Adrienne Adams, the City Council Speaker and a candidate in the June 2025 Democratic primary for Mayor, spoke with The New York Editorial Board on the morning of June 10, 2025. (photo via the Adams campaign)

Participating journalists: Nicole Gelinas, Josh Greenman, Ben Max, Akash Mehta, Myles Miller, Harry Siegel, Ben Smith, Liena Zagare.

Full Transcript

State of the Party, State of the Race

Ben Smith
We rely on the consent of the people we cover in some ways to engage with us, and we really appreciate your coming in. Harry, do you want to kick it off?

Harry Siegel
Let’s start with politics. Polls show every candidate in the Democratic primary right now, except for Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani, including yourself, is in single digits. Those two are someone who the party pushed out as governor not even four years ago and an avowed socialist. A few questions here. What does that say about the state of the Democratic Party? What’s your theory of the case about how you’re going to win this race? And are you committed to supporting the Democratic nominee in November?

Adrienne Adams
Ooh. The state of the Democratic Party, I think that the state of politics for New York right now for the Democratic Party is really an amazing litmus test for the Democratic Party across the nation. In just my humble opinion, just observing the movement of the Democratic Party, the way that we see things going in Washington, the way that we see the impact across the board when it comes to our elected officials for Congress, and the Senate, and the last election, dare I even mention that at this table.

For New York, for those of us now embarking on leadership in the city of New York, obviously the party is fragmented, confused, looking for the sweet spot. So it’s difficult, as a candidate in this race, and I can tell you by talking to New Yorkers, it’s difficult. People don’t really know and again, mirroring the last presidential race, the lesser of two evils if you will. I think that it is very much holding up the mirror to national politics, looking at this mayoral race right now. We’ve got a former governor that has a very obvious history, it’s well-documented that the impeachment was coming had he not resigned on his own. And we have the second runner-up, an Assemblymember learning about the Assembly but the people wanting a change in another different way.

Josh Greenman
Can I ask you about that — you were an Eric Adams endorser and he represents, I think it’s fair to say, a type of politics that probably in this election right now is being carried in this primary by Governor Cuomo in many ways. They have very similar politics. How is it that you seem to be more open to a Mayor Mamdani than a Mayor Cuomo given that it would seem that your politics, as a person who supported Eric Adams the first time around, would appear to be more aligned with Cuomo’s?

Adrienne Adams
I don’t know if I’m quote-unquote aligned with any one person. I guess I’m going to differ a bit with that. If we’re talking about politics, and I agree with you that Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams are the same sides of the same coin. We could even include scandal with that coin, because both of them are coming to New Yorkers bringing scandal to New Yorkers.

Josh Greenman
You talked about the friction inside the Democratic Party, and they both represent the more moderate wing of the party, I think it’s fair to say, on policing, on fiscal issues, et cetera. You made a more moderate choice in 2021, when Maya Wiley was out there, when other people were out there. So why is that not your instinct, to be closer to Cuomo this time around, when you seem to be gravitating more toward Mamdani?

Adrienne Adams
OK. I understand the question a little bit better now. So, my politics haven’t changed. It is the candidate that has changed my mind about the candidate, not the politics part of it. The politics part of it is still the same. I still believe in my own politics. My politics are still aligned where they’ve always been. But now we’ve got candidates with questionable motives, questionable background. My politics haven’t changed. I don’t have an alignment politically with Zohran Mamdani. There’s not an alignment there with his politics. We’re still very different, politically, but it’s the candidates that have changed. Not my politics.

Akash Mehta
You were AOC's second choice. You are on the Working Families Party’s slate. Beyond Mamdani, how would you describe where you fit in the broader battle between the progressive wing of the party as exemplified by AOC and WFP, and Cuomo and [Eric] Adams?

Adrienne Adams
Again, my politics are still the same — aligned the same way that they’ve always been for the 10 years in the City Council. The legislation that we’ve passed in the City Council have been progressive, and it’s because the legislation has been good, and good for everybody. So I don’t necessarily put myself in that kind of a box because I know what my politics are, they’re still the same. But when it comes to the best policy for everybody, that’s where I perhaps jump out of the box and make it work for everybody.

Akash Mehta
If an Adrienne Adams supporter asked you on the street outside, "I’m ranking you first, but should I, lower down my ballot, rank Cuomo or Mamdani?" What would you advise them?

