Brooklyn borough president and mayoral candidate, Eric Adams, has staked a claim in The Bronx, visiting the Northwestern section of the borough on two recent visits within days of each other, and opening a Bronx campaign office with less than two weeks remaining before the June 22 primary election.

 

In a race that will decide who will run the 11^th largest city in the world, and the largest city in the country, many regard the upcoming mayoral election as one of the most consequential in decades, with some saying it has the possibility to bring about a much needed turning point in race relations. Adams says he is the man for the job.

 

On Thursday, June 3, he joined District 11 City Councilman Eric Dinowitz on a walking tour of Norwood’s business district along Bainbridge Avenue. He was accompanied by an enthusiastic crowd of about twenty people, some of whom included members of the local Bengali community, including secretary of the Bengali community of the Northwest Bronx, Monjur Choudhury, along with staffers from the Dinowitz and Adams campaigns.

 

Dinowitz, who is defending his seat in the upcoming primary election, said after the tour ended that he has not endorsed any mayoral candidate to date, and that he is extending similar invitations to each of the mayoral candidates to show them around the neighborhood.

 

Similarly, Adams did not announce his endorsement of any candidate on the day of the tour. Together with Dinowitz, he dropped into various small businesses along the street, briefly greeting each business owner or staff member on site, chatting with some a bit longer on issues like healthcare, and stopping occasionally along the route to shake hands with prospective voters or to take a photo with them.

 

A former NYPD captain, the Brooklyn borough president was observed keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings, conscious of approaching traffic and warning residents occasionally to be careful not to get hit.

 

Norwood News asked Adams if, given the high rates of human trafficking in The Bronx, he would support a dedicated Human Trafficking Intervention Court in the borough, like the one that operates in Queens. He said he would be in favor of one, adding that human trafficking was a problem that affected many people of color. “I think we are underestimating the real impact of human trafficking inside our city,” Adams said. “It is something that has remained below the radar. I believe that it has a lot to do with the victims. The victims are poor, Black, brown and, really, have been forgotten.”

 

We also asked the borough president which New York City mayor he felt most aligned with in terms of policy and why. “A combination of David Dinkins and Bloomberg,” he said. “David Dinkins was a real visionary – compassionate. He understood that public safety was crucial, and Bloomberg because he understood that power of real metrics and data, and that’s very important, and oftentimes, people underrate that.”

Later in the week, Adams was back in The Bronx on Sunday, June 6, to open a campaign office at 280 E 149 street, opposite Lincoln Hospital in Mott Haven, in front of about 80 people. Present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony were Assemblyman José Rivera, former Bronx borough president, Fernando Ferrer, Rep. Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), District 14 City Councilman and candidate for Bronx borough president, Fernando Cabrera, Bronx Democratic Party chairperson, State Sen. Jamaal Bailey, District 12 City Councilman Kevin Riley, and the president and director of the International Puerto Rican Day Parade.

 

Later that day, Adams was back in the North Bronx for a campaign visit to Jerome Park, and specifically to Tracey Towers, the two tower blocks which comprise about 871 residential units and are part of the Mitchell Lama affordable housing program.

 

Standing in the midday heat outside the towers, Adams started off his address to the 25 or so residents, including Jean Hill, president of the Tracey Towers Tenants Organization, about the need to balance effective policing with protecting civil rights and public safety. “We can have justice and safety – don’t let anyone fool you that we can’t have both!” he said. “We can have both. We just need the right mayor!”

 

Amid enthusiastic applause from the crowd, Adams stressed the importance of the upcoming election. “Seventeen days away, and we’re all over the city, and I wanted to come here just to greet you personally,” he said. “I remember as a rookie transit cop looking at these beautiful buildings behind me, watching how you stabilized this entire community and how, no matter what happened, the people rode [out] the Bronx storm.”

 

Saying Bronxites needed more stable housing like Tracey Towers, the Brooklyn borough president added, “We need to reinvest in housing, reinvest in the Mitchell Lamas, reinvest in [inaudible], reinvest in affordable housing that will turn into home ownership for those that move into the housing, by allowing people to own their homes, and own part of where they are, so they’re not displaced.”

 

Adams then spoke about the need for more investment in education and social programs. “You know, if we don’t educate, people incarcerate,” he said. “That’s why we have 80 percent of the men and women on Rikers Island who don’t have a high school diploma or an equivalency diploma – 30 percent are dyslexic, 55 percent have learning disabilities.”

 

Adams, who has been a critic of racism within the NYPD, said real crime is not only what happens on the streets, but what is happening within the New York City Department of Education, every day that the city fails to educate its children. “Think about this number – 65 percent of Black and brown children never reach proficiency in this city, every year,” he said.

