Every single seat on the City Council was up for grabs in the 2021 election, and even though some members had served before, in a sense, it’s a clean slate with new and old issues coming together. 

New City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams says she’s listened to the council members and put together an agenda. Ending the surge in violent crime is at the top of that list, but so are homelessness and mental health, and, she acknowledges, sometimes the two go together, as in the death of Michelle Go, pushed in front of a subway train, allegedly by a mentally ill homeless man. 

She lays out her ambitious agenda for In Focus, including affordable housing, health care and, of course, trying to build back from a pandemic that just won’t seem to let go.