Eric Adams (politician)
Eric Leroy Adams is the Borough President of Brooklyn, New York City.
Adams served as an officer in the New York City Transit Police and then the New York City Police Department, for 22 years. In 1994 he was defeated in the Democratic primary for a New York Congressional seat. From 2006 to 2013 he was a Democratic State Senator in the New York Senate. In November 2013, Adams was elected Brooklyn Borough President, the first African-American to hold the position. In November 2017 he was reelected.
Early life and education
Adams was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He was raised in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and South Jamaica, Queens.When Adams was 15 years old, he and his brother were arrested for criminal trespassing. While they were in police custody, officers beat Adams and his brother, repeatedly kicking them in the groin. Adams suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder after the incident, and has said that he believes his brother still suffers from mental health illness in 2020 as a result of the beating.
Adams graduated from Bayside High School in Queens in 1978. He subsequently received an associate degree from the New York City College of Technology, a B.A. from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and an M.P.A. from Marist College. By his own admission, he was a D+ student.
New York City Transit Police and Police Department
Adams served as an officer in the New York City Transit Police and in the New York City Police Department for 22 years, after being asked to "infiltrate" the police at the behest of the Reverend Herbert Daughtry, of the House of the Lord’s Church in Brooklyn. He graduated from the New York City Police Academy in 1984. He started in the New York City Transit Police, and continued with the NYPD when the transit police and the NYPD merged. He worked in the 6th Precinct in Greenwich Village, the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint, and the 88th Precinct covering Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. While serving, he co-founded 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, an advocacy group for black police officers, and often spoke out against police brutality and racial profiling. During the 1990s Adams served as president of the Grand Council of Guardians, an organization of black officers.In 1993, while President of the Ground Council of Guardians, Adams accused politician Herman Badillo of betraying his Hispanic heritage by having as his wife a white, Jewish woman, instead of a Latino. Badillo responded that "Voting based on race is the definition of racism, and has no place in a civilized multiracial society..." Badillo added: "I don't apologize to anyone for the fact that my wife is Jewish."
Congressional run
In 1994, Adams, endorsed by the Nation of Islam, was defeated by Major Owens in the Democratic primary for the 11th Congressional seat in central Brooklyn.New York State Senate
Adams was first elected to the New York State Senate in 2006, serving for four terms, until late 2013. He represented the 20th Senate District, which includes parts of the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, and Sunset Park.As a freshman state senator, in 2007 and 2008 he was among the legislators who suggested a pay raise for themselves, though they ranked third-highest in pay among all state lawmakers in the United States.
On December 2, 2009, Adams was one of the 24 state senators to vote in favor of marriage equality in New York State. He spoke in support of the freedom to marry during the debate before the vote.
He was criticized for backing fellow state senator Hiram Monserrate, also a former police officer, after Monserrate was accused of domestic violence toward his girlfriend, involving his cutting her face with a broken glass and causing lacerations that required 20 stitches to close. After Monserrate was convicted of misdemeanor assault, in 2010 Adams was one of only 8 Senators to oppose his expulsion from the New York State Senate, which passed with 53 votes.
Adams was a vocal opponent of the NYPD's "stop and frisk" policy, which predominantly affected young Black and Latino men, and which in 2000 the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights had said constituted racial profiling. In 2011 he supported calling for a federal investigation into stop-and-frisk practices. He sought to stop the NYPD from gathering data about individuals who had been stopped but not charged. The New York Daily News penned an editorial in 2013 saying Adams’s claims on the NYPD's stop and frisk policy were "beneath credibility."
In 2012 Adams served as co-chair of New York's State Legislators Against Illegal Guns.
Adams and five other mostly African-American state lawmakers wore hooded sweatshirts in the legislative chamber on March 12, 2012, in protest of the shooting of Trayvon Martin, a Florida teen who was killed by George Zimmerman.
Brooklyn Borough President
On November 5, 2013, Adams was elected Brooklyn borough president with 90.8 percent of the vote, more than any other candidate for borough president in New York City that year.Community boards
Adams, in his role as Brooklyn borough president, appoints the members of each of the 18 community boards in Brooklyn, half of which are nominated by local members of the City Council. Community boards members represent their neighbors in matters dealing with land use and other specific neighborhood needs.In 2016, he launched a digital app process for board membership, which has increased applications by 10 percent, and he intends – under the authority granted by a 2015 state law – to appoint youth members to every community board.
