The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - Corinne Fisher Joins the New York Mayoral Race

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

Author, podcaster and internationally recognized comedian, Corinne Fisher is running for mayor. She is building a campaign across all five boroughs that celebrates the magic, electricity, and community that make NYC the best city on Earth.   To learn more, visit www.corinnefisher.com

This is Live from the Table, the official podcast of the world-famous Comedy Cellar. Available wherever you get your podcasts, available on YouTube as well, and available on demand on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. This is Dan Natterman, Comedy Cellar regular, along with Noam Dwarman, the owner of the Comedy Cellar. Hello, Dan. Things seem to be going apace, by the way, at the new room on 6th Avenue. I see a bunch of scaffolding, so obviously construction is taking place there.

Yes, it's going along. It's moving forward, despite all the problems of doing anything in the city of New York. Well, we'll get to that. We have Perry L. Ashenbrand with us. Hello. And we have our special guest, a candidate for the 2025 mayoral race in New York City as a Democrat, Corinne Fisher.

You can learn all about her platform on CorinneFisher.com. That's C-O-R-I-N-N-E-F-I-S-H-E-R.com. Corinne, thank you for coming. Thank you. You've been on our podcast before. It was years ago when we were downstairs. Yeah.

I don't recall what we discussed, but... We discussed our podcast, Guys We Fucked. Yeah, I think I might have still been in my 20s. It was very long ago. I think it was north of five years ago. Yes. But you are now returning as a mayoral... Triumphantly, returning as a mayor.

Triumphantly as the next mayor. Hopefully the next refund to have a mayor that we know personally. They say it's the hardest job on earth, this city. They really like to let you know that, yeah. I mean, in other towns we have mayors who are drunk driving. There's the attempted mayor of Seacliff who's causing a coup. I don't know if you heard about that, guy who owns pirates booty the snack oh yeah you heard about that one of my favorite stories of the past couple weeks he just decided he was mayor

all right before we get into this can we play your ad your your television commercial whatever it is the commercial your internet my social media commercial sure my announcement video so let's just set the set the mood. Now, this is serious. This is a real candidacy, right? It's not like a... No, it's so funny. People keep asking me this, and I'm like, first of all, there are way easier ways to get attention, especially as a woman.

And second of all, this is the most work I've done in my entire life. And I'm also taking donations from people that legally if I'm not really running for office I could be in really big trouble not to mention that it's you know would break the trust with everyone I've ever built a relationship with in my entire life it's not and and there's so much gatekeeping and access press that it's really it's not worth it to fake run for office unless you're more famous originally than I was i suppose well cynthia nixon from sex in the city she also ran for mayor she did yeah and um well i don't know i don't know and she's not and she wasn't yeah and was and you believe that was a serious candidacy too oh yeah no cynthia nixon

is super politically involved and really proud of being a new yorker i 100 believer she's she's already you know endorsed one of the other candidates. So I knew it. It's okay. Her politics are questionable. No feminine loyalty. Okay. Did she endorse at least a woman? No. Oh my God.

Okay. Socialist. Hamas member? Pretty much. Okay. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Let's play the commercial.

Go ahead. This is the next mayor of New York City here. Go ahead. Hi, I'm Corinne Fisher. I'm a New Yorker and I'm pissed. That's why I'm running for mayor. It's time to let the corrupt politicians destroying our city know we aren't doing this anymore. I moved to New York City when

I was 17 to follow my dream of becoming an artist. I bet on myself and I won. Now, I want all New Yorkers to be winning. No more added fees for residents, more rent-controlled apartments, capping rent for our beloved small businesses, and tax breaks for New Yorkers who volunteer at one of our over 45,000 citywide non-profits. I want you to spend less time worrying about how you can afford to stay in New York City

and more time being a part of it, safely. As mayor, I will hold the NYPD to higher standards, including mandatory periodic mental health checks and a zero-tolerance policy on racism that's actually enforced. Being the biggest police department in the country isn't something to brag about. Being the best will be. But amidst all the chaos, let's not forget about the magic of New York City. My audition-based affordable artist housing will keep the culture of the city alive and will encourage the most talented people in the world to choose New York City as their home, which will always be a place where immigrants

and members of the LGBTQ plus community are welcome. No matter what direction America is moving in, New York City will keep moving forward. I hope you'll join us. Bravo. First of all, that's a very well done commercial. Thank you. It slightly goes from black and white to color.

Well, who produced that commercial? It was shot by Eric Freddie, and then it was edited by Nicole Lyons. Oh, we know Nicole. Oh, we know Nicole. Yes, of course. She just started her own production company. All right. So I have brought up your website here, corinnefisher.com.

It's C-O-R-I-N-N-E, fisher.com. Thank you. People get that wrong a lot. Fisher's without a C. Yep. C-O-R-I-N-N-E-F-I-S-H-E-R.com. Yep. Corinnefisher.com.

Okay. And we're going to go through the issues. All right. Let's do it. And we have a lot of New Yorkers that listen to this. Yeah, I know. I've been ranting about congestion pricing. So, okay.

Issue number one is the high cost of living. My solution, no additional fees for residents. Instead, a small tourist fee for visitors. So no additional fees. That doesn't include congestion pricing. You favor that? Well, it doesn't include undoing congestion pricing. I think congestion pricing is still so new that we have to see if the MTA

is really going to do with the money. Will we allow it to be raised? Because it's on schedule to be raised every year, I think. I would say no on the raising. I think we push it with the raising. We're always raising everything here in New York City. Give people some room to breathe. Check. Okay, you got me. What fees are you talking about?

What fees? Oh, so like a tourist fee. No, no, for the residents. Are they going to have to pay? Will residents finally have to start paying for the subway and the buses? Because nobody pays those fares. Well, fare evasion is a huge problem. We're losing like $700 million a year, and I am not for

enforcing it. I think there are simpler ways to do that that i don't think people should be you know arrested and held at gunpoint if they're evading the fair it's a misdemeanor uh but i think that if we positioned uh the nypd officers in front of the turnstiles we haven't really tried that yet i think that could be uh better at dissuading people from evading the fair to begin with. I also think that the NYPD is, I mean, I'm going to two neighborhoods weekly because of my commitments I have. So I live on the Lower East Side, but I'm traveling to Harlem at least once a week. I used to live in Harlem for 10 years, and I have a standing appointment there every week.

So I see the difference in a bunch of white people fair evading downtown and not getting in trouble, and then people fair evading downtown and not getting in trouble and then people fare evading in Harlem and getting stopped by the police. So it's like, if we're going to stop people for fare evading, we have to be stopping all kinds of people.

Yes. Gay people too. Well, I mean, are you eyeballing gay people? I mean, sometimes, yeah. So instead, a small tourist fee for visitors. Now, this is where you begin to lose me.

What? Because you own something that tourists like to come to? Actually, I hadn't thought of that. But how do you identify a tourist? Oh, you're just adding it to things like a hotel, like a destination fee, the way Las Vegas does. We already have that. I mean, so you up it additionally. I mean, Las Vegas has one of the most prominent destination fees in the country.

And so just adding to that. But how do you know? The status quo is pretty high as it is. I don't think the destination fee is that high. I mean, it's just adding on like an additional five bucks to when you check into a hotel. Because my theory is, well, first of all, when you're running a mayor of New York City, it doesn't really matter what other people think. It's only about New Yorkers.

So that's one of my favorite things about it. But secondly, I think New York City is so special that $5 more is not going to stop anyone from coming to New York City. There's very few other cities who can claim that. Las Vegas can get away with destination fees because it's unique. Yeah, I think they're already... So what fees are we as New Yorkers currently paying that you're against? I mean, I'm just saying I'm against adding fees. I'm not undoing. I think a lot of times the new administration comes in and just their game is like, let's undo everything the previous guy did and let me put my stamp on it.

I don't think that's a good tactic. I think it wastes time and money. And unless there's something that I am morally opposed to, I would stick with it and build upon it. We can actually get things done. We're not changing every four years playing a game where it's three steps forward, four steps back. There are state and local tax. There's an occupancy tax. There's a

$1.50 a day tax. There's all kinds of fees. We would just call it truly a tourist fee and have it be $5, but also we can get a lot of money back. $50 a day tag. There's all kinds of fees on Hump. We would just call it truly a tourist fee and have it be $5. But also, we can get a lot of money back. $5 a day? I mean, $5 a day. How long do you think the average person is staying in New York? I think $5 a day is fine.

