New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, is walking a thin line on COVID. “He wants to show action and responsiveness in a city where case numbers are skyrocketing . . . and schools, restaurants, and other workplaces are struggling to stay open,” ericlach writes.
Outside of a Bronx elementary school on Monday morning, in one of his first public appearances as Mayor of New York, Eric Adams delivered a line to remember. “When a mayor has swagger, the city has swagger,” he said. All politicians swagger into office, but Adams suggested that his swagger has a special municipal purpose. “Leadership should have that swagger,” he said. “That’s what has been missing in the city.
One of the knocks on Bill de Blasio, the outgoing mayor, was that he let his attention drift after an early spate of accomplishments. At one point, he drifted all the way to Iowa, to run for President. But he did take advantage of his initial honeymoon period. Universal pre-kindergarten, a fifteen-dollar-an-hour minimum wage, the end of stop-and-frisk—much of what’s good in de Blasio’s legacy got done in his swaggering days. No program or policy of that magnitude is yet on the table for Adams.
One area where Adams has been more assertive is policing. During the primary campaign, he was eager to fight with criminal-justice-reform activists, and as an ex-cop he is quick to dismiss the opinions of those who have never worn a uniform. Those instincts have stayed with him going into his administration.