Adrienne Adams
I would advise them, number one, to go with their conscience. I’m not going to– Everybody’s politics is individual. It’s on an individual spectrum, and I would ask for folks to consider all of the candidates and how an Adrienne Adams supporter knows me, converse with them in that way. Do you know me from— how long do you know me from just now or whatever. We'd have that conversation, and then I would say, "What candidate do you feel best lines up with what we’ve just spoken about?” That’s where I would advise the voters.

Akash Metha
You previously said “rank the slate,” about the WFP slate. Is that still your position?

Adrienne Adams
I still believe in ranking the slate. That is to honor the endorsement of that slate, and that's the reason.

Ben Smith
Do you think the ranked-choice thing has wound up serving an experienced, reasonably well-known candidate badly? It wound up allowing everybody to rally behind Mamdani, making it hard for you to criticize Mamdani, making it seem like, “ah, vote for Mamdani.” In retrospect, does the ranked choice thing hurt moderate candidates?

Adrienne Adams
I don’t know if it hurts, but it makes things different for sure. I don’t apologize for being old-school. I’m still getting used to the ranked-choice thing, also, in how to express it. I’m not really critical of it because I think that it has helped for folks to exercise their vote even wider, in a wider perspective, even in a more democratic perspective, if we want to look at it that way also. I’m not going to really be critical of it, but it is challenging for some folks like me. There is the positive, of course, in that people feel that, “what if this person just has some of my views and not all of them, then where do I go from there?” Ranked choice allows everybody to explore all of those.

Ben Smith
You were so careful, gentle, before when you said there’s one guy who’s still learning a little bit about the Assembly. It was so gentle. Do you feel like the system discourages you from drawing distinctions with other candidates?

Adrienne Adams
Perhaps. But I do want to be fair to everyone in this race, I want to be fair to the reasons people got into this race. I don’t want to deny anybody the opportunity to lead, and to do what they feel is best for this city, because heaven knows that we do need a change in leadership.

Josh Greenman
City Council speakers have struggled in running for mayor in the past. We’ve had Chris Quinn, we’ve had Gifford Miller, we’ve had many other people who’ve attempted. Peter Vallone.

Adrienne Adams
Corey Johnson. Who changed his mind! Sorry, Corey. You know you did.

Accomplishments as Speaker

Josh Greenman
Maybe part of the reason for that is because it’s difficult — just like it is for a Speaker of the House or a Senate Majority Leader — to communicate to voters what it is that they’ve done as Council Speaker. What would you say are your biggest legacies? One or two of the biggest things that you believe that you accomplished as Council speaker, apart from the initiative of the mayor?

Adrienne Adams
Oh my gosh. There’s so much that has been accomplished through this City Council, and I’m going to brag because it’s the first women-majority, most diverse City Council. We’ve taken a whole lot of issues and brought them into the forefront that people never wanted to talk about or think about, or work on. I’ll say my favorite has to be CUNY Reconnect, my initiative where we brought students that have some CUNY credits back into CUNY schools. It was a part of my State of the City and promised about three years ago or so. It harkens back to when I was growing up. My dad drove a truck for UPS during the day, and he went to York College at night and we were actually at York College at the same time. I was going to York College in the day, and it wasn’t cool to go to school when your dad was going to school, but—

Josh Greenman
Rodney Dangerfield.

Adrienne Adams
There you go. Old school. So CUNY Reconnect is where students are brought back in because they had to leave school for any reason, be it to take care of a parent or a child or they had some kind of an issue in their life. So, we started out with providing $1.5 million to that initiative about three years ago. I thought maybe I’d get maybe 14,000 students re-enrolled. We have almost 50,000 students re-enrolled right now, thousands of whom have graduated already and have become a part of the economic engine for New York City. This is what thinking out of the box does.

This is what I intend to do as mayor, expand on a lot of this good work that I’ve done as speaker. I’ve also created the first guaranteed basic income program as a pilot. That’s happening right now. I want to expand on that. We have 161 women who either are currently pregnant or who have just had children, previously in homeless shelters, that have been given a stipend for a three-year period. It’s something that we’re doing with Bridge Project. These are women that have come out of domestic violence situations, other situations, that have left them homeless. Sixty-three percent of those women now have moved out of homeless shelter into permanent housing. This is something that is doable to prevent homelessness, to prevent child poverty. I’m already doing this work. I want to expand this as mayor onto providing this stipend to families with children age zero to five, for homeless youth, 15 to 24 years old, and youth aging out of foster care as well. This is doable with funding from City Council and from private funding as well.