All right. And I mean, listen, I want to get on to the mortgaging stuff. But the idea of you can always add $5, like can you add $5 again on top of that and $5 again on top of that? I think that New York is already – New York went from being – what did the lady tell us the last time? Wilde was her name? Catherine Wilde. Catherine Wilde, that it was not one of the most expensive – it was like 20 – and now it's like the second most expensive city in the world, I think she told us. After what, Tokyo or – i forget what she said but like it's it's gotten and as before congestion

pricing like it's just gotten right ridiculous yeah and so i mean i think the people who are really feeling that the most are new yorkers so we don't want new yorkers to have to absorb any more of those rising costs no it also it also but it also deters tourists. Anyway, but that's fine. I think the assumption is it's so rich already. Only rich people can come and stay in hotels anyway, right? All right. You say more rent-stabilized apartments. Uh-oh, you're opening up a can of worms with Noam.

How do you do that? Yeah, I mean, I think the more proper language would be more affordable housing. I think every year of... Mayor Adams actually, he broke a record with the most affordable housing built in 2023, and he's been breaking that ever since. It was a little over 14,000 new units of affordable housing, and then he preserved a little over 13,000 units. So what this means when somebody proposes a new construction, they have to allot a certain number of them to be affordable housing. Correct. It's about 32% right now. You can build a really luxury high rise, but then you have to have a certain percentage of affordable houses. Yeah. So it's about 32% right now. I think we can get that up

to 35% of any deal that the city makes having 35% of it be affordable housing. And then I think we just keep building on the units. I think we can increase it by about 5% from the 14,500-ish new units that Mayor Adams proposed, which is like 700 new units. What would be the monthly rent on an affordable house? I mean, well, that runs the gamut. It's based on where the apartment, the affordable housing is built. Well, so how many bedrooms? Well, but for an example, like, that runs the gamut. It's based on where the apartment, the affordable housing is built. Also, how many bedrooms? Well, but for an example, like, you know.

I mean, like 1,300. I mean, but it goes up from there. And a lot of people kind of laugh when affordable housing is introduced online. They're like, well, that's not affordable. It's still quite expensive. And what are the qualifications to be eligible for that affordable housing? I mean, I think you have to, it's usually just a monetary, like how much are you making and it's open to this bracket of people. So are you asking specifically what my housing would be? Because it would be different depending on where it's being built.

So we would want affordable housing for people who are, you know, can make maybe, you know, $900 to $1,200 a month. And then you have another section that's like- $900 a month? Yeah. Who's making that? Who makes $900 a month? No, no, no, that's like- 900 to 1200 a month? Yeah. Who's making that?

Who makes 900 to 1200? No, no, no, not making it. That they can afford that in rent. I see. Based on their salary or income. And then they have to- What happens then? I've always wondered about this.

So let's say that you make $35,000 a year, you get affordable housing, and then you get a better job. And now you're making $100,000 a year. Do you get evicted? What happens? You have to provide your tax returns? Yeah, I mean, to stay in affordable housing,

you have to keep submitting your paperwork. But I mean, I think the amount of times that someone making $35,000 a year skyrockets to $100,000 a year is not super common. Happens all the time. No, it doesn't. To lift yourself out of a tax bracket is a huge achievement. No, no, this happens all the time out of a tax bracket is a huge achievement.

No, no, this happens all the time. People starting out make small amounts of money. Oh, you're talking like young people, but that's not who mostly is going into affordable housing. A lot of affordable housing- They will if it's available to them. Yeah, which is mostly like lottery based and people wait for years to get that.

But I mean, people aren't moving like fresh from other cities to get into affordable what about young people whose parents are helping to foot the bill uh but want to get into affordable housing i think maybe that's what you were referring to no i think most people i know who i don't make good money now started out making little money i mean almost everybody i know you know even even children of yeah of of with means, they started out making small amounts of money. But they might be able to afford more expensive. Well, you can't require the parents to chip in.

But I also think that like based on what we're seeing with the quality of affordable housing, there's very few people who like unless they're – it depends where they're coming from. A lot of people are not willing to live in affordable housing. There's like a stigma on it even. So let me ask you this question because my experience with rent control and rent stabilization is nonstop black markets, illegal sublets. Every one of us knows half a dozen people who are illegally subletting rent control apartments. And that's going to be the same thing with these affordable housing. And this has been a terrible system. Why – like how do you counteract that like

like part of the reason that i believe that there there is so little affordable housing with two reasons one is that they don't new york doesn't allow us to build housing correct this is now you know like ezra klein is even absolutely i heard that and i listened to the free press i have the book i mean yeah it's finally after years yeah and i'm glad that point was made because i think the democratic party is making a lot of mistakes and we like to think that we're we're always doing the right thing when in reality conservative cities are able to build affordable housing at a much higher rate than liberal cities and that's a great point conservative is telling this for like you know my entire lifetime and trying to make this point and the

second thing is that they create these black markets so that people, and we all know them, they never leave their apartment. They just never leave because they've gotten in on some sort of rent control or affordable, whatever it is. And therefore, there's like squatters, basically, where no one else can get these apartments. And they have, I mean, I know people with three, four huge bedroom apartments that are staying there by themselves

for like $2,000 a month, apartments that are worth $20,000 a month. You know, crazy stories like that. I might be exaggerating, but only a little because I had a friend

who got paid out by a landlord hundreds of thousands of dollars. That was the differential. So, why would you want to go down the same road and more

of this like uh kind of black market creating policy well it's not i mean so i mean for what we made the change from rent control to rent stabilization and that was supposed to be a little bit more on the side of the landlord so that has already happened so we have both it depends on how many no but i'm saying like there's no more new rent-controlled apartments being created because that was stopped. So what are you suggesting that you think that those people should be kicked out of their apartments? Yes, of course they should. Of course they should. But they made a deal, though.

So if the deal was said that it's always going to remain this amount of money and you can stay here as long as you continue paying that amount of money. Well, they didn't make any deal. The landlords are restricted from raising the rent. Right. And oftentimes... But that's like a deal, basically. No. I mean, it's like a forever stamp saying,

like, I bought this for the 29 cents, but now it should be more. So rent control was supposed to be an emergency temporary measure during, I think, the Depression or even before the Depression. Rent control was never supposed to be forever. Right, and it's done. Are you talking about Gary Gorman's special? It got

ensconced. You have a situation with people in neighborhoods that were once poor, and then now the neighborhoods are – Tony, is that the name? That's a word. Yeah. And the apartments are worth much, much more than this. Yeah, we saw that happen in Williamsburg a lot for sure.

And it's just – it's nonsensical. This is as you acknowledge that conservative cities don't have these problems, you're doubling down on the policies that the conservative cities don't have. Yeah, but I just don't see a way, you know, especially in America, how we're going to be kicking people out of their apartments. Well, I mean, you're not going to kick them out of the apartment. They have to eventually. Yeah, renters have a lot of rights. They eventually have – well, it would be nice if they were kicked out or sunset, like in five years, all apartments are going to go to market rate or whatever it is. Or five years, all people above a certain age, below a certain age, your apartment is going to market rate, whatever. But certainly, you don't want to build more of these things. That's my point.

We're just compounding the problem. Right. Well, I mean, but the affordable housing would be different. This would not necessarily be rent-stabilized apartments. These would be new affordable housing where you have to stay in that earning bracket. And once you lift yourself from that earning bracket, then you no longer would live there. They're going to hide it or they're going to stay in that earning bracket and they're going to rent it out illegally,

sublet it. Yeah, I mean, I think part of this is, you know, a big part of the mayor's job is being a watchdog and making sure that,

you know, these things don't happen. There's so much corruption in this city. Why not just, I mean, I have this new building around the corner.

Right. And originally we conceived of building apartments above it. The old McDonald's are we talking about? Yeah. The McD's, you were going to build apartments?

What? Oh, I thought you always wanted it to be a showroom for comedy. I did, but above it, I wanted apartments. It just wasn't feasible. The setbacks and this and that and the pile of regulations and obstacles. Did you want to make it specifically affordable

housing or just... No, I wanted to make it market rent housing. Right, okay. But every new apartment – I thought you had a philanthropic endeavor that the city shut down. Well, this is – but see, this is the problem. This is a capitalist economy.

