Adams had long been mulling a run for New York mayor,[6] and on November 17, 2020, he announced his candidacy for Mayor of New York City in the 2021 election. He was a top fundraiser among Democrats in the race, second only to Raymond McGuire in terms of the amount raised.[7]
Adams in July 2021Adams campaigning in July 2021
Adams ran as a moderate Democrat, and his campaign focused on crime and public safety. He has argued against the defund the police movement and in favor of police reform.[8][9][10]Public health and the city's economy were cited as his campaign's other top priorities.[11] Initiatives promoted in his campaign include "an expanded local tax credit for low-income families, investment in underperforming schools, and improvements to public housing."[12]
On November 20, 2020, shortly after formally announcing his run for mayor of New York City, Adams attended an indoor fundraiser with 18 people in an Upper West Side restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing criticism.[13] He held an already scheduled fundraiser the following day in Queens, when a 25-person limit on mass gatherings was in place. Adams's campaign said that there were eight people at the event and that they were required to wear masks and practice social distancing.[14]
While Adams opposed NYPD's "stop and frisk" policy, during his State Senate tenure,[15] he supported it during his 2021 mayoral campaign. In February 2020, Adams stated that "if you have a police department where you're saying you can't stop and question, that is not a responsible form of policing..."[16][17] For much of the race, Adams trailed entrepreneur Andrew Yang in public polling.[18] However, Adams's standing in the polls grew stronger in May, and he emerged as the frontrunner in the final weeks of the election.[19] In the months leading up to the election, crime rose in New York, which may have benefited Adams, a former police officer, who ran as a tough-on-crime candidate.[20]
On July 6, Adams completed a come-from-behind victory and was declared the winner of the Democratic primary, ahead of Kathryn Garcia, Maya Wiley, Andrew Yang and others in New York's first major race to use ranked-choice voting.[25]
Following his primary victory, Adams hosted a series of political fundraisers in The Hamptons and Martha's Vineyard and vacationed in Monte Carlo, which critics contended contradicted his message of being a "blue-collar" mayor.[26]
After getting elected, Adams reconfirmed his pledge to reinstate a plainclothes police unit that deals with gun violence. Some Black Lives Matter activists denounced the effort, but Adams labeled the behavior "grandstanding".[34][35]
On November 4, 2021, Adams tweeted that he planned to take his first three paychecks as Mayor in bitcoin and that New York City would be "the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing, innovative industries".[36]
Adams announced he would bring back the "gifted and talented" school program, improve relations with New York State, review property taxes, and reduce agency budgets by 3% to 5%.[37]
Adams took office shortly after the New Year's Eve Ball Drop at midnight in Times Square, holding a picture of his deceased mother, Dorothy, while being sworn in. He became the city's second mayor of African descent to hold the position and the first since David Dinkins left office in 1993.[39][40]
First 100 days
Adams with President Joe Biden and Governor Kathy Hochul in February 2022Adams speaking about his subway safety plan in February 2022
Shortly after becoming mayor, Adams sought a waiver from the Conflicts of Interest Board to hire his brother, Bernard, for a $210,000 paying job in the NYPD where he would serve as his "personal security detail".[41][42] Bernard started working the job on December 30, 2021, two days before Adams was inaugurated as mayor.[41] Adams was accused of nepotism for this pick.[42][43] Adams said white supremacy and anarchists are on the rise and "suggested that he can trust no one in the police department as much as he can his own kin."[44] He was also criticized for his hiring of Philip Banks III, a former NYPD commander, to serve as deputy mayor for public safety.[42][45] Banks had been the subject of a federal investigation by the FBI in 2014, the same year he resigned from the police force.[42]
Eight days into Adams's tenure as Mayor, an apartment fire in the Bronx killed 17 people including eight children.[46] In response to the fire, Adams announced that a law requiring self-closing doors to prevent smoke and fires from spreading throughout apartment buildings would be enforced.[46] However, his administration faced criticism for its slow response in distributing disaster funds to those impacted by the fire.
