The mayor’s priorities

To the editor: 

Mayor Eric Adams’ behavior reminds me of a lyric by Mack Gordon, “What should I do, I wish I knew.” Most of the time the mayor does not know what he’s doing and does not have the time to think about it. That’s the reason he’s built a Potemkin Village administration. It’s PR over substance. There are endless photo-ops, staged media events, public spectacles and PowerPoint presentations for unfunded future plans that supposedly will solve New York’s problems. 

Adams has an active nightlife and takes trips, largely to promote himself as “the face of the Democratic Party.” He also appears on television, denouncing progressives who criticize him.  His repeated use of right-wing dog whistles such as “woke,” “law and order” and “defunding the police,” and his pro-business policies belie the claim “I have been progressive all my life.”

How has the mayor handled the difficult refugee crisis? The initial congregate plan was to house immigrants in an isolated Orchard Beach. Adams bragged how his administration had reviewed 80 sites before making this selection. Unfortunately, it flooded after two days (it was in a flood zone), and the place was abandoned. The next site was a tent city on Randall’s Island that quickly closed after too few immigrants arrived in the city. The most recent location is the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook. Immigrants have complained about its isolation and lack of privacy. 

What was the situation before these thousands of refugees came here, needing housing? One was the failure by the mayor’s real estate supporters to build affordable housing for New Yorkers despite tax subsidies. The second was the failure of his administration to provide safe shelters for the city’s homeless.

Publicity stunts such as the mayor sleeping one night in the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal can’t hide his administration’s inability to appropriately address systemic problems. These include affordable housing, mayhem on Rikers Island, the continued need for police and criminal justice reforms, homelessness, the mental health response system, and the vast inequality which should require that the rich pay their fair share of taxes. Adams now wants to impose an austerity budget with cuts to agencies that provide social services.

Howard Elterman