Nobody does anything philanthropically. I hear you. And yet Steve Jobs didn't do anything philanthropically, and we all walk around with supercomputers in our pocket. That's just how it works. If landlords are allowed to build apartments, if there weren't so much regulation to prevent the apartments from getting built, then you wouldn't have all these problems. Apartments would be affordable like they are in conservative cities, what you started with saying. Conservative cities have affordable housing without all this layer upon layer upon layer. It's like a bandaid on top of a bandaid

on top of a bandaid. Well, but I think New York would be expensive any way you slice it, even without rent control, rent stabilization. Because it's New York. These other cities aren't New York. No, no. It's fine if it's expensive,

commensurate with the fact that people make more money in New York. Affordable, to me, would mean that people at an average job in the city can get a decent apartment. It also might be the case that if it were easier to build more, then you would be able to have more affordable housing, and maybe landlords would be feeling more philanthropic because you'd have apartments everywhere.

The notion of philanthropy is actually dangerous. Why? Because it's utterly naive. Greed is good. It's not greedy. That's your campaign slogan. Listen, you guys don't

do your... You might do a show from time to time as a gesture, as a donation or something like that. But in general, you want to make top dollar for your profession. This is what you do for a living. I navigated my comedy career differently, but I did it based on where I wanted to perform. But you're right, I had the luxury of doing that because I have a podcast. Everybody wants to get paid for what they are doing. So do builders. So do landlords.

So anybody who, if I undertake a big project that's going to cost me 12 million dollars to be and and i'm going to build some apartments i'm what am i going to do it to break even why would i do it no one's going to do it i don't think anyone's doing it to break even you're just i but also these these developers they're getting things done a lot fat like they're getting it done a lot faster if they uh agree to give the 32 or 35 percent yeah that's why they do it it's like for sure so you're they are getting something in return capped rents for small businesses what the hell does that mean capped rent for small businesses well basically it's like that's stable rent stabilization basically for businesses right well why how what what do you mean why

you're a small business owner how do you do that what do you mean why? You're a small business owner. How do you do that? What do you mean how do you do that? So let's say I'm a landlord. Yeah. And I have a restaurant. Mm-hmm. And then the neighborhood becomes better. Or just for whatever reason, Mario Batalha.

Mario, put, put, you know. Keith McNally, you know, a high-powered restaurateur. Right. I want to take this restaurant and I'm going to build a fantastic restaurant. I'm going to pay you double the rent. I said, no, no, I'm not allowed to. The city says I have to cap my rent. Well, for the person who is currently in there.

Well, his rent is capped by his lease. But when his lease is up, I want to be able to say, well, okay, your lease is up. Now I have a tenant who wants to offer me much more money. Are they a corporation or are they a small business? What's going on here? All small businesses are corporations. I'm talking about like corporate, like Walgreens, Chick-fil-A. I don't know how to distinguish.

What am I? I don't know. Do you own an LLC? I mean, I owned a brick-and-mortar store. I was not incorporated. I was an LLC. Well, it's the same thing. I mean, it's just a— I guess she means publicly traded corporations.

No, she doesn't mean publicly traded. I mean Starbucks, Walgreens, these big, big places. Conglomerate. Yeah, she doesn't mean publicly traded. I mean Starbucks, Walgreens, these big, big places. Conglomerate. Yeah, where the money, the problem with that is the money that they earn is not staying in the area that the business is in for the most part. So small businesses are beneficial to the area because a lot of that

money stays in the community and also just in general for the energy and look of New York City. But you understand that there's a lot of ways to look at this. First of all, if you're a landlord and you own this property, you are taking – and the property is now worth twice as much as it was prior. Like let's say you had a shack in the meatpacking district. Sure. And now the meatpacking district is the hottest district.

Right. Obviously, the price per square foot of these landlords properties might have gone up five times and they might have actually speculated that might be why they bought the building sure and now you're telling them nope yeah but i mean there's a lot of gambling going on with for people when there's a hundred and you know thousand unhoused people and then we have so many storefronts that are completely blank you're gonna set the rate you're gonna set the rate of rent at every commercial you're not setting it you're saying it can go up x amount percentage in this time that's setting the rate but i mean i'm not i'm not saying like it's going to be the

same across the board no matter what neighborhood we're in of course that would be foolish some right neighborhoods can earn more money but what if what if my what if my rent is lower than the guy next door? Mm-hmm. I don't know. It doesn't make any sense. Well, so just talk. I would like to hear your- Let's say- As a small business owner, yeah. Yeah, let's say I'm paying $10,000 a month rent for, let's call it a 2,000 square foot property.

Mm-hmm. And the guy next to me is paying $15,000 for the exact same type of property. Who knows how that happened? He happened because the landlord shows a different tenant. You have to understand, landlords will take less rent from

something they consider more reliable. They'll take more rent from somebody they consider less reliable. Sometimes they rent during recessions. Sometimes they rent during recessions. Sometimes they rent during inflationary periods. So the rents are comparable over longer periods of time, but you can have wildly different rates of rent for similar properties at any snapshot of time. And you're going to instantiate those rates as somehow fair market rates, and then that's it. And as long as the guy wants to stay there, it's capped. Yeah, but I mean if the neighborhood is improving that much, most likely it's going to be very hard for whatever the business that was there that was relevant in this other time period is going to remain relevant.

It is extremely hard for small businesses to keep their doors open. It's always been, anywhere. Yeah, but should we just say, okay. I mean, don't you enjoy having small businesses? Because you're right about the reliability. A lot of times landlords will opt for something like a Starbucks over a mom-and-pop coffee shop because there's much less chance that those, because we know that brand,

that it's going to close its doors. So 100% right, but like, are we just going to sit back and let New York City turn into a shopping mall? So let me tell you, the reason that small businesses have trouble keeping their doors open is almost never because of the rent.

Rents can be high. It is because of all the other things that the city does to make it impossible to run a business. The ridiculous spread of hours paid, the overtime rates, the minimum wage for tipped employees, the plaintiff-friendly laws which require you to pay $70,000, $80,000, $90,000 a year in insurance, the handicap laws, the regulations, the health department law, the fines, the rules are ridiculous. Rent is an expense, of course, but when you see empty storefronts, obviously those landlords will have to come down to a rent that a prospective business can afford. Otherwise, they'll just be empty.

Yeah, but a lot of times they don't. We're seeing this especially like a lot of people on the Upper East Side are complaining there's just rows and rows of places. Well, why do you think that would be? Well, because they're making more money by keeping it empty than by renting it. How do you make money by keeping it empty? Because they're getting money back from the government for having it i mean that's why they've we've been trying to pass this vacancy fee it's in committee right now it's been held there for like two years but let's zoom in on that before you start capping

rents what is the perverse structure of laws that allows i don't even know if that's true but i'm taking you know stipulate that it's true. What the vacancy law? No. How can some like I'm a landlord. Yeah. I don't know. I can't imagine how I would make money with places empty. I don't even know. I don't know anything

about that but presuming there is a way to make money in a place empty you don't need a vacancy law how are they making money in places empty?, you don't need a vacancy law. How are they making money in places empty? Because they're getting money back from the government. So stop that. Okay.

In other words, that's what I'm saying. You piled one thing on top of another thing on top of another thing. You're giving people money back from the government. It's just to incentive. You mean that I can make my place empty and get money from the government more than I can make in rent?

I don't know more than you because you run a very successful business. No, no, just as an arms-like thing. Like, let's say I didn't want to run the olive tree anymore. I can get $20,000 a month rent for it. You're saying I can do better than that by keeping it empty? I don't know.

I would have to look at what you're making. Can I make $5,000 a month by keeping it empty? I've never heard anything. Are you really considering this as an option? Absolutely. Yeah, it's my fault that it's gutted. Well, Noam would never give up his restaurant where he can hold court. And we have to listen to him.

Well, he might. And we have no choice but to agree with him because he's the owner. Well, okay. So I think you have a unique also set of fees that you're incurring and overhead because of being a restaurant and a space where you're having a lot of people come in. So there can be like extra lawsuits. It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars even to build an empty building. Yeah, and then – so I've had my – I'm sorry to interrupt. No, it's fine.

I've had this McDonald's. I know you have. Wait, we're going on two years now. It's empty. Yeah. I've not received a dime from the government. I don't know what you're talking about. Well, no.

Okay. But that's because you're in the process of building something, right? And so what's holding you up is the streamlining of the permits, correct? It's not like it's just blank with a please call to rent sign. I'll put it up if I can get money for it. He's not getting money from the government. He is getting some money from Kylie Jenner, I believe. Kylie Jenner.

