new York New York has its new superstar: On Wednesday night, Eric Adams, the black ex-policeman for the Democrats, won the election as mayor of the metropolis with two thirds of the vote. At his election party in Soho, Hollywood stars like Forest Whitaker celebrated him as well as rabbis, civil rights activists, the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the CEO of the famous sports and event hall Madison Square Garden, James Dolan.
With Adams, the New Yorkers have voted for a moderate candidate who represents the poor and forgotten New Yorkers and promises safety on the streets of the city. At the same time, the 61-year-old wants to help companies return to the city.
Adams takes over a pandemic-torn city in January, where homeless people line the streets of Manhattan and crime has soared. As a black man, he is more likely to convince the many African-Americans – and as an ex-police officer, perhaps bridge the gap between the often Republican uniformed men and the many Democrats, who are demanding less money for the police with their “Defund the Police” campaign.
In his victory speech, like Barack Obama once, he positioned himself in the national election campaign as a bearer of hope who wants people to be one. “We’re New Yorkers, we have to believe in ourselves!” He shouted to the audience and the television cameras. “Where you are is not who you are,” he warned, telling his own story as a symbol of New York.
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Adams grew up poor in Queens and Brooklyn in the 1960s and 1970s, the son of a cleaner and butcher. At the age of 15, he and his brother were arrested for trespassing on property and ended up in the basement of a police station. There, NYPD officers beat the two youths until a black police officer intervened.
In the police force, Adams advocated black police officers
Adams himself said in a campaign video how angry and introverted that made him. But that didn’t stop him from applying to the NYPD after high school. He was accepted and soon campaigned for black police officers and against police violence. Among other things, he founded the organization “100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care” – decades before the Black Lives Matter movement.
When Adams retired after 22 years with the police force, he went into politics, where he became Brooklyn’s first black district president.
The crime rate in the city has risen sharply since the pandemic, the new mayor wants to change that.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Now as mayor, he promises more efficient government, less bureaucracy for companies and better schools. He also put public safety first, on which so much depends. The topic of crime concerns almost all New Yorkers, who in these times sometimes feel reminded of the 80s and early 90s, when the metropolis was considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
Adam’s rival candidate from the Republicans was Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels. Its voluntary security organization patrolled the streets in the 80s because the police couldn’t control the situation.
“I’m not going to be a philosophical mayor,” says Adams. “I want to do things.” For him, it is not about nice words, but about the fact that children from disadvantaged families really have better opportunities by getting better schools. But that does not mean that he – as the incumbent mayor Bill De Blasio is calling for – wants to abolish public schools for particularly gifted students.
Adams is sure of the goodwill of the CEOs
He is also less critical of companies than De Blasio, who made no secret of his antipathy for large companies. Adams, on the other hand, is also certain of the CEOs’ benevolence: “We have a mayor here who is pro growth. That’s why the business community supported him so much, ”said ex-Google boss Schmidt of the“ New York Post ”.
“The city has to come back. And it’s not quite back yet, ”said James Dolan, CEO of Madison Square Garden. “Thinking the way Eric thinks will bring people back,” says Dolan. “We need each other,” said Adams about his relationship with the CEOs and immediately called on them to provide paid internships for pupils and students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“New York will be different in four years,” he promised after his victory. “We will not go backwards,” he repeated four times, speaking of the American dream: “Our country is the only one where dream belongs to the name: There is no German dream, no Polish dream, no French dream. But there is the American dream. Tonight I fulfilled my personal dream. “
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