Not too long ago, a group of New York News and Schneps Media editors and reporters sat down with every of the three mayoral candidates for interviews about their campaigns and visions for the Large Apple. That is the primary in a sequence of tales about these interviews.
Curtis Sliwa, the pink beret-wearing Republican candidate for mayor, says he’s staying proper the place he’s: Within the combat.
The mayor’s race is within the house stretch, and with incumbent Eric Adams now out of the working, Sliwa is seen by some politicos because the third wheel in a bigger matchup between Democratic frontrunner Zohran Mamdani and unbiased former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. After Adams dropped out of the competition, a latest ballot urged Cuomo picked up an enormous chunk of Adams voters — and a few consider Sliwa’s voters might assist Cuomo pull off a victory if the Guardian Angels founder drops out of the race.
But Sliwa, in an interview with Schneps Media, disregarded polls exhibiting him as an underdog. In Quinnipiac’s newest ballot of 1,015 possible voters, taken Oct. 3-7, Sliwa stays in third place with 15% assist. He claimed a robust base amongst independents, saying he understands them from his time as state Reform Social gathering chair.
“I look at favorability versus unfavorability. Most people say, ‘We might not vote for Curtis, but he’s honest and he cares.’”
After the interview, he advised New York News there was just one manner he would depart the race: “A Mack truck hits me and I get turned into a speed bump, and they can’t recover me in the ICU.”
Public security
The Guardian Angels founder sat down with reporters and editors from Schneps Media earlier this month for a wide-ranging dialogue during which he railed towards “phony crime stats,” accused Metropolis Corridor of cozying as much as builders, and promised to make the town safer not only for New Yorkers, however for his or her pets too.
Public security is the cornerstone of Sliwa’s mayoral marketing campaign. Regardless of NYPD statistics exhibiting record-low crime charges, Sliwa flatly rejects the information.
“You can believe what police headquarters, Jessica Tisch, and Eric Adams want to tell you,” he stated, “or you can go into the streets and subways and see what people tell you. Women, in particular, are frightened. They get sexually harassed, perved on, and there are no cops around. There’s only 32,500 cops. We need 40,000.”
Sliwa has referred to as for hiring 7,000 new officers to deliver the NYPD’s ranks as much as 40,000. He accused metropolis officers of manipulating crime information by downgrading expenses and failing to report incidents.
“If I shoot at you and miss but hit a tree, a bird, or blow out the back window of a Toyota Corolla — it doesn’t get listed as a shooting,” he stated. “I’d rather the police department be accurate and acknowledge a rise in crime so we can address it. Ignoring it just makes it worse.”
Sliwa additionally questioned the shoplifting thresholds that classify thefts below $1,000 as misdemeanors, citing widespread public skepticism.
“I’ve been in all 350 neighborhoods,” he stated. “Not one person has told me, ‘You know, Curtis, things are getting better.’ Nobody — especially women. So I don’t believe their stats.”
He accused successive administrations of “cooking the books,” a observe he claimed dates again earlier than Adams’ tenure.
“This game’s been played long before Eric Adams became mayor,” he stated. “Commissioner [Dermot] Shea knew how to knock down your numbers at the precinct level. It’s been persistent ever since.”
Tisch dismissed Sliwa’s accusations as “absurd,” saying at a latest press convention: “We record a shooting incident when a person is physically shot. If the suggestion is that we’re hiding people with bullet holes in them, that’s absurd.”
Picture by Jonathan Portee
Worry, filth and fare evasion
Sliwa, who says he rides the subway day by day, described the system as unsafe and deteriorating. His three priorities: extra police, infrastructure restore, and addressing homelessness.
“You feel like you want to gag,” he stated of the subway’s situation. “We have men and women living in the system, homeless, emotionally disturbed, the same people I’ve dealt with for years with the Guardian Angels.”
He said that police ought to patrol practice vehicles quite than keep on platforms and criticized officers for being distracted.
“Two cops should be going up and down the cars, that’s where most of the problems are,” he stated. “They’re always on their phones. I don’t know how you can have two cops together, both looking at their cell phones simultaneously. That’s got to stop.”
