Shannan Ferry: Mr. Mayor, thank you for being here.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Great to be here.
Ferry: We are here at the 103rd Precinct, a place that is super important to you. In fact, you had your first press conference when you were sworn in here because it has so much meaning. Because you said this is where you were beaten as a teen, and that sparked your career into wanting to do something about criminal justice reform and leadership in the city.
So I'm curious, here now, almost four years later, a couple of weeks left of your term, we're in that same spot where you started. How are you feeling?
Mayor Adams: Great. And, you know, there are so many sub-stories to my story. And I'm hoping that, coming back here to the 103rd Precinct, that people will see some of those sub-stories. I would say, arrested as a child, I was 15 years old, my brother and I were brought down to the basement of this precinct, and we were assaulted during that time, kicked in our groins repeatedly. And we never even talked about it until we were adults. The seven, almost a week of urinating blood from that assault. I didn't even tell my mother until she read about it when I was older in life.
But it was a lot to get off that floor. And to come back here, when I was sworn in, and now I'm the mayor that's in charge of the Police Department, and so many agencies. And it's a story that I want people to know that where you are is not who you are. And you could just get up and keep thriving and moving forward. That's the narrative.
Ferry: And you did say when you first were here, again, at that press conference that I just mentioned, that you were there, you were doing the roll call with police because you wanted to send a message that police– that you had the backs of police officers. Do you feel like crime and policing is your signature accomplishment of your administration?
Mayor Adams: Oh, it is. And you know, people often stated that I ran on public safety. Public safety is the prerequisite to prosperity. And many of the conversations we're having now about affordability, about tourism, about housing, the reason we're having those conversations is because people are safer.
The numbers don't lie. We're seeing record numbers of decreases in many areas of public safety. We just heard we went 12 days, tied the records without a homicide. But also in our subway system, record numbers of decrease in crime. That is not what I inherited. And if we could only point to public safety, we could be proud.
But no, we broke records in housing. We broke records in taking away income tax for low-income New Yorkers. Broke records in universal after school program. Records in the most jobs in the city. Most tourism. And so, it's record after record after record, and I delivered what I promised New Yorkers I was going to do.
Ferry: And we know you hate rats.
Mayor Adams: We're seeing a decrease in rat complaints. People told me it was going to take me five years to containerize garbage. We're now having 70 percent of our garbage in containers. And these are just amazing successes. And they're good on their own but then match it to what we went through. Covid.
Cycling out of Covid. Making sure our children were in school. Cycling out of 237,000 migrants and asylum seekers. And cycling out of the lawfare that I had to address for fighting on behalf of New Yorkers. And so, this has been just an amazing run. And I'm hoping that people learn from it and the resiliency that comes with it.
Ferry: I know you've talked a lot about, you know, you want your legacy to continue. And I want to talk more about your legacy later. But speaking of the issues that you're proud of, the mayor-elect announced recently that he would get rid of the policy for homeless encampment sweeps. You had some words to share. And I'm curious what you're thinking now, seeing some of the comments that the mayor-elect has made about that decision. There's been a swift reaction really on both sides to this.
Mayor Adams: Think about it for a moment. It was misguided for a long time that we should allow people to sleep on our streets. And we're not only seeing it here in New York. Look at what's playing out in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland. There's so many cities that have good mayors that are attempting to address the homeless issue that has impacted us nationally and really in an international setting.
And so we led the way and decided that we would not allow people to live in an undignified manner of sleeping on the streets. You know why a lot of people don't understand why I did it? Because many people have not gone on the street and visited encampments. I did. I saw human waste, drug paraphernalia, stale food, bipolar, schizophrenic behavior. And I made a commitment, we're not walking past New Yorkers anymore.
And you don't see those encampments anymore. You know, you drive through our city. I was driving around 1, 2 AM in the morning, calling the commissioners and telling them, I see an encampment, that encampment needs to be addressed. We move people indoors. Now some would say, “Well they went right back out onto the streets.” Well, you move them back indoors. Eventually, they understood that we were not going to give up.
And you know what's a perfect example of that? Our subway system was filled with graffiti. You know how we ended that graffiti problem in our subway system? Every time someone put up a tag or wrote graffiti, we immediately removed it. Over and over again, until we changed the mindset. And that's what we did with our homeless encampment. And I really encourage the incoming mayor, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, to think again about saying our streets are open to homeless people.
