New York City’s new mayor, Eric Adams, took the subway to City Hall for his first day on the job, hours after taking office Saturday at a ceremony in Times Square as the nation’s largest city welcomed the new Year.
During his daily commute to work on New Years Day, the former New York City Police captain chatted with reporters and New Yorkers on the train and even called 9-1-1 to report a fight after witnessing two men. fighting near the subway station
Adams, 61, faces the immense challenge of pulling the city out of the pandemic, assuming office as the city is dealing with a record number of COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant.
As the confetti continued to float through Times Square, Adams recited his oath of office. Associate Justice Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix of the state Supreme Court’s appellate division swore in to Adams while placing one hand on a family Bible and the other holding a photograph of her mother, Dorothy, who died in 2020.
He did not comment or answer questions from reporters, but appeared on “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest“shortly after taking possession.
He told Seacrest he had a few parties to attend, but would “get up early in the morning to work for New York City.”
Hours later, Adams walked from his Brooklyn brownstone to take the subway to City Hall, accompanied by a crowd of reporters.
While waiting for his train, Adams saw two men fighting on the sidewalk below the train platform, with a third man trying to intervene.
The new mayor called 9-1-1 to report “an assault in progress.” The fight ended and two of the men left when two police patrols arrived. Officers spoke to the remaining man but stayed in his car.
On New Year’s Eve, shortly before he was sworn in, Adams appeared briefly on the Times Square main stage to affirm the city’s resilience.
“Even in the midst of COVID, in the midst of everything that we are going through, this is a country where hope and opportunity are always, always present,” he said earlier in the evening.
“It’s great when New York shows the whole country how we come back,” he said. “We show the whole world what we are made of. We are awesome. This is an amazing city and trust me, we are ready for a great comeback because this is New York. “
Adams, the former Brooklyn Borough President, has taken a more moderate and business-friendly stance than his predecessor, but describes himself as a down-to-earth and progressive mayor who will “get things done.” He is the city’s second black mayor, after David Dinkins, who served from 1990 to 1993, and the 110th mayor of New York City.
On Saturday morning he held his first cabinet meeting and gave a speech at noon. On Saturday afternoon, he was scheduled to visit a police compound in Queens, where he was beaten by police officers as a teenager.
Although he promises to be a man of action in the mayor’s office, Adams is at times an unconventional politician who is expected to put his own stamp on paper.
Adams said this week that he plans to keep many of outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s policies in place, including vaccination mandates that are among the strictest in the country.
The city’s municipal workforce is required to be vaccinated, as is anyone who wants to enter closed public places, such as restaurants, go to the theater, movies, a gym, or attend a conference. But New York City has also recently required private sector employees to receive their vaccinations, the broadest mandate of any state or large city and a policy that Adams said it will uphold.
He’s also committed to keeping schools open and avoiding more closures in the city of 8.8 million.
Even without a mandatory shutdown, the city is dealing with de facto closures due to widespread COVID-19 infections.
Several subway lines were suspended because positive test results among transit workers left too few employees to operate regular trains. Some entertainment performances have been canceled and restaurants and bars become crowded when workers test positive.
Adams said he and his advisers are studying the possibility of expanding vaccine mandates and planning to distribute masks and rapid tests, as well as introducing a color-coded system that alerts New Yorkers to the current threat level.
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