On homelessness, Sliwa condemned what he referred to as “a business that makes money on human beings,” accusing some nonprofit shelter operators of corruption and self-dealing. He stated he would change dormitory-style shelters with personal single-room items.
“The homeless need dignity and privacy,” he stated. “Every shelter I’ve been in houses people in dorms of eight or 12. There’s no humanity.”
He additionally criticized the state for failing to reopen psychological well being hospitals and pledged to strain Governor Hochul to broaden psychological well being companies.
With the Trump administration’s fixed saber-rattling, threatening to deploy the Nationwide Guard to NYC, Sliwa stated he opposes federal intervention, although he stated some cities “need all the help they can get.”
Requested whether or not he would assist a presidential order deploying the Nationwide Guard to New York, Sliwa stated such intervention isn’t crucial given Governor Hochul’s willingness to mobilize state assets.
“She’s certainly been willing to send in guardsmen and troopers,” he stated. “I don’t think it’s needed here.”
He contrasted New York’s state of affairs with different cities, citing “severe problems” in Memphis, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Baltimore.
If the president insisted on deploying federal troops, Sliwa stated he would “respectfully try to dissuade him” and as a substitute request FBI help to fight human trafficking tied to “cartel control from both Asia and Mexico.”
He stated he would keep away from escalating battle with Washington to guard very important funding. “I don’t want to jeopardize federal funds,” he stated. “You have to be respectful and look at the entirety of what’s being proposed.”
Housing and value of dwelling: ‘Improve, Don’t Transfer’
Sliwa opposes Mayor Adams’ “City of Yes” zoning initiative, calling it “Eric Adams gone wild to help his developer friends.”
“Forget zoning restrictions, forget community boards,” he stated. “It’s central control in City Hall.”
He urged voters to reject Adams’ proposed constitution adjustments, arguing they’d weaken native oversight and empower builders. On the poll are gadgets 2, 3, and 4, which might let builders skip Metropolis Council assessment for sure backed reasonably priced housing tasks and minor zoning adjustments, establishing as a substitute a brand new appeals course of. Last approval would nonetheless relaxation with the Metropolis Planning Fee, the place the mayor appoints seven of the 13 members.
Positioning himself because the champion of the outer boroughs, Sliwa criticized the unfold of lithium-ion battery warehouses in residential areas, saying, “It’s all being built in the outer boroughs. I’m the only candidate defending those neighborhoods from greedy developers.”
“I’m running as a mayor who actually said we need to get more power to the neighborhoods, less power to the developers and realtors,” he added.
Quite than large-scale growth, Sliwa favors a “bottom-up” housing strategy targeted on rehabilitation and small landlords. “We’ve got 6,000 usable NYCHA apartments,” he stated. “With a little rehab, they could be occupied.”
He additionally stated that the concern of tenant legal guidelines retains small landlords from renting out their items. “They’d rather take the loss than have someone who never pays rent,” he stated.
“That’s the number one thing that is brought to my attention, blue collar, working class area, empty apartments, not rentable, for the simple reason, that the on site landlord has determined I’d rather take a loss and live with peace and tranquility, other than having somebody there sucks the life out of me and never pays your rent,” Sliwa continued.
He proposed conferences with landlords of all ranges to encourage occupancy and said that builders who fail to ship promised reasonably priced items ought to face legal penalties, citing the long-stalled plan to construct a whole lot of reasonably priced flats over the practice tracks at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards as a primary instance of the place monetary penalties are inadequate.
“A promise made must be a promise kept — cross your heart, hope to die,” he stated.
He additionally opposed growth on parkland, referencing the previous Flushing Airport website: “Keep your hands off the parkland wetlands.”
Animal welfare: His most private trigger
No matter stirred Sliwa greater than animal welfare. He referred to as the town’s Animal Care and Management system “horrible” and “mismanaged,” with solely “three functional shelters.”
“Staten Island’s shelter is the size of a shoebox — you’ll need a GPS to find it,” he stated.
