Transcript: Mayor Adams, DCLA, Cultural Leaders Celebrate Historic Investments in City’s Cultural Sector as Part of FY 2026 Adopted Budget

July 2, 2025

Deputy Mayor Adolfo Carrión, Housing, Economic Development, and Workforce: Good morning. It's a beautiful day here at the Brooklyn Children's Museum and a great day in the City of New York. I want to thank all of you for being here to celebrate the Best Budget Ever in culture. And indeed, indeed it is the best budget for culture that we have seen in the city's history.

I want to thank our partners at the City Council. I've been through my fair share of budget negotiations and I am particularly proud of both how we passed this budget together as well as where we landed. And I would of course also like to thank the people here in this space for your consistent, continuous, persistent, tireless, borderline annoying advocacy and support. And for all you do for New York City, give yourselves a round of applause. You make New York City the beacon of arts and culture.

Mayor Eric Adams understands that community spaces like our cultural institutions, our libraries are the lifeblood of our city. And that's why our mayor has done more to invest in arts and culture than any previous administration in New York City history. Please join me in giving a cultural embrace and welcome to the mayor of the City of New York, Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much, deputy mayor, and really, you know, we need to just thank our Commissioner Laurie Cumbo. She has remained constant and consistent, and I believe that that is why it's so important when you build an administration, you should find those who have toiled in the fields of their particular location, because they bring that authentic care.

A person who had a museum, a person who was very much engaged in the cultural institutions in the city, not only did she look at the large giants, but she looked at those small cultural institutions that were often overlooked and they were denied, those small cultural entities that were in the crevices of our city that were providing vital services.

And to these advocates, someone I saw had a t-shirt on, I was trying to find, I think, you should be up here with the gang. But the reason that these organizations and people who are standing behind me and beside me, the reason that they fought so hard is because they knew a cultural institution is more than an organization that is planned out on a landscape of our city. It's a vital service that provides for everyday New Yorkers.

When you have libraries that are open, that Tony talks about all the time, it is a place for children to come and cross-pollinate their ideas, socialization, interaction. When you have a museum that you can walk through, like this museum, that not only did I put my money in as the borough president, but watch this museum play such a vital role for children in this city.

Or did the Brooklyn Jewish Children's Museum on Eastern Parkway in Kingston, telling the story of young Ari who was shot and killed when an assassin took his life across the Brooklyn Bridge and his mother, Devorah Halberstam, turning that moment of pain into a moment of purpose that brings communities together.

That is what these cultural institutions represent and how it was so important to make sure that they're long-standing. And trust me, it hurt. It hurt like hell when we had to try to find money and try to make sure we balanced the budget of our city. It was painful. Our team sat down and, you know, your advocacy compelled us to say we got to find a way. We got to find a way. And we did. We did. We found a way. And it was hard. We found a way.

And if you know this city of 8.5 million people–- Hey, Councilmember Howard, where are the children? If you know this city, this is a city of 8.5 million people, 35 million opinions. To get 51 council people to vote on a budget, all of them voting on a budget, you know it had to be the Best Budget Ever. And so we're really proud of that.

And so we're looking at our zoos, our museums, our libraries, all of our cultural spaces, all of our cultural institutions, you know, when you invest a record number of $300 million into your cultural institutions, that's clear. And supporting our cultural development fund and cultural institution groups was our North Star part of all that we want to do in this city.

And that's why we gave DCLA the first permanent funding increase in a decade, increasing their baseline funding of $45 million. So this is about more than dollars, it’s these small dance organizations, these small groups, as we were showing our steps, science exhibits that inspires a third grader to study rocket science and learn AI and other forms of science and innovation that the future is going to hold. That's what this budget was about, and that's why we invested $523 million in our libraries with this budget, to help more of them offer seven-day service.

I can finally sleep at night and stop having Tony call me all throughout the night. And give even more children, students, young professionals, and seniors a safe place to learn, to grow, to thrive, and we told you this year we will deliver the Best Budget Ever. We were clear on that for working class people in this city. That includes investing in cultural organizations and libraries, but it also includes historic investments in universal after-school, universal after-school.

