Adams’ State of the City sets some fine goals – it’s a pity he has to rely on Hohul’s help.

Mayor Eric Adams was right to focus on some vital issues – “jobs, safety, housing and care” – in Thursday’s State of the City address. Alas, the challenges he will face in order to make any significant progress on them are formidable.

Take crime: Adams rightly noted that he has made progress in reducing gun violence; the number of shootings and murders last year decreased compared to 2021. And some of the plans he’s unveiled are promising: he’ll expand the NYPD’s neighborhood security teams that get guns off the streets and the department’s retail theft efforts.

It will also target repeat offenders — 1,700 of whom commit a “disproportionate number” of violent crimes in the city — by channeling more funds to the city’s attorney’s office to enforce burdensome state “detection” rules for sharing evidence.

However, state legislators have rejected major criminal justice fixes such as disclosure rules, bail reform, and age-raising legislation. Gov. Kathy Hochul (whom Adams praised to the core) doesn’t even plan to search many of the necessary changes.

Or jobs: the city still hasn’t regained everyone it lost during COVID, even though the country has a population of 500,000. Gotham’s labor force really decreased by 300,000, with many residents (and employers) leaving. And yet none of the key players – not in Albany, not even Adams himself — insists on cutting the country’s highest taxes and destructive government regulations, such as the minimum wage, that are stifling job growth.

As State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli warned after Adams’ speech, the city’s economy is now “fragile.” And the slowdown will only exacerbate the mayor’s office’s already serious financial problems in the future.

The mayor also pleaded for “additional help” from Albany and Washington to deal with the 42,000 (and growing) migrants who are currently choking the city’s resources. However, Hochul and President Joe Biden (who inflamed migration crisis, but nonetheless received Adams’ enthusiastic praise) were deaf to his pleas.

The mayor also didn’t have high hopes for public schools, even though his team had just turned down a spot for a high-performing public charter school, Success Academy.

Adams vows to make 2023 his “Year of Aaron Judge,” in honor of the Yankee slugger who just set the American League single-season homer record. But even stars need a strong team to really win, and the people in Albany and Washington, who were ravely praised by the mayor, don’t seem to be playing his (or city) team.