City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a Queens Democrat, will hold her State of the City address in the Bronx this year.
The event will take place at 12 p.m. Wednesday at the Justice Sonia Sotomayer Houses and Community Center at 1000 Rosedale Ave. in Soundview.
Adams was elected to her role by the city’s first female-majority council in January 2022, becoming the first Black councilmember to hold the position. As the speaker, she sets priorities for the 51-member legislative body.
The speech, her second as speaker, will be live streamed on the City Council website, Twitter and Facebook accounts. Adams will deliver the speech in English, but it will also be available in Spanish, Mandarin and American Sign Language.
She delivered her first State of the City speech at York College in Jamaica, Queens, last year. Adams spoke about affordable housing, improving health, reducing violence, increasing access to food and parks and expanding economic opportunity.
This year, she will address the city from the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) development formerly known as the Bronxdale Houses and Community Center. The site was renamed after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer, the court’s first Latina justice, in 2010. Sotomayer grew up in the complex.
The complex is located in City Council District 18, which is represented by Councilmember Amanda Farías, a Parkchester Progressive.
Farías told the Bronx Times she is excited to hear Adams’ vision for the city in her district, calling the event historic.
“This event will be historic as it is the first State of the City ever hosted in the district!” she said in a statement. “The Bronx is a borough in need of deep investments as citywide issues are exacerbated more widely here, and with higher unemployment rates and working families and small businesses struggling to recover from the pandemic, having the State of the City address in our backyard is monumental. With a women-majority Council and the first Black woman Speaker it is only fitting that her address be hosted at the Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community Center.”
The Bronx Times reached out to Adams’ office to learn about how the location was chosen for the speech and is awaiting a response.
Reach Aliya Schneider at aschneider@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4597. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
