With little fanfare, an assistant opened the door to disclose a large, spacious nook convention room with big glass home windows overlooking Metropolis Corridor and the Brooklyn Bridge within the hazy distance. Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne E. Adams, in a light-blue basketweave tweed ensemble, quietly waited on the desk, her palms clasped as she smiled warmly.
She not too long ago sat down with the AmNews to debate her upbringing, her historic legacy as an elected official, her legendary legislative battles, and her transition after her 2025 mayoral run.
Adams, 65, is term-limited and has loved a protracted profession within the Metropolis Council. She was first elected to District 28 in Queens in 2017, changing into the primary lady to carry that seat. Adams made historical past once more in 2022 when her friends elected her as speaker, making her the primary Black particular person to carry the place. Via all of it, she’s gained pals and waded by way of the inevitable criticism that comes with Black girls in management, she mentioned.
“I’ve to only exhale and are available again to myself with out the title in entrance of my title. I’ve obtained to get again to Adrienne,” mentioned Adams about what comes subsequent. “After which, once I reemerge, what I proceed to say is that I’m wanting ahead to the subsequent good thing, no matter it might be.”
A lifelong Queens native, she was raised in Hollis along with her sister. Her mom was a corrections officer at Rikers Island who retired as a captain, and her father was a UPS truck driver for about 35 years. She and her father attended CUNY’s York Faculty briefly on the similar time whereas he was persevering with his training in economics, and admitted that she was totally embarrassed about that again then. Talking fondly about her mother and father, Adams confirmed off their weathered pictures in her pockets. Her father, who had COVID, died in 2020, and her mom adopted the subsequent 12 months. She credited her mother and father for her sturdy sense of self and dedication to public service.
“I hear them chatting with me. My angel on my proper is Mother and my angel on my left is Dad, so I carry them on my shoulders on a regular basis,” mentioned Adams.
Adams went on to earn a bachelor’s diploma in psychology with a minor in early childhood improvement from Spelman Faculty in Atlanta, Georgia. The famend poet and creator Maya Angelou was her keynote speaker and carried out her “Phenomenal Lady” poem that 12 months. Adams mentioned she’s saved this system and an article written about it.
Earlier than getting into public workplace, Adams spent almost three a long time within the personal sector as a company coach and human capital administration specialist for a number of Fortune 500 firms, together with MCI Telecommunications, Winstar Communications, and Goldman Sachs. She additionally served as a toddler improvement affiliate teacher, coaching childcare professionals to acquire nationwide credentials.
Adams, Adams, Trump, and Cuomo
Adams attended Bayside Excessive College in Queens similtaneously future Mayor Eric Adams. The 2 should not associated. She joked that he ran in a really completely different crowd from hers, so that they weren’t very shut. “Evidently, I went to class, and my circles have been very inquisitive about staying tip-top of our grades whereas sustaining our cool,” she mentioned.
The mayor was removed from the one particular person from her borough to pursue politics and fame. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who’s about three years older than each of the Adamses, grew up within the extra prosperous Holliswood neighborhood a couple of mile away. Additionally shut by, in Jamaica Estates, was a youthful President Donald Trump, and his father, Frederick Trump Sr., a real-estate developer and unprincipled businessperson. She by no means interacted with Trump as a youth, and finds his present attitudes in direction of the town and nation an “insult,” she mentioned.
Whereas Adams was on a pause from her hectic company profession, one among her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters launched her to Queens Group Board (CB) 12. Adams was excited by the grassroots degree of neighborhood authorities and the fervour of her neighbors. She dove in head-first. She was initially appointed to the CB by former Councilmember Tom White in 2009; was elected chairperson of the CB for 3 consecutive phrases, from 2012 to 2017; and in addition co-chaired the Jamaica NOW Management Council, the place she helped oversee greater than $150 million in native investments.
It was there that she met and befriended Cuomo.
“I obtained to know him through the years as being the governor. I used to be chairperson of Group Board 12, and I obtained to know him as one of many elected officers that we’d see in Queens infrequently,” mentioned Adams. “He appointed me to take a seat on the Jamaica NOW fee. And we’re those that really began the redevelopment phases for the downtown Jamaica space.”
Adams introduced her marketing campaign for mayor towards Eric Adams again in March 2025, after months of her colleagues encouraging her to run. Cuomo had introduced his marketing campaign for mayor just some days earlier than. She mentioned that he didn’t take her determination properly. “And I understood. You understand, we ran in the identical circles politically, so he was endeared by the Black neighborhood, and I’m [from] the Black neighborhood, in order that was the distinction,” she mentioned. “He knew if and once I have been to get into that race, it will be an excessive menace to his [campaign]. So, yeah, he didn’t prefer it very a lot. We have been nonetheless very cordial and nonetheless are, really.”
Each ultimately misplaced this 12 months’s June major to now Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, one other Queens “alum.” Adams doesn’t remorse her quick mayoral marketing campaign because the “reluctant politician” who obtained into the sport late however was decided to make an influence.
“It was one thing of an out-of-body expertise that I’ll always remember,” mentioned Adams about receiving immense help to run for mayor from her colleagues, pals, and household at an awards occasion in Albany.
Massive wins
Not one to linger too lengthy on losses, Adams could be very happy with her tenure on the Metropolis Council and as speaker. It was outlined by her singular give attention to bringing members from all walks of life collectively, and on pushing laws that addressed fairness, public security by way of neighborhood funding, and the housing disaster — regardless of at instances hurtful dust-ups with Mayor Adams.
Her accomplishments embody the Honest Housing Framework Regulation, Metropolis Preventing Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Complement (CityFHEPS) housing reforms, and developments in Black maternal well being. Nevertheless, she is particularly happy with her work to help state Trauma Restoration Facilities (TRCs) and CUNY Reconnect. The CUNY Reconnect program, launched in 2022, was impressed by witnessing her father return to high school. It has since helped roughly 60,000 working-age college students who left faculty and not using a diploma return to finish their training. Adams additionally secured funding for the state’s first 4 TRCs. These facilities supply holistic, wraparound providers; together with psychological well being, authorized, and monetary help, for survivors of violent crime in underserved communities. She has a objective of ultimately opening one among these facilities in Jamaica, Queens.
“These are services that assist victims of violence, victims of home abuse, victims of sexual abuse; assist previously incarcerated people, folks that have perpetrated violence upon different individuals. These are secure havens, freed from cost. These are secure havens for those who need to get their lives again on observe,” mentioned Adams. “We usually put victims on the again burner and simply allow them to sort of deal with themselves and their very own psychological well being or no matter scars they’ve, and simply hope that they’ll get higher. The trauma restoration facilities are the first-ever in New York State, by the best way, giving [people] the flexibility to get their lives again by way of therapeutic.”
Above all, a few of her favourite reminiscences revolve round watching her fellow councilmembers change into moms, and in some circumstances fathers, over the past 4 years. Many ended up bringing their kids to work and letting parenthood affect their coverage work, she mentioned.
Her largest remorse as speaker was the time she spent away from her house and council district. “I don’t see failure. Maybe remorse. And the remorse could be the vast majority of time having to be spent away from my district, as a result of I’m not simply the consultant council member for District 28,” mentioned Adams. “I’m that consultant for 50 extra council members and their districts for your complete metropolis of New York, so I’ve not been in a position to spend the period of time that I’d need and have needed to spend in my very own district.”
Adams’s workplace is already cleared out. She led her final said assembly at Metropolis Corridor on Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. She mentioned she doesn’t precisely have quite a few job presents lined up, nor does she need them. In the meanwhile, her focus is to chill along with her household and easily reconnect along with her grandchildren.