Again, this is thinking out of the box. This is some of the creativity that I’ve brought to the Council under my leadership, work that I intend to expand as mayor. I always talk about the housing stuff. I talk about fighting the mayor when it comes to his budget cuts and saving pre-K and 3-K, and culturals, and libraries. That’s all true. I’ve done that. But it’s the other stuff also that doesn’t really get as much of the chatter that I would like for it to get. Those accomplishments are golden, and this is doable for New York.

Handling Protests, President Trump, and Policing

Liena Zagare
I’m curious how you think the [Los Angeles] protests will affect the race, and what would you do if you were in [Mayor] Karen Bass’s position?

Adrienne Adams
Oh, my gosh. Karen Bass and I sat down about two, three years ago and had breakfast somewhere here. I think that it’s deplorable that these protests have now been turned into manufactured warfare on people that are being arrested because of their status here. What I will do as mayor is to fight. Of course, I’m fighting now as speaker with Donald Trump. New York City cannot become a political target for this chaotic Trump administration. We have to use all of the tools that we have. The main one, and the one that I’m using right now in New York City, is our legal system. The legal system in battling Donald Trump has been very effective, and I believe that is our most prominent tool for New York to continue to use that, if and when we have to.

Josh Greenman
Is there any other way, besides going to court?

Adrienne Adams
Well, there are some ways that are just not preventable, and I think that’s the most effective. It’s proven right now in working against the chaos and the bedlam that he’s causing right now. I would absolutely lean on that one first, because it’s working.

Ben Max
Are there ways that a mayor has to manage protests differently to not open a door for a Trump to come in with the National Guard or the Marines? I don’t know how much into the weeds of the details you are of what’s happening in L.A., but just even what we’ve seen some in New York City, all the time we see protests for different things. Are there ways a mayor and a police department and the rest of city government need to manage protests differently?

Adrienne Adams
I think that the NYPD has learned a lot over the years when it comes to protests and managing protests. I said earlier this morning, I trust them 1,000 percent in protecting New York City and protecting protestors right now. So, I would lean on that, on our police force. I would lean on my police commissioner to know her police force and know how to protect us.

Ben Smith
Nicole, I think that segues into public safety questions.

Nicole Gelinas
I was going to ask, on the issue of the protests, do you think that federal agents should be able to do their job without being impeded by people blocking the federal building, blocking the roadway, blocking the federal vehicles? In other words, is there a place for people to directly impede them or should this happen in court?

Adrienne Adams
I think that the public has every right to peacefully protest.

Nicole Gelinas
Does that include blocking a federal vehicle that’s carrying migrants? Where does that line between peaceful and endangering federal employees start?

Adrienne Adams
I don’t think that blocking a vehicle is a violent movement, particularly when federal agents, I believe a lot of them are armed for their own safety, but for an individual, anyone walking down the street that sees a vehicle or whatever, their safety would have to be protected as well. As I’m talking, this, their safety would have to be protected, as long as they’re not harming themselves or other folks. I feel that everybody has the right to protest and express themselves.

Josh Greenman
I just want to go back to you saying you trust the NYPD 1,000 percent on managing the protests. We’ve seen what happened in Columbia [University]. There were a lot of criticisms about how they behaved in Columbia.

Adrienne Adams
Deployment.

Josh Greenman
We’ve seen a lot of questions about kettling and other kinds of practices that they’ve used, and some of which they’ve repudiated and changed and some of which they haven’t.

Adrienne Adams
That’s right. Training’s changed.

Josh Greenman
So, why 1,000 percent?

Adrienne Adams
Again, deployment is really, really key. I don’t believe that the exercise at Columbia in deployment was handled correctly. I think that it was traumatizing to students at Columbia. There were other ways to handle the situation, other than bringing in— To me, it looked like tanks. It looked like war that we were bringing against Columbia University and its students. So deployment there I think was an issue. The kettling, again, I mentioned training and restructuring. I believe that under this current commissioner that a bit of the culture has changed and training has changed for the betterment of the police force and of New York citizens. Yes, I do believe that currently right now, I trust NYPD to do the job that they’re there to do.

