Photo Courtesy of Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
“Without a strong working class, this city cannot survive,” Mayor Adams said on Thursday at the Queens Theatre in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park during his second State of the City address.
By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday outlined a “Working People’s Agenda” in his second State of the City address, delivered at the Queens Theatre in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
Adams’ agenda is built on four pillars that are essential to building a city that meets the needs of working New Yorkers and represent the focus of his administration’s work in 2023: jobs, safety, housing, and care.
Jobs
Under the Working People’s Agenda, the Adams administration has promised to:
- Create a new Nursing Education Initiative, in partnership with the City University of New York (CUNY), to support 30,000 current and aspiring nurses over the next five years to enter the nursing workforce, stay in the profession, and climb the career ladder;
- Double the city’s current rate of contracting with minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs) and award $25 billion in contracts to M/WBEs over the next four years and $60 billion over the next eight years;
- Launch the new Center for Workplace Accessibility and Inclusion – a dedicated team that will connect 2,500 people with disabilities to jobs, help employers make their workplaces more accessible, and continue the mission of helping New Yorkers living with disabilities thrive in the workplace and every other aspect of city life;
- Expand the CUNY2x Tech program to more campuses – including community colleges – with a focus on institutions serving first-generation college students and communities of color;
- Help 36,000 economically disadvantaged workers and residents of high-poverty communities – including 8,000 construction workers and 28,000 service contract workers – connect to good jobs every year by working with city partners in Albany to finally empower New York City to require companies with city contracts to hire local community members;
- Support the city’s growing legal cannabis industry by launching a new loan fund to help more New Yorkers impacted by the ‘War on Drugs’ start new businesses, while increasing enforcement against unlicensed establishments undermining the legal industry;
- Give every child the support they need to read at or above grade level, building on the success of supplying every elementary school with a phonics-based curriculum rooted in the science of reading by ensuring every school has at least one staff member trained in literacy-based interventions, launching the first district school in city history dedicated solely to supporting students with dyslexia, and making dyslexia screenings available in every public school in New York City;
- Establish a whole-child approach to education that includes social-emotional learning, rolling out a pioneering student mental health program with telehealth care for every public high school student, community-based counseling for those who need additional support, daily breathing and mindfulness exercises, and expanded nutrition education standards and plant-powered school menus; and
- Ensure every child graduates high school with a clear pathway for the future – whether that is a job, job training, or continuing education, provide up to 35,000 middle school students in the Summer Rising program with career exposure and college visits, empowering LGBTQ+ youth through a new Summer Youth Employment Program Pride initiative that places students in truly supportive work opportunities, and expanding FutureReadyNYC to 90 schools and 7,000 students to provide a reimagined high school experience with early college and career-connected learning programs.
Safety and Quality of Life
Under the Working People’s Agenda, the Adams administration has pledged to:
- Supplement the city’s focus on the most violent offenders by redoubling efforts to protect New Yorkers from robberies and burglaries – including increasing the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) crime prevention units’ focus on retail theft and working with business owners and business improvement districts on proactive solutions to prevent shoplifting;
- Expand the community response teams to operate at the borough level and address everything from ghost license plates to noise complaints and property crimes;
- Continue the fight against gun violence by expanding neighborhood safety teams to additional neighborhoods, investing in more violence-prevention programs in neighborhoods with the highest concentration of violent crime, and launching a new Neighborhood Safety Alliance – a partnership between local precincts, service providers, and community leaders in many of these same neighborhoods;
- Increase the number of NYPD tow trucks to address the growing number of abandoned or illegally parked cars blocking traffic and visibility, help keep delivery zones and bus and bike lanes clear, and crack down on illegal placards and placard abuse;
- Bring CompStat meetings to the community level and give New Yorkers direct access to a version of these meetings for the first time, allowing them to interact directly with local and citywide NYPD leaders;
- Build on efforts to electrify the city vehicle fleet by requiring the 100,000-plus high-volume for-hire vehicles to do the same – requiring them, with the support of Uber and Lyft, to be zero-emissions by 2030, with no new costs for individual drivers;
- Appoint a new director of the public realm to coordinate across city government, community organizations, and the private sector to ensure we invest in public spaces citywide;
- Work with the City Council to build on the massive success of the pandemic-era temporary Open Restaurants program and deliver a permanent program that actually works for businesses and residents in all five boroughs;
- Unveil an updated PlaNYC in April with even more of our sustainability agenda, including new data on how our food choices impact the environment; and
- Launch a new climate budgeting process – making New York City the first big city in the nation to adopt the approach of aligning financial resources with our sustainability and resiliency goals.
Housing
The Adams administration has pledged to:
- Help New Yorkers stay in their homes by investing $22 million in tenant protection programs to provide more staff dedicated to investigating and enforcing against bad landlords, creating stronger partnerships with community groups and legal services providers to protect tenants from being pushed out of rent-regulated apartments and cracking down on landlords who discriminate against tenants based on their source of income;
- Expand the Big Apple Connect program to reach even more New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments with free broadband and TV for tens of thousands of New Yorkers;
- Provide free broadband access to households with Section 8 vouchers with a new pilot program in the Bronx and Northern Manhattan;
- Continue putting money directly in New Yorkers’ pockets – including $350 million through the expanded Earned Income Tax credit – with an historic expansion of the city’s free tax preparation program in coordination with schools, houses of worship, NYCHA, and community partners to process an additional 26,000 returns next year and save New Yorkers an additional $14.3 million in filing fees and refunds;
- Broaden access to other public benefits like unemployment insurance, Medicaid, or SNAP by cutting unnecessary red tape and expanding benefit screenings so New Yorkers get every dollar they deserve; and
- Pursue legislation allowing New Yorkers to keep public benefits for up to six months after they accept a new job, easing the transition to financial independence.
Care
Under the Working People’s Agenda, the Adams administration said it will:
- Continue to address women’s health by hosting an all-hands-on-deck summit in March and putting forward initiatives that will help improve Black maternal mortality while also improving the birthing experience for all New Yorkers, in addition to unveiling a comprehensive women’s agenda in the coming months; and
- Fight the crises of obesity and chronic disease by investing in access to healthier food for lower-income New Yorkers, relaunching the Groceries 2 Go program, and expanding Health Bucks.
“Without a strong working class, this city cannot survive. That’s why, today, I’ve outlined how we plan to build a city for working people, one that is more affordable, safer, cleaner, and more livable,” Adams said.
