Photos credit: Isseu Diouf Campbell
On April 26, 2022, with pictures of his late mother Dorothy Mae Adams-Streeter and the first Black mayor of New York City, David Dinkins, by his side, new mayor Eric Adams outlined his vision for New York City for all in his first State of the City address, delivered at the historic Kings Theatre in Brooklyn.
In the speech, the mayor reviewed key achievements of the Adams administration from his first 100 days in office and previewed a range of his ambitious plans to promote an equitable recovery, lift the youth, invest in 21st-century infrastructure, and create a safer and more just city.
He also unveiled a balanced, $99.7 billion fiscal year 2023 (FY23) executive budget, which combines upstream investments with fiscally responsible measures, including budget reserves at $6.3 billion — the highest level in city history.
CREATING A SAFER AND MORE JUST CITY
Mayor Adams announced additional resources for the Subway Safety Plan, including $55 million in FY23 to expand the Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division (B-HEARD) initiative — which deploys mental health professionals instead of law enforcement to respond in certain cases to people experiencing mental health crises — to Central Brooklyn, Eastern Queens, and currently uncovered areas in the South Bronx. The administration also plans to propose $171 million in FY23 to add 1,400 new Safe Haven and stabilization beds by mid-2023 to help unsheltered New Yorkers transition off the streets and out of the subway system into more stable housing.
PROMOTING AN EQUITABLE RECOVERY
More than 800,000 families will benefit from the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) increase, supported in part by a $250 million annual commitment by the city. And last month, the mayor unveiled his “Renew, Rebuild, Reinvent: A Blueprint for New York City’s Economic Recovery,” which proposes 70 concrete initiatives to revitalize the city’s economy and get New Yorkers back to work.
Mayor Adams announced a major new partnership with Taconic and DivcoWest, together with New York University, to bring new space to 455 First Avenue that will support cutting-edge research, entrepreneurial training programs, and workforce development. The city is also working to bring new space online at the Alexandria Center, completing the last of three life sciences towers that have anchored the industry for over a decade. Together, these two projects will nearly double lab space in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, helping cement it as a major hub for the life science industry in New York City.
In addition, the administration is committing $140 million in capital funds beginning in FY23 for the Hunts Point Produce Market, which supplies 25 percent of the city’s fresh produce. The funding, another key component of the economic blueprint, will help improve the surrounding infrastructure and neighborhood parks at the facility. Mayor Adams also announced $5 million in FY23 to help the City University of New York train students for the most in-demand skills and connect them to good jobs at companies that are hiring, including high-growth sectors like life sciences, the green economy, technology, and advanced manufacturing.
LIFTING UP OUR YOUTH
In addition to committing $4 billion toward expanding affordable childcare for New Yorkers, new city tax incentives authorized by the state will spur the creation of up to 17,000 new child care seats in New York City.
In order to ensure child care is affordable and accessible for working families in New York City, Mayor Adams announced that new rates will go into effect in June that will dramatically reduce the fees that eligible families currently pay for subsidized care. The administration is also committed to reducing the bureaucratic hurdles families face when seeking child care, which is why Mayor Adams also revealed that the first major application of the mayor’s proposed “MyCity” platform will be a single, unified application process for all subsidized child care options offered by the city.
Children of all ages in the city have been significantly impacted by the disruptions stemming from COVID-19. As New York City students continue to struggle with learning loss due to the pandemic, Mayor Adams is committing $101 million in FY23 for summer activities for 10,000 more K-12 students in the Summer Rising program, which provides hands-on summer learning and enrichment courses to strengthen students’ academic, social, and emotional skills. This investment brings the number of slots funded by New York City Department of Youth and Community Development to 110,000, for a total program capacity of 210,000 slots.
As someone who struggled with an undiagnosed learning disability, Mayor Adams is also committed to giving students with learning disabilities the tools they need to succeed. He unveiled an unprecedented investment of $7.4 million in FY23 to fund new dyslexia screening sites and literacy programs. Mayor Adams also announced $33 million for the New York City Department of Education to launch new career pathways programs starting this September focused on high-growth sectors like health care and technology.
INVESTING IN 21ST-CENTURY INFRASTRUCTURE
Mayor Adams announced a historic investment of $904 million over five years — nearly $580 million in capital funding, as well as expense funding that ramps up to more than $65 million annually, or $327 million over five years — to advance the goals laid out in the “NYC Streets Plan” and rapidly build out critical street safety and public transportation infrastructure.
Accessing affordable, quality housing consistently ranks among New Yorkers’ top concerns. That is why Mayor Adams announced that the city is making the largest-ever commitment to housing in the city’s history. The FY23 executive budget proposes $5 billion in capital funding to promote the creation and preservation of affordable housing. This includes investing in the New York City Housing Authority Permanent Affordability Commitment Together program, as well as funding major in-unit repairs at Gowanus Houses and Wyckoff Gardens that Mayor Adams advocated for as Brooklyn borough president.
Mayor Adams’ FY23 executive budget provides $488 million in capital funding for park improvement projects, including planting 20,000 trees annually in the coming years to reduce citywide heat vulnerability, enhancing and adding new greenways in Brooklyn and Queens and rehabilitating critical infrastructure, including pools. This new investment — combined with other funding to enhance and expand green space across the city — represents a down payment on the mayor’s “One Percent for Parks” pledge and showcases his commitment to parks equity.
Mayor Adams ended his speech reminding New Yorkers what his mother used to tell him: “you got this. We got this. We will make it happen.”
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