It’s Thursday. We’ll look at what Mayor-elect Eric Adams said about his plans for his administration — and what his sense of style says about him. We’ll also look at where Republicans made unexpected inroads in local races.
Eric Adams tacitly acknowledged that challenges lie ahead as he took a victory lap on Wednesday, appearing on early-morning television programs.
He said on WPIX-TV that he would have to “deal with the perception and the actualization of crime.” He repeated an argument he had made during the campaign that controlling crime was “the prerequisite to prosperity.”
And, perhaps with an eye to the potential $5 billion deficit he may inherit, he complained about municipal dysfunction. “We hemorrhage too much money,” he declared, saying that “we create our crises” but do not treat the causes.
That was about an hour after he told MSNBC that he planned to be progressive and practical.
“Listen, you can be as philosophical as you want,” he said. “I am not going to be a philosophical mayor. I’m going to be a mayor that’s going to be a G.S.D. mayor, ‘get stuff done.’”
Later, on the phone with my colleague Emma Fitzsimmons, he re-emphasized his campaign commitment to improving public safety, citing two examples of what “getting stuff done” would look like in his first 100 days in office. He said he intended to address the crisis at the Rikers jail complex by making some immediate changes like separating gang members, and he would bring back a plainclothes police unit that was disbanded last year.
“It’s not anti-crime, but an anti-gun unit,” he said. “It’s having well-trained officers who are going to use their body cameras so that we can see their interactions.”
Adams, who breezed to victory on Tuesday, will now start building a leadership team. He has picked Sheena Wright, the president and chief executive of United Way of New York City, to lead his transition team. He has been focused on two key positions: police commissioner and schools chancellor. He has promised to hire the city’s first female police commissioner.
One big unknown is who will be the next City Council speaker. Several of his allies are running for the job; Adams said he would let the Council make the choice on its own.
“No matter who it is, I’m going to work with them,” he said.
But first, he will fly to Puerto Rico for a gathering of New York elected officials and lobbyists staged by the nonprofit Somos. He will also visit the Dominican Republic.
Adams easily defeated Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, on Tuesday. Sliwa’s wife, Nancy, also posted an Election Day loss. She ran for City Council on the Upper West Side, but the Democrat in the race, Gale Brewer, the Manhattan borough president, got 87 percent of the vote.
‘I’m here. I’m in charge. I mean business.’
Adams pays a lot of attention to what he wears. Our chief fashion critic, Vanessa Friedman, says you should, too. He is more than willing to use clothes to stand out — as he did when he wore a bright red blazer to a Hamptons fund-raiser in August or when he posted a photograph of himself in a new Midtown tower with his aviators reflecting the gleam of the building.
“Whether he’s talking or not, he’s always saying something with his dress,” said George Arzt, a Democratic political consultant who was also Mayor Ed Koch’s press secretary. “And it’s: ‘I’m here. I’m in charge. I mean business.’”
Other races: ‘A red wave’
Adams won easily. But my colleagues Katie Glueck and Nicholas Fandos write that Republicans landed blows in other races, from City Council contests in Queens and Brooklyn to the district attorneys’ elections on Long Island.
And in Buffalo, India Walton, a democratic socialist whom left-wing leaders considered a rising progressive star, conceded to Mayor Byron Brown. He ran as a write-in candidate with Republican backing after she defeated him in the June primary.
Democrats’ hopes of flipping a City Council seat in Queens fizzled when Felicia Singh, a teacher who had been endorsed by the left-wing Working Families Party, lost to Joann Ariola, the Queens Republican leader, by more than 35 percentage points.
A closely watched race in Brooklyn ended with Inna Vernikov, a Republican who had the support of Donald Trump Jr., defeating the better-funded Democratic candidate, Steve Saperstein. And on Staten Island, David Carr, a Republican, trounced Sal Albanese, a transplanted former Brooklyn City Council member, by almost 2 to 1.
Nowhere did Republicans turn in a stronger showing than on Long Island, where they won both district attorneys’ seats and where Laura Curran, the Nassau County executive, trailed her Republican challenger, Bruce Blakeman.
“Long Island is very much like the rest of the country: There was a red wave,” said Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee who also leads the party in Nassau County. “Republicans were energized because they’re angry and they’re unhappy with the direction of the country.”
Democrats had also expected easy passage of amendments to the state Constitution that would have cleared the way for no-excuse absentee voting and same-day voter registration, But they were voted down.
Murphy wins a second term in New Jersey
Gov. Philip Murphy was re-elected in New Jersey after an unexpectedly close race. Murphy became the first Democratic governor to win a second term in 44 years, defeating Jack Ciattarelli, a Republican who made Murphy’s tough policies on the pandemic a defining issue in the campaign.
Hochul’s imprint on the Penn Station plan
Gov. Kathy Hochul did not go back to the drawing board with one of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s signature projects; she merely scaled it down. She opted not to add more tracks to Penn Station, even though many transit experts consider extra rail capacity there essential to improve New York’s transit infrastructure. Her plan also modestly shrinks the size of 10 new towers that will be built nearby and adds below-market residential units.
She said she thought the station should be renamed, possibly after a New Yorker, rather than for a “neighboring state.” In fact, the station was named for its original owner, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, which operated until 1968.
The renaming idea prompted suggestions on Twitter that included Shirley Chisholm; Dr. Zizmor, of the famed subway skin-care advertisements; the Naked Cowboy, a habitué of Times Square; Andrew Cuomo, her predecessor; his father, Mario Cuomo, the governor from 1983 to 1994; and “If Hell Had a Hell Station.”
Weather
It’s another sunny day, New York, with temps in the low 50s dropping to the 40s at night.
alternate-side parking
Suspended today (Diwali).
The latest New York news
A bid to exonerate two men in a Buffalo-area murder centers on the possible role in the crime of a notorious New York killer, Richard Matt.
Coronavirus vaccinations for children 5 to 11 years old are expected to begin Thursday in New York City.
What we’re reading
Nearly 400 readers responded to an article about the 50th anniversary of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Here is an edited selection of their memories of hearing, seeing or acting in the show.
amNY reported on the rise in the number of people who applied for half-priced MetroCard last month (255,000 to be exact).
METROPOLITAN diary
On the Williamsburg Bridge
Dear Diary:
I was cycling eastward across a quiet Williamsburg Bridge just after midnight when I noticed a glowing smartphone on the pavement.
I stopped, picked it up and then continued to climb my way over the bridge. I peeked at the device to see if I could figure out whose it was.
Then it hit me that if I did figure it out, I would probably end up having to meet the person someplace, and to do that we would have to plan and text and so on.
So I decided I had to get rid of it, and by then I had reached the juncture on the bridge that divides cyclists from pedestrians.
A man and a woman were standing there, and because I had decided to shift this sudden burden of mine onto them, I figured I might as well be unfriendly about it.
“I found this smartphone back there,” I said, pointing toward Manhattan. “But I don’t want it, so I’m going to leave it here.”
I placed the phone onto the pavement and had started to pedal off when I heard the man speak.
“That’s mine,” he said. “Thanks so much.”
— Thomas Carrow
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Melissa Guerrero, Rick Martinez and Olivia Parker contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com.
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Source: Elections - nytimes.com
