Photos: The Peoples Plan NYC
NEW YORK, NY – January 9, 2025 – A coalition of grassroots community groups, unions, and New Yorkers held a protest outside Mayor Eric Adams’ fourth State of the City address to call attention to policies and budget cuts that have negatively impacted working-class New Yorkers.
The event was organized by Freedom Agenda, The People’s Plan NYC, New York Communities for Change (NYCC), Make the Road NY, Metropolitan Council on Housing, Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ), Muslim Organizing Collective, Malikah Safety Center, PSC-CUNY, and others who oppose the Mayor’s policies that make life harder for poor and working people in New York City.
Under Mayor Adams’ leadership, New York City has faced:
- Cuts to education, childcare, parks, and essential services that working families rely on.
- Soaring rent increases and housing policies that prioritize profits over people’s basic needs.
- Corruption and pay-to-play practices that have wasted millions of public dollars while the administration faces legal battles and allegations of misconduct.
- Rollbacks on civil rights, including the return of harmful policing practices like stop-and-frisk, increased jailing, and failure to close Rikers Island despite a decade of community advocacy.
- Xenophobic rhetoric and policies that scapegoat newly arrived immigrants for budget cuts and mismanagement, fueling hateful narratives that make all New Yorkers less safe.
Grassroots organizations and unions called for a city that prioritizes education, housing justice, public safety rooted in community care, and leadership that puts people over profits. Protesters carried signs and led chants on various issues—including education, housing and rent justice, civil and immigrant rights —pointing to Mayor Eric Adams’ poor record and harmful policies on these critical areas.
“Today, we’re at Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater to remind New Yorkers: Eric Adams is failing as Mayor. In three years, he’s delivered budget cuts to essential services while handing millions to his real estate friends. He has raised rents on rent-regulated apartments, fought to close libraries on weekends, and slashed the parks budget. Actions speak louder than speeches—New York City needs a leader, and Eric Adams isn’t it.”
— James Inniss, Senior Public Safety Campaigner at New York Communities for Change.
“Year after year, we’ve seen the same playbook from the mayor: He guts essentials like schools and libraries and when New Yorkers make it clear we won’t stand for it, Adams restores some of his cuts and plays the hero. Adams has been using his position to benefit himself and his friends and family. Instead, we need a mayor who will prioritize New Yorkers by funding public services like education, housing, and mental health services.”
— Kaiser (Brittany Kaiser) Community Organizer, Alliance for Quality Education (AQE)
“For far too long, Mayor Adams has been paying lip service to closing Rikers and investing in our communities to close the pipelines that are feeding incarceration. Instead, the mayor has not made closing Rikers a priority, sustained DOC’s bloated budget, and 33 people died under his watch. Until Rikers is closed, no New Yorker is safe from its violence and brutality. We need immediate decarceration, transparency, and accountability before more lives are lost or forever damaged.”
— Darren Mack, Co-Director at Freedom Agenda.
“Under Mayor Adams, immigrant women and survivors are paying the price for reckless budget cuts that target the services our communities depend on. These cuts are an attack on our safety, our dignity, and our futures. For working-class families in Queens, especially those escaping violence, the loss of support systems like childcare, housing, and education is devastating. We’re here today with the People’s Plan NYC to demand a city that values people over profits, where all New Yorkers, regardless of background, have the resources to live with dignity and security.”
— Rana Abdelhamid, Executive Director, Malikah Safety Center
“Most of us, no matter our race or religion, where we come from, or how long we’ve been here, want to live in a safer New York City. But Mayor Adams has not made our city safer. He’s hired more cops to lock more people up, shielded abusive officers from any consequences, and expanded the NYPD’s control over city government – all while making enormous cuts to the city’s social safety net and pointing the finger for our hard times at poor families and new immigrants. The state of Mayor Adams’s New York is corruption, chaos, and cruelty. New Yorkers don’t just deserve better — we demand better.”
— Audrey Sasson, Executive Director, Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ)
