New York City Mayor Eric Adams had a better day in Albany on Tuesday than he’s had in his hometown in recent days. He was called out by name in the middle of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address; in turn, he gave her a thumbs up.  

While the governor didn’t discuss how the state could help fund solutions to the migrant influx, she did outline a housing program tailored to New York City’s needs. It included four key measures: restoring the 421a tax abatement for developers; eliminating density requirements; allowing the conversion of office space to rental units; and legalizing basement apartments.

Capital Tonight spoke with Adams about housing, mayoral control and his relationship with Hochul, which appears strong.

“Now we see a continuation of what a partnership looks like with New York City and other cities in the state and the governor’s office,” said Adams. “[The governor] talked about things that are very important for us.”

Adams’ goal is to create 500,000 units of new housing for New York City over the next 10 years. Capital Tonight asked him to what extent Hochul’s proposals might fix the city’s housing crisis. 

“It’s inventory, inventory. We don’t have enough units and we have to find creative ways to build those units,” he said. “We’ve had, really, a segregated mindset around housing throughout the years since the 60s. It’s time to fix that broken system.”

Adams supports the governor’s proposals, but said the city also needs to move the needle.

“Now we need the City Council and New York City to do our part,” he said.

The mayor referenced an effort to rezone parts of the city in order to cut red tape and build more housing.

He also anticipates help from the federal government would be needed to reach the 500,000-unit goal. 

When asked if Hochul did a good enough job speaking with the Legislature before introducing her housing compact (which failed) last year, the mayor said yes. 

“Yes, I did. It was a great deal of concern and passion. There were those who were really digging into Good Cause Eviction. Then there were those who were talking about renewing some version of 421a. There’s a lot of passion up here. There’s a lot of debate that takes place and people are really responding to their constituencies,” he said. “So, I think she did do a good job. Now we have round two and often in Albany it takes more than one round to accomplish a task.”

Another issue of importance to Adams is mayoral control of the city’s public schools, which which is up for renewal in June.

Mayoral control allows him to handpick the school's chancellor. 

Some lawmakers are skeptical of the issue; others want it eliminated. The New York state Department of Education was asked by the Legislature to analyze the issue. The department is expected to release its report in March.  

Adams, who thinks the issue should be called “school governance,” rather than “mayoral control," told Capital Tonight that he’s not worried.

“We are leading the state in math and English scores,” he said. “We are doing it the way we hope school governance should [be done]."