The election of the 110th mayor of New York City was one of the most important and contentious yet, with rank choice voting in place for the first time. Adams won by a small margin victory to candidate Kathryn Garcia, with just a narrow lead of 8,400 votes. The next mayor of New York City is critical as Adams will be faced with numerous economic challenges since the pandemic and leading the city on a strong recovery path. Given the high population of Democrats in New York City, it is highly likely that Adam’s will beat the Repulibcan nominee, Curtis Sliwa, talk show host and the founder of the Guardian Angels.
The tight race showed large disparities between the candidates, surrounding the central issues of race, education and income inequality. For example, Maya Wiley, former counsel to current Mayor Bill de Blasio, ran on much more progressive policies. Over the course of her campaign she advocates for defunding over a billion dollars out of the NYPD as well as larger reform of the criminal justice system. Kai Lin-Werek, one teen from Eleanor Roosevelt High School, who worked on the Wiley campaign was disappointed over Adams wins for mayor saying,”I think that Maya would have brought adequate change and forward thinking that New York needs at this moment in time.”
Additionally, the differences between the more “moderate” candidates Garcia and Adams were also relatively substantial. Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner, ran on slightly more progressive policies surrounding policing and economic stimulus relief. She also vowed to focus on police reform in schools and in vulnerable situations saying,” They should not be in our schools. They should not be responding to mental health crises. They should not be doing homeless outreach, and we must change that.” Still Garcia, leaned moderate with her statements surrounding a non commitment to not defunding the police.” Garcia does not support calls to defund the police. Instead, she wants to increase the size of the NYPD Gun Violence Suppression Division to tackle an increase in shootings.” said a spokeswoman.
Adams, the most moderate candidate, differing further from Garcia, focused heavily on an expansive role in law enforcement and fighting increased criminal activity across the city. Differing from his running candidates, Adams has pledged urgent action to combat the rise in gun violence as well as hate crimes, recently towards Asian-Americans and the rise in Antisemetic attacks. With his background alone, Adams is a retired police officer as well as a former NY senator and currently is serving as the Brooklyn Borough president. Noah Greer (VI) discussed his thoughts on the newly nominated candidate saying, “Although he is slightly more moderate, purely based on his experience i’m confident that he’ll be able to manage the pressure of day-to-day operations though i’m definitely keeping an eye out for his relationships with different sides of the Democratic Party.” Greer also added that although Adams has won the nomination he is still facing critiques from the establishment surrounding issues of his tax and real estate disclosures and even his residency in Brooklyn. With all that said, Adams still has a way to go until the general election in November, and these issues may fall under high scrutiny as well as additional challenges the city will face in just a few months.
