State of the City: Calamity and Chaos at City Hall

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor at Large
“It has not impacted our day-to-day city services as yet,” Professor Basil Smikle, political strategist and policy advisor, told Our Time Press. “From voters and commuters, it seems the City is still open for business and operating as usual. But, the high-level resignations suggest a leadership vacuum which doesn’t help the overall vision.”

“I have over 300,000 employees,” said the Mayor, stating that he is focusing on “reigning against violence,” on affordable housing, and against crime.
As for many who have left, Adams said, “Many people are coming in. People want to serve the government. They know what this administration has done and what we’re going to continue to do.”

While Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright resigned on Tuesday, Adams denied that there is calamity and chaos at City Hall. “Every personnel change is done in a very organized manner…we have a list of people that want to come and serve in government.”

“You can’t break the law to protect the law. The City is on fire. The corruption is rampant,” community activist Daniel Goodine told Our Time Press. “We are basically in a crisis. Who is running the City? Who is the head of public safety in the City?”

The co-founder of Men Elevating Leadership continued, “Gotham is in crisis right now. If everyone has got a $ 600-an-hour lawyer, who is taking care of day-to-day business?”
Just a month after having their home searched and phones snatched by the Feds on September 4, couple Schools Chancellor David Banks and Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright got married and resigned.

Banks said he was somewhat blindsided since he had stated in his surprise announcement that he would leave in December, not in the middle of October as suddenly declared last week.
Just this Sunday night, his brother, Public Safety Commissioner David Banks, announced that he, too, was leaving his position.

If it was a film script, it may not get greenlit, unbelievable as it is.
Adams called Banks, the former Chief of Police Department, a “longtime friend,” whom he said told him over the weekend, “Eric, I’m ready to put in my time. I wanna do something else with my life.”

Adams’ long-time partner Tracey Collins was also named in the federal indictment as benefitting from $45,000 worth of trips to countries including Ghana, India, and Turkey from 2016. A veteran Department of Education administrator, teacher, and principal, the senior adviser in the Division of School Leadership, has been accused in a complaint of not showing up to work for almost a year.

A Marist poll shows that 70 percent of surveyed New Yorkers call on the indicted 110th mayor to resign. Adams shrugs off the call, dismissing it as the folk only having “one side of the story.”

He insisted, “While they’re hearing the whole story, I’m going to continue to do what I have been doing. We brought this city so far from what I inherited on January 1st, 2022.”
Governor Kathy Hochul, whom Adams calls “a partner” and could actually remove him as mayor, has instead asked him to clean house and prove that he can still run the city.
Smikle said, “Business leaders and voters will see the impact of these investigations. There’s going to be a change in the Mayor’s ability to articulate a longer-term vision and planning for the future.”

The political leadership “is giving him the space to continue to govern,” said Smikle. “I don’t think that there is a significant push for him to resign. That may change. Innocent until proven guilty.”

Gov. Hochul would have to weigh the personal political fallout of making a call to remove him. Smikle said part of that consideration would only come after speaking with Democratic Party leadership like Congressmen Hakeem Jeffries, and Greg Meeks and community voices like Rev. Al Sharpton, and Hazel Dukes. “I would be surprised if she would make that decision without [consultation] from the base.”

New York City Charter determines that Public Advocate Williams is in line to become mayor should Adams step down.
“I’m going to stay on the battlefield until I die,” Rev. Herbert Daughtry sang the old hymnal as he spoke to Our Time Press about the political quagmire enveloping Mayor Adams, his “spiritual son,” whom he said he has known for over 40 years. “You just wait for the commander to give you the order to go into battle, take a break, or go home. I will be there with him. The lawyer said he’s going to fight, and he’s not guilty. I’m going to stay with him until the end.”

Folks are rushing to judgment, said Rev. Daughtry, National Presiding Minister Emeritus of The House of the Lord Churches. “I don’t think he should resign at this point. But, it is his decision to make. Give him time to think it through and weigh up what his options are. He wants the best for the City. If he sees that it is impossible for him to govern, then I think he will leave on his own volition and resign.”

A constant heckling presence at Adams press conferences and recent court appearances Black Lives Matter of Greater New York co-founder Hawk Newsome told Our Time Press, “It’s just one failed policy after another. Eric Adams’s legacy will be corruption. Many people are hurt because they believed in Eric Adams, and this house of cards collapse is extremely disappointing.”

Arraigned and indicted two weeks ago, as Adams is facing another November 1st court date, Newsome charged, “I believe that people in New York City are angry because there is so much that is wrong with the city, from the dirty streets to the reinstatement of the brutal anti-crime unit…There are homeless people and mentally ill people everywhere.
“This man is unfit to govern. Seventy percent of the city wants him to resign. We will be holding a march telling him to resign.”

People watching the daily developments “are confused because it’s like, where do we go from here?” Newsome assessed, “The national election is a circus, local politics is a circus they don’t know who to trust or what to believe in.”