Opinion: The Eric Adams I know

It is no great secret in political circles that I spent a lot of time with Eric Adams in 2019 and 2020 setting up public policy briefings with the smartest minds in New York. We did at least one a week for almost two years (including the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic by Zoom) – about 100 in total.

Eric and I called these “mayor classes,” and he was a very willing and eager student. He took time out of his busy schedule as borough president and fundraising for mayor to do one-hour deep policy dives each week. He asked good questions and listened intently in those breakfast briefings.

To this day, I am impressed by that effort and proud of the work we did together. He was well-prepared for the campaign and, unlike some of his opponents (including Andrew Yang and Ray McGuire), he was fully ready for the debates and the constant grilling on policy questions that he faced in the 2021 campaign.

However, like almost all students, some of the lessons he got didn’t quite sink in, or he ignored the advice he was given. Former Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff strongly urged him to have fairly few deputy mayors, have every commissioner report to a deputy mayor and not have any special advisers without clear authority or portfolios of responsibility.

Adams ignored all three of these wise recommendations, and I believe that was one of the main factors for the fast turnover and dysfunction of his inner circle during the first two years of his term.

I often advised the mayor not to repeat the grave mistake of his predecessor Bill de Blasio and go to war with the local media covering him and his administration. I cited Mike Bloomberg’s example of having skillful deputy mayors like Kevin Sheekey maintaining and strengthening his ties to all levels of media – publishers, editors and reporters.

He ignored this advice, too, and hired pugnacious Press Secretary (later Deputy Mayor) Fabien Levy, who seemed to relish pushing back against and fighting with reporters and editors.

Even on the night of his victory celebration in November 2021, Adams and his advisers thought it was OK to ban two top journalists – David Freedlander and Ross Barkan – from a party that is usually a love fest for the incoming mayor.

So now, three-and-a-half years later, I got a chance to interview the mayor one-on-one for the mayoral podcast series I’ve been co-hosting with Bradley Tusk.

Like I was during our “mayor classes” and the whole period I was an informal adviser, I was direct and honest with the mayor on the podcast. I told him that although I agree that in some cases, he hasn’t been treated fairly by The New York Times and other media, I thought he and his communications team bore the brunt of the responsibility for the breakdown in that relationship.

The mayor repeatedly said on the podcast that the media is not covering his achievements: steadily decreasing crime rates that culminated in the safest first five months in 2025 in recent history; improvements in affordable housing and NYCHA through “City of Yes” and the RAD program that could be groundbreaking in fixing public housing; the containerization of trash that has already made our city cleaner; the record breaking job numbers and the record breaking box office revenue on Broadway in 2024-25; the steadily improving streets and subways resulting from his emphasis on humanely removing severely mentally ill people to safer places; and his expert handling of an influx of migrants that stretched the city’s resources but never descended into chaos.

Adams is right about all these things, and it’s true the media in general has done few stories about his administration’s achievements. Those have been crowded out by the storm of coverage of his indictment and prosecutors’ controversial decision to drop the charges. As well as the indictments and investigations of his top appointees. And the revolving door in his administration.

When I was a young journalist, my first boss once told me that reporters rarely like to write “good news” stories. “That’s like covering cars going through a green light,” he cynically told me.

Well, that does in many ways sum up the coverage of most elected leaders in New York and around the country. The public is fed a steady diet of scandal stories, highlighting mistakes made and other indiscretions by our leaders.

But you rarely see a deep dive on what’s happening at NYCHA, for example, and evaluating whether the mayor and his team’s efforts there are improving things for residents and pointing to a brighter future. Many publications only seem interested in the state of our public housing when it’s part of a federal indictment.

Please listen to the podcast with Mayor Eric Adams or read the following excerpts of our interview. I think you’ll find the candid discussion different and refreshing from the usual coverage.

While I have always had fondness for Eric Adams and tried to help him get elected in 2021, I have maintained my objectivity and have criticized him both directly and in my columns when I think he is wrong.

But Eric Adams and his mayoralty – whether it lasts for only one term or two – is something that future historians and journalism scholars should study. It is an example of great promise and even a good deal of policy successes being drowned out by a narrative that the mayor and the people around him are crooked or unethical. Whether or not that is a fair assessment of his time in office will be decided by historians – and by New York City voters in November.

