Transcripts For WABC Eyewitness News Upclose 20151011

Progressive candidate, and he has pushed that agenda after becoming the first democratic elected mayor of new york in 20 years. Now a flood of possible candidates coming forward, touted, rumored, talked about to challenge bdb those are his shortcut initials. Is he vulnerable . If so, how much . And why take on an incumbent . One democrat considering a challenge is this man right here don peebles, a realestate executive, who, if he wanted to and salute for this could finance his own campaign. He joins us on upclose this morning. Welcome. Thank you, bill. Good to be here. Good to have you here. Why would you want to be mayor of new york city . Well, look, im a big believer that we have to give back to our communities and we have to give back to our society. Ive been an entrepreneur for many decades, for over three decades, been successful at it, and now i see that new york city is really going in the wrong direction and someone needs to do something about it. You were a supporter, a friend even a friend gave money to bill de blasio. Is he not taking it in the right direction . Is that not the direction you thought he would take the city . Yeah, no, hes disappointed me, and hes disappointed many voters. I think if you look at these surveys from around the city, youre finding that new yorkers are disenchanted with the direction hes taken us, and many of us have whats called buyers remorse. The reality is, he didnt do what he said he was going to do. He has not improved the quality of life for new yorkers. He has not made the progress that anyone expected in terms of education. He has not made the progress in terms of bringing the city together. He ran on a tale of two cities, so the theme was the city was divided. It was divided on economic and racial lines. And he was gonna bring the city together, and that was what i was expecting, and instead what were seeing is his politics, that he is dividing the city so that he can still hold his position as mayor, and i think that is a very disruptive method of managing our city. He would say hes looking out for the little person, the little guy, the little gal, and the families that are on the other side of the tale of two cities. Not your side, but the ones that dont have money. And hes trying to fight for them, improve education, look for affordable housing, get Homeless People off the street. Whats wrong with that . Hes doing a poor job. I agree with division. Look, im the product of the american dream. My two grandfathers, one was a doorman for 41 years and one was a janitor in a Public School system in the segregated south, so im a big believer in looking out for people who havent had a fair chance in life. The reality is, is this mayors not doing that. Bill de blasio promised that he would provide Economic Opportunities for all, but yet his government that he presides over, out of the 18 billion of contracts under his control, hes done less than 3 10 of 1 to africanamericanowned businesses, 6 10 of 1 to latinoowned businesses, 1. 5 to womenowned businesses. So here we have a city thats 65 minority, 52. 5 female, and he cant muster up better numbers than that. Hes perpetuating this tale of two cities, because if we want to have equal pay, equal opportunity, we have to support communitybased businesses and minority and womenowned businesses. He hasnt done that. Thats one example. Where did you get the statistics for that . From scott stringer, the comptroller of the city of new york, an independent analysis of this, and its on checkbook new york. Theres a website that the comptroller who has been proactive on transparency, these are his numbers. These are the actual numbers. And yet the mayor came out recently saying new numbers. In reaction to my criticism, he issued a press release, got some of the people who he has supported for office, and tried to spin this and tried to spin his way out of this, and it didnt work out for him. A lot of people would say no matter who owns the businesses that he has not created the kind of jobs that this economy needed, whether theyre black, white, hispanic, male, female, whatever. Yeah, i would agree with that, but i think the bigger issue here, why minorityowned businesses are important and why womenowned businesses are important is we know that theres a tremendous economic disparity. Women are paid less for the same work. Africanamericans and latinos and other minorities do not get their fair share of jobs. They have the disproportionate burden of poverty, and that relates to educational performance. That relates to Public Safety and other qualityoflife issues. And the reality is, is that new york as a city, we need to focus on quality of life, education, and equal access to economic opportunity. If we do those three things, we would have an amazing city. Greater. And instead, he wants to bring us back to a mediocre city, and be. He would disagree with that. You know that. Im sure he would, but the facts would not bear him out. And he would say in fact, he said many of the same things that you said when he first decided to run for mayor, when he was public advocate. Doesnt this show a little bit that the citys problems are intractable, many of them, education . No. No, it doesnt. What it shows is that he wasnt thats a mistake i made and all of us made. There was nothing in bill de blasios career to prepare him to run this city. Nothing. His last job was public advocate. Thats a 1. 