Many people tried, and we did it, we did it, 3K and pre-K, affordable housing, and what we really love. Jacques Jiha is not here, but to do our Axe for Tax, no income tax for low-income New Yorkers, that's unbelievable that we were able to do that. And so, we are really proud of this moment, it's a great accomplishment, but we didn't do it alone, we did it because of the folks behind us.

These cultural institutions, they played a vital role of their advocacy, and that's how government works. Government works by advocates, it works by people who are compassionate and caring about these entities and organizations that really makes our city thrive every day, and it really is important to have the leadership to move us in the right direction. So, I want to thank you, DM, your entire team, and this great community that's behind me, turn it back over to you.

Deputy Mayor Carrión: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I now bring to you someone who everyone here knows. She is a force of nature. You see her coming, you hear her coming, but more importantly, and she's just a lovely human being, but more importantly, she's a real leader in our city, and someone who didn't just stumble upon arts and culture, but lives it in her life.

We were having a little conversation outside, and she shared with me her journey, and family, arts and culture runs through her family's blood, her mom. And I will tell you, before I was even deputy mayor, she was already lobbying me. I was the commissioner of housing, I was like, Laurie, why are you talking to me about this? She's like, I'll talk to anybody who listens. And she did. The biggest champion for arts and culture, Commissioner Laurie Cumbo.

Commissioner Laurie Cumbo, Department of Cultural Affairs: What an incredible, incredible full circle moment today is. I remember being 20, 21 years old, and working right here at the Brooklyn Children's Museum in the arts and education program, and being able to come back here as the commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs is such an incredibly rich, full circle moment.

And we worked so hard to get to this moment. And this is essentially today's budget, and the opportunity to celebrate today's budget is really a moment of a lifetime of work. And it's a lifetime of work and sacrifice that so many of the people that are here today, these are the champions, the doers, the healers, the conveners, the people that keep our city intact, that bring people together in a way for this beautiful mosaic doesn't just exist on its own.

It takes the cultural community, the artists, the leaders, to bring that diversity together. And it doesn't just happen. It's not a goal that you achieve one day. It's an ever-going achievement. It's an ever-going goal. You have to continuously work at bringing people together. And as Nina Simone said, as far as I'm concerned, the arts are supposed to reflect the times that we are living in. And that's what this budget is about.

This budget is giving you and empowering you with the resources to be able to bring people together, to be able to educate our young people, to heal our seniors, to give them mobility. It's the ability to bring the economic revenue that is needed to support this entire economy for New York City. It's the ability for tourists to come here and discover themselves and discover the world.

There's no other place where you can have, another city where you can have, a hip-hop museum, an Africa Center, a Louis Armstrong House, an Asian American Arts Alliance, where you can have all of these different flavors. You can have Pregones. You can have El Puente. You can have all of these cultural spaces. And what this mayor wanted to do was to make sure that we had world-class, state-of-the-art cultural opportunities in all five boroughs.

You should be able to wake up and walk out your house and go to the Louis Armstrong House. You should be able to wake up and take your children to the Bronx Children's Museum, or to wake up and come right here to the Brooklyn Children's Museum. We wanted to make sure that culture was in every single borough. We wanted the folks in Staten Island to know that you are a priority to this administration, and we made sure that we put resources into Snug Harbor to make sure that that community was sound and culturally strong.

But I wanted to just thank everyone for all of their advocacy for doing this work when this work didn't necessarily match with the resources that you had to do this work. And during this very critical moment, if you look at this moment, the universe has set an incredible table. The universe has set an incredible table. And it is up to every single person here to make sure that that table moves in the right way to bring people together.

Because we are evolving as a people. The world's people are coming together, and it is our role to bring the world's people together. Evolution is sustainable. Preventing evolution is unsustainable. So we have to work with what is sustainable. And evolution by its very nature is sustainable because it's natural. So we have to utilize this time to do this work and to continuously dig deeper to bring people together.

