2025 State of the City Addresses

• Mayor Todd Gloria - San Diego, CA

• Mayor Randall Woodfin - Birmingham, AL

• Mayor Rex Richardson - Long Beach, CA

• Mayor Eric Adams - New York, NY

Mayor Todd Gloria
San Diego, CA

In his State of the City Address, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria laid out his vision for his community and how he and his administration plan to make progress on keeping neighborhoods safe, reducing homelessness, building more housing, and fixing roads.

To address the deficit, the Mayor detailed immediate steps he has taken to cut spending – freezing hiring for all but the most essential positions and halting non-essential spending, among other mid-year adjustments. He is also evaluating the city’s office space leases to determine if it’s cost-beneficial to terminate or renegotiate leases and consolidate space. He also asked each city department to rethink its operations with a keen focus on the core service it is expected to provide to the public.  

The Mayor said he will remain focused on his four core priorities – building more housing, addressing homelessness, repairing roads, and keeping San Diegans safe. Zeroing in on homelessness, he noted that since he took office as Mayor, city-funded programs have served more than 25,000 people and successfully placed nearly 4,700 into permanent housing, while the Unsafe Camping Ordinance passed in 2023 is successfully reducing encampments in heavily impacted areas without widespread arrests. Mayor Gloria vowed to continue to increase shelter opportunities in 2025. 

On housing, the Mayor celebrated the success of measures he’s taken to produce more homes that San Diegans can afford – through initiatives such as Bridge to Home, his two executive orders to speed up permitting, and his two Housing Action Packages. He noted that, for the better part of the past two decades, San Diego had issued an average of 4,300 permits for new homes per year. In 2023, as his policy reforms took hold, the City permitted nearly 10,000 new homes. He announced that in 2024, the city permitted roughly another 8,500 new homes despite high interest rates and inflation creating unfavorable conditions for housing construction nationwide. 

Watch the Mayor’s full remarks here.
 

Mayor Randall Woodfin
Birmingham, AL

In his 2025 State of the City Address, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin outlined a vision of progress and resilience, emphasizing the city’s commitment to public safety, economic growth, neighborhood revitalization, and sustainability. 

A key focus of the Mayor’s address was public safety, with a particular emphasis on addressing gun violence as a public health crisis. Mayor Woodfin reported successes in reducing crimes such as rape, assault, and auto theft but acknowledged the persistent issue of homicides. He unveiled a comprehensive strategy developed by a 21-member Crime Commission, including focused deterrence, community violence intervention, hotspot targeting, and more. To support these efforts, the city has bolstered police recruitment and invested in technologies such as the Real-Time Crime Center to enhance law enforcement capabilities. 

Mayor Woodfin also reaffirmed his administration’s priority of neighborhood revitalization, reflected in the 2025 budget’s allocation of over $20 million for infrastructure improvements, blight removal, and community investment. He celebrated programs such as Birmingham Promise, which has enabled over 1,600 high school graduates to attend college and provided hundreds with internships. Other achievements included the “Ready to Own” program, which offers financial assistance to first-time homebuyers, and significant corporate investments, such as Coca-Cola United’s $330 million project in Kingston.

The Mayor highlighted how the U.S. Department of Commerce awarded Birmingham and its partners, Southern Research and UAB, a $44 million grant to support their designation as a tech hub. The grant will focus on equitable AI-driven biotechnology. Mayor Woodfin also announced the creation of the Office of Resilience and Sustainability to address environmental challenges, with the office leading initiatives that target carbon emissions, food sovereignty, and long-term sustainability planning.

Watch the Mayor’s full remarks here.

Mayor Rex Richardson
Long Beach, CA

Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson delivered his State of the City Address, “Celebrating the Roots, Rhythm, and Community of Long Beach,” with a special call to action to support Los Angeles County wildfire victims and evacuees. By the end of his remarks, Mayor Richardson announced the donation drive raised $569,000 to support wildfire relief efforts. The address also provided updates on the city’s key priorities, including housing, infrastructure projects, city services, and economic development.

Mayor Richardson highlighted significant progress in housing production, addressing the city’s challenges with affordability and homelessness. Long Beach has achieved a 25% increase in housing starts and completed over 1,000 new housing units in 2024, a record for the city. Approximately 2,500 units are currently under construction, representing $800 million in investments in progress. The city is also prioritizing support for seniors, one of the most housing-insecure populations, with plans for new subsidy programs and expanded affordable housing. 

To bolster public safety, the city is expanding its police and fire academies, doubling the number of firefighter recruits, and opening a new Long Beach Police Academy Training Center. Long Beach has also streamlined its emergency response systems, launching a real-time information hub for residents and developing a call center for emergencies. 

Long Beach is making substantial investments under its Elevate 28 Capital Improvement Plan. Projects include enhancements to streets, sidewalks, parks, and public spaces to ensure equitable access to quality neighborhood infrastructure. Key achievements include the completion of the Promenade in downtown Long Beach and the reopening of the iconic Breakers Hotel. Additional plans include the development of the Long Beach Bowl outdoor amphitheater and the modernization of the Long Beach Arena through private-public partnerships.

Watch the Mayor’s full remarks here.

Mayor Eric Adams 
New York, NY

New York City Mayor Eric Adams delivered his State of the City Address, outlining his multi-year plan to tackle street homelessness, keep young people safe, build more housing and family-friendly neighborhoods, teach students how to save and spend money, expand access to playgrounds, and save working-class families millions of dollars.

Under Mayor Adams’ leadership, overall crime continued to fall in 2024, including a 7.3% drop in shootings, a 3.6% drop in homicides, and a 5.4% drop in transit crime. Since coming into office, the Adams administration has seized nearly 20,000 illegal guns, over 80,000 ghost cars, and illegal motorized vehicles. Additionally, the Adams administration has made upstream investments to prevent crime in the first place, launching a $485 million blueprint to keep communities safe from gun violence that invests in mentorship, mental health, and job training for young, at-risk New Yorkers. 

Since launching his Subway Safety Plan in 2022, his administration has moved over 8,000 New Yorkers from the subways into shelters while, in Fiscal Year 2024, the New York City Department of Social Services helped a record 18,500 households transition from shelters into stable homes. Mayor Adams recently announced that the city will invest $650 million to bolster that work and expand  support for residents living on subways, wrestling with serious mental illness, and at risk of entering city shelters. The Adams administration has also made significant gains in affordable housing records, including financing the construction and preservation of over 79,300 housing units since 2022.

In 2024, Mayor Adams expanded his signature ‘NYC Reads’ initiative to every K-5 school in the five boroughs and New York City’s early childhood education program, as well as launched both ‘NYC Solves’ to overhaul how students learn mathematics  and a new Division of Inclusive and Accessible Learning in New York City Public Schools.  The Adams administration also opened 24 new school buildings and added over 11,000 new seats in 2024—the most new seats added by the New York City School Construction Authority since 2003.

Watch the Mayor’s full address here.