Ferry: Of course, there's a lot that you are proud of, and a lot of those accomplishments were overshadowed at times by some of the issues that were faced, including the federal indictment. And some people in your inner circle being accused of corruption. I want to start with the indictment.
Of course, you've talked about how that was an extremely difficult point in your life. Do you think the Justice Department dropping those charges, which saved you from a trial, potential time, so much turmoil, was the very thing that destroyed your chances of re-election?
Mayor Adams: No, not at all. I think the very thing that destroyed my re-election was that the narrative was never clear on how well we were doing. Long before the lawfare took place, we were not receiving the support we needed from our media in the city. And I continue to talk about it. And even prior to the indictment, I spoke about it publicly, the unfair coverage that we were receiving.
We navigated this through Covid when others were doing different things. The migrants and asylum seekers. Other cities had to do layoffs, and different things that we did not do. I think that the indictment was the additional item that found reasons to continue to attack our administration, the most diverse administration in the history of the city.
It was wrong that I was indicted. I did nothing wrong, and anyone who read the indictment will have to ask themselves. This was a leg room case that we wanted to indict a sitting mayor, a sitting mayor. If you're going to examine that and question COIB, gift rules, and all of those things, that's part of the process. But to face 33 years in prison for a leg room case, it was wrong. And we're seeing how some of the commentaries that came out of the Justice Department showed that it was the wrong thing to do.
Ferry: Separately from that, you've also said, as a lot of people do, you come into a new job, you know people, you hire people that you trust. You have said that you trusted some of the wrong people. Some of them mired in that scandal include, but not limited to, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, you have Tim Pearson, you have Ed Caban. Were hiring those people a mistake in retrospect?
Mayor Adams: No, it was not. And when I said I trusted the wrong people, I want to be clear, I didn't mention those names. One of the wrong people I trusted was a volunteer that appeared to have lied during a federal investigation. I trust Ingrid. Ingrid is my sister, a long time friend. I served with her in the Police Department.
And I think that those that I brought on, maybe some of them were the wrong fit for the jobs that they had to do. But look at what we've done. I made it clear from the beginning, I'm perfectly imperfect. There's nothing perfect about me, but I'm dedicated. Even with the team we put together, as I stated, we broke the records in employment, drove down crime, closed thousands of illegal cannabis shops, and handled the crises that were faced in front of us.
And so when people were saying over and over again, “Well, you hire your friend.” I mean, let's stop being so naive. Look at every mayoral administration, and who did they hire? They hired people that they believed could do the job. I always talk about Mayor Bloomberg, a great mayor. He hired Ms. Black to run our Department of Education. She was not educated, she was someone he knew, and he thought she could do the job. You make these decisions as mayors.
Let me give you one more thing that's important. When we became mayor, you couldn't hire up. No one wanted to go back to work. People were telling me, “Eric, listen, I love you, but I'm home. I'm getting unemployment checks that's equal to what I was making. I'm not ready to come back and do 12, 13 hours a day with you.” So, it was a challenge hiring up. Many people we wanted to bring into administration, and people stood up and stepped up.
Ferry: That is an interesting point. A lot of people were working, but probably a lot of people were not working at all during that time. Fair point. Let me, I just want to give you the chance to respond, though, because critics would say, look, the buck stops at you, right? They were still mired in this scandal, regardless of all the other accomplishments that happened. So, what is your response to that?
Mayor Adams: Look at every administration. Let's talk about scandals. Koch administration, was there a scandal? You're darn right. de Blasio's administration, was there a scandal? You're darn right. Bloomberg's administration, were there scandals? You're darn right. You could go all the way back to the beginning of every administration. The question becomes, do you allow any scandal or unexpected thing to happen to get in the way of your commitment you made to the city?
What were my commitments? Bring down crime. Did I do it? Check. Build housing. Did I do it? Yes, more than any mayor in the history of the city. Bring back our economy. Did I do it? Yes, more jobs in this city than ever before in the history of the city. Children outpacing reading and math, helping low-income New Yorkers, $30 billion back in the pockets of low-income New Yorkers. No income tax for low-income New Yorkers, you could go through the list.
