Editor’s Note (January 1, 2022): This story has been updated since publication.
SUBWAYAYORS IN NEW YORK they are usually inaugurated on the steps of City Hall, where they deliver an uplifting speech setting out their vision for the city. Sometimes those visions succeed: Rudy Giuliani, elected in the wake of a decades-long crime spree, promised to make the city safer, and he did. Michael Bloomberg, elected after the attacks of September 11, 2001, said that lower Manhattan must be rebuilt. Today, it is thriving. But David Dinkins never got to be mayor for all New Yorkers, which may be impossible. Outgoing mayor Bill de Blasio also did not significantly reduce economic inequality.
Your browser does not support the element
Eric Adams, who succeeded de Blasio on Jan. 1, planned to hold his inauguration in Flatbush, a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn, a nod both to the outer district coalition that propelled him into office and to his own education in Brooklyn and Queens. But Omicron put an end to those plans; As cases increased in New York, Adams canceled his own celebration. Instead, he was sworn in shortly after midnight in Times Square, amid reduced New Year’s festivities. “I don’t need an opening,” he had explained. “I just need a mattress and a floor… We don’t want to put people in danger.” That may be the easiest decision you make for years to come.
Adams inherits a shaky town. The economic fallout from the 9/11 attacks on New York was largely confined to lower Manhattan; the pandemic, by contrast, has closed businesses in all five boroughs. New York lost 630,000 jobs in 2020 and has an unemployment rate of 9%, which is more than double the national average. Tourists stay away. The city has 100,000 fewer restaurant jobs than it did at the beginning of 2020, and hotel occupancy rates hover around 50%, down from 90% before the pandemic.
Subway ridership is only slightly more than half of pre-pandemic levels. Only 28% of Manhattan office workers are at their desks on any given day, and only 8% come in every day. The city center is dead. Employment is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2024. James Parrott of the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs expects double-digit unemployment rates for African-American populations and latin of the city last even longer.
Fortunately, Mr. Adams has a better relationship with city business than his predecessor, though that’s a low bar. Stephen Scherr, chief financial officer of Goldman Sachs, is on the incoming mayor’s transition team, which includes 700 people, up from de Blasio’s team of 60 in 2013. Adams has also created a corporate council of advisers, including executives from the finance, real estate, hospitality and technology sectors, all focused on encouraging workers to return to their desks and not leave New York for warmer climates and lower taxes. Adams has big plans to turn the city into a cybersecurity hub. He also wants to attract cryptocurrency businesses and has suggested that he could receive payments in bitcoin.
He also relied on public safety, which set him apart from his wealthy Liberal Democrat rivals and increased his popularity in the city’s highest crime areas. Overall, New York is much less safe than it was before the pandemic, with a 50% increase in murders and non-fatal shootings twice as high as two years ago. Unusually, Adams combined that campaign with one for police reform. A former officer himself, he often found himself in trouble while in uniform for his vocal criticism of the department. He protested police brutality on the very streets he patrolled. His choice for top cop, Keechant Sewell, came from outside the department’s grassroots; she was chief of detectives for Nassau County, Long Island, and will be the city’s first female commissioner.
Reforming the world’s largest police force while making the city safer will be a tall order. He has already infuriated progressives by promising to restore the city’s plainclothes anti-crime units, which were notorious for stopping and frisking non-whites under improper pretexts. Hawk Newsome, a vocal Black Lives Matter activist, warned: “There will be rioting, there will be fire and there will be bloodshed” if those units return.
Adams also promised to restore solitary confinement in city jails. If he successfully walks the tightrope that has been laid, the city will be better for it. Unlike his predecessor, he has good relations with state governor Kathy Hochul, which will help with funding and reduce turf wars (de Blasio and Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace, hated each other).
To show his support for the city’s leading hospitality industry, Mr. Adams intends to visit the city every night. New York hasn’t had a true party mayor since Jimmy Walker in the 1920s, who was a fixture at speakeasies and boxing matches. Like Ed Koch, who ran the city when he was broke in the 1970s and ’80s, Adams seems to like being around ordinary New Yorkers. He drew crowds of enthusiastic supporters during the campaign, many of whom shared concerns about crime or stories of economic hardship.
Unlike his two predecessors, Adams is personally familiar with these kinds of stories. He talks about taking his clothes to school in a garbage bag, afraid his family will be evicted. He has a learning disability and was beaten by the police when he was 15 years old. He joined the police force before serving in the state legislature and as Brooklyn Borough President. Once a Republican, he now considers himself a liberal.
During the campaign, it was unclear where she actually lived: in her office at Brooklyn’s Borough Hall, in a basement apartment on her estate in the borough, or in New Jersey, where her partner lives. One morning after a night out, he was filmed driving down the sidewalk. And it can be prickly and defensive. Asked about his decision to restore solitary confinement, he sputtered: “I wore a bulletproof vest for 22 years and protected the people of this city. When you do that, then you have the right to question me.” None of this bothered voters too much. “It’s his quirks about him that make him a beloved figure,” says Michael Hendrix of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.
Adams had better get used to tough questions. In a democracy, people can challenge or be openly rude to elected officials whenever they want. When Mr. Koch walked the streets, he would ask people, “How am I doing?” New Yorkers, who are not known for their restraint, told him so. ■
For exclusive information and reading recommendations from our correspondents in the United States, subscribe to Checks and Balance, our weekly newsletter.
This article appeared in the US section of the print edition under the headline “Adams eve”.