A four-point Albany guide to the State of the City

With help from Shawn Ness

State government’s biggest players weren’t physically present at New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ State of the City address in the South Bronx today. It was a session day in Albany after all — but they were clearly on the mayor’s mind.

It was a largely positive speech that felt like a reelection campaign kickoff — the financial cost of housing and serving migrants was mentioned only briefly.

In it, though, Adams directly appealed to Albany to act on housing, cannabis and schools, reiterating the legislative agenda he’s laid out for this session.

Here are the top four things Albany insiders could take away from Adams’ speech:

1. Missing in action

Gov. Kathy Hochul, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins passed on the big event. And even Adams’ top ally in the Legislature, Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar had to skip it — though she was given a prominent role in a hype video that played before the speech.

State government wasn’t entirely unrepresented at Hostos Community College, a CUNY campus. Attorney General Tish James (“leading from the front,” Adams said) sat together with Comptroller Tom DiNapoli (“Make sure we get that money back here in the city,” Adams said).

2. Build, baby build

A new affordable housing tax incentive to replace 421-a and state laws easing the conversion of office buildings to housing were on the top of Adams’ state legislative agenda last year… and they’re at the top again this year, since they didn’t get done.

Adams has aspirations of building more housing, but suggested Albany wasn’t helping. “New York City must build. But we need Albany to clear the way for the housing we need,” he said. “Let. Us. Build.”

3. Snuff it out

Adams