Eric Adams is leading an administration that won't tell you where he is or who he's speaking to, that undermines long-planned policy at the urging of local business honchos, and that is flagging under many major metrics for success. Adams also appears to have tipped off his allegedly corrupt Buildings Commissioner to an ongoing District Attorney investigation, and so on. The Adams administration is definitely "getting stuff done," but maybe not the best kind of stuff.
Since a brief period of wait-and-see at the beginning of his term, progressives have been slamming the mayor from every direction— from handling of the migrant crisis, his austerity-driven policies, and his running of Rikers Island. Their efforts to stand in the way of any of Adams's priorities have mostly been for naught, with the sole win, a City Council override of a mayoral veto over housing vouchers, likely to end up in court and drag on for months.
This week, everyone's getting in on the Adams-bashing. Right now, in front of City Hall, the City Council's Progressive Caucus is holding a rally to call out City Hall's announcement of an imminent 15 percent slashing of the municipal budget, meant to hurt New Yorkers and pit them against arriving migrants in a battle for resources, something that Adams has been attempting to make happen for over a year. The rally, featuring the Comptroller Brad Lander, will call out the cuts for being far in excess of the city's funding needs for arriving migrants. At the same time, Lander has been scrutinizing City Hall's spending on emergency contracts given to unqualified shelter operators like DocGo, which got a $432 million no-bid deal from the administration, despite serious accusations of mismanagement. (Adams himself spoke at the company's investor call this year).
While it's one thing to rally against cuts (that the mayor can pretty much execute unilaterally, anyways), some politicians are trying to offer some helpful advice. Many of the City and state's socialist politicians issued a series of policy suggestions aimed at Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul, meant to free up money to help get New Yorkers out of shelters and migrants into the workforce. At the same time, a tactful Errol Louis has begun throwing out extremely feasible ideas for how the city can raise revenue while closing this budget gap, without cutting services: Collecting outstanding fines and fees, a pied-à-terre tax on out-of-city residents, or even just hiring more city auditors, could easily make a dent in the budget gap.
These specific, prescriptive solutions—instead of just railing against the cruelty of the mayor's decisions—possibly stand more of a chance of being embraced by the public at large. Rallying for something bold instead of just trying and failing once again to stop Eric Adams, could create a viable coalition.
Because right now, if local progressive politicians really believe Adams is the existential threat to New York City they say he is, well, it's time to actually do something about it.
Some links that you can get behind:
- Want to get an OMNY card that might work on the city's transit system without having to go explain to a bodega that yes, in fact, they do sell OMNY cards and then have to fitfully walk them through activating it? Like from a vending machine? Maybe you'll be able to this fall, but probably not until next year, as the MTA's glacial rollout of OMNY continues.
- If you are a migrant who spent 60 days in an NYC shelter and are getting booted by Eric Adams, you will now get another 30 days to find a home before maybe getting booted by Eric Adams again.
- Governor Kathy Hochul is taking her sweet, sweet time on deciding to sign hundreds of bills passed by the state legislature over three months ago.
- Eric Adams and President Joe Biden are so over each other.
- You won't believe this, but landlords are acting in bad faith towards rent-stabilized tenants.
- Fentanyl was found under the mats where the one-year-old who died at a Bronx daycare center was taking a nap.
- Hours of public comment by struggling weed farmers were scrubbed from the Internet by the Office of Cannabis Management.
- The City Council's Cultural Affairs Committee is holding a hearing today on whether to take down statues of Washington, Peter Stuyvesant, Christopher Columbus, and others.
- And finally, as parent company Lyft circles the toilet bowl, it's time to begin taking away some of the joys of CitiBike, one by one.
