Mayor Eric Adams testifies before the New York State Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committees in Albany | Photo by Benny Polatseck | Mayoral Photography Office
New York City is all about what is possible. It’s where you can start a business, raise a family, and make a difference. Our administration came into the office to keep that American Dream alive by protecting public safety, rebuilding our economy, and making our city more livable for New Yorkers. I went to our state capital last week to further that vision.
We laid out an agenda to advance working-class families by extending the mayoral accountability of our public schools for four years, granting the city the authority to shut down illegal smoke shops and creating more affordable housing. Finally, we outlined the city’s fiscal challenges, including state funding for asylum seekers and increasing New York City’s debt limit.
New York City public schools are leading the way in New York State and nationwide because of mayoral accountability. Thanks to mayoral accountability, we launched New York City Reads, a nation-leading curriculum that teaches our kids the fundamentals of reading. This is more than a curriculum change — it is a reading revolution. And Governor Hochul announced that she is following our model and bringing our approach to every school district statewide. We also became the first city in the country to screen every child for dyslexia to make sure no child falls through the cracks like I almost did as a young, undiagnosed dyslexic child.
Mayoral accountability allowed us to deliver on countless wins: gifted and talented programs in every neighborhood, full-time mental health professionals for every school, outpacing the state in reading and math while closing racial disparities, and more. Before mayoral accountability, high school graduation rates stagnated at 50 percent — now over 80 percent. Again, all of this is possible because of mayoral accountability. If Albany fails to extend mayoral accountability, we risk seeing test scores and graduation rates fall back.
Additionally, New Yorkers should be able to walk down our streets without worrying about illegal smoke shops selling cannabis to our children. 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. We asked Albany to grant us the authority to inspect and permanently shut down these shops.
“Our administration came into the office to keep that American Dream alive by protecting public safety, rebuilding our economy, and making our city more livable for New Yorkers. I went to our state capital last week to further that vision.”
Rebuilding our economy means creating homes that working-class New Yorkers can afford. Our administration is playing our part and becoming a City of Yes — “yes” to building more in our backyards, neighborhoods, and everywhere else. Now, Albany needs to play its part. We are calling for a new affordable housing tax incentive, a pathway to legalize safe, existing basement and cellar apartments, incentives for office conversions, and lifting the cap on density for new construction. These measures will enable us to build more affordable homes that working-class New Yorkers urgently need.
Finally, New York City proudly upholds our legacy as a city of immigrants. And we are proud that we have demonstrated leadership and compassion when so many others showed only cruelty. We have helped tens of thousands file Temporary Protected Status, asylum, and work authorization applications, bringing them closer to living a more stable life. However, right now, there are more than 66,000 asylum seekers still in the city’s care.
When you add in the over 55,000 longtime New Yorkers in the city’s care, we have close to three times the number of people in our shelter system than when we came into office. While we appreciate the governor’s commitment last year to cover one-third of the city’s asylum seeker costs, this was based on the premise that the city, the state, and the federal government would split the costs three ways. We are again asking the state to increase its commitment and cover at least 50 percent of New Yorkers’ costs. Then, to meet ongoing capital needs, we are asking the state to increase the city’s debt capacity. These financial investments will allow us to continue investing in cleaner streets and welcoming public spaces that benefit all New Yorkers.
Our administration looks forward to turning our agenda into reality and working with our colleagues in Albany to improve the lives of everyday New Yorkers now and for generations to come.