6 million budget with less than a dozen employees. The average duane reade in new york city has an annual revenue budget of 6. 7 million. So the general manager of a duane reade is managing four times the size of a budget as de blasio managed before he walked in the office of city hall. So hes just not competent. Wellintended, nice guy. Just not competent. But he had been elected Public Office before. He had run political campaigns. He ran Hillary Clintons u. S. Senate campaign when she first ran. Poorly, by the way. She almost fired him and had to bring in other people to help clean up the mess that he created. But she did win that election. And unless im misreading your r\sum\, you have not held any election, unless you were elected class president somewhere that im missing. But youve not held any elected office. In fact, i think thats a good thing. I bring a public perspective, but im not a neophyte when it comes to government and at 23 years old, i started my own company thats in existence today, so over 32 years in business. At 24 years old, i chaired the most powerful board in washington, d. C. , the property tax appeal board. Ive been a past chairman of the Greater Miami Convention Visitors Bureau that branded miami as a destination. And im currently chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus foundation board, which helps lead the legislative agenda of the 46 africanamerican members of the United States congress, so i know how to build consensus, i know how to lead, and i know how to manage something hes never done. Holding offices in a position that is essentially a donothing position public advocate, a paid protester does not qualify you to run the largest city in america. If we look at the republican candidates for president , you know, the top three of them, three out of the four, have never held elected office, either. Is that what you think americans and maybe new yorkers want to see now . Bloomberg never held elected office. Mayor giuliani, before he was elected mayor, never held elected office. Yeah, i think that the public wants someone who can manage and lead and have vision. They dont want the typical politician because they do what bill de blasio does. Theyre spin doctors. Bill de blasio spins the statistics on education, he spins the statistics on minority contracting, he spins he said we just came off the safest summer in history, but yet as of monday, 21 more human beings were murdered in new york city than last year, so he just spins, and people are fed up with that. They want someone who can get the job done, and in my world, in the business world, doing nothing or keeping the status quo or making baby steps puts you out of business. Youre ahead of the curve a little bit on this and certainly ahead of the other democrats who are saying, well, im toying with the idea. Have you decided for sure youre gonna run . No, but im talking to many people around the city, and i spend about 25 of my day talking to new yorkers from various perspectives, either business leaders, community leaders, religious leaders, and everyday citizens. And one of the things thats been interesting to me is that uniformly, no one is saying this man is competent for his job. Uniformly, no ones saying hes doing a good job. And if i walk into a restaurant, the chances are one or two people are gonna come over to me and ask me to run for mayor. If i walk into a building, the frontdesk guard is gonna ask me to run for mayor because theyve had it with these mediocre goals and this poor performance. Im not sure the citys seen a situation where the incumbent mayor has gotten so much criticism from people in his own party and will probably get several people running against him in the primary. I dont think hell get several people, by the way. But i will tell you it is unusual for a mayor whos an incumbent mayor to get this kind of criticism, but his performance is what warrants it, and thats whats causing this. Would you fund your own campaign . Yes, i would fund my campaign significantly in the vast majority of it, and, you know, my plan is to fund it all. And i believe thats gonna take somewhere between 10 million and 20 million. Michael bloomberg spent 100 million, more than 100 million, the last time out. It cost him about almost 200 a vote, and he barely made it. Thats a heavy lift. He was a republican, a businessperson. He was also an incumbent for two terms. Yeah. But a republican incumbent. Im a different type of candidate. I would be a different type of mayor. Im a progressive person. I believe in the access to equal opportunity. I believe that the government has a role in providing an environment for opportunity. I believe in a Public Education system, along with charter schools. I believe theres