So, all that we had to go through, I made sure that we allowed New Yorkers to get through the crisis that they were facing.
Ferry: All the while, it's been really fascinating to watch you evolve with the Democratic Party because when you were first elected, you would call yourself the Biden of Brooklyn. The face of the Democratic Party, the future of the Democratic Party, and of course a lot has changed since then. So, I'm curious how you're feeling about the party as a whole right now. And I think you've often said, “I didn't leave the party, the party left me.” Talk to me a little bit more about that.
Mayor Adams: Yes, a look at the party in New York has become the socialist party. And that's unfortunate, because the party that I know, we don't believe in decriminalizing prostitution, so little girls and boys will sell their bodies on the streets after we've done everything possible to give them support to get off the streets.
The party that I know doesn't believe it's dignified to sleep on the streets and not give people help, particularly when they're dealing with mental health issues. The party I know doesn't believe in disbanding or defunding police departments. They believe in supporting and diversifying our Police Department.
And so, it's clear that the socialist party who elected a mayor in this city is not representative of the party that I know. And the Democratic Party, I believe, is going through an identity crisis right now. And in order to reclaim working class people, they have to be very clear on their policies. And my policies are clear. Working class people deserve to live in clean, safe environments.
Ferry: A lot has been discussed about what you do next. You think about, you have a huge history of public service. Are you done with public service? Do you think you'd ever run for office again?
Mayor Adams: That's a great question. You never say never, but I've been doing this for 40 years. 40 years of being front and center, of being picked apart, being criticized, of being held to a standard that is higher than an everyday person. Of living a very transparent, open life. For 40 years.
I think it's time to do something else. And I'm excited about the future. I'm excited about spending time with family, traveling, and just enjoying friends and no longer 12-hour nonstop days, seven days a week, just giving everything you had. And so, I'm looking forward to the next step in this journey.
Ferry: You said the private sector interests you. Do you have any announcement or job that you want to say here?
Mayor Adams: Within time, I am overwhelmed by the number of interests that looked at what I did in the city and stated that, “Eric, we would like you to be part of our organizations.” I can't do all the things that were offered to me, but I'm going to do right. And as my son would say, I'm good.
Ferry: I know how much you love being mayor. So, I'm curious, are those opportunities, are they more exciting to you? Would you have preferred a second term? How do you balance other very different things?
Mayor Adams: Yeah, and that's a great question. Because people have come to me and said, “I'm sorry, what happened?” There's no reason to be sorry. Because if you do this for four years, eight years, or like Bloomberg and others, 12 years, there's a sun setting. There's a sunrise and a sun setting to everything in life.
The question you must ask, what did you do during the sunrise? I did what I was supposed to do. I would have loved to have finished some of the projects that we had. I would love to do more about a language friendly city. I would love to do more around education, around AI. But there's a sun setting, and I did it.
There's only been 110 of us. Out of all the people that wanted to be mayor, there's only been 110. I'm the second African American mayor. And the romance that we were able to have with the city, it's time to move on. And I'm excited about what's coming next.
And the most important thing for me is that I had a mother that has six children. She loved them all, but she adored me. She adored me. And she watched me struggle with my learning disabilities. And she raised a mayor. That housecleaning woman, that woman that worked in the kitchen at Amstead Daycare Center, that cleaned office spaces, that had a third-grade education, she instilled in a young man that she could raise a mayor. And she did that.
Ferry: And your mom passed while you were in the primary of the first race?
Mayor Adams: Yes, 2021. Got a call from the doctor saying that my mother was not going to make it. I was the only one of her children that made it to the hospital to hear her heartbeat. It was a sad day for me, but it was a joyful day for me. Mommy was dealing with early stages of Alzheimer's, and she did not want to just sit around and have people feed her. That wasn't who she was.
And so, to watch her transition in the manner that she did, she was still vibrant, she was still excited, and she knew that I was on my way to become the mayor. And so, your parents can take you as far as they can physically, the rest of the journey spiritually. Absent from the body, presence in the spirit, mommy's still here every day.
Ferry: I want to talk a little bit about the transition. You had your in-person meeting with Zohran Mamdani. Have you met in person since then?
