Mayor delivers State of the City address

Mayor Eric Adams delivered his third State of the City address on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

By Jacob Kaye

Mayor Eric Adams delivered the third State of the City speech of his term from the Bronx on Wednesday, touting his administration’s efforts to reduce crime and boost the economy while also laying out a number of policy goals his administration will attempt to deliver ahead of his expected bid for reelection next year.

Adams, delivering his State of the City speech from Hostos Community College in the Bronx, announced plans to create a group tasked with protecting tenants against hostile landlords and an agency tasked with managing the city’s delivery workers. He also announced that his administration would launch an effort to build over 10,000 units of affordable housing on land already owned by the city.

The mayor, who this month hit the halfway mark of his term that began in 2022, also said that the city would partner with skating legend Tony Hawk to refurbish several skateparks in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Adams also announced that he would be designating social media as a public health crisis among the city’s youth and that he would be introducing a plan to speed up the length of time it takes to process a disciplinary case against police officers.

Much of his speech, which comes not long after the mayor announced a number of budget cuts only to restore some of them a few months later, focused on building on efforts he and his administration have been making since he took office two years ago.

At the top of his administration’s priority list has been public safety, an issue the former cop ran for office on. Adams on Wednesday highlighted the city’s drop in murders and gun crimes, which have fallen significantly over the past two years – most other major crimes have largely increased since Adams first took office but dropped in 2023 when compared to 2022, his first year as mayor.

“New Yorkers care about public safety first and foremost, because it is the foundation on which our prosperity is built,” the mayor said. “It is a simple formula: When crime goes down, jobs go up. When crime goes down, tourism goes up. When crime goes down, our quality of life goes up. And when all these things go up, there is no stopping New York City.”

Looking to the year ahead, Adams said that his administration would work to shut down more illegal smoke shops, which have blossomed across the city in recent years and have proven difficult to eradicate. Much of the enforcement against the shops is the responsibility of the state, and giving the city more authority to take the matter into its own hands would require state approval. Adams’ biggest ally in Albany, Queens Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar, recently introduced a bill in the state legislature that would transfer more enforcement authority to the city.

“Legal cannabis remains the right choice for our city and our state, but New Yorkers are fed up with these illegal storefronts and their unlawful business practices,” the mayor said. “To get them shut down once and for all, we need Albany’s help.”

“Give us the proper authority, and we will get the job done,” he added.

It’s unclear how the city would exercise its authority to shut the shops down under Rajkumar’s bill or any other measure to expand the city’s enforcement abilities.

Also announced on Wednesday was an effort to make the NYPD “reform their internal case process to cut that time in half — setting stricter timelines so that cases do not languish for months.”

The number of complaints made against police have skyrocketed under Adams, rising to their highest level in over a decade last year.

Also under Adams, half of all cases where police misconduct was found by an internal NYPD review were overturned by NYPD brass.

His announcement of a new disciplinary process within the NYPD comes as Adams fights against the How Many Stops Act, a bill aimed at increasing police transparency that passed with a veto-proof majority in the City Council in December but that was vetoed by the mayor last week.

Despite railing against the bill given nearly any opportunity in the past several weeks, Adams did not make mention of the How Many Stops Act, which would require officers to make reports of low-level stops, during his speech on Wednesday.

The bill’s sponsor, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, said in a statement following the State of the City Address that “while the mayor included some promising proposals in his address, including recognizing the harm of social media on public health and safety, what was left unsaid was his attempt to pit the city against itself over a basic data reporting bill that strengthens public safety.”

"I invite Mayor Adams to have a public, honest discussion with me about my office’s legislation so that New Yorkers can hear what the bill actually does: provide greater transparency in policing practices,” Williams added. “After months of misinformation, I think the people who elected us both deserve to hear the truth."

The fight over the bill, and a separate piece of legislation that would ban solitary confinement in the city’s jails, has brought tensions between Adams and the Council potentially to an all-time high.

Mayor Eric Adams delivered his State of the City address from Hostos Community College on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

Both bills were vetoed by Adams last week but both vetoes are expected to be overturned by the Council in the coming weeks. The mayor and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams have both publicly argued their cases against and for the bills in public in recent weeks, including on Tuesday, when they held competing press conferences at City Hall.

However, on Wednesday, the mayor gave a special shout out to the speaker, both of whom attended Bayside High School, graduating in the same year.

“I love you and there’s nothing you can do about it,” the mayor said.

The speaker released a relatively muted statement following the mayor’s speech.

“At a time when our city is facing major challenges and overlapping crises, we must rely on our city agencies and workers to effectively help New Yorkers and our communities to persevere,” she said. “Our success is only possible with the right investments and policies to support the critical work of our agencies, which we are fully committed to advancing.”

“The Council will continue to advocate for the health, safety, and well-being of all New Yorkers, and we look forward to working with all stakeholders to achieve our shared goals for the city,” she added.

The mayor also did not mention the bill to ban solitary confinement in his speech, nor did he mention Rikers Island, the jail complex where over two dozen people have died since Adams took office.

Prior to his address on Wednesday, a number of criminal justice reform groups protested the mayor’s criminal justice policies outside of Hostos, including his management of Rikers Island.

A federal judge is currently weighing whether or not to strip the city of its control over the jail complex and hand it over to a federal receiver. The city is expected to submit its argument against receivership in court in March.