Ex-cop Eric Adams, who fought racial discrimination within the police, is poised to become New York’s second Black mayor, tasked with leading the city’s post-pandemic recovery amid a rise in gun violence.
The 60-year-old, born in poverty in Brooklyn before rising to become the borough’s president, was confirmed winner of the Democratic primary on Wednesday after his nearest challengers conceded.
Adams, who ran on a public safety platform, claimed victory late Tuesday after the city’s Board of Elections released figures showing him ahead of fellow moderate Kathryn Garcia by 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent with most votes counted.
Adams, a vegan since 2016 when he was diagnosed with diabetes, said safer streets were key to New York City’s economy bouncing back from coronavirus, which has killed 33,000 residents.
Shooting incidents are up almost 38 percent compared to last summer in New York, which has long prided itself on being one of America’s safest cities.
Adams opposes defunding the police, a policy that became a rallying cry for many on the American left.
“We are not going to recover as a city with tourism, which is a major driver for our city, if we’re having people shot in Times Square,” he told local TV news channel NY1 Wednesday.
“We’re not going to attract new businesses if we don’t have safe subway systems where everyday employees are able to get to their work in a safe manner,” he added.
Since New York is a Democratic stronghold, Adams is all but guaranteed to defeat Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, the 67-year-old leader of volunteer crime fighting group the Guardian Angels, in November’s mayoral election.
He will succeed the largely unpopular Bill de Blasio, mayor since 2014.
Adams will become the Big Apple’s second Black mayor after the late David Dinkins led America’s largest city from 1990 to 1993.
“That has tremendous meaning for so many New Yorkers, particularly Black people,” said Maya Wiley, a progressive candidate endorsed by left-wing star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez but who was set to finish third.
Garcia, a former city sanitation commissioner, and Wiley had been bidding to become New York’s first female mayor.
“It’s ready to be broken, but we have not cracked that glass ceiling,” Garcia said during her concession speech.
Adams presented himself as the champion of New York’s working class, particularly in the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, while largely avoiding the richer, white areas of Manhattan.
He said in his statement late Tuesday that a “diverse, five-borough coalition led by working-class New Yorkers” had led him to victory.
Born in Bushwick, Brooklyn, in 1960, Adams was raised in a large family in a working class neighborhood of Queens. His mother was a cleaner and his father was a butcher.
He said he wanted to join the police after being beaten by two NYPD officers when he was 15.
Adams joined the force in the mid-1980s when crime was rife in New York City, serving 22 years and rising to become a captain.
Racial justice
In 1995, he co-founded “100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care,” an advocacy group designed to fight against racism in the police and which still exists today.
Adams entered the New York State Senate in 2006, serving until 2013, when he was elected Brooklyn borough president, providing a springboard for his mayoral ambitions.
The moderate candidate vowed to fight racial injustice, including by tackling inequalities and reforming the education system.
“If you don’t educate, you will incarcerate,” he told NY1, saying that 65 percent of Black and brown children in New York don’t reach educational proficiency.
While life has largely returned to normal thanks to an aggressive vaccination drive and a positivity rate of less than one percent, New York remains traumatized by the coronavirus crisis.
The Partnership for New York City business group backed Adams to reignite the Big Apple’s shattered economy.
“Eric is a person of strong character who will not be bullied by special interests or ideologues,” it said Wednesday.
“If he is elected mayor in November, the business community stands ready to help him achieve these objectives,” it added.