New York City Mayor Eric Adams performs in the 2023 Inner Circle dinner at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on Saturday, April 23, 2023. (Michael Appleton / Mayoral Photography Office)
Every year, the society of journalists who cover New York City politics and call themselves the "Inner Circle" throws a variety show sponsored by massive corporate interests that makes fun of, and features, the mayor. The press gets to huff the rarefied air of the most powerful person they cover, a few thousand bucks go to a slew of different charities, and many awful puns are made and sung. It's bad. It's embarrassing! It should be abolished.
At this year's event, Mayor Eric Adams dressed up like a priest, smashed a bunch of "rats" (eggs) with Tony-nominated actor Jeannette Bayardelle, and in a prepared bit, read out a few tweets that criticized his We ♥️ NYC campaign.
OK, so the mayor stiffly read this gag off a teleprompter, but nevertheless: Eric Adams uttered the words "Hell Gate" in reference to the not-quite-one-year-old website that you are reading right now.
We're not exactly living rent-free in the mayor's head (we would never contribute to the "urban doom spiral" by freeloading precious commercial real estate like that) but we are clearly making some bleary-eyed City Hall scribe's eye twitch a little bit, and isn't that nice?
Thank you for supporting Hell Gate and worker-owned local news. Onward!
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