Business community that backed New York Mayor Eric Adams now waits to learn his fate

NEW YORK – When New York Mayor Eric Adams took office, the city’s business community breathed a sigh of relief.

For eight years, business leaders had railed against the liberal ideology and policies of Mayor Bill de Blasio. He won office on a promise to end income inequality and reverse the economic policies of his predecessor – business-friendly billionaire Michael Bloomberg – and he thrived on criticising the city’s business elite.

Mr Adams, on the other hand, spoke about how important wealthy taxpayers were to New York’s coffers and how companies provided middle-class residents with good jobs. He often cited the city’s healthy bond rating as one of his major accomplishments.

The connection between Mr Bloomberg and Mr Adams was on full display in the months after Mr Adams’ victory in the Democratic primary.

Mr Bloomberg released a video backing Mr Adams before the general election. A day after the endorsement, at a conference filled with the former mayor’s fellow billionaires, Mr Adams declared that “New York will no longer be anti-business”.

“It was a reversal,” said Ms Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy group. “He took Bloomberg as a mentor and embraced the policies that are most important to businesses and their employees.”

But after Mr Adams was indicted on charges of bribery, conspiracy, fraud and soliciting improper foreign campaign donations, much of the business and labour community has fallen silent with worry.

Mr Adams appeared in a courtroom in Lower Manhattan on Sept 27 and

entered a plea of not guilty on five counts.

Representatives for the city did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

District Council 37, the city’s largest public employee union, of which Mr Adams’ mother was once a member, endorsed him in 2021 and called him a “friend of labour”. But on Sept 26, a spokesperson declined to comment on the criminal charges.

The Real Estate Board of New York, the industry’s main lobbying arm, did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did the service employees union, 32BJ SEIU, which has been a frequent presence at the mayor’s events.

The Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, an influential union that represents hotel and casino workers in New York and New Jersey, gave a measured response.

“It’s too early to pass judgment or make any political decisions other than to say our union will continue to do what we always do, which is work with the mayor and city government on issues important to our members,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

The mayor’s indictment leaves many in the business world without a clear candidate in the next election and stirs the fear that a progressive candidate will not cater to them as Mr Adams has. Four candidates have announced runs for mayor, and all are considered left of Mr Adams.

“Mayor Adams is one of the few elected officials at his level in the entire nation who fundamentally understands technology,” said Ms Julie Samuels, president and chief executive of Tech:NYC, a trade group that represents tech companies ranging from Google and Meta to start-ups.

The alternatives have not inspired confidence among her members. “Most of them don’t even know who a lot of these candidates are,” she said.

The mayor held 14 town halls in conjunction with the Partnership for New York City to meet with employees at various companies. After the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Adams called for workers to return to the office even though there was a push towards hybrid work-from-home schedules.

And the relationship with Mr Bloomberg continued when Mr Adams entered City Hall. Sprinkled throughout Mr Adams’ schedules for 2023 was a notation “Call with Mike” – an apparent reference to Mr Bloomberg, who regularly spoke with Mr Adams.

Mr Stu Loeser, a spokesperson for Mr Bloomberg, declined to comment, but a person familiar with the thinking of some of Mr Bloomberg’s advisers said they had “high hopes” for Mr Adams.

Mr Adams was not afraid to employ policies that are unpopular with progressives, but that business leaders saw as key to maintaining a quality of life that is conducive to business, such as clearing homeless encampments and flooding the subways with police officers in response to crime.

A business leader in the world of Wall Street who asked not to be named to preserve relationships said an e-mail was circulating on Sept 26 morning seeking to recruit a candidate for mayor from within the business community.

The candidates for mayor so far are Mr Brad Lander, the city comptroller; Mr Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn; Ms Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Queens; and Mr Scott M. Stringer, the former comptroller.

Former governor Andrew Cuomo is also considering running in a special election if Mr Adams resigns.

Mr Jumaane Williams, the public advocate who made a name for himself by speaking out against discriminatory policing, would become mayor if Mr Adams resigned or was removed from office and would probably run in the special election to complete the term.

Some critics of City Hall do not see Mr Adams’ pro-business leanings as a good thing.

Ms Olivia Leirer, co-director of New York Communities for Change, a progressive advocacy organization that focuses on issues such as global warming and affordable housing, said that the mayor has sided with the real estate lobby when it comes to enforcing a new climate law designed to reduce pollution from large buildings and that his policies on homelessness and crime are harmful.

Mr Adams, surrounded by supporters in a defiant news conference outside Gracie Mansion on Sept 26, seemed intent on finishing his work, despite the serious criminal charges he was facing.

Asked who would be the liaison with the city’s business community in the wake of his indictment, the mayor did not hesitate to answer.

“When you say: ‘Who’s the point person that’s going to deal with the business community? Who’s going to deal with the business of running the city?’ The point person is Eric Adams,” the mayor said to cheers from his assembled supporters. “I’m the mayor of the city of New York.” NYTIMES