And I just want to close by saying we've had some incredible wins. We have tripled the public art budget so that we can have more funding for our arts programs in our public spaces. We've brought on the She Built program. We brought on the She Built program to put a monument of a woman in every single borough. We have increased the cultural budget by $75 million, with $45 million being baselined.

We have increased the budget of our arts councils by 15 percent. We have saved cultural institutions like Magnolia Tree Earth Center. We have passed the largest capital budget in the record of the history of New York City. And I want to, at this time, I want to publicly, as I have said, to thank this mayor for never giving up.

What this mayor has endured over these last four years, one day would kill any of you. Okay? One day. If you had to carry the weight of what he's been carrying for four years. I met this man when I was running the MoCADA Museum, and he was with 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care and they wanted to shut my museum down because I was doing an exhibition on police brutality, and I needed some help.

And so I called Eric Adams, when he was a police officer and president of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. And he brought his whole brigade of Black law enforcement officers who said this museum will not be closed. And so, I thank you. And like many Black leaders that have come before, the price that they have to pay for the progress and the leadership can never quite be told.

And like I have said before, for many Black leaders to achieve what we've achieved, for everyone, involved a lot of laughing when there was nothing funny, dancing when there was no music playing. It's a humbling and humiliating experience to be in a position of leadership, and to be one of the first so often in many of the positions that we hold.

But I feel proud in this administration, and what we've been able to accomplish, and what we've been able to do collaboratively and together. And they will never be able to take that away from what happens when people of the diaspora of New York City come together for a profound purpose. And I'm proud of this budget, in particular. I'm going to dedicate today's budget, I didn't know how it was going to happen. It was Thursday night, I was in the nursing home with my dad. And I didn't know how, because like they said, I'm a pain.

I'm a pain. I'm that pain. I'm on the phone. I'm calling. I'm texting. I'm doing. I'm doing. But I was in the nursing home that Thursday night. I didn't know how I was going to make it through. And my dad passed that Thursday night. But Friday night, that budget was passed with $75 million.

Sometimes we don't know how things happen. Everybody said I don't know how you did it, but I know. And so I thank all of you, because this is such a beautiful effort. I thank my father. I'm so proud and honored that he was able to see me accomplish so many things in my lifetime. I thank my mom. I thank my whole family for getting us through. And I, again, want to thank this mayor.

I want to thank my good friend Adolfo Carrion. He has been an extraordinary deputy mayor. Randy Mastro, Jacques Jiha, my girl Latanya back there. I want to thank Alton Murray, my deputy. I want to thank Lance Polivy back there, my general counsel. Angela Blocker. I want to thank all the incredible people. Audrey St. Clair, who just came on as our CDF representative. Bliss, Ryan. I want to thank Lucy Sexton for all the incredible work that you've done and advocacy.

I see Mike Wallace, who I spoke to every day of this process, making sure that everything was carried out just the way it was. And I want to thank Atiba Edwards, who has been an incredible leader of this children's museum. And I just want to say, it's been an extraordinary sea change to see so many African American leaders in positions of leadership, hosting, carrying on the torch of so many.

From the American Museum of Natural History, to the Brooklyn Children's Museum, to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, to Wave Hill, to the Kitchen, to so many organizations that people never thought that they would see leadership of color representing those institutions. And again, I want to shout out those also that have continued to toil, to push forward, to make sure that we have world-class, state-of-the-art cultural institutions that are by us, for us, and representing us in this landscape.

So, today is the greatest day of my life, and I thank you all for taking this journey with me, and I thank you, Mayor Eric Adams, for making this possible, and for enduring all that you've endured for the greater good of all people. Thank you so much.

Deputy Mayor Carrión: Thank you, Commissioner Cumbo. It could not have been said better and more inspiringly. The mayor often talks about this work being very personal to us, to him, to his administration, to the people that he surrounded himself with, who have this lived experience in this society. And you heard it directly from the commissioner.

