6 FEBRUARY 24, 2022 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
NYC’s #1 Source for Political & Election News
Adams unveils $98 billion preliminary 2023 fi scal budget
BY ETHAN STARK MILLER
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Mayor Eric Adams unveiled
his $98 billion preliminary
budget for fi scal year 2023 this
aft ernoon, which he said will focus on
promoting public safety and speeding
up the city’s economic recovery from
COVID-19.
“New York has always been a city of
the future,” Adams said. “And today, we
are here to plan for that future. It means
building a city where safety and justice
go hand-in-hand. A city where our children
can play, read and thrive. Where
education embraces the whole child and
supports our families. A city where we
embrace the progress being made in new
forms of energy, transit and commerce.
A city of abundance of jobs, housing and
health care for all. This is the city New
Yorkers want and deserve.”
But Adams said his vision for a better
city can only be realized if his administration
decreases excess spending,
which is something it has already been
working on. This is something Adams’
administration took action on aft er his
fi rst 10 days in offi ce, he said, by ordering
all city agencies to trim down 3% of their
fi scal year 2022 and 2023 budgets.
As a result, Adams said, the city has
cut over $2 billion in spending and will
head into the new budget season with a
reserve of over $6 billion.
“ My administration is laser focused
on fi scal discipline,” Adams said. “We’re
not spending our money. We’re spending
your money. And we will make decisions
that invest in our city and benefi t all New
Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Offi ce
Yorkers. We will be radically practical.
Success will be measured by how much
we accomplish, not how much we spend.”
Adams credited the cost cutting to his
Chief Effi ciency Offi cer Melanie LaRocca,
who’s leading the eff ort to cut excess
spending in the city bureaucracy. Her
work includes reducing the number of
city agencies by consolidating those with
similar focuses. For instance, Adams said
he recently signed an executive order
to combine all the city agencies dealing
with technology into the newly created
Offi ce of Technology and Innovation.
When it comes to actually spending
the money in this year’s preliminary
budget, Adams said public safety is one
of his top priorities. In particular, that
means reducing crime overall and battling
what he described as an “epidemic”
of gun violence.
“The NYPD is our fi rst line of defense
against gun violence,” Adams said. “We
will make new eff orts to strengthen and
reinforce it, while continuing our mission
to involve the community. We have
already started putting more offi cers
on patrol and enhancing our existing
public safety units with new neighborhood
safety teams, which will focus on
gun violence.”
Additionally, Adams’ administration
will invest in longer-term solutions for
reducing gun violence like directing
funds to improve education, services
for unhoused people, and mental health
programs.
Another one of Adams’ budget priorities,
he said, is bolstering the city’s
economic recovery from the pandemic
by investing more money in supporting
working-class families.
Holden calls on mayor to provide funding for police precinct renovations
BY JULIA MORO
EDITORIAL@QNS.COM
@QNS
Queens Council member Robert
Holden sent a letter to Mayor
Eric Adams urging him to invest
in a capital project that would renovate
many of the old, run-down police precincts
in his district and surrounding
it.
According to Holden, many police
precincts are outdated, having been
built in the 1930s, and need to be
updated.
“As neighborhoods grew and expanded,
too many police precincts operated
out of the same buildings with minimal
upgrades,” Holden wrote in the letter
to Adams.
Holden played to Adams’ experience
as an NYPD offi cer, arguing the mayor
should know this issue fi rst-hand.
“As you know from experience, an
NYPD offi cer has one of the toughest
jobs in the city,” Holden wrote.
“Maintaining a positive mental attitude,
day aft er day, can be challenging.
While some aspects of the job cannot
change, we, as elected offi cials, can
ensure police are working in a space
that supports mental and physical wellbeing
of offi cers and victims of crime.”
Holden proposed the mayor establish
a task force to review the poor conditions
of city precincts and fi nd a way
to modernize the infrastructure. Aft er
touring his own district’s precinct, the
104th, he learned that victims of domestic
violence meet with police offi cers
under a stairwell in the basement.
According to Kevin Ryan, Holden’s
communications director, the whole
precinct needs to be “fl ipped upside
down.”
“They need a clean, healthy, well-lit
environment to work in,” Ryan said.
“Also, it should be nicer and more welcoming
for civilians who work there
or visit.”
Ryan said that Holden frequently
visits the precincts in his district to
meet and support the offi cers, especially
aft er the recent tragic murders
of offi cers Jason Rivera and Wilbert
Mora.
“With so many elected officials
attacking our police, he knows it’s important
for them to know that many in
the community still appreciate them,”
Ryan said. “He noticed the conditions
while visiting and wanted to help.”
Council Member Robert Holden speaks during a visit to the 104th
Precinct. Photo by Kevin Ryan
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