Myles Miller
Are you interested in keeping Jessica Tisch [as NYPD commissioner]? Are you interested in any other kind of candidates for that?

Adrienne Adams
Yes, I’m open. I think that Commissioner Tisch has been doing a very good job, but as mayor, I’m going to take a look at staffing appropriately when the time comes.

Myles Miller
I think people may look at 2020 as a place where the City Council cut a billion dollars from the NYPD budget. Your focus is on adding 2,400 new officers. How do you square that decision to add new officers when there’s a significant cut, which a lot of people in the department attribute to folks leaving the department? That was a time where folks started to get that idea to start to leave the department, which helped to decimate the ranks.

Adrienne Adams
Yes, timing. We’re looking back on 2020. We were still in a pandemic. We were masked up. Several agencies' budgets took a haircut. NYPD was not the only agency that took a haircut. The Council took a haircut that year. The former mayor wanted to cut us, almost half of the funding, and we went with it. Budget negotiations were very, very tough and very tight. Specifically with the NYPD in 2020, negotiations were ongoing. So, they were aware of what was going on and we were all trying to make the best out of a bad situation because New York, we were really underwater. As far as our budget was concerned, we were in bad shape. Again, NYPD was not the only agency that had to take a haircut. Several agencies did. How do we square that right now? We have a vacancy of 2,400 in the NYPD right now. We need to fill those vacancies. The way that we do that, in my opinion, is that we pay police officers what they're worth. We’re losing police officers very early on, on the job right now. Two years, three years, four years, because they can’t afford to-- It’s not a living wage for them here.

Myles Miller
One more question on public safety. You have a daughter who’s an EMT.

Adrienne Adams
Paramedic. Thank you.

Myles Miller
Paramedic. Excuse me, sorry. Yes, sorry. I don't want to get in trouble with that one! Do you think you’ve done enough on [pay] parity? You and Justin Brannan have been sounding the alarm on parity, but to sound the alarm and there still not be a change — what would you do as mayor when it comes to parity?

Adrienne Adams
So frustrating. As mayor, again, another priority, priority number 17,052, there has got to be parity for FDNY EMS and paramedics, the majority of whom are women of color that are working to put food on the table, much like my own daughter who works around the clock a lot of times, and still leans on mommy and daddy, you know, to feed her teenagers. it’s a real thing. When I say I’m a real New Yorker, I don’t say it just to have it said, because I do live that life of an everyday New Yorker, and having to help my poor adult children and make sure that their children are OK, in the same home that we’ve been in for 35 years and have raised those children now. As mayor, absolutely a priority. Pay parity is still, in the year 2025 – in the year 2025, we’re still fighting for pay parity.

Nicole Gelinas
One of your accomplishments was to pass the How Many Stops Act, which Eric Adams’ administration has said bogs officers down in paperwork. Can you tell us why that became a priority for you and how do you think it’s going so far?

Adrienne Adams
Great question. As far as the How Many Stops Act is concerned, and the misinformation that was put out for the public and for the media, and that we have had to combat that information. They are investigative stops only. It is a reporting bill, and it is a bill that was negotiated with the NYPD, as quietly as it’s kept. Legislation isn’t worked on with the City Council in a vacuum. We work with the agencies that are impacted by legislation, and get their buy-in with the legislation. So NYPD was totally involved with negotiating the bill, the How Many Stops Act. The How Many Stops Act was put out there so that we could get information on who was being stopped because of the level of stop and frisk from this administration, which has grown. I don’t think that’s a mystery to anybody at this table. So we wanted to get better reporting. The issue around paperwork, quote-unquote, City Council does not dictate the implementation of law. We pass the laws, but the individual agencies dictate the way that the laws are managed. Now, that said, if a specific precinct chooses to use paperwork as the medium to get this recording done, that’s on them. That was not our recommendation. It is a tweak on a cell phone with a smart device, which they’re doing anyway. That was the recommendation of the Council.

Akash Mehta
What do you think should be done as a result of the data that’s coming out? So, last year, the NYPD made about 25,000 stops. That was 50 percent more than the year before, and nine in 10 were Black or Latino. If you’re mayor, do you direct Jessica Tisch or whoever your commissioner is to scale back stops?

