By David Mark Greaves
January 30, 2025
We had an opportunity to interview Mayor Eric Adams at Gracie Mansion last week. We met in a small meeting room at a table covered with a forest green cloth, and asked him first about his response to the raft of Executive Orders that have been flying out the Oval Office like bats out of a cave. This was not the first time he’s gotten that request.
“We’re on Day Four or Five, the ink is not even dry yet, and people are looking for comprehensive responses and analysis on these reports;” said Adams. “I think out of emotions and not out of really reading through them and finding out, ‘What does this all mean and what are the actions taken?’ And if we don’t respond in a kneejerk way, people are saying, ‘You’re trying to harm immigrants. No, I’m trying to do my job.”
“This is the largest city in America,” said the mayor and former columnist at Our Time Press, “and anything that comes of Washington, DC, we should thoroughly look at.”
“Not only on immigration, what are we doing with the various grants that we receive from the administration? What does this mean? What does ‘Reapplying mean?’ Do we present the same proposals? And so, we need to go into the crevices of all of these EOs, and I have my team doing that.”
It is rightly said that “The devil is in the details,” and one can only imagine the policy surprises lurking in this particular paperwork.
“My Corp Consul, my Chief Council, all the legal teams at the various agencies that are impacted are also doing that, and once we get a full understanding, then we can sit down and say, ‘Okay, this is how it’s going to impact New York.’ I say all that to say, ‘We don’t know.’”
With deportations of migrants and the new questions posed by the administration about what constitutes a citizen, and now raids in other cities, how does New York’s status as a Sanctuary City fit into the equation?
“Many people don’t understand what a Sanctuary City is and conflate Sanctuary City with asylum seekers,” said the mayor. “Being a Sanctuary City does not mean if you’re an undocumented person, we’re going to harbor you and get in the way of federal authorities.”
“What Sanctuary City states is while you are in the City of New York, when you buy this bottle of water, you’re paying taxes, and those taxes pay for the services of the State, and people paying taxes” should be able to and are encouraged to, use those services.
“Children must go to school. If you’re sick, use our medical facilities; if you’re a victim of a crime, call the police. Don’t be afraid. If you go to these services, we’re not turning you over to federal authorities merely because you’re applying for services.
Immigration status does not figure into the city’s delivery of services to people who live here. You are protected to get those services without us turning you in.”
We noted that a December report from Comptroller Brad Landers had highlighted what he called an increase in evictions at NYCHA housing. Given that there are tens of thousands of NYCHA residents in our distribution area, we asked the mayor to respond, and he did with a ‘Yeah, let’s talk about NYCHA’ attitude, starting with how, as Brooklyn Borough President, he saw that NYCHA residents did not have highspeed broadband. “The parents could not do telemedicine; children could not do remote learning. Now every NYCHA resident receives free high-speed broadband.”
The mayor said he headed the formation of the NYCHA Land Trust, which residents voted on and approved. “That frees up billions of dollars for repairs.” In this case, it is $8 billion dollars to NYCHA.” This is against the ugly fact that NYCHA “Has an over $80 billion capital problem,” including repairs, lead removal, paint removal, and “our budget is only $114 billion.”
“Unlike what Brad says, the number of evictions is not going through the roof.” “His report failed to show how we fix NYCHA for those residents who are paying their rent.”
“Brad ignored that altogether with his superficial approach.”
Repairs have to be paid for said the mayor, and “what do we do with those residents who are paying their rent every month? They deserve a standard of service.” Even if some tenants don’t pay rent, things like heat and hot water, as well as repairs, still have to be paid for. And yet the mayor says, “The $7 billion infused under PACT (Permanent Affordability Commitment Together) is substantial to help with the needed repairs, and when you add the NYCHA Land Trust, we’re moving in the right direction.
We’re very focused on NYCHA, and I disagree with them totally. It’s just a political report to make it seem like people are being evicted at high rates, and they’re not.”
With artificial intelligence now being integrated into every facet of our lives, in schools, and in city management, what about the president’s $500 billion AI initiative and its potential effect on the city?
Adams said he anticipates some of that funding will be for schools and city government.
“People are looking at what they don’t like about what this administration is doing, how about looking at what we like? I don’t want to spend all my energy on what we disagree on; I want to look at how we elevate the things we agree on.” One of those things is educating New York children to be ready to face the competition coming into the city from around the world.
“We have to build a pipeline for Artificial Intelligence in our young people, if not, they’re going to be left behind.”
While he was at the inauguration, Adams had the opportunity to meet Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI. “He and I were talking about how do we look at internships, working with our schools, and other ways for our children to be introduced to AI.”
I asked the mayor what his message would be to a group I knew he would be familiar with, the monthly meeting of the African American Clergy and Elected Officials (AACEO) at Antioch Baptist Church in Brooklyn.
“Yes, I know Reverend Waterman and the AACEO. I came up through those groups, living blocks from there on Lafayette Avenue. We should all be proud of what we have accomplished against all odds.
When we came into the office, we were dealing with COVID-19; then add on Black unemployment was high, NYCHA did not have broadband, small businesses were hurting, crime was high, and people were not back on the subway.
“We’ve moved 20,000 guns off the streets. People talk about crime in our subway system, we move 4.1 million riders a day and have only six felonies a day.”
There may be only six felonies, but it is the perception that becomes the reality. New York City’s daily subway ridership would replace Oklahoma (population 4,095,393) as the 28th most populated state, with people not spread out over tens of thousands of square miles but on 665 miles of mostly underground track in 6712 jostling, crowded, wheel-screeching subway cars.
Still, high-profile crimes, such as a woman burned to death and three people killed by being pushed in front of trains, can cause a general feeling of fear, and the presence of the mentally ill can be very uncomfortable.
“We know the perception has overshadowed our success. Having said that, we’re not ignoring how people are feeling. But if you were to talk with the average commuter and ask if anything had happened to them, they’d say no. Although they would tell you what they’ve read.
“This week, we rolled out an initiative to put two police officers on every train between 9:00 pm and 5:00 am. The best way to reduce the perception of crime is to have a visible presence in a police uniform.
“What I ran on, we did. Our students are outpacing the state in reading and math, outpacing the state. We changed the reading curriculum, we changed the math curriculum, and then we diversified government.
There has never been a government with a top-end more diverse than what we have now. What people hoped we would accomplish, we have. Look at the record I ran on and what we have accomplished in three years.
We have broken records in affordable housing and voucher programs for subsidized housing, and we have broken record after record. Every New Yorker, people of faith, should look at it all and say, ‘Our mayor has lived up to and did what he said he was going to do.’”
In terms of the diversity of his administration, Adams ticked off the firsts: First South Asian to become a deputy mayor, first Filipino deputy mayor, first Trinidadian deputy mayor, first Dominican to be a deputy mayor, first African American to be first deputy mayor, first woman to be a first deputy mayor, second woman to be chief of staff, first dreamer to be head of the mayor’s office of immigrant affairs.
First woman police commissioner twice, first Spanish-speaking police commissioner, “We made the city leadership look like the city”
(You and the Law and The Law and You, are the columns Mayor Adams wrote for Our Time Press in the early 2000s. Available at www.ourtimepress.com)