As the commissioner outlined, the big $300 million number is very exciting. But we would not mean anything if it did not have leaders in the arts and culture space putting that $300 million to good use. And I'm grateful to have such amazing cultural partners in New York City, including our host today. And I was sharing with Atiba that back when I was borough president of the Bronx, we were putting together the Bronx Children's Museum and we were suffering. Thank you. Yeah, we're going to have a cool announcement soon about that.

But we were suffering FOMO in the Bronx, fear of missing out for our children, because Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan had beautiful children's museums, and the Bronx didn't. And I came here early in my tenure, before Atiba was executive director of this institution, to see how Brooklyn did it so we could do it in the Bronx like Brooklyn did it.

And, Atiba, I have to tell you, it was an inspiration for me. We went back home and toiled to make it happen. But it was because, in part, because of the visit to a place like this, where we saw the children having rich experiences that were enriching their lives. And so, ladies and gentlemen, the executive director, president, and CEO of Brooklyn Children's Museum, Atiba Edwards.

Atiba Edwards, President and CEO, Brooklyn Children’s Museum: Good morning, good morning. Thank you, Mama D, thank you. I want to pull out one of the words that Laurie mentioned, it's collaboratively, right? Nothing is done in isolation that's really worth celebration. So when we think about– thank you, Mayor Adams, thank you, Commissioner Cumbo, thank you, Councilmember Carlina Rivera, thank you, Speaker Adrienne Adams, Finance Committee Chair Justin Brannan, and so many advocates.

It's really good that emails are free and phone calls no longer have minutes behind them, because we did it, though, right? The work is hard, the work is challenging, the work is not impossible when you have the right team, the right collaborators together, but also the right mindset about what we want for our future.

So, really excited, because this represents the largest funding increase in 15 years. And I stand before you because I'm a product of my environment. My parents took my siblings and I here every day from Brownsville. We'd also journeyed to a million different cultural institutions throughout New York City, because they knew very deeply that these rich experiences are vital to our upbringing.

So as mentioned, my name is Atiba Edwards, I'm the president and CEO of this storied institution, the first children's museum in the world. And it was designed because we thought about what if we were really instinctual, intentional about creating a space for children to thrive. That's what this museum went to, and then we're proud to continue helping our partners in it.

So yes, the Bronx came down. Across the entire world, there's many people who spent time here who are off doing some fantastic things. And what this budget will allow us to do, we're providing much, much, much more needed trips to schools. We have a great announcement coming soon, but we have more field trips coming. And the field trips are really essential because it's often the child's first cultural experience is coming to one of the institutions across the five boroughs.

So thank you all for making this happen. Thank you all for making that a reality for so many families. Times are hard, things are figuring out. It is the hardest decision to make when you have a child who's looking for something and you don't know where to go. But because of this budget, seven days a week, there'll be a place for them to go.

So this is the Best Budget Ever. This is the budget of more. More opportunities for students, more opportunities for educators, more opportunities for artists, more opportunities for institutions, more opportunities for our aging, more opportunities for families who, like mine, are looking for a place for their littlest ones to go to. They don't know what it will be. They don't know what impact it will have in their future. But they know they need to be there because, to paraphrase a quote, a people without knowledge and understanding of culture is a tree without roots.

So I really do appreciate you all for this work. I know it wasn't easy. But if it was easy, why bother doing it, right? So in closing, thank you all for here. Thank you all the advocates, all my culture people in the audience. This couldn't be done without you. Thank you all.

Deputy Mayor Carrión: Thank you, Atiba. And, by the way, he went to the Bronx High School of Science. In addition to cultural institutions, libraries serve as crucial neighborhood hubs. Libraries not only lend out books, but they serve as meeting spaces, spaces to work, to study, to receive job training, often places where people get language training, English as a second language, to enter our economy.

