Adams Gives 2023 'State Of The City' Address: Here Are 3 Big Takeaways

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Eric Adams' 2023 "State of the City" address yet again made two things clear: he hates rats and loves three-word catchphrases.

After a year of "Get Stuff Done," Adams on Thursday introduced another pithy summation of what New Yorkers can expect from city government under his leadership: "working people's agenda."

"Today, I want to outline a working people’s agenda, based on the four pillars that uphold a strong and sustainable society: jobs, safety, housing, and care," he said.

The agenda includes sweeping plans to connect 30,000 workers to apprenticeships, award $25 billion in city contracts to businesses owned by minorities and women and provide free health care to people in homeless shelters.

Adams outlined all these plans, and more, over the course of an all-good-vibes hour that appeared to be an effort to find common ground after a sometimes-rocky first year in office.

He chummily highlighted accomplishments and pushes by fellow elected officials, including those such as Council Speaker Adrienne Adams with whom has tangled. At one point, he cheekily made a bold face lie about rodents.

"Most people don't know this about me, but I hate rats," he said, doubtless knowing the entire audience remembers his boozy rat death traps.

So what can New Yorkers expect from the coming year?

Here are some of the biggest takeaways from Adams' second "State of the City" address.

Crime

Fittingly for a former NYPD cop, Adams put crime at the forefront of most of his address.

But Adams' promise to focus on a "recidivism crisis" likely will be controversial. Without saying the words "bail reform," he made clear that he'd push state lawmakers to roll back or significantly tweak such measures.

Roughly 1,700 known offenders are responsible for an outsize share of violent crime in the city, he said.

"This year, we’re going to work with our partners in Albany to find reasonable, evidence-based solutions to this recidivism crisis,” he said. “We all agree that no one should be in jail simply because they cannot afford to post bail. But we should also agree that we cannot allow a small number of violent individuals to continue terrorizing our neighborhoods over and over again."

Advocates have argued data doesn't support assertions that bail reform has driven a spike in crime.

Rezoning Midtown

Midtown is famously a busy neighborhood where few people actually live — and Adams signaled he wants that to change.

Adams expanded on his "moonshot" goal of 500,000 new homes in the next decade by calling to start a new community planning process, or rezoning in Midtown.

"That means creating housing in areas that currently only allow manufacturing and office uses while protecting good jobs in the center of our city’s economy," he said.

Electrifying for-hire vehicles

New Yorkers' Uber and Lyft rides could change dramatically in the coming years.

"We are announcing today that Uber and Lyft will be required to have a zero emission fleet by 2030,” he said. "That's zero emissions for over 100,000 vehicles on our city streets."

Adams said this will be achieved by no new costs for individual drivers, but didn't make clear how exactly that would work.

Environmental protection is another form of public safety, especially for working-class neighborhoods that have been burdened by the pollution from highways and heavy industry, he argued.

He pointed at a recent report of dolphins in the Bronx River as an encouraging sign.

“That’s the future of our city: more dolphins, fewer rats,” he said.