By: h. nazan ışık —

7 February 2024 —

Mayor Eric Adams celebrated the record number of minority and women-owned business enterprise (M/WBE) contracts awarded under the Adams administration with a reception on 7 February 2024,  at Gracie Mansion.

The reception was in the morning , and it was crowded, 

Mayor Eric Adams:”First of all, it’s good. It’s good to see all of you in the room, many of you I have communicated with from time to time on this journey..And we have had conversations, and you have planted your thoughts and your ideas, and it was part of the actual creation of where we are now.”

The Mayor mentioned a meeting he attended when he was 18, with a lot of other young people. In the room there were elders who had fought for so long. And the young people who were there talked about how those elders needed to get out of the way because they didn’t understand how to move the movement forward.

He said that he rolled up a piece of paper to symbolize a baton, handed it off to them with the respect that they deserved,

Mayor Adams: ” I knew all of us have to run our mile. None of this marathon that we are experiencing is going to be instant.

“So we’re now, this is our mile.(…) And those symbolic batons have been handed off all across the country.All of us have the baton; the question is, are we going to do something with it?

That’s the question, and that is why you are in this room right now, because you have your batons. We are handing batons off to you. And part of the baton is to make sure you’re going to hand it off to other generations. You’re going to mentor small businesses. You’re going to assist us in reaching the goals that we are attempting to accomplish.”

“My mom said, if you don’t inspect what you expect, it’s all suspect.”

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Michael Garner, Chief Business Diversity Officer, (L), and Mayor Eric Adams ( R), at Gracie Mansion.

Mayor Adams continues:”That’s why Mike Garner’s putting in place a COMPstat system to see, I don’t want to wait until the end of the year and have you tell me you didn’t reach your goals and your targets over and over again. We need to inspect this stuff daily and weekly. Are you moving and trending in the right direction?”

Michael Garner was appointed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams on February 16, 2023, as chief business diversity officer of the Mayor’s Office of Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (M/WBE). In this role, Garner will support and elevate New York City’s M/WBEs by making the city a more equitable and inclusive business environment .

© h, nazan ışık

Mayor Adams: “And then we need to rethink where we are now. I don’t know what all of your businesses may be now in particular, but all of us should be thinking about the migrant and asylum seekers crisis as opportunities as well as the crisis. We have to feed 172,000 people…or abshelter system, migrant and asylum seekers and long‑term New Yorkers.”

Michael Garner, Chief Business Diversity Officer, Mayor’s Office: “So, the mayor talked about feeding the asylum seekers. And if you ever go up on Dyckman Avenue you see a whole community working together making sure that jobs are being created.

And so we want to give a citation to Susana Osario who exemplifies what the mayor is opening up with the doors of opportunity. (…) She’s doing $10 million worth of work. She’s preparing 85,000 meals a week. 85,000 meals a week.”

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First citation recipient Carmen Susana Osario.

Carmen Susana Osario: Oh my God, if I would have known this, I would have fixed my hair, but you can see that I’m working. And to be realistic, thanks to this administration, I’ve been certified as M/WBE for three years. (….) I got my first contract last year in June, and I just started working with my second contract now in November. Thanks to this administration. (…) Let’s not be afraid. This is a friendly administration. And as a Latina, I’m cooking Dominican food for everyone and I’m hungry… and I want to bring more jobs. Right now I got seven restaurants around the area working, and I’m looking to have more restaurants working with us. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor.

And the second citation was presented to Worldwide Technology.

Garner: When the Adams Administration came in, there was a lingering problem with the business. We got in, I briefed the mayor, the mayor said, we’ll fix it. 

And the largest contract in the history of the City of New York went to an information technology logistics company called Worldwide Technology, I think, in a neighborhood of $350 million… under this administration.

And so we are happy to present a citation to Worldwide Technology, and one of their board members, Priscilla Hill‑Ardoin,  is going to come and she’s going to accept the award and she’s going to bless us on this day.

And she did.

Photographs © h, nazan ışık

© h. nazan ışık / NKENdiKEN