The Adams administration understands how crucial libraries are to New York City, to all our communities. That's why, as the mayor noted, we invested $534 million in libraries this year. This year alone, we have the presidents of the New York Public Library systems. We have Dennis Walcott from the Queens Public Library. Linda Johnson from the Brooklyn Public Library. And representing all of them, we have our friend Tony Marx of the New York Public Library, our next speaker.

Anthony Marx, President, New York Public Library: Good morning, everyone. It's so wonderful to be here with you and to be representing my amazing colleagues, Dennis and Linda, and the entire workforces of the three greatest library systems in the country, if not the world.

We're here to celebrate an amazing achievement. The FY26 budget, increasing funding for libraries citywide, as well as for all the amazing cultural institutions, so that the work, including the construction, can continue. This year's budget is an astonishing investment in our city's most trusted democratic institutions. Libraries receiving $32.7 million in restored and increased operating support, including funds to expand seven-day service, so we can be there for all New Yorkers when they have the time.

This is such a major critical step toward meeting our rising costs, because costs are rising for all of us, and the growing demand, the essential demand, for our vital services across this city. This means we can continue to provide to New Yorkers everything they rely on us for, and crucially, as I said, to expand Sunday service at ten more branches across the five boroughs.

This would not have been possible without the dedication of many individuals and groups, many of whom are represented here today. We are so immensely grateful for this investment and your partnership, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. And of course, everyone in his administration, including the amazing deputy mayor, who's here with us.

Thanks also to the City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, to the Finance Chair Justin Brannan, our amazing chair of the Libraries Committee Carlina Rivera, who's with us today, to the entire City Council for their unwavering support. A big thank you, of course, also goes out to DC37, and the leadership of Locals 1930, 1482, 1321, and Local 374. Amazing partners, and make all the work possible. Do all the work.

This advocacy season, as the mayor referred to, has once again powerfully illustrated how deeply New Yorkers care for their libraries. Calling, letters, emails. Sorry, not sorry. That's how democracy works, which is fabulous. Thank you to the tens of thousands of patrons who sent letters, wrote postcards, and delivered testimony in support of our beloved libraries.

As libraries face growing threats across the nation, with book bans, with even the librarian of Congress being fired, our city leaders have demonstrated that libraries are not a luxury, but an essential civic infrastructure that strengthens all of our communities, and therefore all of us. This investment by city leaders is a testament to the invaluable impact that libraries have on our communities, and a statement of New York's values, of this mayor's values, that everyone must have the opportunity to learn, to improve their lives, to improve their communities, and to continue to build the greatest city on the planet. Thank you all so much.

Deputy Mayor Carrión: Thank you very much, Tony Marx, and Mr. Mayor, I'm going to take the privilege of the microphone and introduce somebody who– there's a term of art that we use in budgeting, besides sausage making, it's shared priorities, because this is a partnership. You saw two Adamses standing together a few days ago, Eric Adams and Adrienne Adams, the mayor of the City of New York and the speaker of the City Council. Two kids who went to high school together, by the way, graduated from the same high school.

But it is because it is a partnership that we stand together with the City Council, and they conduct long, arduous hearings, there's a lot of back and forth that goes on between both sides of that building called City Hall, the People's House, and at the end of the day we come out together with product, together with outcomes for the people of the City of New York, and the leader in that body who advances this agenda of culture, arts, and libraries is none other than the chair of that committee, Councilmember Carlina Rivera.

Councilmember Carlina Rivera: All right, good morning. Thank you so much. Sometimes, you know, you have to know when to just be here in support, so I just want to thank you for this opportunity to make a few brief remarks. I was here really as a cheerleader for the city. I love the city, this is my home, I've spent my whole life here, and regardless of your political ideology, we have one thing that we all know and can agree on, this is the culture capital of the world.

So when we have organizations like Materials for the Arts, the Dance Parade, Third Street Music School, Loisaida Center, when we have places like the Museum of the Moving Image, Snug Harbor, these fantastic places in addition to over 200 library branches across the five boroughs that is providing a safe space for our young people, our seniors, we have to ensure that we are investing equitably, and 2025, fiscal year 2026, has been that year.

