Where the mayor went Wednesday, the protesters followed.
Mayor Eric Adams faced a coalition of boisterous demonstrators as his motorcade pulled up in the Bronx for his State of the City Address on Jan. 24. Their language in greeting the mayor was anything but laudatory.
“F**k you!” one protester cried as Hizzoner pulled into the rear of Hostos Community College. “Fund CUNY!” another hollered reaching through the fencing, flipping the bird.
Several hundred fuming New Yorkers assembled along 149th Street, all with their own qualms with the mayor. Some came toting signs asking Adams to restore cuts to libraries while others demanded the immediate closure of Rikers Island — all, however, didn’t hold back when it came to exhibiting their anger.
“He’s [Mayor Adams] has taken a page right out of Trump’s playbook with fake news. He cares more about his people in blue than he does about us,” Valerie Reyes-Jimenez of Housing Works said, admonishing the mayor for vetoing the How Many Stops Act that would require the NYPD to document their encounters with the public.
“We cannot allow this mayor and his administration to continue to divide us with his deception and mismanagement style using the blame game for his budget cuts.”
While Mayor Adams spoke to some of the city’s leading officials on the inside regarding his plans for the future, those on the outside continued to admonish him for his past, including making cuts to CUNY.
“The funny thing about this is that Eric Adams has tried to defund 15% of CUNY and he still has the nerve to come over here and give a speech and tell everybody how great the city is and how much we’re succeeding,” Johanna Von Maack of CUNY Rising Alliance told amNewYork Metro. “When you try to mess with New Yorkers. They fight back and New Yorkers we don’t play.”