Adrienne Adams
The first thing I would do, and I’m so glad you asked about reporting because we are still waiting for transparency and reporting from this administration that we still don’t have from them. And one of those is the commission on racial equity. We’ve been waiting on that report for months and months and months. As mayor, first of all, these reports would be made available to the Council, to the public, the way that they’re supposed to be made anyway legally. We need accountability. We have to stop hiding things from the public. This is the reason that the Council passes reporting bills so that it can be known and so that we can fix issues. Yes, as mayor, those reports would become visible for everyone to be able to look at and also for there to be better oversight over the agencies when it comes to reporting.

Akash Mehta
Right, but I’m not asking about reporting. I’m saying we now have information that stops and frisks are soaring. Do you think that line is going in the wrong direction?

Adrienne Adams
Two things. I think that the reports from the How Many Stops Act, they need to be taken a look at. That is the reason that the bill was passed, and then we would be able to better evaluate how these stop and frisks, or the reasoning behind them, which we believe, again, have to do with racial differences, and then we make our decision from there. But absolutely, the level of stop and frisk and the number that has increased under this administration is troubling, and we absolutely have to take a look at it. There’s a correlation.

How Safe is the City, Tourism and Hospitality

Ben Smith
Any final public safety question?

Josh Greenman
Last one is just the big picture. How safe is New York right now in your view? The numbers say one thing. Cuomo suggests that things are actually worse than the numbers say. So, what’s your feel of things on the ground? If there are problems, can you be as specific as possible about what those problems are?

Adrienne Adams
I don’t believe that New York City is in a crisis. I do believe in the statistics that have come out from CompStat. As far as gun violence is concerned, I think that the statistics have gone down, but I am alarmed at the random violence that goes on in our subways, and on some streets still. The random violence is an issue. Rapes are an issue in New York also, that we don’t really talk about those numbers either as we do about other violent acts, but I do believe that perception is everything when it comes to New Yorkers. And whether the statistics go down, if we are reporting on the latest slashing in the subway, that is going to be the news and New Yorkers are going to be alarmed by that, as they should be. But I believe the statistics. I do believe overall that yes, New York is safe, and I would not discourage anyone, particularly tourists— Tourists, come back to New York. Come! Come! Come! — to New York, to this vibrant city, because I do believe in the safety of New York.

Ben Smith
When the tourists come, their biggest issue is they can’t afford a hotel room. I don’t know if you’ve looked lately. It’s crazy. Would you consider loosening Airbnb, loosening permitting? How do you deal with that?

Adrienne Adams
I think we’ve got to square this out and we’ve got to be fair about it. The playing field has to be level, and that is something, quite frankly, that I would look at as mayor.

Myles Miller
How do you square the Airbnb restrictions as a homeowner in Southeast Queens?

Adrienne Adams
We’re still taking a look at that big picture because it does affect my community in Southeast Queens, folks that use that supplemental income to pay their mortgages, to pay their water bills and other bills as well. So, we’re still dealing with that, and it’s still going through the legislative process. I think it’s fair.

Ben Max
But right now, you lean towards supporting the idea of rolling back some of those restrictions and allowing a little bit more leeway on allowing homeowners to rent space out?

Adrienne Adams
In all fairness to homeowners, particularly where I live, I think that it would be fair to them to definitely consider doing that.

Josh Greenman
What about renters?

Adrienne Adams
What about them?

Josh Greenman
You said homeowners. What about if I have a lease allowing me to do more short-term rental?

Adrienne Adams
Again, it’s a part of this bill and this legislative process, and I think that everything should be considered, and particularly with the economic struggles that we’re all having right now.

Ben Max
The other side of this question is how difficult the last mayoral administration with the City Council made it to build hotels, needing a special permit, seemingly largely because of the unionization issue pushed by the Hotel Trades Council. Has that been a live discussion for you at all, looking at rolling any of that back, or making it easier to create new hotels in the city?

Adrienne Adams
That particular issue, Ben, quite frankly, it really hasn’t been on the front burner as of late. But again, with everything that we have to consider here in New York, particularly with bringing tourists back and making sure that people have a place to live, I’m sure that’s going to pop back up as a priority.

Housing

Ben Smith
On sort-of biggest picture housing stuff, there’s this debate between the YIMBYs and NIMBYs. You championed City of Yes and really helped to push it through. I’m curious — when we started, Harry asked about the kind of shape of the Democratic Party — I’m curious at a big level how you think about these tensions between supply and regulation and ultimately getting more housing built here.

