How much of a Democrat is Eric Adams?

Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Mayor Eric Adams says he identifies as progressive. We’ll look at why some left Democrats disagree.

Mayor Eric Adams is a Democrat, but on public safety, religion, and austerity, he’s on the right side of many New York Democrats. Adams acknowledges that some of his views are considered conservative, but says others are “extremely liberal.” Still, some left-wing Democrats are questioning Adams’ approach, which is sometimes reminiscent of City Hall predecessors such as Michael Bloomberg or even Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican. I asked Emma G. Fitzsimmons, our bureau chief at City Hall, to explain how Adams is viewed—and how he sees himself.

The Jordan Neely case again put him at odds with such progressives as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with whom he appears to have reached a détente. How did his statements about the Neely case resonate with progressives?

Some Progressive Democrats criticized the mayor for not taking prompt action to denounce Neely’s death, express sympathy for him, and discourage New Yorkers from taking matters into their own hands if someone disrupts the train.

Nine days after Neely was killed, the mayor gave a speech in which he said for the first time that Neely “didn’t deserve to die”. Yet, unlike some Democrats, the mayor has not pressed charges against Daniel Penny, the man who put Neely in a stranglehold.

Two days later, when Penny was finally charged with second-degree manslaughter, Adams said, “Now justice can move forward against Daniel Penny.”

You write that Adams has promoted moderate, even conservative views. Sometimes he seems to look at this like the cop he once was. Did that hurt him with the left?

The mayor has never really gotten along with the left. He failed to win over Progressive voters in the 2021 mayoral election; many of them voted for Maya Wiley, a civil rights advocate.

But left-wing Democrats have raised increasing alarm over the mayor’s decisions — his comments casting doubt on the separation of church and state, his response to the migrant crisis and homelessness, and his support for rent increases and charter schools.

Adams has called for budget cuts that threaten to reduce city services such as libraries as he tries to cover the costs of hosting migrants, which are expected to exceed $1 billion. You wrote that this is not an expense that Adams’ predecessors had to worry about. Is that his only financial concern?

The mayor has said New York City faces several budgetary challenges: the response to the migrant crisis, the cost of new employment contracts with city employees, including police officers, and economic concerns over slowing tax revenues and vacant office buildings. City council leaders say its budget projections are too pessimistic and the city needs to invest in key priorities like housing and free kindergarten to help New Yorkers during an affordability crisis.

How different is Adams now than when he was a candidate? Has his stay at City Hall changed him?

The mayor issued a public safety message at a time when New Yorkers were concerned about crime, and he’d be the first to tell you that he’s the same man on the campaign trail. During the 2021 mayoral race, the city was still in the heart of the pandemic. Other issues such as housing, schools, and homelessness received less attention, and progressive Democrats played defense to some extent after a backlash against the “defund the police” movement.

Some of the mayor’s decisions were surprising, such as his cuts to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s popular preschool program for 3- and 4-year-olds and his cuts to schools and libraries. Those were not issues he talked about during the campaign trail.

Adams says pragmatism is what the city needs. He also says this is what his main constituency, working-class New Yorkers from places like Brooklyn and Queens, want. How are they and other voters doing?

Adams became mayor with the support of black and Latino voters outside of Manhattan, and he often rules with them in mind. His polls are down, but his support among black voters is stronger.

When we asked voters how he is doing, many older voters still like him. Younger and left-wing voters felt strongly that he was steering the city in the wrong direction, and CUNY law school graduates turned their backs on him at a graduation ceremony.

People often forget that the mayor only won the primary by 7,197 votes. He could face a challenge from the left if he runs for re-election in 2025.

Adams needs help from the Biden administration on migrants. Has his relationship with the White House been deteriorating lately because of his rhetoric? How much of what he says is not true?

Adams has called himself the “Biden of Brooklyn” and has argued that he and the president are aligned and have a similar brand of moderate politics.

But the mayor is genuinely frustrated with President Biden over the migrant crisis. He made a calculated decision to attack the president directly to get his attention. Adams believes the Biden administration has not helped New York City as city officials try to provide housing and services for the more than 61,000 migrants who have arrived in the past year. The mayor wants billions of dollars in federal funding to help the city pay for those services.

The mayor was announced as a key Biden surrogate for the president’s re-election campaign in March, but he was quietly removed from the list last week.

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Dear Diary:

It was a late night in May 1983 and it happened to be the 100th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge. I was a trading assistant at Lehman Brothers, living in the decidedly unglamorous Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn.

The trains were less reliable then than they are now, and I always had a plan B to go home if there was a problem with the 2 or 3 on Wall Street.

It was one of those days. I was miserable after a long day as a kid on the trading floor waiting for the platform to go home. The train I was planning to take had just been taken out of service.

I left the Wall Street station and walked to the Broad Street station to catch another train. Finally one came and I was on my way home.

The train rolled onto the Manhattan Bridge, crossed halfway, and suddenly stopped. We sat there for a few minutes wondering what was going on.