I look forward to hearing feedback from City & State’s readers on this interview. Here are a few notable excerpts: 

Allon: Let's look at one part of your record, Eric. When we elect the mayor of New York, we elect the CEO, right? An executive and the CEO, in my mind, should be judged by the quality of the people they bring into the administration. There were people around you who had some ethical issues. And again, I'm not going to name names, but there were a number of people. There was turnover in the police department that was unprecedented. There was corruption in the police department that was reminding me of the 1970s. Did you learn from that experience? Did you pick the wrong people initially, and now you've got the right team?

Adams: Well, let me look at it two ways. No. 1, a very prominent prosecutor once said to me, ‘if you stick a microscope up anyone's rear, you're going to find some mess.’ You know what I'm saying? When you have a full frontal assault of that magnitude to go over every paper, every item, trust me, Tom, I don't know anyone in this city that if you do not put them on that level of scrutiny, that you're not going to find something. Trust me. Every campaign in the city went through some level of straw donor situation, because you can't control it. Thousands of donations. There were people I trusted that really I should not have trusted.

Allon: Do you regret bringing in Phil Banks or Timothy Pearson?

Adams: No, no, I do not. No, I do not. I think those were – you look at Phil Banks, former chief of the department, smart police administrator, had done some great innovative things. When you look at who we brought in, you saw that these individuals were committed, longtime public servants. Someone called me one day when this was all going on, and they said something to me. They said, ‘Eric you know, the problem with your administration, you don't have enough gray-haired white men in your administration.’ You know, I think that there were a lot of people that were offended at the level of diversity, that I took people off the bench and said, ‘I'm gonna give you an opportunity to play at a citywide level.’ Dinkins didn't do that, and that would turn out to be a big mistake.

We should be judged on: Did we move the ball? Did we bring us out of COVID? Did we deal with 230,000 migrants and asylum-seekers? Did we bring back the jobs? Did we open our stores? Did we drop crime in the city? Are we outpacing the state in reading and math? Are we doing high-speed broadband in NYCHA? Did we bring down the cost of child care? Judge us on: What records did we do? How many times have we said in this administration that this is the first time ever in the city, first time ever in the city? Look at our project out in Queens. 

We have been the finishers, Tom. If you look at what we did at Shea Stadium: 2,400 jobs, new soccer stadium, new school, all of these jobs that people attempted to do, for administration after administration. The barge in the Bronx (Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center) for 45 years, 35 years, they've been trying to move that barge in the Bronx. I'm getting it done and building in a center there that's going to impact that entire community. We've been able to do what other administrations have been unable to do over and over again.

Allon: So what's your strategy the next four months in making sure that all the voters know of your successes?

Adams: The No. 1 thing I learned that it took me too long to learn is that you have to have a direct to consumer marketing. If Colgate had to depend on the tabloids, they would be out of business. They market direct to their consumers. We are now going to communicate direct to our consumers. Technology allows us to do that right now, social media, digital, on the ground communications.

–--

Allon: So we got a Democratic primary coming up in two weeks where there'll be an Adams on the ballot, but not Eric. How do you size up the two leading contenders there, Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo?

Adams: Well, first of all, it doesn't surprise me what the polls look like. And you know, polls can be misleading. I really believe that all of Mamdani’s voters can't be polled. You know, I think this is similar to what we saw after the first Trump victory in AOC and Crowley out in Queens. Voters are emotional, and sometimes they use various methods to display what they're angry about, and we're dealing with an angry electorate, and so I think this is going to be what I said several months ago, that this is going to be a very exciting campaign. And the difference between Mamdani and the other candidates that are in the race, – I am diametrically opposed to many of his policies, because when you think about, even when you look at the foundation of his policies, free buses and free, free, free, free. He states that he is going to raise the income tax on 1% of New Yorkers. Mayors have no control of that. And in fact, you know who has control of that? An Assemblyperson. So if you couldn't do it as an Assemblyperson, why do you think you're going to do it as the mayor? Let's be clear on that. So I'm diametrically opposed, I don't think his stance on Israel is the proper stance, etc., but at least he's consistent. You know, I respect people who believe what they believe.

Allon: I think he's doing well because he's like Bill de Blasio. His message was clear from the start.

Adams: So clear. And when you look at folks like him, I disagree with him, but you can ask, ‘What is it that you stand for?’ You'll get a clear message. When I ran and when I'm in the city, you ask, well, what does Eric stand for? You know what he stands for? You know the guy's a public safety person. Public safety is prerequisite prosperity. I'm very clear.

Allon: What does Andrew Cuomo stand for?