I was like, who's Kylie Jenner? Kylie Jenner. You had those advertisements on the money from the government. He is getting some money from Carly Jenner, I believe. Carly Jenner. I was like, who's Carly Jenner? Carly Jenner. You had those advertisements on the side of the building. Oh, yeah. We get a little money from the advertising company. Okay. See, there you go. You're a swift businessman.

Okay. So I do not understand. Not that I don't understand. I know that it's a lot more unique circumstances and overhead to run a restaurant and also a showroom, right? That's unique. It's, you know, a lot of people say that a restaurant is the toughest business to own. So kudos to you. Obviously, you know how to do that. The brick and mortar I own for many years, and that was my family business for over 30 years, not in New York City, but a baseball card store so a lot simpler structure it's a good

example yeah but but for us the the the weight of the rent really was the number one difficulty and like so you know because you have minimal employees a baseball card shop kind of can be owner and one employee run and yeah there's all kinds of you know uh insurance and stuff that it takes from that but really it was two things It was the cost of the product when Fanatics bought Tops, and they pushed out the middleman. And then number two was the exorbitant rent. And this was in Larchmont, New York.

So maybe you shouldn't have it. The landlord's renting this Pisher baseball card shop, and they have somebody who wants to open a jewelry store there. No, no, sir. This neighborhood needs a baseball card. Go You made a lot of money in baseball. And they have somebody who wants to open a jewelry store there. Well, I mean... No, no, sir.

This neighborhood needs a baseball card. Go on the internet like everybody else and open the jewelry store open. Well, okay, but so you just want to sit back as brick-and-mortar stores disappear? You don't want that... Don't you think that experience

is a part of our culture and certainly a part of New York City? They won't disappear because once they run out of tenants, the landlords have to come down in their rents. So you just think we'll just wait until we run out and then we have to take someone in? It happens every day.

Yeah, but... Sorry. Go ahead. What about this notion that Corinne alluded to about you don't want New York to become all Starbucks and all those kinds of stores. There's some inherent value to the mom and pop store. Well, she's responsible for it.

And I'll tell you, here's the next thing on your list. I'm not responsible for anything as of now. Corporations must pay employees a minimum of $20 an hour. Now, how does that not help Starbucks? What do you mean, how does that not help Starbucks?

Who can afford to pay 20 an hour except big business yeah exactly it's only for big businesses it's only for these chain chain places that's what i'm saying you can keep paying employees 1650 because we want to encourage that but they're not going to work for me i oh i see i really is so much more pleasant to work for a small business than it is to work for a corporation if the first of all you said corporations i don't know what you mean. I mean, every business is a corporation. Conglomerate,

we'll use as the word now. I mean, do you have a definition of that? Chain restaurants, yeah, I mean, I think actually publicly bought and sold

is part of a good example. So Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, Walgreens, CVS. Okay, they have to pay $20 an hour. Yeah.

Now, I have a coffee shop and I want to pay what's the minimum wage now? $16.50 For tipped employees, like $11 an hour, right? That's pretty high for a tipped employee It's ridiculous, it's absurd

I mean, I have our staff, I have waiters and waitresses making six figures I believe it And then on top of that, I have to pay them ridiculous amounts of money which provide incentive to not hire more people. No question about it. They make it too expensive to hire servers.

Anyway, but if the place next door is paying $20 an hour, how can I pay somebody $11 an hour? Well, because they're getting tipped on it. These are for people who aren't getting tipped. They get tipped at Starbucks too. No, no. I don't think the tips at Starbucks are any good. Every time you go to Starbucks, they turn...

That's like a dollar. Please, every time you go... Don't you know you're supposed to hit no on those things? Yeah, you can't... Everybody hits yes, and most people hit yes. And by the way, and by the way,

that's right. It adds up very, very quickly. I agree. It's probably commensurate with anything the server, what does a coffee cost, $5? Everybody more than that. And you tip a dollar is about 20%, which is about what my server is worth.

I mean, it's a little bit criminal to be tipping 18% on a Starbucks that you're picking up and walking out and drinking, right? That's already like a $7 drink. I kind of like, this is just as an aside, I think this thing where tipping has spread everywhere is actually good. Why? Because it's allowed a way to increase prices, in a sense, on the wealthy. Because people who have more money, like me, we do tip where we wouldn't have otherwise. But Starbucks can't raise its price of a coffee from $7 to $10 because people can't afford that, don't want to do that. It's making us eat the funds, the expansion. So people who have less money can just buy the coffee

and they don't have to tip. Sure. But this is a way of increasing wages in a sense. That's why Starbucks is doing so well. And I'm sure it's coming more and more from the affluent who are being more generous. I don't know. It's an interesting way.

You'd be surprised at... Who doesn't tip? Yes. Who doesn't tip. I mean, I haven't done a study on it, but just anecdotally, some of the more generous people are not the wealthiest people.

I agree with you. On the subway, say you're watching Showtime. It's not the rich people who are tipping Show the people it's not the rich people who are tipping showtime it's not the rich people who are buying packets of gum from the people going around selling it it never is and i think that's like socially i'm always very interested in in that because i think it's like people who have more recently been through a tough time are more willing to help out someone who's going through a tough time we're however when you're rich you're removed from

it however you want to put it in some way, people who can spare it are paying more for a cup of coffee than people who can't. I agree. Tipping culture is out of control. I agree with you. And it's because. No, he, I agree.

I think so too. I don't. You feel guilty, right? I would think that somebody. Yeah. But then it's like, why am I going to tip? Like tipping is, and I always tip at least 20% when I go to a restaurant or any place I'm sitting down or a nail salon or all of these services. Like, oh, why are you making that face?

I think you're being a little defensive because you're Jewish. Isn't everyone at the table Jewish? Everyone is, and that is often the case. We get it. We get it. The Jew tips, 20%. No, but I don't understand going to a Starbucks.

I tip at the nail salon. List them all. You know what? I feel very comfortable. You can check me on that. I even give to homeless people. I do. I give charity. I always give to homeless people. The t-shirt I give to Apple for Ari when he goes to the school. I think you're more generous than most New Yorkers, though, if you're always giving to homeless people. I always give money to homeless people. The teacher, I give an apple. Ari, when he goes to the school. Well, that's actually, I think you're more generous than most New Yorkers, though, if you're always giving to homeless people.

I always give money to homeless people. Well, I don't because. I grew up in the city, and I think it's really important to spread generosity in that way. But I think giving money to the unhoused, that's what they call it. I know, but it's just like,'s just funny. I know. Anyway, so I think that's probably not a good idea. Well, they'd rather me tip them than you call them unhoused. I know, because that's the thing.

I'm like, I think unhoused is one of those liberal decisions that people made without speaking to people who don't have homes. I think they're actually just giving you a home. They probably don't mind being called homeless. I would describe your platform so far as having no faith in market forces. And I would just say –

Perfect. Put it on the website. I would just say that it's one of the profound failings of our entire education system that the average person, the average citizen really does not understand how the market works. And I would invite everybody to watch that famous YouTube. It's on YouTube. It was called iPencil or whatever. Oh, yeah.

The Milton Friedman thing. Is it Milton Friedman? It's not Milton Friedman. Milton Friedman talks about the pencil and how no single person could ever make a pencil. Nobody even has the knowledge necessary to make a pencil. No single person. No single person, yeah, yeah. And it's the profound things of technology and convenience that boggle the mind that we see everywhere. A satellite tracking us for free from space

to get within inches, literally, on our phones. This is what the market forces unleashed can produce. There's no reason to be housing would be any different. I don't know that GPS was invented through market forces. That was a military thing. But the GPS receivers are market forces. The entire system of GPS was invented through market forces. That was a military thing. But the GPS receivers are market forces. The entire system of GPS was invented. That was invented, I think, by the military.

I don't think it was. I don't know who invented GPS, but the fact that you have it in your pocket is for free. That's my point. You don't have to buy it. It's free. It's free. Well, I mean, to go off what you're saying, I do agree that there's a real lack of use of technology in government, especially in municipal government,

the amount of things that are still filed paper by hand. We did it. We had an unemployment hearing the day before yesterday. Yeah. We had to fax in. I'm not surprised. And see, I'm on your side. There's so many things, and I think a lot of-

Fax. And I'm sure your permits are taking longer because you're filling out. People are losing paperwork and you're faxing things. Most people who are under, I don't know, 35 don't even know how to fax. I had to get an e-fax account because I'm working fax machines. I'm on your side on this. I agree. And by the way, on top of it, the city's fax machine doesn't even answer.

