megapanalo Things Have Gotten Pretty Weird With New York’s Mayor
David Firestone: Himegapanalo, Mara, and welcome to a year that’s going to be full of news about Mayor Eric Adams and the long-term health of New York City.
City Hall is playing nothing but defense these days, and it seemed fitting somehow to learn that Mr. Adams is considering removing reporters from Room 9, the municipal press room, as well as the press offices in One Police Plaza. Between his personal scandals, the big budget cuts and widespread accusations that he has mismanaged the migrant crisis, there has been very little good news to cover about the Adams administration. Flailing politicians often lash out at the press, and for Mr. Adams, who clearly hates the coverage he has been getting, that seems like a substitute for doing a good job.
Mara Gay: Hi, David. I’m glad we’re having this conversation. So many eyes are focused on a hugely important presidential election this November. But what’s happening with the mayor of the nation’s largest city is pretty weird. Embattled by investigations into his campaign and the rest of the problems you mention, the mayor seems to be acting in some erratic ways and picking unnecessary fights. This week he lashed out in a personal attack against the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, for supporting a bill Mr. Adams doesn’t like that would require the Police Department to report more complete data on police stops throughout the city.
“He lives in a fort,” Mr. Adams said at a police briefing, referring to Mr. Williams, who rents a private apartment in a development inside the U.S. Army garrison at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. Mr. Williams told reporters later the mayor “sounded like a 5-year-old throwing a temper tantrum.”
I think part of Mr. Adams’s problem is his lack of a signature initiative that would focus some of this energy on more productive pursuits and draw attention away from the drama. Previous New York mayors have sparked national trends like cigarette bans and universal prekindergarten programs. So far, Mr. Adams’s most significant contribution to the national dialogue seems to be to complain about the migrant crisis. He’s not wrong that New York and other affected communities where large numbers of migrants are arriving need help from the federal government. You just wish he would stop demagoguing and come up with a brighter, more positive vision for New York City.
David: Yes, he seems to have fallen directly into the trap of Texas’ governor, Greg Abbott, who wanted to show that so-called sanctuary cities and liberal states would do no better than Texas in handling the huge influx of migrants from the southern border. Rather than demonstrate that New York has the capacity and heart to help the migrants, Mr. Adams has instead tried to end the court mandate that required the city to provide shelter and, failing that, has stuck thousands of them in tents in an abandoned airfield in far southern Brooklyn, where they are shivering and hungry and dependent on neighborhood clothing drives.
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