One-on-one with Mayor Eric Adams

The first Friday of the New Year was an exciting time for The Press as we sat for a one-on-one interview with New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

In the 16-minute interview, The Press asked questions vetted from the Riverdale NYC Facebook page where locals presented their own questions. 

In the interest of accuracy and time, The Press chose not to ask Adams any questions related to his recent indictment. In September 2024, he was charged with bribery and campaign finance offenses by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York. 

Adams is the city’s 110th mayor and is up for reelection this year. He served as an NYC Transit police officer as well as an NYPD officer for a combined 22 years across three decades and retired as police captain.

Following his career with the NYPD, Adams served as a state senator from 2007 to 2013 and was Brooklyn borough president from 2014 to 2021, before becoming mayor in 2022.

The Riverdale Press: What is the expected timeline for the Kingsbridge Armory’s redevelopment? Are there any specific milestones or deadlines you are working towards?

Mayor Adams: This has been a project that has been on the drawing board for a long time. So many administrations have tried and were not able to get it done. Our allocation of $100 million coming from the governor, the reason it’s taking as long as it has to even give a clarity on the timeline is because we wanted real community involvement. 

[U.S. Rep Adriano] Espaillat was very clear about that, as was Councilmember [Pierina] Sanchez. We [the city] have now identified a vendor that is going to do the construction and within the next few weeks or so, we will have a clear layout of exactly what’s going to happen. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity — I did not realize how large [the armory] was, I believe it’s seven stories below ground. So, there’s a lot that needs to be done, but we’re excited about what’s going to happen. 

RP: Carol Kessel asked, “We have stepped up police presence and even put the National Guard on the [subways] and yet a woman was still burned to death. What other ways can we (NYC) tackle crime in the subway?”

Adams: So true. It’s so important and this is not a popular comment, but it is important for us to take our subway in the proper perspective. We are seeing record levels — it wasn’t since 2009, [excluding] the COVID years, that crime has been this low. We are winning the stats number. Robbery last year was at one of the lowest records in the history of the subway system. We have over 4.5 million daily riders with an average of six crimes per day. These well-publicized crimes play on our psyche and when you add it to the large number of people with severe mental health illness living on our subways, it just adds to the feeling of not being safe.

We are doing the job of bringing down crimes, we just need to make sure our officers are moving around the system and interacting with people and providing situational awareness. We need to be more engaging and that’s what I’ve heard from passengers within the system.

And second to that, the perception is what’s driving us — these well publicized incidents where somebody is burned to death, somebody is pushed on the subway tracks, the clear correlation of that is severe mental health illness and that’s why we’re asking Albany to help us with passing the act that is going to give us the authority to do involuntary removal, we call it the Supportive Intervention Act. This would allow us to compel vulnerable New Yorkers walking the streets, yelling and screaming with no clothes on in the dead of winter. People need help — and I just don’t believe they should be on our streets causing harm to themselves and harmful to others. So, we have to match our success with bringing down crime, with the success of making people feel safe.

RP: Arlene Dross-Higgins asked, “Do you plan to keep your promise of pay parity for FDNY Emergency Medical Services? My husband is an FDNY EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) who worked through the COVID-19 pandemic and New Year’s Eve in the Bronx.  Even with overtime pay, we are struggling to make ends meet. You promised pay parity when you ran for mayor — will you fulfill this promise?”

Adams: First of all, I agree with her, not only have I witnessed the role of EMS and EMTs as the borough president’s senator and now mayor, I have witnessed what they have done even when I was in the police department. They are highly trained and highly qualified. My goal is to make sure we settle these contracts with a fair wage and benefit, and we have been successful in doing so.

We settled over 97% of our city’s workforce contracts. We’re in the middle of contract negotiations, we know we have to come to a good agreement. I’ve instructed the [NYC Office of Labor Relations] commissioner Renee Campion to do what’s right for these workers. I hear [Dross-Higgins] loud and clearly, just as I heard those other longstanding contracts like the ferry boat operators, it was almost 13 years without a contract, so we know how important this is. I have to allow that process [contract negotiations] to take its place, and I look forward to standing in the rotunda at City Hall when we’ve reached an agreement.

RP: Joan Young asked, “Why are there no regulations on taking down scaffolding all over the city? There are locations which haven’t been worked on for a while?”

Adams: We put in place, in a real initiative, under [DOT] commissioner Jimmy Otto to get sheds down — I hate ‘em, and it seems like they’ve been up as long as the buildings have been up. And, because there’s no real incentive, landlords have made a calculation that it is better to keep the shed up and it’s cheaper than doing the repairs. We have to change that — we have made noteworthy progress in our plan, and I think most notably is our enforcement.

Over 7,000 sidewalk sheds that were up in July 2023 have been removed from the sidewalks. Part of the issue is that we don’t want to mix the two. When we see sheds up because construction is going on, that puts a big smile on our face because it shows growth in the city. When the sheds are up because people don’t want to do the repairs, that’s no good. So, we have really ramped up enforcement and oversight, for the older sheds, those that are over five years old, we have really put enforcement in place, and we have initiated litigation in about 100 separate properties, combined with 320 long standing sheds from city sidewalks, so this is a big issue for us.

But we also need the City Council to help us. We need them to pass legislation that would finally give DOB the ability to make repairs ASAP, so that these sheds won’t stay up for long periods of time.

RP: Shelley Simpson asked, “If money wasn’t an issue, what would be your top priorities and what steps would you take to accomplish these tasks?”

Adams: Everyone who knows me knows I have a prerequisite to public safety, I would drill down on how we will continue to drive down crime [in this city]. We have a decrease in crime — people point to 2019 levels but we’re moving in the right direction. Crime is compared year over year in actual stats. Now, we also have to deal with the perception of crime. There are more uniformed officers and having that omnipresence makes people feel safer. 

I would also invest more in intervention and youth programs . . . particularly young people who are more likely to be a victim of crime or participate in crime. I would also put more money towards innovation in using camera technology to rapidly identify people who commit crimes — we’ve seen the benefits of that based on some of the apprehensions the [NYPD] has made. I would also expand my sheriff’s department, who worked to close over 1,300 smoke shops, and I would love for us to do more in closing these shops. We’re also putting money back in the pockets of New Yorkers by clearing medical debts, installing high-speed broadband at New York City Housing Authority buildings, lowering costs of childcare and reducing the fares of Metro Cards. 

RP: “Are you going to run for a second term this year? If so, what political party will you run under?”

Adams: I am really excited about running for reelection. People on my team and others in the city know that this is something that I enjoy a lot — one of the tabloids pointed out, “no matter how much you (the mayor) critique everything, it’s clear that you love the people of this city.” And I do - I’ve loved them since the days I patrolled the streets as a police officer to now as the role of the mayor and I’ll be running as a Democrat. I’m a true-blue Democrat, but I’m also a true-blue, blue collar and I believe America’s values stand. This is the greatest country on the globe and so sometimes my patriotism is something people are not comfortable with, but when you have a 19-year-old uncle who died on the fields of Vietnam, you understand how people have given their lives to this great country and this great city. So, when I say I’m part of the American party, it’s because America comes first for me. I took the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America — not to one party. So, I will run as a Democrat, but the American values and working-class people are always at the forefront of my thinking.