The next mayor will have to confront the diverse racial, economic, educational, social and housing inequalities of the “capital of the world.”
Eric Adams, exPolice Captain and former President of the Brooklyn District, will take office on Saturday as mayor of New York, the economic and cultural capital of the United States, with the difficult task of recovering the economy, the cultural activity and security in the city, one of the hardest hit by covid-19.
The time has come for this humble, vegan and African-American Democratic politician to start working for keep their electoral promises, among them, that of stop violence army that was fired parallel to the SARS-CoV-19 expansion and that it served him to mark differences with his opponents during the electoral campaign, especially in the primary elections of the Democratic party, where he won a ten candidates.
But also and more in the medium and long term, it will have to face the racial, economic, educational, social and housing inequalities of the city and that the coronavirus exacerbated and left in view of all.
To do this, he has already surrounded himself with five vice mayors who are involved in municipal affairs and who, according to the political scientist of the University of New York (CUNY) John Gutiérrez, are “The cream of the bureaucrats” from New York and are “highly skilled.”
“Caudillista elements”
Since taking the first step to run for mayor, until today, Eric Adams has remembered over and over again the 22 years spent in the Police and that during this time he wore a bulletproof vest to protect your neighbors.
A mantra with which he obtained numerous votes, which brandished as a credential in front of his electoral opponents when discussing security issues and that, even before assuming the Mayor’s Office, he has already used against his fellow party members in the Municipal Council.
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On December 21, before a petition signed by 29 of the 51 members of the Municipal Council to end solitary confinement of inmates in city-run prisons, Adams responded angrily.
“If you want to work as partners, call me, listen to my ideas and my beliefs. The only thing that differentiates everyone who signed that letter from Eric Adams is that I wore a bulletproof vest for 22 years and I protected the people of this city. When they do that, then they have the right to ask me about public safety issues. I believe that I know something about this”Said the new mayor who sometimes likes to talk about himself in the third person.
For Professor Gutiérrez this attitude is a sample of the “caudillista elements” that characterize Adams’ personality, some traits that it shares with other “great mayors” of the city such as Fiorello La Guardia (1934-1945), Edward Koch (1978-1989), Rudy Giuliani (1994-2001) or Michael Bloomberg (2002-2013).
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“The caudillo always thinks that he is right, that without him the city collapses, the best advisor the caudillo has is himself and I think that these are elements of Adams, they are things that are seen in him ”, the expert stressed.
This attitude, with which he clearly opposes a large number of his party members, and specifically the more progressive left, from which he clearly dissociated himself during the electoral campaign, is the same with which he managed to forge the sympathies of many voters at a time when violence soared in the city and across the country.
An American dream?
“Adams is a person who has been able to speak to average New YorkerHe has a bit of a gift, both because of his accent, which is well from Brooklyn, and because he grew up and studied here. Is a man who has that facility (and) in difficult moments, people who are not interested in the details of politics want a voice like that, ”added Gutiérrez.
But in addition, Adams, who also served as a state senator (2007-2013) always has sought to identify with the ordinary New Yorker, insisting that he is a worker from humble origins and that his mother, Dorothy, who died this year during the election campaign, was “betrayed” by the city.
Former police officer Eric Adams will be the new mayor of New York
“All this is for you”, he said during the election day in which he was elected mayor in November, before underlining: “I only have three words: I am like you (…) The city has abandoned people like my mother, so I hope that people exercise their right to express that we no longer want to be abandoned.
He also often uses his childhood to return to the hackneyed local myth of the “American dream” and of the United States as “the land of opportunities.” where, supposedly, with effort and tenacity, anyone can get what they want.
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“A boy (Eric Adams) who was lying on the floor of the 103rd District Police Station, attacked by the Police, can now become the mayor to be in charge of that same Police Department. I am the American Dream. I’m a New York story”, He also assured the day he was imposed in the primary elections last June. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
