Brian Lear on WNYC.

So the New York City Council held its first oversight inquiry into the Mamdani administration yesterday to assess where the city might have fallen short in carrying

out its code blue emergency measures that kicked into effect last month when temperatures dropped

below freezing. You may have heard by now that to date 18 New Yorkers have died outside in recent

weeks and at least 15 of those deaths have been linked to hypothermia, which means

they literally died from being cold. The mayor has gotten a lot of criticism for his response

to the cold spell, and particularly for his policy of no longer sweeping homeless encampments,

even during the bitter weather. Now, Mamdani said on our show last week that as mayor, he takes full responsibility for the city's response,

including its flaws, while also noting that none of the 18 people who died were living in encampments,

so he thinks that's a red herring issue.

But it wasn't the core issue before the council.

At the center of yesterday's hearing

was the question of whether the city should force certain homeless New Yorkers indoors

against their will when they're facing dangerous weather conditions. The mayor has notably

not done away with Adam's era involuntary removals. In fact, here's an exchange that we had on last Thursday show.

It begins with my question. I saw you quoted saying, you're continuing the Adams policy of

involuntary removal of people unable to care for themselves. So do I have that part, right? No change on the standards you are using to determine when involuntary

removal is warranted in the person's interest? Yes, that is correct. And just to be clear to New Yorkers,

that's when there's been a clinical determination that a New Yorker is a danger either to themselves

or to those around them. And the city has, over the course of the time since we've put our city into a code blue,

which was on January 19th, we have made 20 involuntary transfers.

And this is only one part of what we are doing to do everything in our power,

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