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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Big dilemma facing Mayor Adams right now. Crime is up, and as the NYPD responds, arrests are up. The mayor wants to stop the violence, but he also doesn't want to go back to the mass incarceration of the past. With Rikers Island already in a staffing crisis relative to the number of people incarcerated there, it's a more dangerous place with each additional person, but the crime stats for the first three months of this year released by the NYPD yesterday are sobering.

As described in the New York Times coverage, shootings are twice as high as in the years preceding the pandemic, and the burden falls primarily on Black and Latino neighborhoods. More than 1800 shootings were reported annually in the past two years after dropping under 900 in 2018. Attacks against Asian New Yorkers have spiked with over 130 Hate Crime complaints filed to the police last year, after just one reported in 2019.

The subway system has also grown more hazardous, with assaults and other major felonies significantly up to the pandemic when adjusted for weekday ridership below 60% of former levels. Not all types of frightening events, like aggressive encounters on the street or harassment on the train are simple to track, and so, arrests are also up. That stretch was from The Times.

Gothamist reports it's a 21 year high in the number of arrests that police made for major crimes, 335 arrests so far this year and Gothamist notes that arrests in the subways are up 64% compared to last year, plus a dramatic increase in summonses for so-called quality of life crimes in the subway. 17,000 summonses for fare evasion already this year, 1400 for smoking, and 600 for obstructing seats like laying across the seats. Here's Transit Chief Jason Wilcox at yesterday's news conference.

Jason Wilcox: Are we giving greater attention, greater detail to local-level offenses? Yes, we are.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, they are. The NYPD said half of the shootings were in just 10 neighborhoods. According to Gothamist, one in Queens, four in Brooklyn, five neighborhoods in the Bronx. Yet, New York is a lot safer than some other major cities and some other points in time. The Times notes today that in Houston, at least 473 homicides were recorded last year. New York saw only 15 more, with nearly four times the total population. Just 90 minutes south, Philadelphia saw 559 murders last year in a city with just 1.5 million residents.

Of course, we have close to nine million. The rates of major crimes are back to some of the Bloomberg years. We will add not to the really high crime peaks of the 1980s or '90s. With that as news of the day background, now we continue our series 51 Council Members in 52 Weeks, as we're talking to every New York City Council member this year, all 46 Democrats, all 5 Republicans, touching every neighborhood, and this year most of the council is new because of term limits and it's majority female for the first time ever.

Today, we're happy to welcome Althea Stevens, the new Council Member for District 16 in the Bronx. That includes Claremont, Concourse, Concourse Village, Highbridge, Maurice Heights, Mount Eden, and Morrisania. Her City Council bio page says, "Councilmember Stevens began her career in civic service more than 15 years ago, working for nonprofit agencies and community centers that focused on giving a voice to the most vulnerable populations.

She organized voting rights information sessions, led strategy workshops to address gang policing, and created annual youth forums and community celebrations to bridge relationships between residents and neighborhood partners." Councilmember Stevens, thanks for coming on today. Belated congratulations on your election and welcome to WNYC.

Althea Stevens: Hello, good morning. How are you doing today? Thank you for having me.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you so much. We're going to get to those crime stats and that news of the day in the context of your district, but first, for our listeners, can you paint a picture of your district for people not from there? Who lives in district 16 demographically or any way you would like to describe who you feel you were elected to represent?

Althea Stevens: First of all, thank you for having me again. My district, we are the West Bronx, although sometimes people say the South Bronx. We are like the West Bronx and we have Roberto Clemente here, we have Highbridge, Grand Concourse. We go over to the east by Boston road, and I have a diverse district.

We have a thriving numbers of West Africans in my district, and I'm very excited to be able to represent them. We also have a very high number of Latina and Latinos in my district and African Americans. We have a very diverse district of different people from different backgrounds, just really coming together and wanting to have a safe and loving community like everyone else throughout New York City.

Brian Lehrer: As a measure of what's urgent for people in your district, what have you gotten the most calls or emails about? Any kind of contact since you took office in January?

Althea Stevens: Absolutely. Unfortunately, we are part of the congressional District 15, which people often coin as the Fourth Congressional District, and so we have a high needs district. One of the things and the most common questions we get is around housing, and people looking for affordable housing in the community, which has been a struggle. Our current borough president, who was my predecessor, Vanessa Gibson, was part of the Jerome Avenue redistricting.

She really fought for that, because that would bring additional affordable housing units in our district. I'm happy to be a part of this process now where we are seeing more residential and affordable units being built in my district, and me fighting to ensure that it's for people who are already in this community and that people who are here can afford it and live here and have beautiful homes like everyone else throughout the city.

Another thing we get a lot of calls about is immigration. We get a lot of inquiries about paperwork and where they can go to get that support. Those are the top two issues that we get walk-in and calls from throughout the district.

Brian Lehrer: What do you advocate at the level of City Council to the extent City Council has power over this, or from the state legislature as we're waiting for that budget to emerge with respect to housing policy since that's your clear number one?

Althea Stevens: One, I just want to say is the issue in the community, I think the beauty about what's going on in the Bronx is the other elected all the way from federal down to city council, and even our district leaders, we all work together and we're all really working to really alleviate that, and understanding the issues in our community, and really work together on developing policy, really work on making sure that we have responsible developers in our community. We're always talking and communicating.

I think that it's not necessarily unique, but it's also just so much nicer when you are able to have a team where we're all on the same page about how we're going to do this. Right next door to me, Pierina Sanchez, she's the Building and Housing chairperson in City Council, and she's really leading the way to fight to make sure that we are investing in housing in our community and making sure it's affordable. It's just really nice to see in the Bronx, how we're all working together and working collaboratively to really make sure the issues that our community are having are being heard.

Brian Lehrer: At the risk of getting a little wonky, I know one of the things that we're waiting to hear about from the state legislature and the governor, as they're working overtime on the budget is the fate of the 421-a tax breaks for developers of affordable housing. There may be revisions to it so that the lower income levels are served more than the current 421-a program for what kinds of housing has to be built, that is for people who make what kinds of incomes.

Some progressives say, "Do away with these tax breaks altogether." I'm curious for someone who represents a district where there's a desperate need for affordable housing, do you want to do away with 421 altogether? Or do you want to keep some kind of financial incentive for developers to develop affordable housing or is that tax break just a fake?

Althea Stevens: I'm not a person who always believes that we should do sweeping things or say whatever, I think we should always be stopping and evaluating to see what's working and if it makes sense. When we talk about 421-a, I think that it has helped some people in the community. It's thinking about, how are we looking at that to be revised and support a much larger number and have a much bigger impact?

I know a lot of people are typically like, "Oh, developers, all of them are evil," but that's not necessarily the case. There's a lot of developers who need some of these tax breaks. I think one of the things we should be looking at is how are we partnering with responsible developers? How are we supporting for developers who come from our community to start these things? I think that that's one of the things that sometimes get lost in the conversation

because everyone thinks that developers are all billionaires, which is not necessarily the case. I think we have to look at how are we making sure that we're supporting smaller businesses, looking at MWBEs, and making sure that we're getting people from our community to get in these fields and only way they will be able to do that sometimes is with these tax breaks.

Brian Lehrer: Councilmember Sánchez from the neighboring district, who you mentioned, who's in charge of the Housing Committee, is going to be our guest next week in these 51 Council Members and 52-week series. Listeners, just letting you know, looking forward to talking to Councilmember Sánchez next week. We're talking to Councilmember Althea Stevens, from the west Bronx as she describes the neighborhood.

One of my producers noted Yankee Stadium is in your neighborhood. It's a big landmark in case people not from there needed a way to place it. I read in the intro with the crime and arrest stats news from the last day that are leading a lot of local news coverage, how much have you seen shootings or other major crimes, and also arrests go up in your district so far this year on the streets or in the subways?

Althea Stevens: I think that when we talk about crime, we have to talk about it in a specific context, and not just look at it at this one lens, because when you look at communities that need a lot of resources and has not had investment in it for a number of years, those are the results that you're going to get. I think that it's important to say that, yes, we do have high crime numbers. I

heard you mention that a lot of the shootings are taking place in 10 areas throughout the city and 5 being in the Bronx, and a few of those being in my district. Those things are happening because we don't have resources. I think that it's important for us to think about how are we making sure that we're investing in the things that we want to see and investing in things that's going to produce the changes that we want to see.

When we think about crime in my area, I also look at how we have lack of community centers, or how we have lack of mental health services, or how my district specifically is inundated with a number of transitional homes and things like that. When you have those things all bunched into one small condensed area, those are the results you're going to get. For me, I'm always thinking about how are we looking at investing in other things to produce the results that we really want, and that's services in the community.

Brian Lehrer: Is it both end for you, like let's talk more about services in the community than we're doing, but also in the meantime, people are getting shot and robbed and other things. Yes, Mayor Adams' approach to policing also needs to take place, or would you put it differently?

Althea Stevens: I will put it differently because I think that policing is a community effort. It's not going to be one group of people being able to get us out of this, because it's not one group of people doing it. We need to be looking at a community approach, how are we getting the voices from people in the community to be part of this conversation? How are we ensuring that our community members are also being held responsible by each other?

I think that it's imperative that when we're thinking about crime and communities that we're not saying, "Oh, the police are going to be able to solve it," because they have to do it in conjunction with us. When we think about some things, a lot of times you see video clips of things going on, and people would rather video than actually call 911 or intervene and things like that.

We have to be looking at this with a community approach and making sure that all stakeholders are a part of it, and being part of the conversation. Even when you're thinking about like guns in the neighborhood, there's no gunshots in the Bronx. None of these guns are coming from these communities, but that's not a conversation that's being talked about. How are we even looking at it at a federal level of like, where are these guns coming from, and how are they getting trafficed into our community?

Also, when we think about crime and robbery and grand larceny, we don't have jobs. When we talk about crime, and we're not-- we're looking like, last two, three years ago, crime was down, the economy was up. Crime was down because the economy was up. We have to make sure that we're looking into those contexts as well.

Brian Lehrer: When you said, people sometimes would rather video an incident and call 911, are you suggesting that they're afraid of retaliation, or are you suggesting that they don't want to get yet another person ensnared in the criminal justice system, or what was that about?

Althea Stevens: I think that it's all of those things. You won't call 911, but sometimes you'll post it on social media. That's a problem in our society as a community. Like, how is that helping the person in that moment, at that time? I think it's important that we're looking and talking about crime in a very different way, and how are we looking at community solutions.

Are we having community meetings where people are able to talk about what's going on in your neighborhood and coming up with real-life solutions? A lot of times people know the individual, so were we able to reach out to them or intervene before they took on a life of crime because a lot of times those things are happening, or spaces are being created for those things to happen.

Brian Lehrer: My guest is Althea Stevens, City Council Member. Rookie City Council Member, most of the City Council is new this year from the west Bronx. Let me ask you about another thing I see City Council debating right now. New topic, a law that would require employers to post salary ranges for job openings.

This is largely to use transparency, to stop discriminatory pay disparities, but they may roll it back from the original proposal for certain jobs. As described by the news organization, The City, it would exempt businesses with fewer than 15 employees, allow for hiring notices that don't specify a position just like we're hiring to exclude salary info, and exempt remote positions that can be done outside New York City. Which side of this are you on if you're on the side?

Althea Stevens: I'm actually not on the side at all because I think that we have to think about this in the context. They're saying this law is going to help with transparency and negotiation. I think it's twofold to this anyway because this does not get at the heart of what we really need to happen, around transparency and getting to the pay equity and gender gap.

Although this is being framed in that way, that it's going to help that, I don't see that being able to really get to what we need to because employers will find ways to do the things that they need to do. I believe that if we want to think about transparency, how are we making sure that salary listings, in general, and companies are made public and those type of things so we can really push to have those conversations?

When we talk about pay gaps and pay equity, there's ways around it, companies could still do bonuses, or they can still offer positions higher than what they're posting in advertising, and I think that sometimes we get lost in the logistics and not look at the bigger picture. Like on this, I'm a little bit neutral, because I feel like we can actually go deeper and dig deeper to ensure pay equity throughout the city.

Brian Lehrer: You think this whole bill is just for show or just won't do very much?

Althea Stevens: I don't think that. I think that the intentions are good, but I don't believe that it's getting at the heart of what we really need to be looking at, which is more transparency with pay throughout companies.

Brian Lehrer: We've got about five minutes left. Let's talk a little more about you and let the listeners get to know you as a brand new city council member. Did you grow up in the West Bronx?

Althea Stevens: Actually, I did not. I grew up in Harlem, but I've been in the Bronx for over 15 years.

Brian Lehrer: When you first got interested in politics or public service, how old were you, and what motivated that?

Althea Stevens: It's very interesting because my first job out of college, I was teaching young people K-12, self-government [unintelligible 00:18:13] Henry Street settlement, and I was teaching them about New York City politics, and they would then have to put together their own government throughout the school. I guess I've always had this niche around being like civically engaged and teaching young people about being civically engaged, but I never thought that I would be actually in politics.

Brian Lehrer: Looks like you've been an activist in a number of areas, including housing, and the environment. I saw one of your posts as a member of the League of Conservation Voters. I don't know if you want to talk about that. What's been, let's say, one of your major accomplishments before coming to council that you'd like everybody to know about?

Althea Stevens: My major accomplishment and the reason I'm here is because of young people. Like I said, one of my first jobs out of college was teaching young people about government, but always being able to fight for young people. I was doing youth forums to get young people engaged, and have them be a part of the system because a lot of young people don't feel like government is for them or doesn't affect their lives. For me, it's always been really exciting to really put in perspective of young people how it actually affects their everyday life.

Brian Lehrer: I noticed that you listed being a dedicated single teen mother, you're not a teen right now, but you listed having been a dedicated single teen mother, high up on your campaign website when you were running last year. How did that inform your political development?

Althea Stevens: I was a teen mom, and it was high up on the list because it's something that I'm very proud of. I'm not ashamed that I had my daughter when I was in high school, because it really shaped me

to really stay focused and graduate college and really wanting to produce a better life for her.

I think that I've always been able to fight for young people, the way I have because being a teen mom, people didn't listen to me and they didn't take me serious. Really being able to be a model and example of a strong woman for my daughter and other young people throughout the city I think is really important.

Brian Lehrer: Conservatives say and we get these calls, that one of the biggest things contributing to income disparities is the greater rates of single parenthood in poor communities and that it shouldn't be celebrated. What's your take on that?

Althea Stevens: I believe that it's not about celebrating. I think sometimes it's just the circumstances, and I think that people are allowed to live the lives that they think are best for them, but it's about what's the life that you're handed. Yes, I was a single mom and I was able to overcome so many things but that doesn't mean that I'm going to say that everyone should do that.

That's not everybody's route but some people's route that is. My goal in life was never to be a married woman and those things my goal in life was to be an example and a model for others. I think it's about what folks priorities are and not shaming folks for what their decisions are in life. I think that that's one of the issues that we have in our society we think that one way is the only way. I think that it's important for us to look that there's many ways to live your life and be happy and define what success looks like.

Brian Lehrer: I know you got to go in a minute. We're inviting every council member in this series to bring a show and tell item. From your district what did you bring us for show and tell?

Althea Stevens: I think I've been promoting a lot all the historical things that we have in our district. We have the HighBridge connector which is the oldest bridge in New York City which was built in 1840. We also are the home of hip hop, the birthplace of hip hop which is on Cedric avenue. Then we have the beautiful state park, Roberto Clemente.

I'd just love to highlight those things and tell people to come out and visit. You already did mention it, we also have the Yankee Stadium in our district so we often give visitors. While you're out here at a Yankee game, go take a visit at some of our historical sights like the hip hop Boulevard or the hybrid connector or Roberto Clemente.

Brian Lehrer: That's a good way to end on opening day of the Major League Baseball season. First game in your district tomorrow afternoon, Councilmember Stevens, One more time congratulations on your election belatedly. We look forward to having you on the show as you continue to serve.

Althea Stevens: Thank you so much for having me. You have a great day.

Brian Lehrer: City council member Althea Stevens, the new council member for District 16 in the Bronx, which includes Claremont, Concourse, Concourse Village, Highbridge, Morris Heights, Mount Eden, and Morrisania.

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