Monday, November 1st, 2021
Democrat, ex-cop, vegan
Adams is New York City mayor’s favorite
In the democratic stronghold of New York City, a Democrat will probably continue to sit in the mayor’s chair in the future. Eric Adams is the clear favorite in the duel with Republican Curtis Sliwa. Above all, he is considered to be someone who gets down to business. This is absolutely necessary for the challenges of the city.
There is little doubt that Eric Adams won the election. The Democratic candidate is the clear favorite in the mayoral election in New York on Tuesday, the former policeman and convinced vegan should easily prevail against the Republican Curtis Sliwa. The 61-year-old district mayor of Brooklyn is likely to become the second African American in history to be elected to the top of the largest city in the United States. Adams faces great challenges. The mayor’s office in the Democratic stronghold of New York City has long been considered the “second toughest job” in the United States after that of the President. And the mountain of tasks is particularly high now.
The metropolis with more than eight million inhabitants is not only trying to overcome the devastating effects of the corona pandemic. Dealing with the virus – such as the compulsory vaccination for city workers imposed by incumbent Mayor Bill de Blasio – also creates political explosives. New York also suffers from high crime rates, poverty and a lack of affordable housing. The devastating flash floods in early September with several deaths made it clear that the city urgently needs to prepare for the effects of climate change. And as in many other US cities, there are calls to reform the police, which have come under criticism for violence against blacks.
Adams can draw on his own experience with the police. Born in poor conditions in Brooklyn as the son of a cleaning lady and a butcher, Adams was himself a police officer for 22 years before he switched to politics. In 1995 he founded an organization of black police officers to fight racism among the security forces. Adams had witnessed police violence himself as a teenager when he was a member of a gang. At the age of 15, he was repeatedly kicked by two police officers after he was arrested. At that time he decided to become a police officer himself: “I didn’t want other children to have to go through what I went through,” he wrote in 2014 in the New York Times. “I wanted to change something from the inside out by becoming a police officer.”
Adams has opposed calls from parts of the Democratic left to withdraw funds from police forces across the country after the violent death of African American George Floyd in May 2020. Rather, he wants to strengthen the police in order to combat the crime rate that has increased during the corona pandemic. New York will not recover from the corona pandemic and attract important tourists for the economy “if people are gunned down in Times Square,” he said in the summer.
Adams convinces as a moderate pragmatist
Adams, who sat in the New York State Senate for years, belongs to the moderate wing of the Democrats and is emphatically business-friendly. With this course, he won the Democratic primary elections for mayor’s office in June. “His style will be that of a moderate pragmatist rather than an ideological liberal,” says politics professor Robert Shapiro of New York’s Columbia University.
Adams, who completely cut animal products from his diet after being diagnosed with diabetes in 2016, also has the reputation of a man who shows presence, who can lend a hand and make decisions, while the unpopular incumbent de Blasio has often been criticized as being too hesitant. “This is a city where the mayor is the dominant political force,” says New York University urban policy expert Mitchell Moss. “It takes someone who knows how to use authority.” Adams has “the personality that New Yorkers want in office”. If the 61-year-old wins the election as expected, he will take up office at the turn of the year.