Adrienne Adams
Yes. It’s so interesting when we think about it, and believe me, this push and pull for housing, it’s very real. I passed the Fair Housing Framework, and I passed it last year because of exactly what you said: Many communities that were bearing the brunt of building and development, and other communities just saying, "No, no, no, no.” I think the Bronx has been the highest percentage of higher density in certain areas, in [Council Member Rafael] Salamanca’s district, probably in the Bronx than any place else. But what my bill did was it requires now every district to be responsible for some type of building, from the smallest to the largest, so that nobody can say anymore, "Not in my backyard." We all have the same backyard and people need a place to live. One of my mantras when I became speaker and how I changed the culture, actually, of housing and housing development within the City Council, is that this City Council can never be a Council that says no when it comes to places that people need to live. This is how we were able to pass that legislation for City of Yes, and we are now being bottlenecked, and I’ll throw this in there, with the latest [charter revision] commission, and wanting to pull back those things, and thinking about other ways that things have been handled before I became speaker, instead of looking at the culture that I’ve created as far as building housing because of the state of housing of New York right now.

Ben Max
You’re talking about the idea that the mayor’s charter revision commission wants to figure out new systems of power to get around the culture of member deference that has existed largely in the past.

Adrienne Adams
Correct.

Ben Max
But from your perch as speaker and then wanting to be mayor, don’t you see any merit in the idea of changing up some of that system to perhaps give the borough presidents more final say or to add what’s called a builder’s remedy where if a project’s rejected, there’s an appeals process, something along those lines, to make sure it’s not dependent on the speaker’s culture. You won’t be the speaker if you’re mayor.

Adrienne Adams
Ben, truthfully, I come from the community board, as a former chairperson of a community board, and taking the voice of the representative that was duly elected to represent a district and taking away the voice of the community and the community board being the voice of the district out there, and the borough presidents who, quite frankly, do have a very, very loud voice. They work with the City Council member and work with the community board. So, that relationship is already there. Now, when I think about taking all that away, and scaling that away, and just pushing it over into developers and administration and saying, "All right, these are the folks" and the buck stops there, my goodness, we are silencing the voices of the folks where whatever housing development, whatever, is going to come up and impact their lives for generations, and I’m not with that.

Josh Greenman
What if a neighborhood says, "We’re low density, we’re single family. There are neighborhoods like this—

Adrienne Adams
My neighborhood.

Josh Greenman
—in New York City. “This is what we are" — do you respect that? Do you not respect that?

Adrienne Adams
Oh no, you absolutely do respect that.

Josh Greenman
Through the community board and through other kinds of outlets. That’s what they say, “This is what we are.”

Adrienne Adams
You’re proving my point. The way that we were able to get City of Yes, City of All passed in City Council was because we had changes to make because New York City is not a monolith. Brooklyn doesn’t need what Queens wants. Queens doesn’t need what Staten Island wants. Staten Island doesn’t need what Harlem and the Upper West Side needs. We are all very different. So, we have to maintain open communication by what is needed by all of those communities. So, when I got the proposal passed, it was because my colleagues knew that I was able to take a look and not just look at one blanket rezoning for the entire city. We had to take a look at all communities and bring those voices into the equation. That’s how we passed it.

Akash Mehta
As you’re referring to the version of City of Yes that passed the Council, it’s expected to create 26,000 fewer homes than the version that the mayor proposed. The Council kept parking mandates and it protected single-family zoning in some transit-rich areas. Do you support those amendments on the merits or were they necessary to get it to the finish line?

Adrienne Adams
Both. I support them on the merits and they were absolutely necessary to pass it. Look, the proposal came to the City Council full out, full rezoning. We didn’t have to look at the proposal, but we did because we knew that housing had to be built in the city. We had to do something. We couldn’t do nothing, so we had to pass the bill. Now, the way to pass the bill was to make it palatable to a majority of the Council members, and that’s exactly what I did. And it’s a start.

Myles Miller
Just one more on housing. Do you think you’ve done enough for Rochdale? You’ve got this big affordability issue. It’s a Mitchell-Lama issue that has no real city connection. It’s your district, it’s where your office is, and the people are very upset. I have to hear from my brother who lives there. He’s very upset.

Adrienne Adams
Yes, I’m very upset.