New York City faced a significant uptick in crime during the first months of Adams's tenure as Mayor. The uptick in crime was highlighted by the shooting deaths of two NYPD officers, Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora, when responding to a domestic disturbance in Harlem. In response, Adams announced that he would be bringing back a police unit made up of plainclothes officers, which was disbanded by de Blasio in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.[47] The unit was officially revived on March 16, 2022.[48] In the midst of the crime spree, President Joe Biden and Attorney GeneralMerrick Garland visited New York City and vowed to work with Adams to crack down on homemade firearms, which lack traceable serial numbers and can be acquired without background checks.[49] Throughout Adams's first year in office, crime continued to rise resulting in both The New York Times and the New York Post labeling his plans as "ineffectual".[50]
In early February 2022, a video of Adams from 2019 leaked in which the then-Borough President boasted about being a better cop than his "cracker" colleagues. Adams apologized for his comments, saying, "I apologize not only to those who heard it but to New Yorkers because they should expect more from me and that was inappropriate."[51]
Later in February, Adams implemented a zero-tolerance policy for homeless people sleeping in subway cars or in subway stations. Police officers, assisted by mental health professionals, were tasked with removing homeless people from the subway system and directing them to homeless shelters or mental health hospitals.[52] The plan has been met with criticism from some activists.[53] The Adams administration also took a stand against homeless encampments. In the first three months of Adam's tenure, more than 300 homeless encampments had been declared and cleared.[54] In an effort to track encampments, Adams's administration created a shared Google Doc that NYPD officers are directed to use to report homeless encampments.[50] The Department of Homeless Services is then tasked with responding to such reports within a week.[50]
On February 14, 2022, 1,430 New York City municipal workers were fired after refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19.[50] The mandate had been introduced in October 2021 by Adams's predecessor, but kept in place by Adams.[50] In March 2022, Adams ended the city's vaccine mandate for indoor setting and city's mask mandate in public school.[50] That same month, Adams announced that he would be keeping the city's vaccine mandate for private-sector employees in place, but would be creating an exemption for athletes and performers.[50] The policy became known as the "Kyrie Carve-Out", as it was intended to allow unvaccinated Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving to play home basketball games.[50]
On February 23, 2022, Adams called on companies based in New York City to rescind remote work policies put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying "you can't stay home in your pajamas all day."[55] Adams cited the need for in-person workers in the city who would patronize local businesses, saying "I need the accountant in the office, so that they can go to the local restaurant, so that we can make sure that everyone is employed."[55]
Remainder of 2022
On April 11, 2022, Adams was diagnosed with COVID-19 and entered quarantine for 10 days.[56] While Adams was quarantined, a man shot 10 people on a New York City Subway train in Brooklyn. Adams worked virtually to issue a response to the attack, and criticized the national "overproliferation" of guns as being responsible for gun violence.[57] Following the shooting, he suggested the implementation of metal detectors to screen riders entering the subway.[50]
In June 2022, Adams unveiled his administration's "comprehensive blueprint" for affordable housing.[50] However, the plan was critiqued for being too vague as it did not propose rezoning to build more housing, and did not contain any actual estimate of how many new housing units would be built.[50]
In response to an influx of asylum seekers sent to New York City from the states of Florida and Texas, Adams announced plans to install Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center Tent Cities on Randalls Island.[58] After about one month, the tent city was closed and the migrants were moved to hotels in downtown Manhattan.[59]
In late November, as part of his campaign to combat crime and clear homeless encampments in New York City, Adams announced an effort to allow the police to involuntarily commit mentally ill people to psychiatric institutions. The policy states those hospitalized should only be discharged once they are stable and connected to ongoing care. The policy will be enforced by police, care workers and medical officials, who will be tasked with identifying those who are mentally ill and who are unable to care for themselves. The policy applies to those who pose no direct danger to themselves or others.[60][61]
In December 2022, Adams, Reverends Al Sharpton and Conrad Tillard, Vista Equity Partners CEO and Carnegie Hall Chairman Robert F. Smith, World Values Network founder and CEO Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, and Elisha Wiesel joined to host 15 Days of Light, celebrating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa in a unifying holiday ceremony at Carnegie Hall.[62][63] Adams said: "social media is having a major impact on the hatred that we are seeing in our city and in this country.... We should bring social media companies to the table to highlight the racist and antisemitic words being spread on their platforms."[64][65]
Polls conducted shortly after Adams's inauguration found that he had a 63% approval rating. On June 7, 2022, a poll conducted by Siena College, in conjunction with Spectrum News and its NY1 affiliate, found Adams had an approval rating of 29%. The poll also found 76% of New Yorkers worried they could be a victim of a violent crime.[66]
2023