So I was asked, where are the babies at? Because, you know, they'll be at the Puerto Rican Day Parade, waving the flag, they were at Pride. I have very, very young children. I will tell you that they're in daycare right now, and at the cost that childcare is, we are loving the teachers that watch them from nine to five. We are incredibly grateful that this budget also took into account our educational spaces and early childhood. Especially for zero to two years old, I have little babies, and those costs are great, and those teachers are deserving of a living wage.

So when the weekend comes, and we're like, what will we do? What will we do? We're going to bring them, we're going to pay the babysitter a living wage, so we can go out and enjoy a night on the town, occasionally, me and my husband. But we're also going to frequent our library branches, we're going to go to our local museums, we're going to go to that dance class, that swim class, and we want to expose students and everyone else to the opportunities that we want for ourselves.

Growing up, my mother always looked for what was free, where was the scholarship. That's what you do when you're a low-income family looking for opportunities to grow as a person. And now, doing this professionally, it's the same thing. We're guided, our North Star is our own experiences. And so we want everyone to have that, and I want to thank all of the advocates here who work so, so hard to ensure that we were bringing in millions and millions of dollars in historic investment in really unprecedented times with threats to federal grants, just cuts across the board.

We really are lifting up our cultural institutions, our groups, our non-profits that are on the ground, incubators and pioneering spaces of great ideas and concepts, of shows and pieces of art that will go on to change the world. And we need that so desperately right now. So thank you to everyone.

I think the one thing I'll mention is that there are some really great things, like we are improving the infrastructure in our library systems to ensure that cooling centers can be open and available. We are ensuring that our museums can open more days a week to embrace those experiences of families across the five boroughs, and we're very thankful to be doing that collaboratively. So thank you so much. This is my eighth and final budget. Bittersweet, but way to rock it, everyone. Thank you.

Deputy Mayor Carrión: Thank you, councilmember. This is terrific. Mr. Mayor, the mayor will now take some on-topic questions.

Mayor Adams: So we're going to excuse everyone so we can take some off-topic. I don't want to put you through this.

[Crosstalk.]

I want to do a few off-topics, but I just want to start before we do the off-topics that no matter what we do with our culturals, no matter what we do with our schools, no matter what we do with anything, our young people, our families, our children must be safe. And I think this headline says it all, crushing crime, crushing crime.

We continue to bring down crime. My sister Sekou and others who are part of the crisis management team, the Police Department, and our cultural institutions, having a safe place to make sure the city is safe. So hats off to SPF and the entire crew for what they're doing. So let's, we're going to do a few off topics, okay.

Question: Alright, you can hear me this way? So the Reverend Al this morning called on former Governor Cuomo to drop out of the race, the case that a one-on-one between you and Mr. Mamdani is the fairest version for New Yorkers, but a few minutes ago the Cuomo campaign said New Yorkers know that Trump supports you and New Yorkers don't want socialism and that Cuomo is more of the middle. How would you respond to that?

Mayor Adams: I don't have a response. I'm going to do what I do best, campaign with people. People who know me, as Laurie gave that narrative of many years ago, people who know me, they know that I'm an I'm an independent voice, I respond to the people of this city. I've been clear on that, everyone knows that. They know– I think it's almost an insult for anyone to state that anyone is going to control a person who has been independent for 40 years.

My record speaks for itself. New Yorkers know me, they know how authentic I am on fighting on behalf of New Yorkers. When the President is wrong, I'm going to stand up. When the president is right by lifting that stop work order on a multi-billion dollar initiative. I'm going to go down and advocate. I'm going to advocate for New Yorkers like I did with President Biden. I'm going to do it under this administration. It's about New York. It's not about name calling. It's about producing for the city. And that's what I'm going to do. That's my history.

Question: Was the president wrong when he said yesterday, “Eric Adams is a great guy. I helped him out.” Was he wrong when he said he helped you out?

