Mayor Eric Adams will deliver his 2025 State of the City address at Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater on Thursday, Jan. 9 — a pivotal speech that will likely kick off his bid for re-election this year, his office announced Thursday.
This State of the City, an annual address in which the city’s mayor lays out their agenda for the coming year, will be Hizzoner’s fourth. The speech will give Adams his first shot at testing his message in 2025 as he contends with a growing field of prominent challengers who could block him from a second term.
Mayors, including Adams, often use the State of the City to tout their past successes.
“Whether it’s taking thousands of illegal guns off our streets, shattering affordable housing records over and over again, or putting billions of dollars back into the pockets of New Yorkers, our administration has fought every day to create a safer, more affordable city for working-class New Yorkers,” Adams said in a statement. “New York City is not only back; we are better than ever.”
Adams has also gone out of his way to remind New Yorkers of what he sees as his greatest accomplishments nearly every time he gets in front of a crowd in recent months.
But mayors also use the annual speech to assess the challenges facing the five boroughs and unveil bold policy solutions to address them. For instance, Adams used this past year’s speech to announce a proposal to build and preserve 12,000 units of affordable housing on 24 city-owned sites.
“As we look to the future, we know there is even more we can do to uplift working-class families across the five boroughs, protect our streets and subways, tackle the cost of rent, create more housing, and put even more money back into New Yorkers’ pockets,” Adams said. “On Jan. 9, at the historic Apollo, we’ll present our vision for an even safer and more affordable New York City in both 2025 and in the decades to come.”
The speech could give Adams a chance to cut through the barrage of negative headlines surrounding his federal indictment and the mass exodus from the upper ranks of his administration that have plagued his mayoralty in recent months.
It will also give him a large platform to remind New Yorkers why they should re-elect him as his primary challengers compete to get their own messages out.
