As the speaker of the New York City Council, Adrienne Adams’s annual State of the City address would typically be seen as a blueprint for the Council’s agenda in the coming year.
But her speech on Tuesday carried far more weight.
She is expected to make a final decision this week, but signs seem to be pointing to her jumping in the race. She is assembling a campaign team and participated this weekend in a screening for the endorsement of Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, an influential city union.
Even if she doesn’t run, her vision for New York City also carried added importance given the diminished influence of Mayor Eric Adams; under Ms. Adams’s leadership, the Council has overridden the mayor’s vetoes on critical criminal justice measures.
She told the crowd gathered at Lincoln Center that her agenda reflects her style of collaborative and community-facing leadership, a model that can be “scaled for greater impact” by those who control the levers of power.
“Throughout my time in office, I’ve been labeled a ‘moderate’ in people’s attempt to make sense of who I am. But my focus has always been public service, which has no political label,” Ms. Adams said, according to an advance copy of her speech. “How we gauge policy solutions should be based on their effectiveness in improving the lives of New Yorkers.”