At State of City address, Mayor Adams focuses on his working-class background

January 9, 2025 Raanan Geberer

New York City Mayor Eric Adams. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

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In his State of the City address at the Apollo Theater on Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams focused on his working-class background and what he has done for working-class New Yorkers.

He avoided mentioning federal charges of bribery and campaign finance offenses against him. He also didn’t talk about his rivals for the mayoral spot, although they had something to say about the speech afterward.

The speech began with blessings from various clergy members, including one who hoped for a blessing for “the Knicks, Rangers, Nets and Islanders … but for the Jets and Giants, all I can ask is for God’s mercy.” He also congratulated the New York Liberty’s championship earlier this year, and hoped that the team could do it again.

After performances of “America the Beautiful,” “God Bless America” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and testimony from several people who escaped their down-and-out status thanks to Adams’ programs (“now I don’t have to pay $86 a week for preschool,” one Queens mother said), Adams came onstage to the sound of Motown and disco music.

Before he got down to business, he thanked state and federal officials who collaborated with him, such as Gov. Kathy Hochul and U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. He also gave a tribute to the Apollo Theater itself. “If you came here 100 years ago, you would see families from every part of the South, seeking to make a better life in New York,” the mayor said.

Adams then took the stage, saying his mother was looking down at him, “seeing how a young man who was once dyslexic and rejected is now elected.” When he was a boy he used to take his clothes to school in a plastic bag, since he never knew when his mother would be evicted.

Three years ago, he recalled, he took office at the height of the COVID pandemic.

The Apollo Theater. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File

“I told you then there was no easy solution. We started with public safety, put thousands of new officers on the street, took 20,000 illegal guns off the streets. We drove murders and shootings down by double digits. We got rid of illegal smoke shops and drove jobs up. We had record investments in minority-owned businesses and torn down hundreds of sidewalk sheds,” the mayor said.

Adams also talked about early childhood education and affordable housing. “For first time in city history, we enrolled 150 young people in our early childhood program. We shattered affordable housing records for two years in a row.”

Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party. added, “Mayor Adams has put thousands of new cops on our streets, taken off “ghost” (abandoned) cars, and shut down illegal shops”.

Finally, Adams said he has expanded the “City of Yes” housing plan to the “City of Yes for Families.” This would create apartments suitable for large families, such as those that include grandparents as well as parents.

To build these housing units, Adams stressed that he would use city-owned land that is currently neglected, such as 100 Gold St. in Downtown Brooklyn (an office building that’s a stone’s throw from Brooklyn’s 84th Precinct.

After the speech, Brooklyn State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who is running against Adams, said “I ride the train every day, and there’s no question that our subways and our streets feel less safe than they did a decade ago. We had a mayor who has led with rhetoric rather than results — and has not given public safety the management focus and attention it deserves.

Comptroller Brad Lander, who is also running for mayor, said, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me; fool me on 3K, the 30-day shelter limit, and the 300 days it takes the Adams Administration to register a contract, and it’s time for new leadership at City Hall.”