 

“Only 20 percent graduate high school.” He went on to discuss the plagues of homelessness and mental health problems, including depression. “Yet, if we just invested in them, and allowed them to age out at 26, instead of 21, one report shows that 90 percent would graduate from high school,” he said.

 

Adams went on to say that he is frequently asked what type of mayor he’s going to be. “Just look at the type of man I have been,” he said. “Look at the issues that we have fought, from [inaudible] addressing diseases, to making sure our schools have the adequate resources, $160 million, we placed inside our school system, to empowering our crisis management team.”

 

He said that people look at the funding of crisis management teams now but that the original funding for this came from when he was in the State Senate. “We put together the thing called SNUG, “guns” spelled backwards, where we gave money to on-the-ground organizations that deal with conflict resolutions,” he said. “If we’re going to change the [inaudible] ecosystem of public safety, we need to allow police to do their roles, and [inaudible] the other roles like mental health professionals, conflict resolutions, nonprofit groups, the clergy, like the God Squad group in Brooklyn that we sponsor.”

 

According to its website, the 67th Precinct Clergy Council Inc. in Brooklyn or “The GodSquad” is a faith-based organization comprised of clergy, focused on lessening neighborhood tensions, and acting as a liaison between their communities and law enforcement.

 

Recently, the GodSquad established the Clergy for Safe Cities (CSC) program, a national coalition to support clergy-based gun violence prevention initiatives and implement a collective, comprehensive, community initiative to decrease the involvement of young people in crime and gun violence in their cities. To date, CSC has trained 500 faith leaders on successful clergy-based models and best practices.

Meanwhile, Cabrera was also present at Tracey Towers on Sunday making his own pitch to win in the upcoming June primary election. Touting his long experience as an elected leader, he said, “At the end of the day, we’re going to need leadership right here in The Bronx. We’ve been hit hard. The pandemic hit every single one of us in The Bronx and you know that the resources did not come here like it came in other parts of the State, and for that matter, in other parts of the city, and this is why we’re going to need a fighter” he said. “We’re going to need somebody who’s going to stand for you, so we can get our fair share, right here in The Bronx.”

 

The councilman, who later received the formal backing of LGBTQ veteran and former mayoral candidate, Loree Sutton, said he was committed to making that happen, saying he was not a newcomer to politics, having served the community for 33 years, and saying Bronxites didn’t need someone in office who was “just trying to figure out what to do.” He said he had worked in government, in public schools, as a college professor and as the director of a rehab program. “That’s why I bring all that capacity and competency to making sure that our people get what is due to them and on June 22, we’re going to stand victorious, and when we win, our people win,” he said.

 

After his trips to The Bronx, Adams later moved on in subsequent days to Queens, where, during a local press conference, he took aim at fellow mayoral candidate, Maya Wiley, who was recently endorsed by Bronx Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14). Wiley is facing some heat over allegedly paying for private security while simultaneously calling for more cuts to the NYPD’s budget. Some see this as a double-standard given the high crime rates across the city, and given most New Yorkers cannot afford private security. Meanwhile, Adams, is now facing questions about whether his primary residence is in New York or New Jersey.

 

When it comes to other candidates in the race, New York Times-backed candidate, Kathryn Garcia, who District 11 candidate, Abigail Martin, said during a recent BronxNet debate, is her pick for mayor, is facing some criticism for her role as former Sanitation commissioner, with some residents arguing that the city’s trash situation under her reign was and still is, not good.

 

Meanwhile, former U.S. presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, is facing scrutiny for his apparent low score on animal rights in a recent poll run by animal welfare group, NYClass, which advocates to end the use of carriage horses in the city, while a second woman, Teresa Logan, came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct by City Comptroller Scott Stringer, which he denies. In a statement provided to the Norwood News, the comptroller said, “While I do not remember Ms. Logan, if I ever did anything to make her uncomfortable, I am sorry.”

 

Separately, Dianne Morales is gradually getting back on track after news emerged recently of inner conflict within her campaign. Former District 15 City Council candidate, Elisa Crespo, was among those caught up in the situation, ultimately announcing her resignation from the Morales campaign some weeks ago.

 

Summing up his recent visit to Tracey Towers, Adams said, “I’m excited about the future of the city. Smiling, as he reacted to cheers from the crowd, and shouts of “That’s right!” he said, “One of your own, one of your children, one of your neighbors is going to become the mayor of the City of New York, a blue-collar mayor for blue collar people, and save our city.”