New York’s Second African American Mayor, Eric Adams, Takes Power

By Lauren Victoria Burke
NNPA Newswire

Former New York City Police Department Captain Eric Adams wasted no time in causing healing and making big decisions as he took over City Hall as the 110th Mayor of New York.

Adams, 61, a former State Senator, is New York’s second African American Mayor following the late David Dinkins who was elected the city’s 106th Mayor from 1990 to 1993. In 2013, Adams was elected to be Brooklyn Borough President, and re-elected in November 2017. Adams was the first African American to hold the position.

Adams was sworn in at seven minutes after midnight on January 1, 2022 in Times Square. “A better city is not just about doing something new. It’s about doing something right. It’s not about showmanship. It’s about showing up,” Adams tweeted on his first day as Mayor of America’s largest city.

Much like the city’s former Mayor, Bill DeBlasio, Adams has to face the city’s biggest challenge: controlling the COVID-19 variant Omicron. New York City has endured 35,400 COVID deaths and 1.63 million infections.

“COVID is a formidable opponent and it continues to evolve, and we must pivot and evolve with it, but you can’t do it viewing yourself from within the crisis. We have to see ourselves past the crisis,” Adams said on ABC News in his first national interview as Mayor on January 1. Adams is against closing the city down which has been a challenge to the economy in the five boroughs since early 2020.

“We can’t live through variants, we spent $11 trillion on COVID and we don’t have another $11 trillion, so our lives can’t be based on what’s the new variant, no, we have to figure out how we adjust,” Adams said.

“The safest place for children is inside a school, the numbers of transmissions are low, your children are in a safe place to learn and to thrive. We lost almost two years of education, George, we can’t do it again,” Adams said to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

Dressed in a suit and a red tie, Mayor Adams was seen riding a bike to ABC’s studios in Times Square enroute to the interview.

On his first day as Mayor, Adams was captured on social media dialing 911 upon witnessing an assault as he stood on a subway platform. Adams has already appointed several women to high ranking positions in his Administration. Most notably his historic appointment of Keechant Sewell, who was the former Chief of Detectives for the Nassau County Police Department on Long Island, as the New York City Police Department’s first African American Police Commissioner.

“Generals don’t lead their troops from the back. They lead their troops from the front. I’m going to lead my city into this victory from the front,” Adams said on his first day as Mayor.

Adams’ leadership style is expected to capture attention and accolades.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is a political analyst who appears regularly on #RolandMartinUnfiltered. She may be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke