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Mayor Eric Adams announced a new plan Friday to clean up the city’s subway system by cracking down on rule-breaking and preventing people from living on the trains and in the stations.
“No more smoking. No more doing drugs. No more sleeping. No more doing barbecues on the subway system. No more just doing whatever you want,” he said.
“No. Those days are over. Swipe your MetroCard. Ride the system. Get off at your destination. That’s what this administration is saying.”
Adams said teams of outreach workers and NYPD cops would start canvassing the subways next week to identify mentally ill and homeless people who need to be removed and will work to get them the treatment and housing they need.
“We know where they are. There’s one case where a woman has been living under a staircase for months. It’s just not acceptable,” he said.
“That’s disgusting and that’s not who we are as a city.”
Adams also said that although the “vast majority” of homeless people are not dangerous, “we have to be honest about the numbers who are a danger to themselves and others.”
The mayor cited an incident Thursday on an L train in Manhattan, where a 22-year-old man was stabbed while breakdancing by an assailant who’s believed to be homeless.
Adams, a former NYPD captain, also noted that it took place on “a train I rode as a transit officer.”
Adams said his plan would involve the increased application of Kendra’s Law, a 1999 statute that allows judges to order outpatient treatment for mentally ill people.
It’s named after Kendra Webdale, who was fatally shoved into the path of an oncoming subway earlier that year by a man with a lengthy psychiatric history.
But Adams also said his plan was “not about arresting people” but instead “about arresting a problem.”
“We’re not going to be heavy-handed,” he said.
“We’re not saying if you commit an infraction, we’re going to put handcuffs on you. We want to correct the condition.”
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