In late February 2023, at the annual interfaith breakfast, Adams said that he disagrees with the notion of separation of church and state.[67] During the speech Adams said "don't tell me about no separation of church and state. State is the body. Church is the heart.[67] You take the heart out of the body, the body dies." Additionally, Adams said he disagreed with the Supreme Court's 1962 decision in Engel v. Vitale, which held school prayer to be unconstitutional.[67] Adams said "when we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools..."[67]
In 2022 and 2023, Mayor Adams and the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC), which is led by the presidents of two large municipal labor unions, District Council 37 (DC 37) and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), agreed on a deal that would move City retirees from traditional Medicare to a new, privately run Medicare Advantage plan. Although the MLC comprises the leadership of every municipal union, MLC voting is proportional to the size of the union, giving DC 37 and the UFT more than enough votes to prevail over unions opposed to the deal. Many City retirees have protested the agreement between the mayor and the MLC.[71][72]
In 2023, the Adams administration spent $50,000 to relocate a few migrants who entered New York City from the Mexico-United States southern border to countries like China and to other states within the United States. They were resettled during the years of 2021 and 2022. The migrants were seeking political asylum.[73] In 2023, Mayor Adams vetoed a bill to increase penalties for zoning violations in New York.[74] In July 2023, during the New York City migrant housing crisis, Adams argued that New York City was running out of room and resources to provide for the influx of roughly 100,000 migrants from the southern border. He said, "Our cup has basically runneth over. We have no more room in the city."[75] In August 2023, a lawyer for Governor Kathy Hochul accused Adams of being slow to act and failing to accept aid offers from the state to manage the migrants.[76] In September 2023, Adams warned reporters that the migrant crisis could "destroy" New York City.[77]
On June 23, 2023, Adams vetoed legislation that would have increased eligibility for housing vouchers to homeless families and individuals under the CityFHEPS program;[78][79][80] Adams implemented part of the legislation via executive order, eliminating a 90-day waiting requirement for people currently in shelters.[80] In an op-ed in the New York Daily News, Adams claimed that the bills would cost too much and create administrative difficulties.[81] The City Council responded in a series of annotations to the op-ed,[82] "call[ing] the mayor's arguments 'wrong,' 'misleading,' 'gaslighting' and 'alternative facts'".[80] On July 13, 2023, the City Council overrode the Mayor's veto by a vote of 42–8, marking the first veto override since the administration of Michael Bloomberg.[79][80]The New York Times described the override as "another example of the increasingly confrontational relationship between the City Council and the mayor",[80] and City & State said that it was "a turning point for the City Council".[83] Adams has indicated that he may challenge the veto override in court.[83] Adams also sought to challenge the consent ruling in Callahan v. Carey.
During a housing town hall on June 28, 2023, 84-year-old Holocaust survivor and Washington Heights tenant advocate Jeanie Dubnau accused Adams of being controlled by the real-estate lobby and questioned him about the past two years of rent increases on rent-stabilized housing, which has been approved by a board he appointed.[84][85] Adams responded "Don't stand in front like you treated someone that's on the plantation that you own."[84][85][86][87] The following day, a local radio channel asked Adams if he felt he had "went too far"; Adams refused to apologize and called Dubnau's behavior "degrading".[88][89][90]
In December 2023, the United Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit against Eric Adams to prevent a $550million cut to education funding.[91]
Adams conducted a tour of Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia in October 2023.[92] Adams' administration said the goals of the trip were to "foster relationships, learn more about the path asylum-seekers take to get to the United States, and meet with local and national leaders about the situations on the ground leading to an influx of asylum-seekers arriving in the U.S."[93] Adams' office claimed that taxpayers would not pay for the trip,[93] however, Gothamist reported taxpayers in fact would have to pay for the mayor's security on the trip, and costs associated with staffers accompanying Adams.[94]
The Manhattan District Attorney had previously brought charges against donors to the campaign.[98]
Political relations
Kathy Hochul
Adams and Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York, have known each other since as early as 2014.[101] Unlike past relationships between mayors of New York City and governors of New York, their relationship has been characterized as positive,[102][103][104] though some tension has reportedly emerged between the two due to the ongoing migrant crisis in New York.[103] The previous mayor, Bill de Blasio, and governor, Andrew Cuomo, fought frequently.[104][105]
Joe Biden and Biden administration
After winning the Democratic primary in 2021, Adams met with President Joe Biden at the White House.[106] While campaigning, Adams referred to himself as the "Biden of Brooklyn".[106] In 2021, after the White House meeting, Gregory Krieg, writing for CNN characterized Adams as one of the "White House's treasured allies".[106]
Intelligencer reported in September 2023 that Adams was originally supposed to be a member of an advisory board providing counsel to Biden during his 2024 bid to retain the presidency, but was removed from the list of potential members.[107]
Bill de Blasio
Adams has criticized his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, and de Blasio's administration.[108] Before a 2023 interview with Benjamin Hart, de Blasio indicated he would not comment directly on the stances taken by Adams tenure as mayor.[109]
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