This is the extraordinary journey of a kid from a single-parent, working-class home to the office of Mayor of the City of New York—and the record of what his administration achieved while serving as stewards of the greatest city in the world.
Eric Adams’ team released a narrative-style video that frames the mayor’s life story as a case study in persistence — and uses it to argue that his personal struggles shaped the priorities of his administration.
The clip opens with a blunt question: “What becomes of the kid?” It describes a working-class child raised in a single-parent home, dyslexic and struggling to read, bullied by peers and dismissed by teachers. The script paints a picture of a young person living with instability and constant risk — “one wrong move” away from the wrong side of the law — ultimately summed up in three words: “dyslexic, arrested, rejected.” The point of the opening is clear: the story is meant to begin at the bottom.
From there, the message pivots to a comeback narrative. The child “persists,” “finds his voice,” and turns pain into purpose, committing himself to building a safer city where no child experiences what he did. The tone is motivational, positioning the mayor’s agenda as a direct extension of lived experience rather than a conventional political platform.
The rest of the video is structured as a highlight reel of accomplishments attributed to the last four years of City Hall. The script claims New York was reopened and the economy reached record heights, with repeated all-time job numbers and the highest number of small businesses in city history. It argues the city remained “the safest big city in America,” citing shootings driven to record lows, 25,000 illegal guns removed from the streets, greater subway safety efforts, and the closure of more than 1,600 illegal cannabis shops.
Housing and cost-of-living policies are presented as a second core pillar. The video points to “City of Yes” and other housing initiatives said to deliver more than 433,000 homes citywide. It also claims $30 billion was put back into New Yorkers’ pockets through programs aimed at lowering household costs — including child care, rent, internet access, and medical debt — plus quality-of-life initiatives like containerizing the city’s trash, removing thousands of scaffolding sheds, and expanding outdoor dining at a scale described as the nation’s largest.
The clip also emphasizes social services, highlighting efforts to connect New Yorkers to mental health services and housing, universal dyslexia screenings for public school students, and changes in how children learn to read and do math. Finally, it spotlights the city’s response to the arrival of more than 240,000 asylum seekers, saying the administration ensured shelter and support as they sought better lives.
The closing returns to the opening theme: a “working-class administration led by a working-class mayor delivering for working-class people,” with the final twist that the once “dyslexic, arrested, rejected” kid is now “elected.” The narrator identifies that person as Eric Adams, the 110th mayor of New York City, and the video ends on a sweeping claim about leading “the greatest city in the world.”
Dec 30, 2025