Source: Politics<\/p>\n
NEW YORK \u2014 New York City picked a pro-business, former police captain who wants to get paid in Bitcoin and hobnobs with Republicans to lead City Hall. The left flank of the Democratic Party is already chafing at the choice.<\/p>\n
If the past two weeks are any indication, the feeling is mutual.<\/p>\n
By the time Eric Adams was sworn in as the city\u2019s 110th mayor on Jan. 1, he had already tangled with progressives on criminal justice policy<\/a>. The following week he tussled with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) over a comment he made about service workers<\/a>. And some left-leaning Democrats are unhappy with his approach to remote learning.<\/p>\n That dynamic, which is shaping up after a particularly fractious contest<\/a> to lead the City Council, threatens to burden the city\u2019s new executive with policy challenges at a time when most mayors are at the peak of their power.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was not my first pick,\u201d said Stanley Fritz, political and campaigns director for Citizen Action of New York, a left-leaning nonprofit. \u201cI have serious concerns about how close he is with the police department and [Police Benevolent Association] President Pat Lynch who is, best-case scenario, not very friendly to Black and brown people and, worst-case scenario, a full-blown white supremacist.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHaving said that, I want to see him succeed because if he does well, the city does well. But his general attitude toward progressives is concerning,\u201d Fritz said.<\/p>\n Like Adams, Fritz is a Black man focused on racial inequities in New York. But where he and like-minded liberals see solutions in a smaller police force and restrictions on real estate projects, Adams has signaled a different approach. The new mayor \u2014 a Democrat who joined the Republican Party<\/a> for seven years in the 1990s \u2014 wants more cops on patrol amid a spike in shootings and has spoken enthusiastically about development.<\/p>\n That tension is emerging in the 51-member City Council, a legislative body that welcomed an energized progressive bloc of roughly 10 lawmakers into its fold this month.<\/p>\n Against this backdrop will emerge a budget negotiation likely to test the mettle of dueling camps over NYPD funding as Adams looks to beef up police presence in subways and on increasingly dangerous city streets. He also has signaled a desire for more real estate development across the city and an acceptance of charter schools \u2014 issues that threaten to further erode his relationship with far-left Democrats.<\/p>\n \u201cI think you\u2019re going to start to see a number of progressive groups and elected officials stop giving him this honeymoon or grace period, considering he is not taking it,\u201d said progressive political consultant Camille Rivera, who worked for an opposing mayoral campaign.<\/p>\n The friction on display mirrors a national feud within the Democratic Party between the left and centrists most recently over calls to cut police budgets.<\/p>\n Adams, a 22-year police officer who ran a tough-on-crime campaign, is banking on support from a crucial contingent of Council members from both parties who either share his views on policing or are willing to compromise on the divisive subject. POLITICO spoke with eight members, most of whom expressed a desire to build a productive relationship with the new mayor, despite ideological differences.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not interested in fighting his administration. We want to work collaboratively, and I think that we have been honest about that,\u201d said Bronx Democratic Council Member Diana Ayala, whose bid for speaker failed after Team Adams raised concerns about her position on a central tenet of his policing agenda. \u201cWe have strong objections to some issues and it would be nice to be able to sit and discuss those in an adult way, but I think ultimately it doesn\u2019t help to have both sides of City Hall at odds.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet even before he was sworn in on New Year\u2019s Day, Adams had already rankled progressives and mainstream Democrats<\/a> by vowing to reverse a ban on solitary confinement in Rikers Island jails<\/a>. And last week Ocasio-Cortez publicly chastised the new mayor<\/a> for referring to cooks and Dunkin\u2019 Donuts employees as \u201clow-skill workers.\u201d (He subsequently derided Ocasio-Cortez as the \u201cword police\u201d and said he meant \u201clow-wage workers.\u201d) Finally, left-leaning city and state lawmakers are pushing him to reinstate a remote learning option for students<\/a>, which he opposed before agreeing to consider the approach following pressure from the teachers union.