Robert Moses: Mayor, describe for me the city you inherited and the one you're passing on to Zohran Mamdani.
Mayor Eric Adams: Totally different city. You go back [to] Times Square [where] businesses were closed down. We were still in the midst of a lot of the protests that were happening in the city. We had COVID, unsure [whether] children should go to school. There was a lot of debate [about] encampments.
People were living in trees in the park on the side of highways. We were losing jobs. They were hemorrhaging. Tourism was hurting. It was just a place where people had thrown up their hands. They did not want to be on our subway system because of the danger that was associated with it.
Now, look at where we are now. Over 130,000 illegal cars removed up our streets, ghost cars, dirt bikes. 25,000 illegal guns off our streets. Safest subway system in recorded history. Safest big city in America. Broke the job record 12 times. Decreased unemployment around Black and brown people specifically, but the entire city in general.
We're looking at a city where bond raters invested in the city, increasing our bonds. You could go through the list and say, how do we judge a mayor? Don't judge him by his tie. Don't judge him– I saw him out the other night at the club. Don't judge me by any of that.
Look at the raw data. You have to walk away with saying, in spite of everything that was thrown at this guy, he's a New Yorker and his resiliency moved our city forward.
Moses: You sat down and you said to me, “January 1st, can't get here soon enough.” Why do you say that?
Mayor Adams: It's been 40 years. I would have loved to continue the things that we did. I want to make this more of a language friendly city, 100 percent of containerized garbage, [and] bring down crime more. I would love to finish that and anyone would love to finish a job. But it's been 40 years. 40 uninterrupted years of being under a microscope.
Every action that I took, being judged over and over again, and it's over. I want to smoke that cigar. I want to sit on a beach somewhere. I want to just do something different with my life. And so there's a level of sadness of not finishing, but there's just a level of, Eric, you did what you're supposed to do.
And what touches me the most is my mom's third grade education. She raised a mayor. The most important city on the globe, she did it. Raising six children, the city betrayed her and she raised the mayor.
Moses: What grade would you give yourself looking back?
Mayor Adams: Well, I think that– I hear that question over and over and over again. And I think it's so important for New Yorkers to make that determination based on the facts, not based on the noise. You were indicted, law affairs, I call it, all of those things.
But the question is, every quarter after the federal government came at me, every quarter, crime dropped. Every quarter, new housing was built. Every quarter, we broke records on housing. Every quarter, we rolled out new initiatives for the city. Every quarter, you did not see one misstep on moving our city forward.
That's what I want to be judged on the most. I want to be judged that in life, something is always thrown at you. How do you respond? I never betrayed the trust of New Yorkers in moving them forward. And then they'll make the determination.
When they walk through the Museum of the City of New York and start comparing my record to others, think about it. We zoned the city for 433,000 units of housing. That's more than 12 years of Bloomberg, eight years of de Blasio combined. We did it in four years. When you start looking at what we have done, that's what New Yorkers should judge me on.
Moses: Speaking of your indictment, you said something interesting to The Times. You said, my lack of success didn't start with the indictment. It started from day one. What do you mean by that?
Mayor Adams: No, not my lack of success on how we would judge as an administration, not the lack of success. If you go back and do an analysis of even pre-indictment and say, well, how was this guy covered? What did we do to show what this guy was doing? He navigated us out of COVID.
Many people said our schools should be closed. He took a bold position and said the safest place for our children should be the school buildings. He started decreasing crimes. He got people back on the subway system. How was he judged? And I did an assignment the other day. I said, let me look at how we were covered pre the lawfare that I experienced.
People never covered our stories. I don't blame New Yorkers for saying that, you know what? This mayor has never done anything. He only went out at night and partied all night. I don't blame New Yorkers for doing that because that's what they read every day.
And they started to believe that nothing was happening in the city when it was just the opposite. We were turning the city around and history showed that we turned the city around.
Moses: So what's next for Mayor Eric Adams? What is the next job for you?
Mayor Adams: Three letter word. F-U-N.
Moses: Oh, you made me nervous for a second there. I got a little worried.
Mayor Adams: Oh man, I'm gonna have so much fun. You know, my life has been a whole 12 hour days and some of the trauma, vicarious trauma. You [don’t] know what it is to walk into a hospital room where an 11 month child was shot in the head. I can still hear Officer Mora and Rivera's family members, two slain officers, saying, “God, say it's not true.”
Sitting in my car and having my detail saying, you know, “Mayor, are you okay?” You know, you lose a lot. There's a lot of glamour in being a mayor of the City of New York. But you pay a toll, particularly when you were like me. I don't know if there are too many mayors that would show up to a crime scene, that would go to a horrific fire and speak with people who sit in our hospital rooms. I felt it. I felt it.
And I would lie if I were to say that the person I was when I was sworn in in 2022 is the person that I'm leaving now. You know, thank God for breathing exercise, meditation, for my faith. But there were some moments.
There were some hard moments. And I'm looking forward to laughing with my friends, traveling again, writing a book, you know, going back to school. I miss school so much.
Moses: And you want to get your PhD you said.
Mayor Adams: PhD. And I just want to– for the first time in my life from 40 years ago, I want to just go back to just being Eric.
Moses: If Zohran Mamdani were to call you and ask for your advice, not sure he will. But if he does, [would] you offer that to him?
Mayor Adams: Yeah. And I don't take it as not sure if he will. You know, smart mayors will lean or lean into their predecessors who came before them. I did it with de Blasio. I did it with Bloomberg. That is when, you know, here are those who went through what I went through. And if he were to text me, call me and say, “Eric, I'm getting ready to do this initiative. What are your thoughts?” I'll reply.
Moses: And what has Jessica Tisch told you about staying on? Does she have any trepidation about working for a mayor who, let's face it, is ideologically quite different than she is?
Mayor Adams: No, she's a professional and she's going to make sure she stays focused on keeping the city safe. And I believe if you can work for me, you can work for anyone because I'm a hard person to work with. You know, you get those one, two a.m. meetings, calls on the phone. You're asking what's going on here.
When you leave Eric, everything else is a walk in the park. And so I think that she's going to share her thoughts and opinions, if she believes something should be done differently. But I think she's a professional. I think at the end of the day, she knows that he's the mayor and that if she reaches a point where for whatever reason they're too far apart, then she'll make a decision.
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