New York Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne E. Adams delivered her closing State of the Metropolis (SOTC) handle this Tuesday, after which lastly confirmed rumors that she would make a bid for Mayor late Wednesday evening.
“As a pacesetter of this metropolis, let me handle the outrage and sorrow that many people really feel at this second. As our democracy faces existential threats from inside, it’s as much as us to counter the tyranny taking root at our federal degree and proper right here in our personal yard,” stated Adams in her speech, taking intention at President Donald Trump and seemingly Mayor Eric Adams– though the latter was not talked about by identify.
Adams made historical past because the first-ever girl and Black particular person elected to be speaker of the New York Metropolis Council. She leads the primary women-majority and most various metropolis council within the metropolis’s historical past. She would make historical past but once more as the town’s first girl and Black girl Mayor, if elected.
A Queens native, she is at the moment the council member for Queens District 28, which encompasses the neighborhoods of Jamaica, Richmond Hill, Rochdale Village, and South Ozone Park. She opted to endorse her Chief of Workers, Tyrell D. Hankerson, to interchange her within the upcoming metropolis council elections since she’s term-limited. Realizing that her time in metropolis council was coming to an finish, politicos have been quietly asking her to run on this yr’s excessive profile mayoral race for the final week or two. She declined to make a closing choice about working till after her SOTC handle, stated her workforce.
In her SOTC handle, Adams emphasised a number of of the Metropolis Council’s funding initiatives and packages, equivalent to defending and offering companies for immigrants, creating the state’s first trauma restoration facilities, funding common little one care and early childhood training, supporting Black and Brown entrepreneurs, and issuing a powerful name to “Shut Rikers” Island. Many likened her handle to a top level view of what her priorities as mayor would appear like.
New York Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams held her annual 2025 State of the Metropolis handle at Jazz at Lincoln Heart on Tuesday, Mar. 4. (PHOTO CREDIT: John McCarten and Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit)
“New York Metropolis is greater than one particular person, and our metropolis deserves management that prioritizes its individuals over particular person glory or curiosity,” stated Adams. “We want options greater than slogans, service fairly than saviors, and partnership over patriarchy. The dignity and belief in authorities management has been shaken in our metropolis and it have to be restored. If we stay true to our values and keep united, we is not going to solely overcome the challenges of right now however advance the progress every of us deserves.”
She spoke about her ardour tasks like Metropolis College of New York (CUNY) Reconnect program, which was first established after she proposed the thought in her 2022 SOTC handle, and bettering maternal well being outcomes for expectant moms, which she proposed in 2023. Each packages have been extremely profitable. CUNY Reconnect has helped re-enroll 47,000 college students, nearly all of whom are ladies and other people of colour, and the council’s Bridge Mission, an anti-poverty guaranteed-income program for ladies experiencing housing insecurity, helps 161 mothers and their kids.
Adams additionally unveiled a number of new Metropolis Council proposals in her handle, together with plans to dedicate about $2 million to the growth of seven-day library service to 10 branches, advancing laws to scale back fee delays for city-contracted nonprofits, and lowering bureaucratic boundaries to accessing Metropolis Combating Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Complement (CityFHEPS) vouchers.
Adams fashioned a marketing campaign committee to start taking donations final week, and is now within the throes of petitioning season to gather signatures and get her identify on the poll for June’s main. The final day to flow into petitions is Apr 3, 2025. Her official marketing campaign launch occasion is about for this Saturday.
Different distinguished candidates within the race to unseat Mayor Adams embrace former Governor Andrew Cuomo, Comptroller Brad Lander, former Comptroller Scott Stringer, Assemblymember Zohran Ok. Mamdani, former Assemblymember Michael Blake, and State Senator Zellnor Myrie. There’s just one different feminine candidate within the working, State Senator Jessica Ramos.
Cuomo introduced his run this previous Saturday, a lot to the chagrin of practically each different mayoral candidate. They instantly slammed him for his resignation from workplace in 2021 as a consequence of a barrage of sexual harassment allegations, and criticism that he downplayed COVID dying statistics, particularly in nursing houses, in the course of the pandemic. Regardless of his report, Cuomo is fashionable with many citizens. About 31% of registered Democrats surveyed by Quinnipiac College stated they might vote for him if the first was right now.
“Three and a half years after scandals compelled him to resign as New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo leads a crowded discipline of Democratic mayoral hopefuls with a lift from average Democrats,” stated Quinnipiac College Ballot Assistant Director Mary Snow. “A key quantity to look at: 16 %, the slice of voters who’re undecided as this race positive aspects extra consideration.”
Based on the polling, Mayor Adams acquired 11% of the votes, Mamdani obtained 8%, Stringer obtained 6%, Lander 5%, Ramos and Speaker Adams every acquired 4% help; and Myrie and Blake every obtained 1% of the votes.