Mayor Adams: No. We agreed to find the time to sit down, and I wanted to make clear to him that we were going to have documents. Camille Joseph Varlack, my chief of staff, coordinated the transition team, and we wanted to make sure that he knew all the policies that we put in place, what were the reasons why, what's pending out there, what things didn't work, because there were things we tried that didn't work, and we wanted to communicate with him.
It's about the City of New York, and these transitions happened. And it's so important. 49 percent of New Yorkers did not vote for Zohran Mamdani. 49 percent. And I'm saying to those 49 percent, don't run around the city saying, “He's not my mayor,” because our system says whoever wins the majority number of votes, that's the mayor.
And I say to Zohran and his supporters, let's stop the term that the president is not their president, because the same way you want those 49 percent that didn't vote for you to respect you as the mayor, we have one president of the United States. We need to work with the federal government to bring the resources into our city. That's what it's about.
Next election, you have an opportunity to vote again. But right now, we have a mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and we have a president called Donald Trump. The two of them need to deliver for New York.
Ferry: Mr. Mayor you mentioned you wanted to tell him some of the things that didn't work. What did you think didn't work?
Mayor Adams: A couple of things. We had the robot in the subway system.
Ferry: I remember the robot.
Mayor Adams: We tried it. It didn't work. We moved on. So, when things don't work, don't be afraid of trying. You try. If it's not successful, then you move on to the next level. We had a bike lane going through Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was dangerous for the residents there. We said, no, take it out. So, we're not afraid to try different things so that we can get the success that New Yorkers deserve.
Ferry: It's interesting to hear you talk about Mamdani and telling New Yorkers to stand behind that there is one mayor. I think there's a bit of a perception. We talk a lot about perception and reality in regard to crime, but I'm gonna talk about it here too. A perception that maybe there isn't the friendliest relationship between you and the incoming mayor.
And I know how this is gonna sound, but there wasn't a photo posted from the transition meeting. Again, we live in a time of social media and pictures and things. So, what do you say about that? Some people think there might be a bit of tension and maybe a reluctance to really work together on this transition.
Mayor Adams: Well, I think that he could only answer what his impression is of me, and I will answer what it is of him. As one person asked me, and he said, “Out of all the candidates, who would you like to share the elevator with? Stuck in the elevator?” I said, Zohran. I don't dislike Zohran, I dislike the policies. The policies are dangerous for New Yorkers. And I'm going to be vociferous about that. I'm not going to sit over his shoulders and say you're wrong about this, but if it's dangerous for New Yorkers, I'm going to share what I believe.
And when you talk about encampments in our city, that's not good for New Yorkers. When you talk about disbanding SRG, that's not good for New Yorkers. Or even if you talk about that you're going to give the impression that you could freeze rents when you can't. You can't freeze rent in NYCHA, Mitchell-Lamas market rate.
That's not good for New Yorkers, and even for those who are in rent-stabilized apartments, it's not good to say for four years you're never going to increase the rent, because you're going to hurt those small property owners who are not going to be able to upkeep their buildings, because they have increases in every area, and that's how you create slums.
And so, I am not a person that after the race, I say, “Oh, listen, I'm going to take my ball and go home.” No, we have to continue to move in the city. I think that we have to be clear as a mayor, you can't be a mayor that allows hate to fester in the city, standing in front of a mosque, a synagogue, or a church, and calling for globalizing intifada, or attacking people. That's a tone we can't have in the city, and I'm going to be clear on that, and I'm not going to shy away from all the work we've done to bring New Yorkers together.
Ferry: Is there any advice that you wish that a former mayor gave you, that you could give to Zohran Mamdani?
Mayor Adams: I received great advice from Michael Bloomberg, from Bill de Blasio, and even before becoming mayor, as I talked about being mayor, Mayor Dinkins shared with me advice. They gave me great advice. And I shared with the incoming mayor what I believe, my unsolicited advice to him as well.
He has to stay true to his dream and his mission, and he has to be willing to understand that idealism collides with realism when you're running a city this complex as New York. And you cannot be so idealistic, you're not realistic. This is a complicated city with real issues that you have to face.
Ferry: You mentioned some of the other mayors. Everyone likes to get a grade. How would you rank yourself among the other mayors?
Mayor Adams: A, A, A, A, solid A.
Ferry: Above that, if we're ranking them numbers, would you, number one?