<\/p>\n Despite the early tension, Adams senior adviser Stefan Ringel depicted a rosier picture of the emerging relationship, noting the friendship between the mayor and the new Speaker Adrienne Adams, despite his unsuccessful efforts to install a different ally in the job.<\/p>\n \u201cMayor Adams is excited about governing in partnership with Speaker Adams and the City Council,\u201d Ringel said. \u201cHe enjoys close relationships with a broad coalition of Council members across the ideological spectrum, and is ready to work with anyone who genuinely wants to sit at the table with him to work on the issues facing our city. When campaigning ends, governing begins [and] we\u2019re ready to govern.\u201d<\/p>\n Progressive professionals are, to varying degrees, less convinced.<\/p>\n Bill Neidhardt, a left-leaning consultant who worked as press secretary to former Mayor Bill de Blasio, does not share his former boss\u2019 affinity for the new mayor.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is a conservative. That\u2019s what the first week has proven \u2014 conservative and problematic,\u201d Neidhardt told POLITICO. \u201cHe\u2019s signaling that this is going to be a conservative tenure that needs to be really closely monitored, and something that the City Council needs to be ready to push back on.\u201d<\/p>\n Neidhardt pointed out that Adams\u2019 position on solitary confinement \u2014 which the mayor\u2019s team says is more nuanced than news coverage has let on \u2014 was opposed by Adrienne Adams, a relatively centrist Democrat. \u201cThose who are romanticizing this issue, I’m asking them, go do a week on Rikers Island. Spend time there. Then you come out and tell me that dangerous [people] should walk up and down and not be held accountable,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n The intra-party dispute is somewhat unconventional: Adams, the city\u2019s second Black mayor who won with deep union support, often speaks about his time as a dishwasher and one of six children whose single mother held low-wage jobs. His biography makes him an uneasy target for the left, as he is keenly aware.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a dishwasher. I went to school at night. My mom was a cook in a daycare center,\u201d Adams said during a TV interview last week, when asked about Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s response to his remark about \u201clow-skill\u201d workers. \u201cThe blue-collar workers run this city in a real, productive way. So the word police are going to try to criticize. Eric is so focused and disciplined, and won\u2019t be distracted by Twitter.\u201d<\/p>\n And after receiving the Council letter, he implied politicians who lack a law enforcement background have no standing to challenge him.<\/p>\n \u201cThe one thing that\u2019s different from everyone that signed the letter and Eric Adams? I wore a bulletproof vest for 22 years and protected the people of this city,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cAnd when you do that, then you have the right to question me on safety and public safety matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Adams\u2019 policies have endeared him to centrist Democrats and Republicans \u2014 another source of scorn for left-leaning legislators. Billionaire Republican donor Jeff Yass, for example, gave $500,000 to a political action committee supporting Adams\u2019 run. And after clinching the election, the new mayor received praise from supporters<\/a> in the orbit<\/a> of former President Donald Trump \u2014 including his son.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is so great to have a new mayor in New York who wants to fight crime and keep schools open,\u201d Eric Trump tweeted<\/a> on Jan. 3. \u201cWishing [Eric Adams] incredible luck! This is a breath of fresh air for New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n Adams has responded in kind, appearing at fundraisers<\/a>, parties and dinners<\/a> hosted by Republicans. He also gave prominent City Hall jobs to two members of the GOP: former City Council Member Eric Ulrich, who supported Trump<\/a>, and ex-Staten Island Borough President Jimmy Oddo, a political moderate who had a good relationship with de Blasio as well.<\/p>\n Queens Democrat Tiffany Cab\u00e1n \u2014 a member of the Democratic Socialists of America \u2014 said the Council hopes to collaborate with Adams on shared goals, but pledged to hold the line on key issues.<\/p>\n \u201cThe body is there to be a check on the mayor\u2019s power and administration,\u201d Cab\u00e1n said. \u201cAnd I think particularly with policing, we are going to see a lot of tension.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Dec. 21, the speaker and a majority of the Council sent a letter<\/a> to the mayor outlining their concerns. The missive was not well received.<\/p>\n