The dynamic that is shaping up after a particularly fractious contest to lead the City Council threatens to burden the city's new executive with policy challenges at a time when most mayors are at the peak of their power.
Stanley Fritz is the political and campaigns director for Citizen Action of New York, a left-leaning nonprofit. I have serious concerns about how close he is to the police department and the Police Benevolent Association, as well as the fact that Pat Lynch is a white supremacist.
If he does well, the city will do well. His attitude toward progressives is concerning.
Adams is a Black man who is focused on racial inequalities. Adams has signaled a different approach when he sees solutions in a smaller police force and restrictions on real estate projects. The new mayor, a Democrat who joined the Republican Party in the 1990s, wants more cops on patrol and is enthusiastic about development.
The City Council welcomed a group of 10 progressive lawmakers into its fold this month.
Dueling camps over NYPD funding will be tested by a budget negotiation as Adams looks to beef up police presence in subways and on dangerous city streets. He has signaled a desire for more real estate development across the city and an acceptance of charter schools, issues that threaten to further erode his relationship with far- left Democrats.
A number of progressive groups and elected officials are going to stop giving him a honeymoon because he is not taking it, according to a progressive political consultant.
The Democratic Party has a national feud between the left and centrists over calls to cut police budgets.
Adams, a 22-year police officer who ran a tough-on-crime campaign, is banking on support from a crucial contingent of Council members from both parties who either share his views on policing or are willing to compromise on the divisive subject. POLITICO spoke with eight members who all wanted to build a relationship with the new mayor despite ideological differences.
We don't want to fight his administration. Diana Ayala, who lost her bid for speaker after Team Adams raised concerns about her position on a central tenet of his policing agenda, said that they have been honest about that. It would be nice to be able to sit and discuss issues in an adult way, but I don't think it's helpful to have both sides of City Hall at odds.
Adams was sworn in on New Year's Day, yet he had already angered progressives and mainstream Democrats by threatening to reverse a ban on solitary confinement in Rikers Island jails. The new mayor referred to cooks and employees of the donut store as low-skill workers. He said he meant low- wage workers when he said he meant the word police. He agreed to consider the approach after the teachers union pressured him to do so.
The news conference was held at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
The friendship between the mayor and the new Speaker, despite his unsuccessful attempts to install a different ally in the job, was depicted by Adams senior adviser, Stefan Ringel, as a rosier picture.
Ringel said that Mayor Adams is excited about governing with Speaker Adams and the City Council. He enjoys close relationships with a broad coalition of Council members across the ideological spectrum, and is ready to work with anyone who genuinely wants to sit at the table with him to work on the issues facing our city. We are ready to govern when campaigning ends.
Some professionals are less convinced than others.
Bill Neidhardt, a consultant who worked as a press secretary to Bill de Blasio, does not agree with his former boss.
He is a conservative. The first week has proven conservative and problematic. The City Council needs to be ready to push back on something that he is signaling is going to be a conservative tenure.
The mayor's team says that Adams' position on solitary confinement is more nuanced than news coverage has let on, and that he was opposed by a centrist Democrat.
The speaker and majority of the Council sent a letter to the mayor outlining their concerns. The missive was not well received.
I'm asking those who are romanticizing this issue to go to Rikers Island for a week. Spend time there. Adams was told that dangerous people should not be held accountable.
Adams, the city's second Black mayor who won with deep union support, often speaks about his time as a dishwasher and one of six children whose single mother held low-wage jobs. His biography makes him a target for the left.
I worked as a dishwasher. I went to school at night. During a TV interview last week, Adams said that his mother was a cook in a daycare center. The blue-collar workers run the city in a productive way. Police are going to try to criticize. Eric is so focused and disciplined that he won't be distracted.
He implied politicians who lack a law enforcement background have no standing to challenge him after receiving the Council letter.
Everyone that signed the letter and Eric Adams is different. He said that he had a bulletproof vest for 22 years. You have the right to ask me about public safety matters.
Adams is a source of disdain for left-leaning legislators because of his policies. The political action committee supporting Adams received $500,000 from billionaire Republican donor Jeff Yass. The new mayor received praise from supporters in the circle of the former president, including his son.
Eric Trump said it was great to have a new mayor in New York who wanted to fight crime and keep schools open. Wishing Eric Adams incredible luck! This is a breath of fresh air in New York City.
Adams has responded in kind, appearing at GOP events. He gave prominent City Hall jobs to two members of the GOP, including a former City Council Member who supported Trump and a political moderate who had a good relationship with de Blasio.
Tiffany Cabn, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, said that the Council hopes to work with Adams on shared goals, but will hold the line on key issues.
Cabn said that the body was there to check on the power of the mayor. We are going to see a lot of tension with policing.
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