Eric Adams and Kathy Hochul are both doing a shitty job, the housing crisis is untenable, and the ultra-wealthy need to be taxed more.
These are the takeaways from a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday afternoon that showed Mayor Adams with a 58 percent disapproval rating and a 28 percent approval rating, which is the lowest for any mayor in the history of this poll, which stretches back to 1996. On virtually every front—crime, budget cuts, housing asylum seekers—voters are unhappy with how things are going during his administration.
"There's no good news for Mayor Adams in this poll. Not only are voters giving him poor grades on the job he's doing at City Hall, their views on his character have dimmed," Quinnipiac University poll assistant director Mary Snow said in press a release.
Confronted with the raft of cuts to social services that Adams has proposed, 65 percent of New York City residents believe the rich should be taxed more.
But some of Adams's messaging is getting through. After issuing dire warnings for months that the arrival of migrants was going to "destroy" New York City while haphazardly handling the situation, it appears New Yorkers agree: 85 percent of the voters polled said they were "concerned…that the City would be unable to accommodate them," while 62 percent said they agreed with Adams that their presence might "destroy" New York, and 80 percent agreed the feds weren't helping as much as they should.
Governor Hochul doesn't escape unscathed either: 48 percent of voters disapprove of her job performance, while 45 percent approve, and the lack of affordable housing is now the most urgent issue New Yorkers say they face, along with crime. This is the same governor that refused to support stronger tenant protections during the legislative session earlier this year, just removed construction requirements from her plan to build housing, and recently told New Yorkers that she wouldn't be raising taxes and that we should all "live within our means." (During his weekly off-topic press conference this week, Adams dodged a question about whether the state should raise taxes.)
Polls are just a snapshot in time of what 1,000 or so New Yorkers think (City Hall responded to the poll numbers by saying "incorrect polls come out every day") but for New York's top two elected officials, it's a picture taken in a pig sty, and it ain't pretty.
Here are some links with higher approval ratings than the mayor:
- Mayor Adams is traveling to D.C. today…hopefully he isn't interrupted like last time.
- The MTA board approved the base $15 congestion pricing charge, and now the 60-day "review" (which is on top of the years-long review that congestion pricing has already been subjected to) begins.
- A new straw donor to Eric Adams's 2021 campaign emerges.
- The New York City Council passed some bills on Thursday—one would stock naloxone in all NYC public schools, another would allow tenants to report "warehoused" apartments, another allows for zoning that would boost renewable energy, and yet another streamlines the installation of bike lanes (to a degree).
- Migrant families won't be kicked out of shelters over the Christmas holiday.
- "Fourth Accuser Sues Sean 'Diddy' Combs Over Sexual Assault Claim; Mogul Says 'Enough Is Enough' in Denial"
- Why are doctors at Bellevue Hospital performing so many bariatric weight-loss surgeries?
- All's fair in love and scaffolding.
- Apparently, according to a lawsuit, Representative Dan Goldman lives in an apartment that costs $45,000 a MONTH, hasn't paid his rent in a good long while, and owes his landlord $180,000???
- Would you pay $126,000 for some Jay-Z library cards?
- A good read on the race that is shaping up between Representative Jamaal Bowman and his new challenger, Westchester County Executive George Latimer.
And finally, if the War on Christmas isn't real, why did the NYPD's 78th Precinct delete this tweet?
