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Mayor Eric Adams outlined a future-focused vision for working-class New Yorkers in his third State of the City address, delivered at Hostos Community College’s Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture in the Bronx last month.
After driving crime down and pushing job growth to historic highs — all while managing a once-in-a-generation asylum seeker humanitarian crisis — Mayor Adams outlined ambitious plans to continue to deliver for New York City across his priority areas that have been a part of his vision for New York City since day one:
• Making the country’s safest big city even safer.
• Building a forward-looking economy that works for working-class New Yorkers.
• Making the city more livable for all New Yorkers.
“When we came into office two years ago, we had a clear vision: protect public safety, rebuild our economy, and make this city more livable,” said Mayor Adams. “Two years later, thanks to the hard work of this administration and millions of dedicated New Yorkers, the state of our city is strong — far stronger than it was when we came into office.
New York City is becoming a place where everyone has the opportunity to make it, and the future-focused vision we laid out today will build on all that we have delivered for New Yorkers by investing in public safety, public spaces, and the working people who make New York City the greatest city in the world. While our city is still full of questions, history shows we can answer them and progress together when we work as one. The last two years have been a time of renewal and resetting — now, let’s make the future together.”
Making the Safest Big City in the Country Even Safer
New York City is the safest big city in the country. Mayor Adams entered City Hall with a mission to reduce crime and keep New Yorkers safe, and he has delivered on that commitment. Under Mayor Adams and New York City Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Edward A. Caban’s leadership, overall crime is down in New York City. Additionally, the NYPD has taken more than 14,000 illegal guns off New York City streets since the start of the Adams administration. Crime has fallen as a result of strong support for law enforcement as well as proactive strategies deployed by the administration, including plans to crack down on auto thefts, combat retail thefts, and launch a $500 million blueprint to keep communities safe from gun violence.
Additionally, Mayor Adams continued to advocate for legislation in Albany to give New York City the authority to shut down illegal smoke shops and stop their proliferation across the city. Finally, recognizing the danger that social media poses to young people and mental health, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan today issued a Health Commissioner’s Advisory identifying unfettered access to and use of social media as a public health hazard, just as past U.S. surgeons general have done with tobacco and firearms.
Building a Forward-Looking Economy That Works for Working-Class New Yorkers
Mayor Adams has steered New York City through a new chapter of its economic recovery, officially regaining all of the private-sector jobs the city lost during the COVID-19 pandemic more than a year ahead of schedule. More than 270,000 private sector jobs and 44,000 businesses — the majority of which are small businesses — have been created since Mayor Adams took office. Through strategic investments and advocacy, the Adams administration reduced the out-of-pocket cost of subsidized child care, or per-child copayment, for a family earning $55,000 a year from $55 per week in 2022 to $4.80 per week today. Led by New York City Office of Labor Relations Commissioner Renee Campion, the Adams administration has also delivered better wages and benefits to hundreds of thousands of municipal workers, including 93 percent of the unionized workforce and 100 percent of the uniformed workforce, while setting a first-of-its-kind minimum pay rate for app-based restaurant delivery workers.
Additionally, building on the work the administration has done to create an economy that leaves no New Yorkers behind, the city will release “Women Forward NYC,” an approximately $40 million action plan to make New York City a better place for women to live, work, and thrive. The plan will include funding to build pipelines toward higher wages in in-demand career pathways, improve financial literacy and access to financial resources, and dismantle barriers to work and education. Women Forward NYC will also address sexual, chronic, and reproductive health; reduce Black and Brown maternal mortality rates; improve access to comprehensive medical treatment; and enhance mental health education and outreach. Lastly, the plan will increase initiatives that reduce violence toward women, particularly LGBTQ+ women, nonbinary New Yorkers, and women of color; expand interventions to prevent domestic violence and support survivors; and provide a continuum of services for low-income families to keep them in their homes or accelerate their exit from shelter and back into their communities.
Finally, building on Mayor Adams’ announcement earlier this week that the city will invest $18 million to purchase and forgive more than $2 billion in medical debt held by approximately 500,000 working-class New Yorkers, the city will embed additional financial counselors in New York City hospitals — helping New Yorkers in need understand the options available to them to avoid medical debt in the first place and stop the vicious cycle of excessive medical debt before it begins.
Additionally, to help New Yorkers stay in their homes, the Adams administration will create a Tenant Protection Cabinet, bringing together more than a dozen agencies and mayoral offices focused on supporting tenants. Like the administration’s Cabinet for Older New Yorkers, the Tenant Protection Cabinet will allow city agencies to seek coordination and efficiency across departments, leverage resources, and shape current and future services to protect tenants better and keep New Yorkers in their homes. To support New Yorkers at risk of being displaced from their homes in all five boroughs, the administration will also expand the Homeowner Help Desk, which will reach an estimated 160,000 New Yorkers through outreach and events, one-on-one assistance, and stabilization. Finally, for the first time in 15 years, the administration will reopen the NYCHA Section 8 voucher waitlist later this year, aiming to issue 1,000 vouchers per month.
Starting this school year, the city will bring New York City Reads’ phonics-based methods and the science of reading to every early childhood and elementary school student in the city’s public schools, building on the initial rollout completed last year to half of the city’s school districts. In her State of the State Address earlier this month, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the state will follow in New York City’s footsteps and will bring a similar approach to literacy across New York State.
Finally, Mayor Adams will continue to advocate for four years of mayoral accountability over New York City public schools, which Governor Hochul announced her support for in both her State of the State and Executive Budget addresses.
