City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams teased her potential broader political ambitions in a fourth and final State of the City address Tuesday, focusing on citywide leadership and improving the lives of New Yorkers.
“New York City is bigger than one person, and our city deserves leadership that prioritizes its people over individual glory or interests,” she said inside the Rose Auditorium at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
The annual speech usually serves as a way for the Council speaker to lay out their priorities ahead of a sometimes contentious budget process with the mayor.
But this year it also served as a potential campaign speech as the term-limited Speaker Adams preps a run for mayor in the June Democratic primary.
“We need solutions more than slogans, service rather than saviors, and partnership over patriarchy,” she said in the address — possible digs at Mayor Eric Adams who has said God told him to run for office and given administration positions to cronies and friends.
“The dignity and trust in government leadership has been shaken in our city, and it must be restored.”
The Democrat from southeast Queens last week announced she was filing the necessary paperwork to explore a run for mayor, just a few months before the June 24 primary. She was noncommittal last week, sharing in a press conference that she hadn’t wanted to run but was asked by multiple people to consider it recently.
“What I’m thinking is someone has to be the soul of the city,” she said Thursday.
And Tuesday’s address offered a glimpse into a potential Speaker Adams campaign, as she highlighted the Council’s housing plans and attempts to make the city more affordable.
“Throughout my time in office, I’ve been labeled as a ‘moderate’ in people’s attempts to make sense of who I am,” she said at Lincoln Center.
“But my focus has always been public service, which has no political label.”
She also spoke about what she called President Donald Trump’s “cruel crusade against immigrant families” — a contrast to the mayor who, in search of a federal pardon, has not publicly criticized the new president.
“We’ve been through the fire before,” she said of the federal administration. “We’ll make it through again by defending our city and fighting for each other.”
In discussing the mayor’s City of Yes zoning plan, Speaker Adams boosted their compromise to get the deal through, which secured $5 billion in key infrastructure investments — like sewer upgrades, more funding for reduced transit fares, and storm protection. And she announced a “Community Planning Framework” to allow for more engagement as the city works to build more much-needed housing across the five boroughs.
Adams v. Adams
Speaker Adams also took direct shots at Mayor Adams, her potential opponent in the mayoral race: She noted the Council’s bills to remove barriers to access CityFHEPS housing vouchers that have been blocked by the mayoral administration. And she introduced a new set of “administrative improvements” the city can begin to make it easier to get these vouchers.
“The purpose of government is to work through our most pressing challenges,” she said.
“Why lead if your default is to insist that something is too hard, or that we just can’t do it? Why not try to help New Yorkers?”
The speaker also announced the Council planned to baseline — or make permanent — funding for CUNY Reconnect, which helps people re-enroll at CUNY colleges to finish their degrees. Adams was inspired by her own experience attending York College at the same time as her dad, who worked as a truck driver for UPS but took classes at night.
Since they announced the program three years ago, 47,000 people re-enrolled with its help, she said.
They also planned to clear up to $1,000 in unpaid balances paying for school to make it easier for students to get their degrees.
Adams also announced a plan for the Council to fund seven-day library service, which was first reported by Gothamist.
She said the Council planned to push for the Parks Department to get closer to receiving 1% of the city’s budget — a longstanding push by advocates that Mayor Adams vowed to implement as a mayoral candidate four years ago but still hasn’t.
The audience gave a standing ovation when she announced legislation that would require the city pay nonprofits earlier in the process to avoid problems caused by lengthy payment delays, an issue on which THE CITY has previously reported.
“This will free nonprofits to focus on their missions — not on struggling to pay their staff or chasing down the dollars they’re owed,” she said.
Although she did not directly refer to her recent decision to run for mayor, Adams wove in a larger message of unity — with her help — throughout her speech.
She was introduced by Councilmember Gale Brewer, who touted Speaker Adams’ “superb management skills” first gained as chair of her local community board in Queens and then “herding the cats” of the City Council.
Before she spoke, the Bartlett Jazz Ensemble performed “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke. Referring to the theme of that song, Adams said, “Public service cannot be about our own glory or ambition. Service is an intergenerational promise.”
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