Transcript: Mayor Adams Delivers Remarks At M/WBE Awards Celebration

February 13, 2025

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. And I'm going to be extremely brief because we want to honor those who are here. I will praise the Lord at all times. His praises shall continually be in my mouth. And when you've gone through some stuff, you have a tendency to acknowledge how you have gotten through some stuff. And I will praise the Lord at all times, at all times. 

I was running late because I was doing an interview with five news stations, and people say that, you know, you're now on a short lease, you're now under control, you're now this, you're now that, over and over again. People have forgotten who I am. 

I was a member of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. The commissioners determined my employment and my salary. In the midst of that, I started an organization that fought for reforms to make sure we could have a Police Department that would have justice and safety. They go together. People embraced me when I talked about justice. They got upset when I talked about safety. They wanted me to be one way or another, and I'm not. I'm consistent in my message. 

So, anyone who believe I'm on a short leash, they need to go back and look at my history. I'm not new to this. I'm true to this. I've been doing this for a long, long time. And all those who critique me, if they would have gone through what I've gone through for the last 15 months, they would not have stepped up. They would have stepped down. But I'm going to continue to produce. We got a good product. We've had good partners with the assembly[members] that are both here, fought for us in Albany. When I think about what Sister Inez, what you did, and what Rodneyse has done in Albany, they laid the groundwork that we are now building on. 

Because of the changes they've made from 500,000 discretionary dollars, 1 million, then 1.5, the local hiring, to clear the pathways. We've been able to turn this around and Commissioner Rodriguez is right. 11 percent to 30 percent. Think about it for a moment. What we did citywide, 30 percent. That's not where we were, folks. When you look at what we have been able to accomplish from building more housing in year one and year two, transitioning more people out of shelters into permanent housing in the history of the city. 

More people getting FHEPS vouchers in the history of the program, investing in foster care children to give them college tuition until they graduate, and life coaches until they're 26, reducing the cost of childcare from $55 a week to less than $5 a week, turning around our economy. More jobs in the city, in the city history, 20,000 guns removed off the street, subway system as safe as it has been in years, moving all of these illegal vehicles, 80,000 illegal vehicles taken off our streets, closing illegal cannabis shops so the legal shops can grow. 

Open up procurement opportunities for all of you. Focus and discipline on the message. I walked into a senior center the other day and all the news was there, wanted to talk about everything, but those seniors inside there stood up, gave me a round of applause and basically said, ignore all of that, keep doing what you're doing and we're going to pray for you. We're going to make sure you can succeed in what is happening. Don't let the noise get in the way. They're trying to distract us. They're trying to get us off our mission. They want to cover everything but this. Why aren’t they covering this? Why aren’t they covering how successful we are? And they talk about how divided we are? We're united. 

Well, Brother Gary, where is he? Gary LaBarbera, what he's doing around opening construction sites and bringing the diversity with him is what we've been fighting for. No one wants to see how united we are. That's not good news. That doesn't sell papers. That doesn't give you clicks. We're not going to beat what we are fighting to improve our city on social media. We're going to do it with people on social security. It's not the tweets, it's what you do on the streets. We're producing a product that this country is going to be proud of. And that's why we want to thank you and all of our honorees. 

We have been focused on the mission. I tell my people all the time, stay focused, no distractions, and grind. That's what we do. And no matter what happens, we're going to stay focused on that. And if you were looking to your own lives, I say over and over again, we're all going through some stuff, folks. Who are we kidding? All of us. Maybe a loved one. I saw my sister the other day who was in the hospital and sit down next to her bed. 

We may be going through our personal tragedies, we may be worrying about our businesses that’s going to stay open. I was up in Harlem where a young lady has a skincare, where we gave her $60,000 in our small business services, Commissioner Gross, if she's here, to keep her business open. We have stories after stories. We call them the Adams administration stories of people telling us how much we were there for them. And we're going to continue to do that. 

And I want your businesses to grow and to thrive. Over $30 million, we stopped our city agencies from fining you and finding ways to tax you through citations. We want to make sure that agencies are responding to you when you call so you can get your doors open. We're going to do the businesses on the go so that we can go out and meet you where you are. I need you to thrive and grow. This is the empire states. There were a day when we made empires instead of destroying them, we got in the way of the empires.

We need to make more empires. We need to allow you to hire more, employ more, mentor more, train more. That's why we're doing what we're doing. I am living up to my promise. And we're going to expand our partnership with those entities like the laborers and Gary and others. 

We've been very successful as an administration. And when people reflect on this administration, it's going to be one of the greatest mayoral administrations in the history of this city. And it's not only what we have done, but what we have overcome. What we have overcome. We are who we believe we are. And we're going to continue to forge ahead. And so I say to you, as I say to the team, ignore the noise. Stay focused on the mission, and we're going to accomplish that mission together. Congratulations to all my businesses and congratulations to our honorees. Thank you very much. 

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