Land use
Under the New York City Charter, borough presidents must submit Uniform Land Use Review Procedure recommendations on certain uses of land throughout their borough. Adams has used his ULURP recommendations to propose additional permanently affordable housing units in the rezoning of East New York; the relocation of municipal government agencies to East New York to reduce density in Downtown Brooklyn and create jobs for community residents, and the redevelopment of 25 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg as manufacturing space, with increased property taxes directed to the acquisition of the remaining proposed sections of Bushwick Inlet Park as well as its continued development as a community resource.Adams has encouraged New York City to build affordable housing on municipally-owned properties such as the Brownsville Community Justice Center, over railyards and railways, and on space now used for parking lots.
Adams created the Faith-Based Property Development Initiative, which supports religious institutions that want to develop property for the benefit of the community, such as affordable housing and space for the community.
In September 2017, Adams unveiled his recommendations for the future of the Bedford Union Armory in Crown Heights. His recommendation was to disapprove the application with conditions, while calling for the inclusion of a greater amount of affordable housing on site. The Bedford Union Armory proposals would contain recreational facilities, spaces for locally based non-profits, as well as two new residential buildings, including a condominium building along President Street in place of the Armory's stables.
In July 2018, he announced a joint $10 million, 19-plaintiff lawsuit with Housing Rights Initiative, filed by the Law Office of Jack L. Lester, Esq. in Kings County Supreme Court, based on a comprehensive investigation by HRI that found that Kushner Companies engaged in illegal construction practices in the 338-unit former Austin, Nichols and Company Warehouse at 184 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg. According to an independent lab analysis, families, including children and babies, were exposed to highly toxic and cancer-causing substances, including, but not limited to, the lung carcinogen crystalline silica and lead.
In July 2018, Adams urged the developer involved in the Kensington Stables site in Windsor Terrace to help preserve the stables as part of a new proposal for the site.
Education
In partnership with Medgar Evers College, Adams created the Brooklyn Pipeline, which provides developmental learning and enrichment opportunities to public school students in Brooklyn, teaches parents to better support their children's education, and facilitates professional development training to teachers and school leaders.He wrote an editorial in The New York Daily News calling on the New York City Department of Education to test all pre-Kindergarten students for gifted and talented programs, including African-American and Latino children who have historically been excluded.
Adams entered Brooklyn into the "Hour of Code" challenge with Chicago Public Schools. Brooklyn students were victorious, with more than 80 percent of the district schools throughout Brooklyn participating in the program.
Based on a report prepared by the Independent Budget Office of New York City at his request, Adams urged the City University of New York system to explore reinstating free tuition for two-year community colleges, which could improve graduation rates and lead to increased earnings potential and taxpayer contribution, as well as expand access to higher education.
He has advocated for making two-year CUNY colleges free.
Health
Adams launched the Family Friendly Brooklyn initiative by creating a lactation room in Brooklyn Borough Hall, with open access to the public.He introduced a bill in the New York City Council that would require all municipal buildings providing services to the public to have lactation rooms. The bill was passed by the City Council on July 14, 2016.
After facing a health scare himself when he was diagnosed with type two diabetes in 2016, Adams adopted a whole-foods, plant-based diet and has encouraged all Brooklynites to eat healthier. He launched a plant-based nutrition page on his website with links to nutrition and plant-based/vegan blogs, plant-based/vegan diet recipes and natural grocery stores, as well as vegan meetup groups and events. He has also replaced all vending machines in Brooklyn Borough Hall with protein bars, sparkling water and nut snacks instead of sugary, unhealthy snacks. Additionally, Adams has also prompted the City Council to pass a resolution called "Ban the Baloney," which aims for schools across the city to stop serving processed meats. He has also been an avid supporter of "Meatless Mondays" in public schools.
After a spike in rat complaints, Adams co-hosted a Rat Summit alongside Council Member Robert Cornegy, in June 2018 to address the issue of rats throughout the borough.
In July 2018, Adams publicly denounced President Trump's efforts to stop Ecuador from passing a U.N. resolution stating that breastfeeding is the most beneficial way of feeding a child and debunking untrue facts about breast feeding.
