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Mayor’s Proposals: The City of Yes or Not Really?

By Nayabe Arinde
Editor at Large
To hear Mayor Eric Adams Nirvana is coming to a city block near you soon.
A sea of different groups rallying against him last week loudly disagreed as he delivered his State of the City address at the Apollo Theater. With a choir and a drumline and plenty of Brooklyn flair, the Brownsville-born, Queens-raised, Manhattan-residing elected delivered his State of the City address. Muiti-issue protesters joined the shut Rikers protestors as they gathered and heckled outside the famed theater.
Mayor Adams said he was aware of the grievances, offering, “We want to close Rikers, yes, but we have to close the damn pipeline that feeds Rikers.”
City Council Speaker Adriene Adams analyzed Adams’ hyper-produced address.
“Building an affordable and equitable city, where all New Yorkers can successfully raise a family, must be a shared goal throughout our government…The reality is that too many families are departing the city they love. Our city’s Black population has declined by nearly 200,000 people over the past two decades due to the rising cost of living and a lack of affordable homeownership opportunities.
Black and Latino New Yorkers are leaving our city at disproportionately high rates, and families with young children are twice as likely to leave than those with no children. In order for our city to stem the exodus of working- and middle-class families, the scale of the Administration’s actions and investments must match this stated priority.”
To halt the suburb-bound flow of NYC families, the Mayor announced the launch of the City of Yes for Families, which could include “800 units of housing alongside a brand new library on the Upper West Side.”
New York City “is finally becoming a City of Yes,” proclaimed Adams. “We shattered affordable housing records for the second year in a row and unlocked billions of dollars for public housing.”
Speaker Adams continued, “This Council has always championed solutions for our working families – from fighting for early childhood education to more affordable housing and homeownership opportunities and expanding economic and educational opportunities – but far too often, we’ve faced resistance from the Administration when it comes time to negotiate the budget. We will continue to work with all stakeholders to achieve these priorities for our city and will also hold the Administration accountable to delivering for New Yorkers.”
Mayor Adams said he is creating “2,000 new mixed-income homes at 100 Gold Street, where many of our city staff work today. We’ve already introduced five neighborhood plans to build up to 50,000 homes from Brooklyn to the Bronx.”
As for homelessness, Adams said that he is using “new teams that brought together law enforcement and nurses. We helped more than 8,000 New Yorkers…move off our subway system into shelters.”
Critics were ready.
“He said he took 8,000 people off the streets and put them where? In new homes? No in shelters, where there are already 130,000 plus families, and of that, there are 146,000 school children. That’s a disgrace,” former City Council and Assemblyman Charles Barron told Our Time Press, “They have more people living in shelters now than ever before under Eric Adams.”
In an effort to keep the subway safe, he praised his “ambitious $650 million investment to tackle street homelessness in New York City,” including 900 new Safe Haven beds and “a new housing facility just for unsheltered New Yorkers with serious mental illness.”
Praising his City of Yes with $5 billion for housing and infrastructure, Adams thanked what he called “an unprecedented coalition of advocates, councilmembers and city agencies.”
Barron continued, “I am still trying to find this fantasy city that he was talking about where crime and homelessness are down, and the city is safe, and they’re building more affordable housing, and everybody is living happily.
He also said he had extended his life expectancy to 83 years old. Tell that to Jordan Neeley, whose killer you complimented–the racist marine who choked him to death on a subway train. He didn’t make it to 83; he was 30 years old.”
Adams told the Apollo Theater audience that he had tasked Police Commissioner Jesica Tisch with keeping riders safe and feeling “comfortable riding our subway–we’re starting by adding hundreds of new police officers to our subway system later this month.”
Barron is undeterred, telling Our Time Press, “Mayor Adams talked about a city that does not exist. We have high crime rates all over the city. We have a $112 billion budget, and he did nothing to eradicate poverty.
He said we have millions of jobs, but it didn’t trickle down to the hood. We have double-digit unemployment in every Black and brown neighborhood. He cut vital services to all city agencies when we had a surplus in the budget.”
The Mayor said his administration “cut Black and Latino unemployment by more than 20 percent,” and “the JobsNYC new website connected nearly 8,500 New Yorkers to jobs and job training.”
The 3-year NYC Mayor talked about how he would authorize “investing in our young people. We know that if we do not educate, we will incarcerate…This year, we began a $163 million expansion of five of our most successful programs that engage young people who need extra help.”
Barron challenged, “Mayor Adams brought back Giuliani’s racist Street Crime Unit; 95% of all the people they arrested and stopped and frisked were Black and brown. Eric Adams brought back solitary confinement. He got the City Council to pass the City of Yes, a pro-real estate policy that allows them to build housing that is not affordable to us.
Half the City Council and the Community Boards voted against it. Then, he is trying to manipulate the Black vote by having it in Harlem, which he has done nothing for. With its double-digit unemployment and gentrification and the crime rate. I don’t think he got over.”
Adams asserted “a $485 million action plan to prevent gun violence. Over the past three years, we have driven murders and shootings down by double digits and padlocked more than 1,300 illegal smoke shops.”
Gleefully, Adams cheered on his $5 billion ‘City of Yes’ housing initiative, which aims to create 80,000 new homes in the next decade and a half.
So, the City says it is building affordable housing. But affordable to whom?
For example, not uncommon, the Housing Lottery has $125,000 as a minimum qualifying salary consideration for 150 Noll Housing in Bushwick.
Could this be the City of No, not really, then?
Determined to check every angle, Barron said, “The City of Yes is really the City of Nahh. It is the developers’ proposal that will increase their profit. It is not a people-friendly proposal. It will create gentrification in our neighborhoods.
“He is really not thinking about the working class population. The Mayor should do the same, but he is considering his re-election and real estate cronies.”
Adams said he is striving to create a “safer, more affordable city for working-class people, especially those raising a family, all across the five boroughs.”