Adams: Well, it depends on what day it is. I mean, he supported, he took away the years of retirement for public servants in Tier 6. Was called Tier 6, and he extended, made them work longer, and now he's saying he wants to reverse it. Fifteen thousand people, like it or not. 15,000 people died in nursing homes. Now you say you want to support seniors. He's trying to say that bail reform was a great idea. Bail reform was one of the most major public safety problems we've had in the city. Cannabis law was his law. Thousands of cannabis (shops illegally) opened up. We had to go back to Albany to fix his law that he put in place. 

Allon: Why do you think Andrew Cuomo is running for mayor?

Adams: Well, I think he wants to be president, and I think he made a big mistake that he felt that he could just ride off the popular name of his dad, because his dad was a popular governor, and he could just sit home, come out on the weekends, do a church on weekends, and say, the Black churches are with me. (He doesn’t) answer reporters. Like, has he been on this

show? 

Allon: He has not.

Adams: And now, now, he's, all of a sudden, he's in an ‘Oh S’ moment, because he's looking at the polls and saying, ‘Wait a minute, I got to get out and actually campaign.’ This is New York, baby! This is a different animal.

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Allon: I'm going to take you back two and a half years. And you, I'm sure you recall this. I texted you one day and I said, Andrew Cuomo says he can help you in Albany. You said, Great. Set up a dinner. We had dinner the next night, the three of us at Osteria La Baia, I believe. Did you suspect that night that you'd be sitting here two-and-a-half years later and he'd be challenging you for mayor?

Adams: Yes, because he was trying to find his way back.

Allon: I think he told you that night, ‘I'm the only guy that can help you get bail reform fixed.’

Adams: Exactly. You know, I have been fixing his mess from bail reform to cannabis to closing psychiatric beds to what he did on the real estate industry. I've been fixing his mess for three years and six months, and we have been fixing it well. He wants to run away from that. It's not attacking. It is giving a clear observation that he has forgotten. These are his creations that I inherited, and (I) have to continuously fix them over and over again.

Allon: He's obviously polling well in the Democratic primary. Why do you think voters are willing to overlook, put aside the stuff you just mentioned, but also why he resigned three years ago?

Adams: I think it's a combination of things. Don't underestimate the love affair that voters had with his dad. It was a real love affair. And name popularity means a lot in this city, and don't underestimate that. It is not because he doesn't have the negatives. He has the benefit of having a good name recognition from a dad that people respected.

Allon: Is that why he's getting support, even in the Black community, for example, like Greg Meeks and folks like that have endorsed him?

Adams: I love Greg and many of these leaders who endorsed him. If you dig into the crevices of some of these endorsements that are happening, some of the same people called for him to step down. So you have to ask yourself why? Many people follow the leader and whom they believe. Like I said the other day at the press conference, I have a Master’s in Public Administration, but a PhD in Andrew. Andrew is a master at creating the inevitable. You know, he'll pop up at a Black church and say, all the Black ministers are with me. He'll pop up at a Chinese group, and say, Oh, they're with me. The Hispanics, they're with me. He got some Jewish support in Crown Heights the other day. ‘All the Crown Heights Jews are with me.’ But when you look at those who are knowledgeable, you look through the names, you say, ‘Wait a minute. You don't have Chanina Sperlin there, you don't have Devorah Halberstan.’ There, you don't have these major players. So he's a master at tricks and mirrors.

Allon: It reminds me of the 2009 campaign when Bloomberg ran for a third term. They called it the inevitability campaign, and he was only pulling three or four points ahead of Bill Thompson, but he started getting endorsements from different newspapers, different communities and everybody thought that Bill Thompson had no chance.

Adams: Exactly, when, in fact, he had very much a chance. And many people stayed home. … Politics is not a portrait of courage. You know, politics, very few people ride with you all the way through. Let's go back to 2021 when I ran for office and Ray McGuire got in the race. You know how much support I lost? How many people said, ‘You know that Ray McGuire is in? He's a Black Bloomberg, a very smart man,’ and they just jumped ship on me. Or how about Andrew? Andrew Yang, he was beating me 13 points in the poll. He came in. I started losing support. You know, Richie Torres said, ‘Hey, I'm gonna support you’ on one day. The next day, I woke up. He was standing next to Andrew Yang. Vanessa Gibson, the Bronx borough president. People started moving away. They say, ‘Hey, this guy is going to beat Eric.’ And I remember looking at our polls, and we saw that he was beating me by double digits. I said, there's one thing I have over all of them, no one is going to outwork me.

Allon: Are you saying you're going to be the comeback kid?

Adams: Yes, without a doubt, without a doubt, my message is going to get out.