a role there. So im a different type of candidate, and i think i will you know, im not gonna buy the election. If i run for mayor, i will beat de blasio straight up. One of the things thats been raised about you is that you have houses in various cities. Where do you live . You have a house in florida, you have a house in washington, you have a house in the hamptons. Where do you live . I live in new york city. My daughter is in school in the new york city area. In fact, my son is getting ready to graduate from columbia university, and he did his senior year of high school in new york. And im a Major Property owner in new york, as well. Finally, one thing you do not like the description of you as one of the wealthiest black americans in the country. Why not . Well, because i think in itself thats almost a divisive statement. Look, i think i understand the thinking here, is that africanamericans have had to struggle, but the reality is, is im a businessperson. I want to be judged as a businessperson. Just like if i were mayor of new york city, i would want to be judged as mayor of all of new york city. Your campaign gonna be the peebles choice . Good idea. Im just wondering. Very good idea. I like that. Well, good luck to you. We hope to have mayor de blasio on the show to talk about some of the criticisms, and we wish you good luck. We hope to see you again. Great. Thank you, bill. Don peebles, thank you very much. Perhaps a possible candidate for mayor of new york and once bill de blasios friend. When we come back, were gonna switch gears. More than 122,000 people right now on a National List waiting for an organ. Many of them are in new york state, but is Organ Donation registration here in new york so far behind the National Average . Well, i guess it is. In fact, its the lowest in the country. Were gonna take a look at that and try to find out why and also talk to a thankful recipient of come back. Traveling through seas of oats and berries i say to the bowl are you trying to temp me . The bowl says come on down to the land of plenti. Yoplait plenti, with oats, flax, and pumpkin seeds. Welcome back to upclose. October is tissue and Organ Donation month. One organ donor can save up to eight lives. One tissue donor can improve the lives of up to 50 people. Right now more than 122,000 people are on a National Waiting List for organ donors. 10,000 of those are in new york. But listen to this figure. Only 25 of new yorkers are registered organ donors. Thats compared to 50 nationally. Why the difference . Joining us this morning are helen irving, a former transplant nurse, who is now the c. E. O. Of liveonny that used to be called the new york organ donor network. Also with us is lauren shields, 15 years old. She received a heart transplant back in 2009. Ladies, both of you, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Lauren, how are you doing . How do you feel . Amazing. Im, you know, back to, you know, living life as a kid, and i feel great. Tell me why you needed a heart transplant in 2009. I had caught a virus that attacked my heart, and we didnt know that i was in the midst of heart failure, but when i went to the doctor, you know, he didnt feel right just, you know, giving me, you know, any old medication, so i went into the hospital and they had told me that my heart was functioning at only 14 and i had an enlarged heart and a virus had attacked my heart. And you were physically okay, medically okay before that . No problems . You know, i was very tired all the time, and i wasnt eating normally, but other than that, you know, viral myocarditis is nonsymptomatic, and thats what had happened to me. Wow. What a shock to your parents and you, as well. You must have been very scared. I was so scared, yeah. So you had this transplant, and you look totally healthy. Who gave this to you . Did you ever find the people who gave the person who gave this to you . No. You know the family of the person . No, but we do want you know, we wrote a letter to the family, but we havent heard back from them. But, you know, its a hard topic of conversation, and we wrote it probably like six years ago, and we definitely want to write another one to reach out again and hopefully get the chance to say thank you in person. How important is that to you . Its so important because their child, you know, saved my life, and its such a difficult decision for them to make, and i just want to say thank you. Yeah. Helen, how many people . We hear stories all the time, when we join people with the donor, families of the donor. Is that a typical thing, when people are hesitant to do that . Sometimes on the donor side when families have lost a loved one, theyre dealing with their own grief. And they need to deal with that pain, and then they move on with their lives. So, sometimes families dont want to know. Theyre grateful they gave the gift, but they want to move on with their life. Other families want to meet. And so what we try and do is pass on the letters that lauren writes to the family, and if the family chooses to respond back, we would then facilitate the letter coming