Housing
To address the displacement of longtime residents by gentrification, Adams has held a series of town halls in Bedford–Stuyvesant and East Flatbush to investigate cases of tenant harassment, and also organized legal clinics in East New York, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, and Sunset Park to provide free legal assistance to tenants.He stood on the damaged roof of 110 Humboldt Street, a seven-story residential building in the Borinquen Plaza II development in Williamsburg, as he called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to restore $100 million in State funding for New York City Housing Authority roof repairs.
In June 2018, Adams suggested lowering the height of the Alloy Development's Downtown Brooklyn project, 80 Flatbush, from 986 to 600 feet in order to not disrupt or overwhelm the existing community surrounding the building.
Adams said in a speech in Harlem about supposed gentrifiers in 2020, "Go back to Iowa, you go back to Ohio. New York City belongs to the people that was here and made New York City what it is." He added, to the cheering crowd who had gathered for a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.: "You were here before Starbucks. You were here before others came and decided they wanted to be part of this city... folks ... hijacking your apartments and displacing your living arrangements...." The Republican leader of Ohio’s Cuyahoga County said Adams "took Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of unity and made it a divisive message." New York City Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz said Adams’ “disturbing” remarks contribute to an environment of divisiveness.
Public safety
Adams has criticized the use of excessive force in the arrest of Eric Garner, who died after being placed in a chokehold prohibited by NYPD regulations, and the arrest of postal carrier Glen Grays, who was determined not to have committed any crime or infraction.After the 2014 killings of NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, he wrote an editorial for the New York Daily News calling on police officers and the community to work with each other to build a relationship of mutual respect.
Together with Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, Adams held a series of seven public forums and four Google Hangouts for community residents to share their experiences with the police. The information was used to compile a report, and it was concluded that New York City should work to involve the public in the work of the NYPD, improve training for police officers, and allow independent investigations when police misconduct has been alleged.
Following the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018, he joined the efforts of Brooklyn students by organizing an emergency meeting at Brooklyn Borough Hall and a rally to demand stricter gun laws in Prospect Park. That same month, after a correctional officer endured a beating from six inmates at the George Motchan Detention Center on Rikers Island, Adams stood outside the Brooklyn Detention Center to express his support to reinstate solitary confinement in prisons.
In August 2019, he was criticized over his inaction towards placard abuse in Brooklyn via Twitter. Adams responded by publicly comparing the accuser to the KKK.
Technology
Adams formed a partnership with flowthings.io, a Brooklyn-based startup, and Dell computer to access and collect Real-time data on conditions in Brooklyn Borough Hall, with device counters to monitor occupancy in rooms that sometimes experience overcrowding, multi-sensors to determine whether equipment has been operating efficiently, sensors such as smart-strips and smart-plugs to measure energy usage around the building, and ultrasonic rangefinders to identify that ADA-designated entrances are accessible in real-time.He partnered with tech startup Heat Seek NYC to allow tenants to be able to report conditions in their apartments with sensor hardware and web applications.
Adams opposed efforts to limit the number of new e-hail cars such as Uber, explaining that such technologies provide opportunities for people of color to find work and travel in their communities.
Other initiatives
Each month, Adams honors as "Hero of the Month" a Brooklyn resident who has acted selflessly on behalf of the community.Calling on Brooklyn residents to "Embrace Your Hyphen," Adams hosts celebrations in honor of Black History Month, Lunar New Year, Greek-American Heritage Month, Irish-American Heritage Month, Nowruz, Arab-American Heritage Month, Garifuna Heritage Celebration, Asian-American and Pacific Islander Month, Caribbean-American Heritage Month, Russian-American Heritage Month, Ramadan, International Day of Friendship, the Autumn Moon Festival, Hispanic Heritage Month, and Italian-American Heritage Month.
Given the success of the brewing industry in Brooklyn, Adams, since October 2017, has called for a more lenient Blue Law, allowing New York City businesses to start selling alcohol at 8 am. instead of the current 10 a.m. time.
In September 2019, he promoted new rat traps by presenting a group of dead rats with the new contraptions in front of the press early that month: Adams and his team said the traps were humane whereas animal rights groups said that they were not.
In January 2020, Adams drew controversy after making anti-"transplant" commentary at a Martin Luther King Jr. event. Speaking at the event, he said "Go back to Iowa, you go back to Ohio. New York City belongs to the people that were here and made New York City what it is".