Outside City Hall, as a nonprofit social justice organization unveiled a report on public safety for black New Yorkers, Mayor Eric Adams suddenly emerged from the building.
The mayor strode past, a gesture that the nonprofit’s director, Anthonine Pierre, interpreted as an excuse for her group and the issues she wanted to highlight.
‘That’s right,’ cried Mrs Pierre, who is black like Mr Adams. “Turn your back on our community as you did.”
The first few months of Mr. Adams has been met with mixed reactions, with critics suggesting that his energetic style has failed to translate into measurable improvements in critical areas such as crime, housing affordability and inequality.
The mayor has come under particularly close scrutiny from the far left, who have opposed Mr Adams’ aggressive approach to fighting violent crime, a strategy that has included increasing police patrols and re-establishing roving street brigades against weapons.
Most of the criticism, however, has not come from the leadership of institutions affiliated with the far-left, such as the Democratic Socialists of America or the Working Families Party. It comes from their black members.
Indeed, several of the leading white progressives in the city, including the city commissioner, Brad Lander, declined to comment on this article.
“I think white people know they can’t really speak to Eric right now because they’re going to look like racists,” said Ms. Pierre, who directs the Brooklyn Movement Center. “Especially in an age of political correctness on the internet, I think people who are not black are very afraid to speak up.”
A prime example came last month, when the approval of the city’s $101 billion budget was preceded by a debate over police funding levels and school budget cuts. Six votes were not cast, all by city councilors of color, some of whom identify as socialists or are members of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Jeremy Cohan, co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America branch in New York City, said his group discussed early in Mr. Adams’s term whether it made sense to openly criticize the mayor. The answer, he said, is still somewhat fluid.
“Black progressives definitely speak with an air of moral authority,” said Mr. Cohan, who is white. “In politics there are shared experiences and shared interests. I think our belief in DSA is that we need political leaders who have both of those things.”
The absence of widespread criticism from white left-wing Democrats in New York is related to how Mr. Adams has chosen to identify his political roots.
He has long emphasized his lived experience as a black man growing up amid challenging circumstances in New York. He says he has been personally affected by the complex and longstanding inequalities in the city, acknowledging how deeply they are linked to racial oppression.
New Administration from NYC Mayor Eric Adams
“Here’s a man who lived the life of the people who are going through a lot right now,” said Evan Thies, a campaign spokesperson for Mr. Adams. “It’s real and it’s who he is.”
Above all, the mayor says he has on-the-spot insight into the city’s most vexing problems, and is particularly qualified — far more than his progressive critics — to judge how best to solve them.
When the federal government threatened to take control of Rikers Island over violence and mismanagement, Mr. Adams asked for more time to implement system changes. “Why would you give me a chance?” said the mayor. “Because the people on Rikers look like me.”
When City Hall’s press corps questioned the mayor about the success of his lobbying efforts in Albany, Mr. Adams insists that the reporters who cover him are mostly white.
“I’m a black man, that’s the mayor, but my story is being interpreted by people who don’t look like me,” he said. “How many blacks are on newsrooms? How many blacks determine how these stories are written?”
When the mayor was questioned by “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah about the balance between funding the police force and funding education and programs that tackle root causes of crime, the mayor again turned to a personal story. .
He told the story of how his dyslexia wasn’t discovered until he was a teenager, and wondered why black and Latino students continue to get poor grades despite the Department of Education’s nearly $40 billion budget.
“We’ve been played for so long,” said Mr. Adams. “Do you know how much money is made if a child is dyslexic, does not receive an education and is in prison?”
Charlie King, a Democratic strategist and former head of the Democratic state party, agreed that Mr. Adams’s rebuttal is hard to refute for much of the left-wing establishment.
“He is one step away from homelessness and he has been the victim of police brutality,” Mr King said. “How many white progressives have been victims of police brutality??”
Black progressives who challenge the mayor don’t have the same problem, said Mr. King, who is black because many can cite the same challenges to explain why they oppose the mayor’s plans.
Candis Tall, vice president and political director of Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, said she and other left-wing black leaders who disagree with the mayor’s crime strategy recognize that they must “take control of the conversation.” because we like our communities.”
She acknowledged that even for them it is not easy to attack the mayor. Black people have been victims of both gun violence and discriminatory policing in the city for decades, and Mr. Adams “recognizes that both things exist, which is very real to people, including our members.”
There have been other instances where black progressives have challenged the mayor. Earlier this month, mostly black activists gathered outside City Hall to protest the death of the 10th person in custody on Rikers Island, and to criticize Mr Adams’ support for solitary confinement.
“Mayor Adams, your constituents are dying,” said Dr. Victoria A. Phillips, who works with the Urban Justice Center, at the meeting. “You said you represent the black and brown community, well, come on. Get up and save us.”
Early in the mayor’s tenure, he became involved in a confrontation with Brooklyn Councilman Latrice Walker during a state legislative hearing. When she questioned Mr. Adams’ call to tighten bail laws, he hinted that she was out of contact and suggested that she seek the opinion of the mother of a recent shooting victim.
Ms. Walker was quick to reply that the mayor was not the only person authorized to speak about violence because her 19-year-old brother was shot and killed in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn when she was not yet 10.
“I know what it’s like to be a victim of gun violence,” Ms Walker said in an interview not far from where her brother was killed, tears welling up in her eyes. “I grew up with the fear of gun violence.”
Ms. Walker compared Mr. Adams’s crime platform to that of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, but said it was much easier to criticize Mr. Giuliani, a Republican.
“When it was Giuliani, at least we had a finger to point at him to say, ‘He’s racist and this isn’t fair,'” she said. “But how do you do that if the mayor is a black man?”
Not every black progressive leader has been outwardly critical of the mayor: Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate and the most visible black member of New York’s left wing, has had a good relationship with Mr. Adams over the years and is measured in how he frames his opposition.
At a City Hall press conference with the mayor in June to announce a “czar for gun violence,” Mr. Williams praised the effort, but also criticized Mr. Adams’ policy of “ubiquity” of police. to create in the subways. “We are about to go through the fourth or fifth wave of police in the subways and we still have violence,” he said.
Mr Cohan, of the Working Families Party, said Mr Adams’ troubling numbers will allow people across the political spectrum to be “more openly critical”.
“What real improvements in the lives of working people and people of color have you shown?” said Mr. Cohan. “Not much to talk about.”