back. Once they have a written correspondence going and both parties wish to meet, then we facilitate that, as well. Fascinating, cause we only hear publicly about the people. Oh, look at that. The mother of the son who gave this girl a heart, they get together. There is some great feeling of closure and meaning to this, right . But what percentage dont do that . Oh, most dont. Wow. Thats interesting. We only see about 12 to 14 families really get together each year. And thats actually on the increase. Usually it was only one or two. But pretty much families are coming to us about once a month asking if they can meet their donor families or their recipients, and well work with them to set that up. Lets talk about these numbers, because theyre sort of staggering. I did not realize that. We are half the National Average, the people who are registered, and have given their consent to do this on their drivers license. Thats all it takes, right . Yes. Why is it so low, and how do you get around that . Yeah, well, its come up in a few years. It started out three years ago at 11 , so we are making some progress, but were still last. Theres some challenges we have. One is the actual operation of the registry itself. Its not electronic. Its actually still a paper system. So that in itself creates its own barrier. I dont know about you, but the last time i sent a letter was a long time ago. Everything we do now is online. Thats about to change for 2016, so thats good news coming our way, and hopefully it will make it easier for people to register. The governor has done this, right . So were very grateful to him, and thats gonna be a reality next year. The other issue is that 90 of people who sign up on the registry do so through the dmv. And now in new york, at dmv when you renew your drivers license, it went from four years to eight years. So once every eight years, somebody is asking you if youd like to become an organ donor in the dmv. Yeah. Not enough. Not enough, not frequent enough, and wrong place. Heres what happened to me. I lost my license, and they sent me a new one, and just as i was researching this show, your interview, i looked at my new drivers license, which is only a year old. Right. And i hadnt signed the back of it, and i thought i had, of course, cause i did the one i lost. And so i signed it. In fact, i was showing my daughter this. I said, look, you got to sign this because if anything happens to me, someone else is gonna live. Right. So you think this new Electronic System is gonna solve that . The new Electronic System is a part of solving the problem, having more frequent touch points with the community to ask the question, and the work lauren does is invaluable for sure, so that people can see the benefits of donation. But having donor families say that this brought comfort for them is also important. You know, donor families say, you know, theres nothing we can do at the point when were asking families to consider Organ Donation. Everything medically that could be done has been done. But this gives the family an opportunity to make a difference in someones life, and that is invaluable, because from grief will come life. Thats a great way to put it. This last week, you had a great day. We did. You tried to register people, and you had a big Organ Donation day, and what happened . We went for it, and we got close to 2,800 enrollees in one day. Its a record for new york state. Weve never seen that number of people sign up. People were coming up to us and saying, oh, you know what . Im glad youre here because i was thinking of doing it, and i just didnt get around to it, and thats really the numberone reason why people havent signed on the registries that they we just did a survey recently 9 out of 10 new yorkers support Organ Donation. There just isnt the right opportunity for them to go and sign up. Lauren, you are a living example of what can happen when someone donates their organs, and i guess you cant ignore that. Thats a calling for the rest of your life. Mmhmm. Yeah. Whats your message to people . You know, its just you know, because my life was saved by someone else, its so important that, you know, i go out now and tell my story, cause a lot of people dont have they dont think about Organ Donation unless they have a story that affects them themselves, and to share my story is really important because, you know, it shows people that Organ Donation does work and it saves lives and its really important to me to share my story. And to the rest of us, as well. You know, 15 years old you got a long life ahead of you because someone donated their organ, so thanks for sharing your story with us. Helen, lauren, thank you very much. When we come back by the way, lets take a quick look at our website. We have more information if you want to be an organ donor at our website, abc7ny, and you can find out more information how to be an organ donor. When we get coming back, getting ready for the biggest columbus Day Celebration in the u. S. A preview of the big parade on fifth avenue happens tomorrow. Here when we come back. Welcome back to upclose. More