Myles Miller
Do you think you’ve done enough? Do you think the city and the state have done enough? This is going to come up with a lot of Mitchell-Lama developments. How do you deal with that as mayor?

Adrienne Adams
Sure. Rochdale is my base. I have done maximally as the Council member representing District 28. Believe me, I have provided millions of dollars for Rochdale, for programming, for seniors, for youth, for facade repair, for parks, you name it. Within the boundaries of my level as the local representative for Rochdale, oh my gosh, everything that I can. What we’ve done now as of late is to take it to the state. We took two busloads of residents, hundreds of residents up there last week, to implore the governor to do something to help not just Rochdale Village but all Mitchell-Lamas that are in this predicament right now because it is serious. You know what the value of Mitchell-Lamas are, the affordability factor, and what’s at stake right now. If we lose affordability in Mitchell-Lama, it’s going to be a disaster.

Nicole Gelinas
What about your rival Scott Stringer’s plan to build new Mitchell-Lamas? Do you see that as part of your housing plan?

Adrienne Adams
I like the idea, but I, quite frankly, don’t know if the city has the bandwidth to build Mitchell-Lama the way that Scott envisions it. Again, I love that idea, if it’s possible. I just don’t happen to believe that it’s very possible.

Nicole Gelinas
Why wouldn’t the city have the bandwidth? Is it he’s missed—

Adrienne Adams
City property, the amount of city property and city-owned property. I don’t think, for what he’s thinking to do and the scale that it needs to be done, I don’t think there’s enough city-owned property to do it.

Education

Ben Smith
An education question?

Josh Greenman
I was going to ask one. So, you talked a lot about consultation with respect to housing production. We have mayoral control of the schools, and a lot of people argue there’s not enough consultation of local communities and of local schools for that system.

Adrienne Adams
I agree.

Josh
You agree?

Adrienne Adams
Yes.

Josh Greenman
How do you want to alter mayoral control of the schools?

Adrienne Adams
Mayoral control cannot be mayoral dictatorship. It has to be in collaboration, and I’m a collaborative manager. For those that don’t know, I come out of the private sector. I’m not a career politician. I come out of almost 20 years in corporate America in management, and that’s the foundation of the way that I’ve led and taken those skills over from the private sector into the public sector. That’s the way that I’ve governed in the City Council. There has to be a collaborative effort when it comes to mayoral control of the schools. I don’t see any other-

Josh Greenman
What does that mean? Does that mean change the model of the PEP [Panel for Educational Policy]? Does that mean re-empower community school districts?

Adrienne Adams
Yes. It means to bring more power into community school districts to make the voices, not just listen to them but act on them, when possible to act on them. It means to bring those voices into the room. We need to hear from parents, we need to hear from educators. It can’t just be a one person my way or the highway type of thing. So, mayoral control needs to mean mayoral inclusion.

Liena Zagare
Do you think the Department of Education spends its money wisely or effectively?

Adrienne Adams
No.

Liena Zagare
So what would you do?

Adrienne Adams
With the largest budget within the city, there is mismanagement, and as speaker, it’s been difficult, quite honestly, to penetrate through that. As mayor. I believe it’s going to be easier because the power is in that seat, obviously. There are some spaces in DOE that I don’t believe that we need. I think there’s some waste in consulting in DOE that we don’t need, some contracts in DOE that we don’t need, but again, as mayor, I’m going to have that visibility to determine what that is.

Liena Zagare
Would you cut that program as mayor?

Adrienne Adams
Would I cut?

Liena Zagare
Cut it.

Adrienne Adams
Oh, if necessary. Oh, if necessary. Absolutely. We need to dole out resources in the most effective way as we can without, of course, taking away resources from our children.

Liena Zagare
So, you would cut it, but you would reallocate it within the department, I suppose.

Adrienne Adams
Reallocate it. I’m speaking about some of the positions that are held in DOE right now. I’ve got family that are in DOE that are saying, "My principal just hired her cousin, three times removed, to put a plant in some water, and they’re making six figures.” That’s crazy, but scenarios like this exist within the Department of Education. They have to be uncovered and the fat has to be trimmed.

Josh Greeman
You might want to report that to the COIB.

Adrienne Adams
I might want to. [Laughter]

Akash Mehta
In some ways, this is the biggest power of the mayor. The mayor doesn’t have all that much power over, for instance, the total size of the city budget, but you do manage the giant sprawling city government, and it will be your job to find efficiencies and to run it. What in your experience would you point to, to persuade voters that you can actually do that?

