help. But we’ve got two years to work like mad to get this right. And that’s all I want to do. I just want to try and lead us in that direction as quickly as possible.

Mara Gay: Thank you so much for your time. I enjoyed this, and good luck to you.

I’ll see you in two years! I’m kidding.