Mayor Adams: I don't want to rank who was better than the other mayor. I know what I did. I set up– the beauty of my race is that you can look at what I ran on, and you can look at what I said to New Yorkers. This is what I'm going to do as mayor. And then you ask the question, “Did he do it?”
Money back in the pockets of New Yorkers, $30 billion. Building housing more than any other mayor. Bring down crime, safest big city in America. Going after low-income New Yorkers, Big Apple Connect, free high-speed broadband, paying the college tuition for foster care children, no income tax. I mean, so when you look and say, “kay, let's judge him by what he promised,” gotta walk away with an A.
Ferry: Will you attend the inauguration ceremony of the mayor-elect?
Mayor Adams: I'm still deciding. I want to communicate with the incoming mayor, because I don't want to be disruptive of the ceremony. It's his day. I don't want, you know, some people are perpetual protesters. Some people would turn the ceremony into some form of protest. So, I want to speak with him to determine if I'm going to attend or not.
He has a unique support group, and I told him before, and I will continue to say, far too many of his supporters, not all of them, but far too many of them, they're mean, they're nasty, they're disrespectful, and they enjoy being disruptive, and I don't want to participate. That's a special day for him, and if I'm going to add in any way to a disruptive atmosphere of the yells and the screams, I don't want to do that. I want him to enjoy that day.
Ferry: It would be unusual, right, though, for an outgoing mayor to not attend an incoming mayor's inauguration ceremony. Again, I know you said you're gonna talk to him about it, but if he says, come, you will be there?
Mayor Adams: Well, first of all, I'm an unusual mayor. I never said I wasn't, and I didn't say I was not going to come. I said I wanted to have a conversation with him because I want him to enjoy the day. Because remember, I didn't have a public swearing-in, and those visuals from those swearing-ins become part of the archive that is always in our history.
Think about Rudy Giuliani with his son waving at the camera, permanent. You think about Michael Bloomberg on the stage when Bill de Blasio was sworn in. These are permanent records, and I want to assure that in my conversation with him, I want to hear his thoughts, and together, we will come to a conclusion.
Ferry: That's interesting, yeah, that is interesting. Mayor, in our last couple moments, I just want to see if you have anything else that you'd like to share. You've talked a lot about being the city's second Black mayor, what that meant for you. Anything else that you think New Yorkers should know as in these last couple weeks?
Mayor Adams: You know, it's been 40 years from wearing a bulletproof vest, protecting the people of this city, to being a state senator, passing everything from co-sponsoring the Rockefeller drug laws to protecting marriage equality while I was in the Senate, then moving on to Borough Hall, being the first person of color to be the borough president in Brooklyn.
Then becoming the mayor, diversifying the city. The first time, five women were deputy mayors. First East Asian deputy mayor, first Indian deputy mayor, first Trinidadian deputy mayor. I mean, you could go through the list. You know, first Jewish woman to be the head of intel in the police department. First two-timers of women being police commissioner, both Keechant Sewell and now Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
I'm hoping that I came into office with a hammer that not only shattered the glass ceiling but made sure that we never again built those glass ceilings, preventing people from walking through the doors. And I delivered for this city. I'm proud of it. And the New York, the city museum is going to document what we've done.
I just want to thank New Yorkers for giving this young, dyslexic child an opportunity to lead the city. And it has been just an exciting, exciting journey.
Ferry: We will leave it there. Mr. Mayor, thank you for your time.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
Ferry: If we have a second, I would love to ask for social, but well, you know, the phrases that you have. I didn't want to end the interview on that, but while we're still rolling, people have been very entertained by some of your catchphrases. Shall I say, “Your haters will be your waiters.”
Mayor Adams: Your haters will be your waiters, you know—
[Crosstalk.]
Mayor Adams: Haters will be your waiters while you sit down at the table of success.
Ferry: Do you have a favorite?
Mayor Adams: That's one of my favorites, and lions don't lose sleep over the opinion of sheep.
Ferry: Or broccoli.
Mayor Adams: Oh, yes. I'm the broccoli mayor. You're going to hate me now, but you're going to love me later. You know, there's so many good–
Ferry: There are many compilations out there.
Mayor Adams: It's going to all, it's going to all be part of history.
Ferry: Thank you.
Mayor Adams: Thank you.
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