Adams Eyes Holistic Approach to Governing

Adams grew up in Hollis and attended Bayside High School with, of all people, Mayor Eric Adams. But a life of community service wasn’t always on her mind. Instead, she found herself in the world of corporate America, but after a brief stint with Goldman Sachs decided she needed a change.

“I told my husband, ‘I’m done with corporate America,’” she said. “My husband said ‘just spread your wings.’”

Adams is still active in Alpha Kappa Alpha, the same sorority that counts Vice President Kamala Harris among its members. Their mission statement stresses community service, and one of her sorority sisters, who happened to be chair of Community Board 12, invited her to a meeting. “I said, ‘community board, what’s that?’” Adams recalled.

“So I went to a community board meeting and I was hooked. Absolutely hooked.”

She was quickly appointed chair of the Education Committee and saw firsthand the inequity in three different school districts. Rather than take a passive role on the board, she became a vocal advocate for improving the quality of education in Southeast Queens.

“That’s where everything really took off for me,” Adams said. “The spark was lit and the fire just rose up in me. I said ‘we have to do something.’ I had to be a voice.”

Her life in public service would continue to expand. Adams was appointed to the Jamaica Downtown Revitalization Initiative by then-governor Andrew Cuomo, and she is former co-chair of the Jamaica NOW Leadership Council, a diverse group of stakeholders who provide oversight of the revitalization and economic development of the downtown Jamaica core.

“That was about reviving arts and culture and small businesses that had been ignored for a long time, as well as reinforcing our BID’s,” Adams said of her time with Jamaica NOW. “We got a lot of that done.

“There’s still a lot to do,” she added. “The pandemic stifled a lot of the businesses and the work that we started.”

Adams said the experience opened her eyes to the inequities in the city, especially in the outer boroughs. She said growing up in the 70’s, Jamaica Avenue was a thriving retail strip where people from across the borough and city came to shop. By the time she was appointed by Cuomo, that had all disappeared.

“We had to come back in 2000 and try to make that beautiful thing that should have never left us to begin with,” Adams said. “Again, it’s the inequity across the city, particularly in the outer boroughs that have been forgotten. I say this about a lot of things, but it should not have taken that long to put eyes on Downtown Jamaica.”

Adams says she sees the same thing happening today, especially in the wake of the pandemic. She says people wonder why so many small businesses are still shuttered, when the simple answer is that they have been ignored and overlooked. She points to the Paycheck Protection Program that helped businesses keep their workforces employed during the pandemic as an example.

“It was the larger businesses who we knew didn’t need the millions who ended up getting the millions,” Adams said. “Some of them were even guilty enough to give it back. We have little mom-and-pop stores with the gate down that could have used a fraction of that to remain in business.”

Adams said the city still needs the federal government to do their part to help the city recover from the pandemic, but said under her leadership the city will be proactive about addressing the concerns of small business owners.

“We need more help, but this time we need to assess what it is that small businesses need to survive and thrive,” she said. “We need a better look at what’s going on with our small businesses. We need to cut through the bureaucracy and red tape.”