than half a Million People expected to turn out tomorrow for the annual columbus day parade. This is last years parade. Fifth avenue from 44th street all the way up to 72nd street. Its a lot of fun. 35,000 marchers, more than 100 groups. Millions are expected to watch it on television here and around the world. Channel 7 will broadcast it live beginning monday at noon. Joining us this morning are two people very much involved in this parade. The president of the Columbus Citizens Foundation in charge of the parade, angelo vivolo, and this years grand marshal, alberto crabiare. Cribiore. I knew i was gonna mess this up. Cribiore. Cribiore. Caribiore. Cribiore. Cribiore. Cribiore. Well. Very italian. Youre very italian. And when youre not being the grand marshal of the parade, you are an executive at citigroup. I am. Vice chairman. And angelo here, when hes not busy chairing this, is a restaurateur. Yes, i am. And i cant let this go. I got to ask you about it. You fed the pope when he was at the residence when he was in town. Yes, i had the honor of feeding pope francis along with my good friend livia bastianich at the residence of the papal nuncio. The east side, 72nd. Right to where the parades going. Yeah, we did this once before for pope benedict, but this was an exceptional experience, different experience. So tell me what it was like to feed the pope, literally and figuratively. Well, he was, as the last pope, very gentle, holy man, but a little more personable. We had more conversation with him. With francis . With francis. Pope francis. And he had a Smaller Group that we served, so it was more intimate than the last time we did it, and he was just a wonderful, blessed individual that i had the honor of serving. So you had a german pope the first time and now an argentinean pope the second time. What kind of food did you serve . Well, we thought since he was argentinean, he was gonna like beef, but that wasnt the case. He gained 15 pounds since being the pope, becoming the pope, so they have him on a kind of restricted diet, so we served him everything we served everyone else at the table, except we managed it a little different. Light fare. But he was a delightful person. I could tell you you dont have enough time for me to tell you incredible experience. Now that weve talked about italian food, lets talk about this parade. Whats gonna happen thats different this year . Well, alberto cribiore, number one. Hes a leading personality in the italianamerican community, and we are honored to have him as the grand marshal. We also have guy chiarello, whos at first data, president of first data, a wonderful, wonderful man who is an honoree. And we have aldo verelli, another honoree who has his own company in the world of finance. And a special award this year is going to be given to Stefi Germanotta and her daughter lady gaga for their founding of the born this way foundation. And lady gagas mother and father own a restaurant that is in competition with you. Joannes, as a matter of fact, its called. Alberto, tell me about your involvement here and what does this mean to be grand marshal for you . There can be a bigger honor for an italian living in america and having also an american passport than to be the grand marshal of the columbus day parade. The people that have preceded me in this role are incredible businessmen, incredible financiers ken langone, joe perella, mario gabelli. Incredible artists like luciano pavarotti, frank sinatra, zeffirelli, to give you a sense. So its unimaginable to be able to follow in their footstep and very humbling. But at the same time, i am moved and honored of doing that. You know, the contributions of italianamericans, it is such a part of the fiber of this country for, you know, for so many decades, scores of decades. There is controversy over the columbus day parade, as every year, it seems to me. Eight cities have now changed the name of the columbus day parade, and im not sure americans link columbus with saluting italianamericans. Its almost two Different Things in some ways, right . Well, columbus discovered america and was an italian. And so this columbus day has been around since the 1800s, and we respect everyone in the country to decide what they want to do. But we wish they would come to new york city and join us at this incredible parade and see what italianamericans are all about and what were really celebrating. Were celebrating our culture, our heritage, and great people like alberto cribiore. And were gonna have it right here on channel 7. Just to remind people, we have tomorrow, monday, ken rosato and Michelle Charlesworth will have live coverage of the columbus day parade tomorrow starting at noon right here on channel 7. Angelo and alberto, youre great spokesmen for this organization, and thank you. Good luck. Good luck at the parade. Its gonna be a great one. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Our honor, of course, to broadcast it. And thats gonna do it for this edition of upclose. If you missed any of todays programs, you can catch it again on our website, abc7ny. Dont forget tomorrow, the