As Gotham’s second Black mayor, Eric Adams’ almost 4 years at Metropolis Corridor started with immense promise. He declared himself the “face of the new Democratic Party” shortly earlier than defeating a crowded discipline of challengers within the 2021 Democratic main, and promised to carry a “swagger” again to the mayoralty.
However regardless of his many accomplishments in workplace, his recognition rapidly pale amid a torrent of controversy and scandal. Final yr, he grew to become the primary sitting NYC mayor ever to be criminally indicted, a growth from which he by no means absolutely recovered, even after the Trump Justice Division dropped the case in opposition to him.
On Sunday, Adams launched a social media video saying his unbiased re-election marketing campaign, successfully ending his tumultuous tenure as mayor of America’s largest metropolis. He’ll stay in workplace till his time period concludes on Jan. 1, although he has not but endorsed a possible successor.
The reasonable Adams, now 65, received 4 years in the past on a pledge to carry down crime and rein in dysfunction that proliferated in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. He ran on his expertise patrolling the subways and streets as a transit cop and ultimately an NYPD captain for 20 years. He additionally pledged to jump-start town’s economic system after the pandemic.
“We took that victory four years ago and turned it into action, making this city better for those who have been failed by government,” Adams mentioned in his Sunday video. “I felt immense pride serving you every day and look at what we accomplished together.”
A marketing campaign to cease crime, lead COVID restoration
Mayor Eric Adams returns to Bayside Excessive College in Queens to name for continued Mayoral management of New York Metropolis’s public colleges on Tuesday, March 8, 2022.Michael Appleton/Mayoral Pictures Workplace
The mayor usually insists he delivered on the core tenets of his 2021 marketing campaign. He factors to double-digit drops in murders and shootings, town recovering the entire jobs it misplaced in the course of the pandemic, and report job development final yr as proof of his success.
One in all Hizzoner’s most vital accomplishments features a discount in road and subway crime since he took workplace in 2022. On Sept. 2, the NYPD introduced that within the first eight months of 2025, New York Metropolis noticed the fewest taking pictures incidents and taking pictures victims in recorded historical past.
In response to the NYPD, main crimes, together with homicide, theft, and felony assault, have been reducing no less than since 2023. Yr-to-date, crime is down a major 4% since final yr and 5% since 2023 throughout the identical interval. Subway crime remains to be on a downward pattern, at the same time as extra commuters have taken to using the rails for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic years.
He additionally jump-started an effort to make metropolis streets cleaner by requiring each enterprise and residential constructing house owners to position their trash in containers, as a substitute of piling black rubbish baggage on the road.
New trash guidelines requiring residents and companies to place their trash out absolutely containerized and later within the day led to cleaner streets. Sanitation officers reported noticeable enhancements in neighborhoods that started protecting their trash even earlier within the yr than mandated.
Adams has additionally scored some main coverage wins, such because the passage of his large “City of Yes” plan final yr— an overhaul to metropolis zoning guidelines aimed toward boosting housing development.
Adams made many investments in housing, together with the announcement of three,000 new residential items on the closed Flushing Airport in Queens as a part of his ongoing push to create inexpensive and market-rate homes across the metropolis.
However his landmark Metropolis of Sure for Housing Alternatives plan paved the way in which for the way forward for housing in NYC. Adams signed it into regulation on Dec. 18, launching an historic plan for zoning reform set to create 82,000 new properties over the following 15 years and contain a considerable $5 billion funding in infrastructure all through town.
Highway of wreck
A lot of Adams’ time in Metropolis Corridor, nonetheless, has been outlined by a deluge of scandal — together with his personal now-scuttled federal indictment, battles with the much more progressive Metropolis Council, and the inflow of nicely over 200,000 newly arrived migrants into town.
Whereas Adams’ fraught relationship with the council and the migrant disaster introduced main complications, it was the seemingly countless stream of alleged corruption that sullied his time in workplace.