Adrienne Adams
That I can do the job as mayor?

Akash Mehta
That you can specifically find efficiencies in the way that you’re talking about, because every candidate is going to say, "Yes, I’m going to run the agencies well and efficiently." What’s different about you than all the other candidates?

Adrienne Adams
Oh, my goodness. The difference is that, in being the most qualified candidate in this race, doing the work in knowing the agencies, in working with the commissioners over the years, in working with — I was about to say the deputy mayors but they moved around — but in having these connections real close and upfront, I have had no choice but to know the work, in oversight, in questioning the agency heads and their staff. We have had to know who we’re dealing with and what we’re dealing with.

Akash Mehta
So given that experience, given that you say you know the agencies better than the other candidates, you’ve been responsible for overseeing them, can you, within DOE, as you pointed out the largest budget, beyond a specific position of someone who’s watering the plants, can you talk about a large-scale way that we can make that department more efficient?

Adrienne Adams
Once again, in having total visibility — as speaker, I don’t, but as mayor, I would have more visibility into that and be able to tackle that question a lot more effectively once I do have total visibility into DOE. What we have learned through oversight, though, is that, in generalities, there are consulting fees, there are other fees that we believe don’t need to be spent by the DOE that are being spent.

Akash Mehta
Like what contract?

Adrienne Adams
I don’t have a specific contract to name, right now as we sit, but I can tell you that we’ve gotten to a lot of where the heart is during the oversight hearings. Again, I think the specifics will come more clear when I’m mayor.

Ben Smith
We’ve just got three more minutes.

Black Political Power, Rank the Mayors

Harry Siegel
This a broad closing question. Really, I’m just hoping for some of your reflections. Charlie Rangel will lie in state at City Hall tomorrow. He was the last surviving member of Harlem’s Gang of Four. You’ve been working closely with Eric Adams for the last nearly four years, and knew him in high school, Bayside, before that, he’s talked a lot about being the city’s second Black mayor. There are a lot of indicators he’ll be the city’s second one-term Black mayor. From the polling, the Black candidates in this race have struggled to get traction. There’s also a big split of Black voters preferring Cuomo with white men, for instance, favoring Mamdani. I’m just hoping for your reflection on the state of Black political power and leadership in New York City and State at this moment, from your vantage point.

Adrienne Adams
Wow. Harry, that’s a loaded question, man. That’s loaded, especially at a time when we did just lose the Lion of Lenox Avenue, who I was supposed to call. Regrettably, I did not. He was asking for me, by the way, and he supported me in this race, to be clear. We’re at an interesting— we started this conversation with this, your question, we started this conversation with this and the crossroads right now in the Democratic Party: What type of leader do we want as mayor for the city of New York? And that is the million-dollar question right now. Do we want someone that is coming in, really reinventing themselves, where his scandal will once again be the scandal of New York to wear on all of our backs? Do we want someone that now has fomented a partnership with the Trump administration to pay back a favor? Do we want someone who has minimal experience in leadership, I’ll say it, to govern the city? We are at a crossroads. Or do we want someone, Adrienne Adams, who is doing the job, who doesn’t really need to have a manual on how to do this work? It’s because I’ve already been put into the place of leadership, working in co-leadership in city government all these years now. Already has the experience to jump right in on day one, and continue the job that I’ve been doing. New Yorkers have to ask themselves that question, and I hope that New Yorkers arrive at the right answer.

Ben Smith
Before we let you go, could you rank the mayors of your lifetime, best to worst?

Adrienne
Oh goodness. I don’t like doing best to worst.

Ben Max
Worst to best. [Laughter]

Adrienne Adams
All right, let me do it this way. David Dinkins: Very graceful, terrific individual, and actually laid the groundwork for our public safety before Giuliani, even though Giuliani took the credit. Michael Bloomberg: fantastic business manager, a manager that New York needed in the time that we needed him the most. And Bill de Blasio gave us 3-K and pre-K so I’m going to go with those three, no specific ranking, but I think in their own way that they did a very good job for New York.

Ben Max
That’s not in order.

Adrienne Adams
It’s not necessarily in order.

Ben Smith
Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us.

Adrienne Adams
Thank you everyone. Thanks for your time.

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