Pol pals? Maybe not
Without naming names, Adams says city is in ‘disorder’
Without once mentioning the name of the current mayor Friday, Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams drew sharp distinctions between himself and Bill de Blasio, citing the need to move away from being “a city of disorder” and an enemy of business.
Adams, who currently serves as Brooklyn borough president and is facing off against long-shot GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa in the race for City Hall, has been an ally of de Blasio’s for years and has already won his support in the current race for City Hall, but his rhetoric Friday marks a departure for him on the campaign trail.
He said the city has failed in its deployment of police officers, that it is a “business-enemy city,” that no previous mayor has “understood” the NYPD and that the middle class in the Big Apple has been “decimated.”
“We can’t have a city of disorder,” he said on Bloomberg Radio, when asked about how the NYPD has addressed crime in the city under the current administration. “We can do it without heavy-handedness, but at the same time, we need to create a standard of expectations.”
Adams used the term “reset” twice during his radio and TV appearances, both of which were broadcast by Bloomberg on Friday.
He said there needs to be a “reset” when it comes to how the city deals with businesses and also one when it comes to the mayor’s relationship with the city’s police unions.
When it comes to the unions, he suggested that a new day has already begun.
“I know all the heads of all the police unions. I have communicated with them, and I believe it’s time to hit reset and change the dialogue,” he said. “You know what’s happening right now? The bad guys are watching us squabble with each other. It’s time for the good people of the city to understand we need each other.”
Adams noted that for the past three years he’s been convening focus groups composed of business leaders to tackle how to make doing what they do easier.
“Right now, no one wants to do business in the city because we have been defined as a business-enemy city instead of business-friendly city,” he said.
The displeasure coming from the business community is focused on two main areas — public safety and bureaucratic red tape, according to Adams.
“What I have heard over and over again in all of the meetings: public safety,” he said. “From day one, I have to turn around this crime issue that we are facing.”
Adams added that the city has “never had a mayor that understood” the NYPD.
“I’m the first mayor that really understands policing,” he said, apparently forgetting he is not mayor.
He faulted city agencies, which are currently under de Blasio’s control, making it too difficult for the businesses that have to interact with them.
“We were a city where we build empires, but cities are made up of agencies, and if those agencies are in the way of building empires then we would never be able to allow it to happen,” he said. “I am going to create a city that’s open for business.”
And in perhaps the most stinging rebuke to de Blasio, Adams described the middle class in the city as being in a state of crisis.
“Clearly, we have decimated the middle class in this city,” he said. “There are a lot of incentives for low income and high income, but we forgot the backbone of our city.”