He proposed utilizing empty storefronts as adoption facilities and making a Metropolis Corridor animal welfare unit, declaring that New York ought to turn out to be a no-kill metropolis.
“They have a death-row list,” he stated. “If you don’t get the cat or dog within 72 hours, they’re destroyed. No need for that.”
Picture by Jonathan Portee
After former President Donald Trump mocked his “love of cats,” Sliwa stated the feedback solely drew extra assist from animal lovers.
“He actually did me a great favor,” Sliwa stated. “Animal lovers realized I’m running on the first-ever independent line dedicated to animal welfare — Protect Animals, No Kill Shelters. Animal abusers go to jail.”
Quoting Mahatma Gandhi, Sliwa stated: “A society that does not care for its animals does not care for its people.”
He later grew to become emotional recounting the demise of a cancer-stricken calico cat he and his spouse Nancy rescued.
“She eventually had a stroke right in front of me,” he stated. “I didn’t cry when my mother died — but I cried three days” [when Hope died].
“You bond with animals,” he stated. “No matter how difficult I can be… all that animal will give you is love. To me, animals are the most forgiving in the world.”
No expertise? No downside, he says
Sliwa stated his lack of expertise at Metropolis Corridor is an asset. “Thank God I’ve never had a city job,” he stated. “Could I do any worse than De Blasio, Cuomo, or Adams?”
He credited classes from his ex-wife, Queens DA Melinda Katz, and from observing former mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg.
“She [Melinda] would explain to me the nuances of how you get stuff done in a City Council now that is even more emboldened and more empowered because of the majority that they [the Democrats] have where it appears that Adrian Adams runs the city and not Eric Adams,” he stated.
“Rudy’s style was he was micro-manager, Bloomberg’s style when I watched him in the bullpen, delegate, delegate, delegate. I like the delegation part, and I’m not an omnipotent,” he stated, pledging to raise profession civil servants and convey again retirees “not looking to make a killing.”
Sliwa accused the Division of Buildings of corruption, alleging with out proof that its former commissioner, Eric Ulrich, had been ousted after amassing “$600,000 in gambling debts to the Bonanno crime family.” He stated he would “take the demolition team to it” and restructure the company “so it will facilitate the needs of people who are desperate to have the Department of Buildings actually come in and do the job.”
Sliwa stated the town’s $41 billion Division of Schooling finances is weighed down by a bloated paperwork that drains cash from school rooms. He pointed to the Tweed Courthouse headquarters, the place he stated dozens of deputy chancellors and directors “suck up all this money” whereas academics nonetheless purchase provides with their very own money. He criticized “restorative justice” self-discipline applications that he believes let disruptive college students escape penalties.
As an alternative, he stated downside college students ought to face removing or stricter self-discipline to guard classroom order. To re-engage younger folks, Sliwa referred to as for classes tied to real-world pursuits — computer systems, synthetic intelligence and podcasts — alongside the fundamentals. He additionally urged a revival of vocational excessive faculties to arrange an ageing metropolis workforce, saying New York will quickly want extra skilled home-health and technical staff.
Picture by Jonathan Portee
On his opponents nonetheless within the race, Sliwa blasted Cuomo as “the candidate of billionaires.”
“He’s been bought, rented, leased, and sold over and over again,” he stated. “You can’t buy me, lease me, or sell me. I’m not for rent. Let the people decide.”
He contrasted himself with the previous Gov., saying, “If Zohran Mamdani becomes the next mayor, unlike Andrew Cuomo, I’m not fleeing to Florida. I improve — I don’t move.”
Whereas sharply important of Mamdani’s file on public security, Sliwa referred to as for an finish to private or spiritual assaults towards him.
“Knock off all this other stuff,” he stated. “Stop talking about his religion or culture — it has nothing to do with this.”
Sliwa stated threats towards candidates and activists endanger democracy, referencing his personal historical past of being focused by organized crime.
“I’ve had threats since I started the Guardian Angels,” he stated. “I don’t travel with security — my choice — but no harm should come to Mamdani or his team. That would stifle democracy.”
