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2021 New York City mayoral election – Rank Me
New York magazine
|June 7 - 20, 2021
Fifteen candidates for mayor, each selling a different vision of the city. Choose your top five.
ERIC ADAMS, 60, DEMOCRAT
Brooklyn’s first Black borough president (elected in 2013), a state senator (2006–13), and a 22-year veteran of the NYPD. Endorsed by: Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., the New York Post. On policing: Bring back the so-called Anti-Crime Unit; has defended a modified stop and frisk. “I’m a big believer in police reform, but I also believe in public safety.” On the economic recovery: Launch a “People’s Plan” to provide around $3,000 in tax credits to poor New Yorkers and free child care for children 3 and under. And reduce crime: “No one is going to open a business in this city when you have a tourist shot at Grand Central station.” What makes him a New Yorker: “The fullness of my life: being a dishwasher as a child, being arrested and beat by police officers, understanding what it’s like to be on the verge of homelessness, and understanding what it’s like to see a city that basically was not there for you.” What the press has missed: “Just how much of a sweetheart I am. I’m a little teddy bear.”
On June 22, 1665, Thomas Willett was named the first mayor of New York. Like all good mayors, he was something of a coalitional candidate, one of the few men of rank acceptable to both the Dutch residents and the English invaders. One imagines that questions about authenticity and what it means to be a “real New Yorker” didn’t much exist then (since New York didn’t really either), but Willett had a good pedigree (he came over on the
This story is from the June 7 - 20, 2021 edition of New York magazine.
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