Yeah, the city shouldn't have a fax machine. We have email now. This is crazy. So you have to spend three hours faxing. That's outrageous. This is – I 100% agree. This is a point that I brought up in a mayoral forum like a week ago about how we need to embrace technology.

We need Doge. I'm not going to sign off on that. We don't need Wild West insanity Doge, but we need the spirit of Doge. Well, I mean, I'm going to start with we need email over fax machines. I think that's like a step that we can all agree that we should have been taken a long time ago.

Everything should be digitized. I mean, I went and got the voter file from the Board of Elections. It was on a CD-ROM. Oh my God. It was $200 was on a CD-ROM. Oh my God. It was $200. For a CD-ROM, my field director is 29.

He goes, I don't even know what this is. I said, I'll walk you through it. Oh my God, that's hilarious. All right, I'm getting nonstop alerts on my computer. Okay, my signature program. Oh, I'm sure you're going to love this one because it's philanthropic.

Actually, I have mixed feelings. What am I hearing? My stupid computer is just running amok. Turn off that volume. Mute it. You just said technology is a gift, and now we can't control it. It's taking over the podcast. I don't know why it's doing this.

Okay. My signature program. Tax breaks for New Yorkers. No, I thought this was the artist housing. Oh, that one. Why tell us about that? The auditions? Audition-based housing.

Yeah, I mean, again, I want ways where it's not just giving things away because you're right. This should be more run like a business. But I think people need support. And then in return, the city can also be supported because if you're audition-based housing, it's not, you know, business but i think people need support and then in return the city can also be supported because if you're addition-based housing it's not you know we know there's a lot of comics who maybe shouldn't be comics anymore running around the around the city and so let's see if if people

want to live here and they're going to bring a lot of talent here or if they already live here and they can't afford to stay unless uh they want pursue this talent. Let's invest in that. I love that. That's great. A hundred billion dollars comes from the arts to support New York City. And again, like this is like a very small programs exists, but I just want to expand.

There is a building on the West side. Very small. Yeah, exactly. That has an audition process. You have to, yeah. I mean,

I don't know if it's an audition. You have to apply. I think it's something like, I believe it is also auditioning. There's artist housing, right? Isn't there such a thing as artist housing? There was in Soho. You saw a lot of artists.

Was there an audition or was it just based on auditioning? No, I don't think so. So this is my, to be honest here. The board is the problem? What's the problem? No, no. There's no question. I know that back when New York had a lot of poor neighborhoods,

Soho, East Village, whatever it is, it's true. It was a breeder of talent and the arts and a lot of very good artists lived in these Soho lofts that were zoned for housing. And we spawned Keith Haring in the city. Basquiat, yeah. Yeah, all these things.

Madonna. Yes. Madonna. And this- She's not talented. Lady Gaga. This is, well, the music scenes, yeah. And this is lost.

And put music scenes aside for a second because I want to go back to that. Okay. But – and this is a casualty of New York becoming just so affluent now that we don't have these degenerate neighborhoods where these things could grow. The idea of auditions is – it's just wide open for corruption. Look at what happened to Just for Laughs in Montreal. I know. I mean, as soon as politics makes its way, the audition process just becomes a disgrace. But wouldn't you have a little bit more faith in it if an artist is running it?

No. I appreciate your honest answer. I'd have less. You have less? Why? You think I'm competing with them? I'm going to go do a tight five to get my own housing? I know how because artists, comedians, they have their own vision of what's good

and what's not. Well, I'm not going to be on the board. But inevitably, there's snobs. They'll hook up their friends. I mean, I was on the community board. It's related. And it was just astounding if a restaurant owner came and wanted a sidewalk cafe

or whatever it was. Right. All the time. If the guy on the community board liked that kind of food, or he knew the guy, or he frequented that guy's restaurant in another neighborhood, it was so corrupt. But that's why you have multiple people making the decision. How about this? How about this,

Noam? How about Estes and Char? How about we put all the auditions on YouTube, New Yorkers vote, New York's got talent. Is that better for you? Even this becomes subject to... It's better, yeah. That is better, okay. People will game it. It becomes subject of trends and

fads. Okay, two questions. Number one is what would be a reasonable way to get people into this housing situation, artist housing, that wouldn't be corrupted? I don't think I can answer that question on no one's behalf. Lottery? Don't live in New York.

No, that's garbage, though. The other thing is that these artists are still living in New York, but they're't live in New York. No, that's garbage, though. The other thing is, is that these artists are still living in New York, but they're not living in the city. They're living in Queens, and they're living far out in Brooklyn, and I think that that sucks. I would much rather have

a lot of these comics and artists and whoever be more in the city than instead of $5 million apartments in the East Village. I know you would rather it. But nobody cares. And I would rather it as well. However, I understand deeply in my gut

that because I prefer it or because it's what I'm used to, so therefore I think it's preferable, is a very poor way to run a city. You have to allow change to happen and progress to happen. No, but that's not what I'm saying. If the city becomes successful and the Bronx then percolates a new artist. You can see what's going on in the South Bronx, by the way. They're building luxury apartments there as well. I mean, at some point, this is what happens.

The best thing to do would be to build more and more housing. But I told you I want to come back to the music thing because you can't have a music scene in New York anymore because of all the noise, the noise restrictions. When I, when I was a kid, if you walked around Greenwich village, you would hear music pouring out of bars. It would be like Austin is today. Actually, Austin is over the top,

but Nashville, but isn't that terrible? Yeah. Yes. But this is, this is not right. This is terrible, but this is not,

um, a product of, uh, of change. This is a product of change. This is a product of a city turning its law enforcement against these things, meaning like you cannot have music clubs anymore. But it's also of turning a city corporate, right? Like if you don't have – It's not corporate.

It's the people – it's related to rent control by the way it's all related but it's very interesting because if you look at all people who live in this neighborhood here in rent control apartments

many many many this is a common narrative they moved here when they were young they wanted to live in Greenwich Village and now they're old and they want to hear it

Greenwich Village was the hippest coolest place it was nightclubs and Bob Dylan now they're old they don't like the noise they've organized

they shut down the music clubs. They have rent. Why don't they move out? They can't afford to move out because they have a rent-controlled apartment. So go move to Gramercy Park. No, I can't live in it. So it all feeds on itself. Well, I mean, that's why there is specific affordable housing.

I like specific. It's fun. It's kind of a fun word. Yeah, I'm I like specific. It's fun. It's kind of a fun word. Yeah, I'm happy with specific. But I think that there's specific affordable housing for seniors. So they could move into that. I mean,

there is, there is a certain amount of affordable housing that's allocated just for seniors. Nobody wants to live in a house for seniors. Well, they have to make a decision then. I'm not, I'm not as well versed in noise complaints as you are.

But so, I mean, I think I agree with you. Like, there should be, if you want to live in a certain area, certain areas in the city should be open to creation, especially on, like, Friday, Saturday nights. Are you getting a lot of noise complaints still for your venue? I don't have music anymore. Well, you have music in the Olive Tree. Oh, I own the building.

Well, the only people complaining about that are the comedians. We can't have a conversation. When I was a kid, New York was kind of the Wild West. Right. And I actually remember growing up, my father spent very little of his time in worrying about compliance. Some. You know, just the day-to-day compliance with all the different rules and regulations. And now, this is what we spend all day doing every day.

What business did your dad own? The Olive Tree. Oh, he owned it too. Okay. He would go to work. He'd play music. He'd do this. He'd have some fun, whatever.

You got to pay your taxes, whatever it is. But, you know, you can move your, if you want to move your tables around, you can move your tables around if you want to do it. Now, it's unbelievable. You just – it takes all the fun out of it too. It's like you run your whole organization just to deal with the never-ending enforcement of the city, the state, and the federal government. The cops come.

They raid you. They inspect. They literally, they'll tell all your customers to leave to inspect you on a Saturday night. And then they'll give you a ticket for a crowd on the street. Because they may, so help me God. This happened. That's happened to you? Happened years ago, yeah.

And so you think this is the result of liberal government having too many rules of course this and they pile rule on top of rule on top of rule on top of rule right i mean i i don't agree and a certain point especially when you're talking to certain groups of people like i had a i don't want to give out who this was but i had it out give it out make news so i had like a i had a I'm doing a lot of small talks with groups of 10 to 15 people. And so I was on the Upper East Side a couple weeks ago, and I was having a chat, and it was mostly liberal white women. On the Upper East Side?

