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By Mayor Eric Adams  OpEd December 3, 2024  Follow @x   NEW YORK - Working-class New Yorkers are the backbone of our city; they keep our city safe, healthy, clean, and help us continue to take the greatest city in the world to new heights.  These dedicated workers deserve the chance to build a better future for themselves, their children, and their families. This includes securing good-paying jobs, affordable homes, and a world-class education for their children. That is why, from day one of our administration, we have focused on making New York City more affordable for working-class New Yorkers.   We have done this by helping to save New Yorkers more than $30 billion through programs that help them get ahead, like the “Earned Income Tax Credit,” which enables families and working-class people to have more money to pay for groceries, bills, and rent. We have helped New Yorkers in public housing access free high-speed internet and ba...

Photo by  Diane Bondareff/Mayoral Photography Office By Mayor Eric Adams NEW YORK - While I was on the campaign trail, I met many New Yorkers who expressed their desire for a safer city.   New Yorkers want to feel safe in their neighborhoods, at their places of worship, in the subway and on the streets. I vowed to make public safety my top priority, and under the bold leadership of NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, our efforts are paying off. We have a lot more work to do, but I want to be clear to New Yorkers: we are making progress.   For the first time this year, we saw a drop of 1.2% in overall index crimes in November compared to November of 2021.  What does that mean? It means that in November of 2022 compared to November of 2021, we saw a 32.8% decrease in shootings, a 14.1% decrease in rapes, a 6% decrease in burglary, and a 5.5% in grand larceny.   We have also removed more than 6,750 guns from our streets so far t...

Op Ed - Action, Care and Compassion: My Administration’s Approach to Addressing Severe Mental Illness Mayor Eric Adams visits NYCHA Hammel Houses. Rockaway Beach, Queens. Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office. By Mayor Eric Adams  NEW YORK  - Our city is facing a crisis. New Yorkers with severe and untreated mental illness are living out in the open, on our streets and in our subways. They are in danger and need help. Yet often, the nature of their illnesses prevents them from seeking the support they require. My Administration is determined to do more to assist people with mental illness, especially those with untreated psychotic disorders who pose a risk of harm to themselves, even if they are not an imminent threat to the public. Moving forward, we will take several key steps.  The most important is for our outreach workers, hospital staff, and police officers to be aware that New York law already allows us to intervene when untreated s...

Mayor Eric Adams unveils his administration’s vision for the next phase of the transformation of the Willets Point community in Queens. Queens Museum, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens. -Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office. By Mayor Eric Adams   NEW YORK - It’s time to create a New York City where working New Yorkers can have safe, affordable homes, find well-paying jobs, send their children to good schools, and live close to public transportation so that they don’t have to spend hours commuting. Willets Point in Queens, previously known as the “Iron Triangle” or the “Valley of Ashes,” was filled with auto repair shops, prone to flooding and lacked infrastructure.  Today, it offers our city a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a vibrant, thriving neighborhood from scratch.   The cornerstone of Willets Point will be 2,500 new homes that are 100% affordable. That’s the largest 100% affordable housing project in New York City since ...