Mayor Adams: Well, go back on the campaign trail. First of all, I never met President Trump prior to him running for office. We need to be clear of that. Almost 60 years of my life, I've never met him. On the campaign trail, he was clear. What they're doing to Eric Adams is wrong.

Now, I don't know about you, but if you were facing 33 years in prison for doing something that was not wrong, and if someone said what they're doing to you is wrong, my mother [would say] thank you to those who speak on your behalf. And so, I thank him for pointing out that I was targeted for fighting for the city of New York. And I thank him for doing that. Anything else, you have to go to Washington, DC, and you have to speak to the president, because I'm just the mayor of the City of New York.

Question: I just want to follow up on those questions.

Mayor Adams: I'm sure you do.

Question: So are you saying that you don't believe it's a two-person race going into the general election? And then to be clear, you didn't thank him for dismissing your case, just for helping you out in general, highlighting that you were being unfairly targeted?

Mayor Adams: 100 percent. I thanked him for– Listen, I've said this over and over again. These last 15 months have been the most difficult months of my entire life. I watched a record and legacy that really young people were proud of. Young people would stop me on the street and tell them how proud they were when I was with 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care.

How proud I was when I was a state senator, when I became the first person of color to be the borough president, and the second person of color to be the mayor after 30 years absent after David Dinkins. In 15 months, I watched this media and others really dismantle my entire reputation. I watched them call me all sorts of names. I watched them say that I was corrupt, that I was a crook. I just watched all of that.

And in spite of all of that, I got up every morning and I delivered for the city. And I'm hoping at the end of this narrative, people are going to see what resiliency looks like. Resiliency. And so, I know others when they're under pressure, they step down. I stepped up. I'm delivering for New York. So the Best Budget Ever is not the only chapter in what we have done. We have done amazing things for the city.

So my thank you was for his comments on the campaign trail that drew attention. Other people started asking the question, let's see what they did to Eric Adams. It was wrong. But I'm not going to sit back and say, woe is me. I'm going to say, why not me? And so I've always felt this was a two-person race. It was a race between those of us who are going to toil in the field.

My record is clear. One person is running on no record, I'm running from a record. My record is clear, and the voters are going to have to look at it and decide what they want the city to look like. And I'm going to continue to put that message out in a loud and clear way, and I'm excited about this summer and the campaign season.

This is what I do best, communicate with voters. I wouldn't even have to run if y'all would have covered what we've really done in the city, but you didn't. You didn't. You focused on everything but. And it's alright to write stories about our flaws because I'm perfectly imperfect, but it's wrong not to report that bond raters increased our bond.

It's wrong not to report that we build more housing in individual years in the history of the city. It's wrong not to report that Broadway had its best 12 years in the history of the city, that we invested in foster care children paying their college tuition. It's wrong [not] to report that we have done more for those who are coming home from incarceration than any other administration.

When you don't report that also, you have the city to believe that this city is out of control when the city is in control. So now I gotta get out there and go over the media distortion of my record, and I gotta speak one-on-one to New Yorkers and tell them about my record. So they won't say, “I didn't know.” They're going to say, “Now we see what you've done.” This is one of the most successful administrations in the history of the city. We break records every day on helping working class people.

Question: Really quick, will you condemn Trump's threats to look into Mamdani's citizenship status?

Mayor Adams: Listen, listen— hey, folks, I want you to understand something. I want you to watch these next couple of months. Everyone is going to try to pull me off of the record of providing for the city. They're going to have a mic in my face, are you going to do this, are you going to do this, are you going to do this?

Let me tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to deliver for New Yorkers. And if you have a question about affordable housing, if you have a question about not closing supermarkets so bodega workers won't lose their jobs, if you have a question about making sure that when we empty out people from Rikers Island, that they get the help that they need, that's what I want to talk about. I don't want to talk about this other stuff.

Look at my record. Go Google me and then you can get the answer to the question. Got to bounce.

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