And so you're thinking this is a group of people who considers themselves quite politically active, has the tote bag that says support your public library or whatever it is. But then when we actually started to have a conversation about the issues, you'd think that they would be shocked and want to do something immediately about the 100,000 people experiencing homelessness or people going through a mental health crisis. But really, it went around the table and everyone was kind of just worried about their own individual specific situation. What do you want from white women? Well, and I think that is a problem. And I do, I agree. I think that's a problem for liberalism. We like to parade ourselves around as the party that has the biggest heart and love is always going to win. But I don't think we've shown that in our policy and in the things that we've

gotten done. So yeah, we do need to loosen up on things for sure so i know a guy uh i can tell you who he is you can reveal i can't reveal okay who's no i can reveal off the mic because i don't want to okay he is i would say the smartest bar owner i've ever met uh-. He owns six or seven places. You know, you've probably gone to most of them at one time or another. Called him up. It's already a couple of years ago. And I was asking him some question about opening a new place.

And he says, Noam, I'm never opening another place in New York. He says, I opened in Nashville now. I opened in some other city he named. He says, it's a pleasure. They want you to do business there. It's easy. You open up.

You can build whatever. He says, I have my places in New York. I'm not closing them. I will never open another place in New York. Why would I? That is what you need to crack. All the rest of this stuff, in my opinion, with all due respect, is all BS. It really is.

If you want a future for New York. Crack the code of making it easier to own a small business. If you want a future in New York because all money, 100% of it, not 99% of it, 100% of it comes from businesses. Either through salaries or their taxes that they pay themselves. 100%. And if you cannot make it your priority that businesses want to open and can thrive in New York City over a not that long a period of time, given current technology, New York will die. And right now, New York is hanging by, doesn't feel like it, but we're hanging by a thread of the financial district. Because you've chased out all the rich people as it is.

We all know people who moved out of New York because of the taxes. Yeah, but it's still the wealthiest city. Because of the financial district. But you know what? You don't have to have a geographical location for the stock market anymore. Wall Street is just an automated process. It can operate from Dubai. It can operate from anywhere in the world.

So you're saying these people have no incentive to stay here because it can exist anywhere. Eventually it will leave. If the city is not safe and it's not pleasant to live here, and there's no other base of businesses, it's a reckless thing that's going on in New York. And you just want to pile more taxes and more rules and more this and more that. And you guys are going to kill New York City. And it's going to happen. What's the – Scott Fitzgerald?

Gradually, then all of a sudden. Oh, and gradually and all at once, yeah. I mean, one of my main priorities, though, is supporting small businesses. I want you to do well. We don't need your support. I don't need— You want the process— We need to get out of the way. But, I mean, I think that happens.

It's like, yeah, you don't have to have a million people come who might not, you know, to say, okay, you're in compliance with this, you're in compliance with this, if those compliances don't even pertain to your business. Stop with the rules. Stop with the regulation. But then what, so. Let people, I mean, just courage. So this place, I bought that building, and I'm not wealthy like, you know, wealthy people.

You're wealthy like other people. I'm wealthy like a successful small businessman. Okay. I bought that building in April of 2023. It's crazy. Yeah, that's insane. We didn't get started until two months ago.

I agree. That's insane. It cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars just to sit there waiting for permits. I'm sure. Yeah. Just to sit there waiting for permits. I had to wait three months to get the approval of the MTA. Ask me why I had to get approval of the MTA. Yeah, I would like, why did you have to get there? I have no fucking idea.

Because the entrance is across the street? My feeling is probably because in 1939, somebody put a jackhammer through a floor somewhere and went into a subway tunnel. We have no subway tunnel under our place. Okay. There is a subway station, you know, catty corner to us. It's not – whatever. But where's the tunnel though? Down to 6th Avenue?

I don't know. I don't know where it goes. Yeah, 6th Avenue. But you want to help businesses? Tell everybody, we're going to turn that process. You won't have to wait three months. You'll have to wait three days. Yeah, streamlining the process for small businesses, I agree, should be a priority.

No, but no, you talk about the city dying gradually than all at once. You know, when I look at the city and I see Long Island City, for example, or Hudson yards. These are whole basically cities within the city that cropped up in the past decade. I don't see a dying city. I see a city that's exploding with growth. Now the city, the city is exploding with, with, with that, with, with, with the financial district. You're saying the financial district is, is, is, is, is the engine driving all the revenue.

I'm not an expert on the city's finances, but I know that mom and pops can't open in the city anymore. And that's for sure because the... Yeah, I mean, for a tiny hole in the wall, it's like $5,000 a month for like a closet. Not the rent. The economies of... Well, if it was for me.

I mean, and that was even one step. The higher wages that you're required to pay, the expertise you need to know in accounting, the economies of scale that big companies have, the architecture fees, the expediting. Like, it's impossible for anybody. I went to an Ivy League law school. I can't fucking figure out what's required of me. Right. And I think that's a problem. I think everything should Ivy League law school. I can't fucking figure out what's required of me. Right. And I think that's a problem. I think everything should be clear and streamlined.

So I have to hire professionals at $300, $400 an hour. Yeah, that's not acceptable. My father opened with money he squirreled away as a taxi driver. He just opened. Right. He just opened. He just opened. But I'm seeing a lot of bodegas that, I mean, these guys aren't sophisticated people.

Many of them are probably illegal, and they probably have it up to here with violations. But the fact is that if you want to know why, there's more and more chain places, more and more court places. I mean, I understand nothing stays the same. When I was a kid, you would see the soda shop, this shop, this shop. People who barely spoke English, they'd be immigrants. It was just a completely different thing. But that's who's running the 7-Eleven on the corner. But that's not who owns the 7-Eleven necessarily.

7-Eleven is exactly my point. Well, but then there's also all these little shops on McDougal Street, the guy next door. They don't last. They last a few months. Yeah, that's the problem. There's a constant turnover. If there's time, I have one question. Yeah, go ahead.

Hit it. About the schools, to the public schools. Okay. Oh, that's a good one. What are you doing as mayor about the anti-Semitism that is ravaging? No, it's a real question. Give us an example of how it's ravaging. In the public schools? In New York City public schools?

Absolutely. Okay, give us an example. I don't know about this. Do you have children in public schools? I don't okay um but that that's only one example i mean i think that there how is it ravaging in the public schools there are teachers who are bringing in anti-semitic and anti-israel propaganda i mean what what do you mean i mean this is all over the city i've heard about this i know about columbia I was like, it's mostly, I've heard about it mostly because I read about this weekly. I mean, I've heard about it mostly on college campuses. No, it's also in the public schools. I have, I know a woman who like, this is pretty much like what she does. She's sort of trying to deal with like from the elementary school. There was just

a big thing in Brooklyn a few months ago. But, I mean, in general... What are you going to do about it, Corinne? Well, I mean, yeah, it's interesting because it's an international issue, and you say, well, how do we fix this on a municipal level? I mean, I think as mayor, you want to make sure that everyone is able to engage in free speech,

but also feel safe. I do also feel a rise in anti-semitism i've lived here for over 22 years and i to me i see things whether it's like you know spray paints on the wall or actual interactions between human beings that i've had and when i was still doing comedy there were multiple instances where something was said on stage. Like in the context of a joke, but to where I'm going up to other Jewish comedians afterwards and going like that was someone said something on stage maybe late last year about Jews having the mark of the devil and everyone in the audience laughing and me truly feeling like I'm in another universe because had you said that about any other group of people that comic would have been banned from that club so it's obviously uh an issue I mean and so I think it's just about uh treating hate crime no matter who it's against i'm not i'm not taking a side here but i think

there is this thing like almost like oh well you know this a lot of people especially active people who are active in politics uh younger people might feel like well you know palestinians are being wronged so we can take that out against jew people in New York. And obviously we can't have that. So anti-Semitic crimes have to be treated as hate crimes. But I would also say the same if something is happening where people are doing anti-Islam, then they also have to be supported. That's my job, just to make sure everyone's safe and is able to be religious the way they want to be religious, as long as it's not harming other people.

Perrie, were you referring to like teachers that might take an ideological position in the classroom? Yes. A teacher might be telling their students, you know, we need to, you know, divest from whatever they might be saying. So what are the rules regarding public school teachers and what they can and cannot say? I mean, I don't think that in elementary school you're supposed to come with an ideology like that for anything, right? Well, yeah. I mean, to me, it seems like no separation of church and state. I mean, we're talking about the education.

