Eric: First trip will be Puerto Rico
Eric Adams plans to make leaving the Big Apple his first order of business if he’s elected mayor next month.
The Democratic mayoral hopeful announced Monday he’s going to visit Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic “immediately after” the Nov. 2 election that he’s heavily favored to win.
Adams (photo), the Brooklyn borough president, said the trips will focus on establishing “a real relationship” with the island nations’ leaders. Specifically, he mentioned drawing up agreements to share unused city resources with them.
“Something as simple as turning over no longer used fire trucks or ambulances, or what we can we do, even if we have a large number of laptops that are not being utilized. That relationship must establish,” Adams said in a virtual press conference hosted by his campaign with reporters from city-based ethnic and community media outlets.
The exact dates and itineraries for Adams’ visits were not immediately known, but he said he will begin the trip by attending the Somos conference, which is co-hosted by the New York State Legislature, in San Juan.
The conference, which runs between Nov. 3 and 7, features workshops and speeches about “the ongoing crisis that Puerto Rico faces,” according to Somos’ website.
Adams said he will head to the Dominican Republic to meet with local officials directly after the Puerto Rico stop.
Adams’ postelection plans underscore how confident he is that he will beat Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa on Nov. 2.
Sliwa, whose mayoral bid is a long shot thanks to the city’s heavily Democratic demographic, noted that Adams has already also vowed to travel to Florida immediately after his likely Jan. 1 inauguration to persuade New Yorkers who moved there during the pandemic to come back.
“How about staying in NYC and do your job?” Sliwa told the Daily News.
A spokesman for Adams did not return a request for comment on Sliwa’s jab.
New York City has the largest Puerto Rican and Dominican diasporas in the world, and Adams said that as mayor he would focus on lifting up immigrant communities.