A lot of his closest advisers resigned late final yr after they had been focused in federal corruption probes.
Previous to changing into mayor, Adams served eight years as Brooklyn borough president and almost a decade in representing a Brooklyn district within the state Senate. As soon as he arrived in Gracie Mansion on Jan. 1, 2022, he was heralded as a recent begin for town, nonetheless reeling from the pandemic.
However the honeymoon proved short-lived, as soon as members of his administration began leaving one after the other. Many had been discovered on the mistaken finish of FBI search warrants, raids and different investigations that made headlines beginning in September 2024. Edward Caban, the primary in a sequence of 4 prime cops who would take the reins all through the Adams administration, was the primary to resign amid FBI raids.
Adams’ first colleges chancellor, David Banks, left his submit on Oct. 16, 2024, simply weeks after the FBI seized his and his accomplice, former First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright’s telephones on Sept. 4 as a part of what looks as if a endless spree of federal probes into Adams and shut members of his administration.
Federal brokers additionally executed a search warrant on the residence of Banks’ brother, former Deputy Mayor for Public Security Phil Banks, who wound up submitting his resignation on Oct. 6.
Maybe most well-known within the resignee parade is Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the embattled mayor’s former prime advisor. She resigned from Metropolis Corridor in December of the identical yr after being the topic of a federal investigation that prompted authorities to serve her with a subpoena simply as she arrived at John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport after a visit to Japan.
“I am feeling good,” Lewis-Martin responded to New York News, preventing to look again at reporters as she was whisked away to face a choose.Photograph by Dean Moses
Quick ahead to simply final month, when the previous adviser was hit with an inventory of recent corruption costs, accusing her and her son of accepting 1000’s of {dollars}’ price of advantages in change for official favors.
Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg’s workplace accused Lewis-Martin of utilizing her prime Metropolis Corridor submit for 2 years to expedite the workings of metropolis authorities. She faces conspiracy and bribe-receiving costs which can be separate from the still-pending bribery and conspiracy costs filed final yr.
However the exodus didn’t cease as 2024 continued. Lisa Zornberg, an Adams’ chief counsel, and Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the administration’s well being commissioner, additionally resigned.
Amid the scandals, Adams was charged with bribery and marketing campaign finance on Sept. 25, 2024, following weeks of investigations into his administration. Per the indictment, Hizzoner was accused of taking luxurious journey perks and unlawful marketing campaign donations from Turkish nationals in change for serving to them open a Manhattan consulate constructing that didn’t move metropolis fireplace inspections.
Then, on April 2, 2025, a federal choose dismissed Adams’ five-count felony marketing campaign fraud indictment, clearing him of any wrongdoing.
Adams continued to disclaim the felony costs all through his time in workplace. Although his costs had been dismissed, the scandals left a mark on his tenure and his re-election bid.
Even earlier than scandals rocked the administration, Adams made an announcement throughout a 2023 city corridor in Manhattan, saying that the continued movement of migrants will “destroy New York City.” He mentioned the plenty of individuals arriving in New York every month, as town lacked sufficient assets to assist them discover shelter and entry to different primary requirements, following repeated requests from the federal authorities for assist. The remarks appeared to place a damper on the connection between Adams and former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Total, Adams’ choice to not vie for a second time period resonated in placing distinction to the power, enthusiasm, and invigoration he delivered to the halls of Gracie Mansion, the steps of Metropolis Corridor, and the properties of New Yorkers.
In the meantime, the remaining 2025 mayoral candidates stay within the race: NYS Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani; former NYS governor Andrew Cuomo; and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.
Adams has but to say who he’ll help as Election Day attracts close to.
“Whoever follows me at City Hall must continue the work we started: lowering the cost of living, investing in quality of life, and staying laser-focused on reducing crime and disorder through investments in policing, mental health, substance abuse care, homelessness services, and community-based initiatives,” the mayor mentioned in his video announcement.