This is run by the government. So, yeah, unless it is a specifically religious school that you sent your child to, no, there should not be a religious discussion. I mean, you're not supposed to... Or even a political discussion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The teacher says, we're raising money for Palestine or whatever.

No, no, but I'm talking about, you're not supposed to indoctrinate students with any politics, whether you're anti-gay or you know 1619 project i'm saying like this is that we have the numbers i assume that the school the school system has has has rules in place i gather well i'm telling you that those rules are being broken on a regular basis and there are a lot of complaints and a whole movement um how are you going to improve the schools the public schools i mean my number one thing is to right now uh public school teachers are paid the same rate to uh teach in any school uh and i think that obviously if you're going to go to teach at

an underperforming school you should be paid more that seems very simple who is going to want to take a harder job for the same amount of money? No one is the answer. Why would anyone want to? Somebody philanthropic. Yes, you're right. I was going to say, unless it's like a to serve with love where you just feel this passion in your heart or you want to teach people. Which, by the way, a lot of public school teachers do. And God bless them. I think we could save a lot of money replacing these teachers with Chad GPT.

I knew it was going into robotic direction. Why do you think that a higher paid teacher can make a dent in the bad schools? Well, I mean, I think it's that we can get teachers with more qualifications,

a higher level of education, and more years of experience. Do you think the problem, and we have atrocious scores, you know, kids. Oh, I know. Do you think the reason that those kids just can't read Tread carefully now.

Tread carefully. is because of the bad teachers? No, I don't think it's bad teachers, but I think that if you have a really difficult situation, you don't want to be sending a first-year teacher there. How do you change the difficult situation you mean like you know too many people in a class size what did you mean by difficult situation well where people

are under this where the test scores are coming in way lower than what should be the average so people obviously whatever the teaching tactic is it's not working people are not absorbing this information i think part of that is that the class sizes are too big. Because I think, first of all, bleeding heart white people like Perry don't put their kids in public school anymore. And I think that's unfortunate. It's very unfortunate.

So the school... Hey, wait a second. How are we going to learn Hebrew if he goes to... Wait, I mean... So the public to learn Hebrew if he goes to... Wait. So the public schools... What do you want to say? No, I mean, you guys don't get to talk shit about me putting my kid in private school

and then I'm not going to respond. I didn't even know if you had a kid or not. She puts her kid in public school. The schools are mostly minority and Asian, I think right yeah Asian is a minority well yeah

mostly people of color are Asian and and the Asian kids do very very well in these schools no matter what even when their parents don't speak English they score

in the top of the city in the SATs. So they're getting something at home, obviously, that people of other groups are not getting. And it seems to me that if we want to have all our children thrive,

we have to figure out how to fix what's going on in the homes so that they can perform better in school. I don't think the teachers can do it. I'm a parent, and you see very quickly as a parent that, and we have very good schools where I live in Westchester. It wouldn't amount to a hill of beans if we were not home every day making sure our kids were doing their homework, reading, writing, and arithmetic.

We could send them there every day and it wouldn't matter at all. So you don't think that the education that you're getting during the school day is relevant without the support of the home? I actually don't think it matters all that much within reason if you have a proper home environment. The problem is people are poor and they have single families and they don't have a proper home environment. But also add to that, you have a lot of, you know, these schools can be rough. And what I observed as an employer of single moms over the years in the city is that when they had good kids that they were trying to do right by, the city never expelled the troublemaker kid, never expelled the bully, never always took the side of the worst kid who had the worst influence on the classroom

rather than prioritize the poor black kid who was trying to do right, who had a good home, who had a mother who was also working, but she would find the time to work on his homework, whatever it is, but she sent him to school and the school was just overrun by, as I said, the bullies and the bad behavior and the weapons and all sorts of things that

went gangs. Who knows what was going on in these schools. And the city never once would say, no, okay, we're going to prioritize these good kids. And then we're going to worry about these bad kids. They don't do that. And until they do that, they can pay these teachers a half a million dollars a year. But I mean, that's just kind of not the American way

to just leave people in the dust because they have problems at home that, you know, so we're talking like grammar school kids, if they're misbehaving, we're going to say, well, put a pin in that. Well, it depends how bad the misbehavior is. Well, you send it to an alternate school. You don't, you don't abandon them completely. Or, or you, I mean, you can isolate them to a different classroom where they're not disrupting the kids who are not acting out but who's also in charge of that classroom like if you have a kid that's throwing chairs at people for sure i mean if it's yeah if it's actually violent behavior i mean for the weapons i mean you can just have metal detectors i i went to uh you know grammar school and you

we can have metal detectors that's not a problem i went to a plastic explosives i went to new york is that a big problem i went to New York City Public Schools. Yeah. I went to a pretty good New York City Public School, but I experienced some of this. And this was in the late 60s when those kids would get thrown out of the classroom right away. Yeah.

But that's not the way it works anymore, as far as I understand it. And my stepmother was a teacher in a public schools and she was deathly afraid of getting, as you said, getting assigned. They used to assign the teachers.

It wasn't one of these bad neighborhoods because she knew what that meant. It was dangerous to her and it was just, it was just an impossible way. Also, you got no gratification from the job because you went from actually

having positive days in well-behaved classrooms to just becoming a kind of cop, you know? Right. But I mean, if children this young are acting out, I mean, like, doesn't don't isn't there a spot of empathy where you go, let's get to the root of this? Why is this happening? Like, you know, kind of a takes a village mentality. If they're not getting support at home, that doesn't mean that they should be abandoned. I have tremendous empathy, but I have more empathy for the well-behaved kid. But, but why? Because they most likely came from like, like, I think I, I've learned so much growing up. They should not be penalized for the fact that their parents don't have enough money

to send them to private school. I hear you. I mean, I went to public school and I've put up with this and it was distracting. I did have to go home every night and have my dad teach me the math lesson. And so to me, I don't go, poor me. I go, wow, I'm so lucky that I had a dad who was available to reteach me that math lesson every night. That's right. Did he teach you with baseball cards? Like if I have three baseballs? No, but that would have been fun.

It was like a little bit more advanced, like geometry and i though i guess he could have used a baseball card i i i growing up in this city i went as i said i went to new york city public schools i've heard you politicians come and go come and you politicians well at least at least we've convinced them i'm a politician there we go come and go and come and go saying how you're going to improve the schools mayor bloomberg very very smart man. As far as I understand, it doubled the amount of money per student that was spent in New York City public schools with no discernible effect on performance. And you guys just keep playing this game. So what's the solution?

Yeah, exactly. I hate to throw the solution. Toss out the bad apples. The solution. But then what do you do with them? Well, the solution. You put them in alternate hives. I don't know what you do with them.

Like I said, I mean, when I say I don't know what you do with them. Have Curtis Lee run the class. Don't misunderstand me. It's very important what you do with them. It's very important that you treat them with care and empathy, as you say, and you try to do your best by them. Right. But I am of the opinion that with a lot of kids, there is nothing you can do for them.

I don't think that's true. Any child, there's nothing you can do when they're still a child. Yes. Because if they're parent, if, if they're not going home to a wholesome upbringing, what does that entail?

Whatever it entails. Do you, do you think that you have to have a two parent household to have a wholesome upbringing? Whatever, however you want to define it. I don't want to get dragged into that. What I'm saying is if they're not going home to a rearing, which is possible to produce whatever it is to overcome these problems that we're talking about.

If the parents can't do it, some bureaucrat sees them an hour a day or is not going to overcome it. If you have a very, very badly behaved child, only the parents can overcome that. You cannot hire teachers to overcome that. I don't know if that's true. Well, it's never been done. I don't know if that's true.

I think you hear plenty of- You guys are really part of the problem. Let me talk. You have to understand, if you have a traumatic home life... I appreciate that. Richard Pryor grew up in a whorehouse, right? What I'm saying is...

Don't slut shame. Richard Pryor was a genius, and by the way, he didn't overcome it. Well, I mean, define overcome. He blew himself up with a crack pipe when he was a genius. And by the way, he didn't overcome it. Well, I mean, define overcome. He blew himself up with a crack pipe when he was a famous celebrity. Well, that's a fair point. I will grant you that. I think that that is

a fair point. Back to the drawing board. Richard Pryor is not our example. I think that all I want to say is that I think that you hear a lot of stories about teachers who saved kids' lives. No, you don't hear a lot of stories about kids. What about Morgan Freeman? I think really you hear a lot of stories about teachers who saved kids' lives. No, you don't hear a lot of stories. What about Morgan Freeman?

