Mayor Eric Adams will present his fourth State of the City speech Thursday at the historic Apollo Theater in Harlem, attempting to highlight his administration’s wins even as he faces a federal corruption trial.
As he’s teased over the last few weeks, Adams is expected to focus on public safety and housing affordability, as he has in the past.
“This is a promises made, promises delivered administration!” Adams posted to social media on Tuesday, noting that he vowed last year to advance 24 affordable-housing projects on public land. City Hall ended 2024 with 26 projects.
The mayor, who faces a crowded primary election in June but has not done much official campaigning, urged New Yorkers raising families to “tune in” to the midday event.
Meanwhile, at a public safety stats briefing Monday, Adams touted what he said was a reduction in crime since he took office, although police data shows overall crime has gone up since 2022.
He also addressed the “perception” of a crime-ridden city with recent high-profile crimes, including a woman burned to death on a subway in Coney Island and another man badly injured after he was shoved in front of a moving subway in Chelsea.
“I was clear from day one, not only on the campaign trail, but when I became mayor, the prerequisite to our prosperity is public safety, and I was committed to driving down crime,” he said. “And we know in these last few weeks, there have been some horrific incidents that really left New Yorkers shaken and believing as though they can’t be safe in their city. We’re the safest big city in America.”
Housing and the hazards of social media for young people were the focus of his State of the City speech last year, held at Hostos Community College in The Bronx, where he also emphasized public safety.
But the stakes are higher than ever ahead of the final State of the City address of his first term.
Adams is a few months away from his federal corruption trial, which is set to begin April 21, and a Democratic primary election to keep his job on June 24.
Other members of the Adams administration also face federal indictments: His former chief advisor and longtime aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin was indicted in mid-December alongside her son and two other defendants on corruption and bribery charges. In October, federal prosecutors charged Mohamed Bahi, an Adams aide, with interfering in their probe of potential straw donations into the 2021 campaign
Adams’s former chief of department at the NYPD, his longtime friend Jeffrey Maddrey, was accused before Christmas by a subordinate of exchanging sex for overtime approval. Maddrey’s home was also raided by federal authorities in early January – as well as countless other people tied to Adams who have had their homes raided by the feds.
Adams has steadfastly insisted he can do his job, even as he faces these challenges.
“I still have to deal with the everyday issues, affordability, housing, public safety, educating children, and revitalizing our economy,” he told WABC-TV host Bill Ritter late last month.
“And that’s what I must focus on and allow the reviewers [and] investigators to determine what happened and the unknowns, particularly those that I’m not aware of.”