I think really teachers can have a really impactful, can be really impactful on students. And they're not, and especially when we're in grammar school, they're not spending one hour a day. These people are classroom teachers. They're spending, you know, six hours with the kids. You know, if you have any, when was the last time when you had any person

who was suffering from antisocial behavior of one kind or another as an adult? And they go to a therapist, and the therapist says, tell me about your third grade teacher. I think lots of people have that. Nobody thinks that the teacher is somehow responsible for the fact that your life is funny. No, no, no. Come on. School is a salvation and a safe haven for a lot of kids. There are kids who are gifted in some way or blessed who even come from bad homes and difficult homes

and do actually thrive in schools. But I'm saying if you have some kid who is a problem, you need to get... If my kid is a good kid and trying to learn in class... And God damn it, Peril, you're upsetting me here because you wouldn't tolerate it for five minutes in the school that you pay I agree with you

about that if there was some kid in your private school 100% you give him two chances and you go to the principal and say get this

fucking kid out of my I don't pay $30,000 or $40,000 a year to have this kid ruin my kids classroom I agree with you about that

that's my point I said that in the beginning though that I agreed with you about that and they say but what would But I said that in the beginning though that I agreed with you about that. And they say, but what would you have us do with him? I don't know. You'll figure it out. But also this notion of that children can be good or bad. Maybe if you just pay my teachers more, then

the teacher would be able to deal with this kid. It's so dumb. That's not what I'm saying. It is what you're saying. No, it's not. I agreed with you in the beginning that I do not think that those kids should be able to ruin a classroom for everybody else. But you think the teachers can magically fix kids who have problems? No. I think that there are children who are living in abusive homes.

Yes, there are. And that school is like the only safe place for them. That's the only point I am making. I agree. I don't think that kids should be able to ruin. I want to repeat again because it might not sound that way. My heart bleeds for these kids. Yeah, of course.

But they're a different issue. What I'm saying is don't be naive to think. You're actually not doing these kids a service to think that, well, we'll just keep them in this classroom and we're helping them. No, you're not helping them. If you want to take them out and you can think of some intensive way of helping them,

take my tax money because these kids deserve help. It's not to lead them into disruptive people who need to learn. I agree with you. But if you want to fix the schools, get the bad kids

out of the school. It's to isolate them in a different classroom where you have someone who has a certification in dealing with people probably with emotional issues, some kind of a psychology background. Do you want to fix the schools? Have a classroom that says, this classroom is only for kids who never miss their homework.

And if you miss your homework, once, twice, whatever, you're out. Yeah, I think that there is something to that. Do you know how many kids you'll help by doing that i i think that like i do really agree that like having no consequences for bad behavior is not help is not helpful parents come parents sign the s we will all we are going to make sure our kids do their homework and they do their homework that's how you help kids right but a lot of people that's how i help my kids i make sure their homework me too but. Me too. But what are we doing with these kids who are going home to an empty house because their parent is working two jobs and they don't even have anyone to sign off on their homework? Are we just saying fuck them? I told you three times I'm not saying fuck them.

I'm saying handle it as a different issue. Yeah, and I say we can do that. We can isolate it because I agree with you. Everything about the school system is set up not to isolate. I'm not in charge right now. That's what I'm saying. Well. You're not going to fix it.

You're not going to fix it by increasing teacher salaries, my point. That was one piece of a plan. That was just the first piece that I introduced that you somehow don't. I mean, I still think that teachers who are working in a harder environment should get paid more money I think so too you deserve to buy yourself a frappuccino that's to do right by the teachers

do not expect higher scores from it that's my point of course teachers should get paid more for harder work I'm for that is Ari getting bullied at don't say the name of the school please at the school I'm for that. Is Ari getting bullied at... Don't say the name of the school, please.

At the school? At Temple Bethel Shabbat Shalom. Oh my God, please don't say the school. Are they stealing his Tadaka money? Thankfully, no. Anyway, Corinne, where's Neil? Where's Nick? That was just checking.

He's downstairs. I had a friend, Neil Gillespie, when I was younger. I knew somebody. I can never... I always call him Nick. I was just checking. He's downstairs. I had a friend, Neil Gillespie, when I was younger. I knew somebody. I can never – I always call him Nick. Neil. All right, Corinne, listen. I think it's great what you're doing. Thank you.

I hope that you do win because it would be awesome to be able to call up the mayor and get a little – Well, how do you know she's going to – Get a little VIP service. Well, I don't know if she's going to answer your call when she's going to be busy are you going to live in gracie mansion or you prefer to live uh where you are currently living i mean honestly i i really love where i currently live i think i would do weekdays in gracie mansion and then do a little weekends a couple blocks away do most mayors most time yeah most mayors do i believe there was one mayor in the past Do most mayors live there full-time? Yeah, most mayors do. I believe there was one mayor in the past, like,

five mayors who didn't. I think Bloomberg, I think, just stayed in his... His house is probably nicer. His house is bigger than Gracie Mansion. Yeah, my house is not bigger than Gracie Mansion. My house is probably the size of one room in Gracie Mansion. Gracie Mansion's pretty cool. There's, like, you could have barbecues in the backyard. Yeah.

Well, all the comics will be invited, so I hope you guys are registered Democrats and are going to, you know, vote for me. Or rank choice voting. So if you have someone else that's your number one,

I'd love to be your number two. Now, obviously, there was some disagreement. Noam isn't down with much of your platform. That's fine. You know what? And that's fine.

She knew those. I knew. I know what I was walking into. Is this platform written in stone or have you taken any of noam's words to heart and you thought well maybe he's he's on to something regard this thing or with regard to that no i i think there are uh additions i mean i'm especially very curious and interested in speaking to business owners because i am passionate about

that and so while i have owned a brick and mortar i haven't owned one in New York City. So that comes with a different set of hurdles. And I agree. I did a piece with a bar owner in Brooklyn, and she had a really long and aggravating process meeting compliance. She had a back outside area in the back of her bar that she couldn't keep open for like the first year of business or something. So that's all that lost income, especially when it's nice outside. People want to be outdoors. And why can't, it's like, I'm looking

at it. Why can't we go out there? Streamline it. It's a crazy, the city is, I'm very pessimistic about New York City, although, it does seem to be doing alright, but I'm still pessimistic about New York City although it does seem to be doing alright but I'm still excited about it James Altucher on a few years ago who predicted

the death of New York and I'm not predicting a death like that but I just I think that other places now in the country are really growing and they're growing because of the contrast between the way they are running their cities

and the way the old, kind of what Ezra Klein was talking about, the way the old school cities have. It's very good that Ezra Klein finally snapped out of it a little bit. But let's see. New York is so sclerotic. What do you plan to do about the shitty weather?

You call this a spring day? It's like 40 degrees out there. Now you're going to start rumors about our people. Oh, yeah, that's true. We are running a lot. All right. Well, anyway. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me.

I sincerely appreciate it. I know that you are a very respected person in New York City, and a lot of people listen to this podcast who are- Am I? Yeah. I appreciate that. People know you, love you, respect you. It's not easy to run a business in New York City and you run a really successful one that is legendary. I'll tell you this. You're not out to lunch.

Again, I hope we're taking notes because all these are going on the whoops. No, no. You're pretty reasonable. Not out to lunch is, I hope we're taking notes because all of these are going on the whoops. No, no. You're pretty reasonable. Not out to lunch is I'll take it. I'll take it. Meaning like there's certain things that you don't have my experience. So I don't expect you to intuit certain things. What's the word?

Sugenerous? I don't know. But you are open and reasonable, and I think you could be a good mayor. Thank you. I appreciate that. I just want people to know that they deserve more, and it is possible. We don't have to put up with the absolute bare minimum from our government. All right, Corinne Fisher, everybody.

Donate money. CorinneFisher.com. That's C-O-R-I-N-N-E-F-I-S-H-E-R.com for her platform. And I assume they can contact you there as well. Yeah, there's an email and there's a form like what would make New York better for you. I read every single one myself. I'm really interested in hearing from New Yorkers and also specifically New York residents. If you donate even $10, $10 is the minimum matching. There's a really generous public matching

funds program in New York City. Once I meet this threshold, I get matched 8 to 1. So if you're listening and you even kind of think I have some good ideas, please donate $10 at CorinnePisher.com. I appreciate it so, so much. This is a grassroots campaign. Average donation, $53.

Very proud of that. Okay, go. I got to do the show because I have an appointment. Let's do it. Okay, bye. Thank you. Bye.