NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Four years ago, New York City Mayor Eric Adams swept into office with swaggering confidence, pledging to lead a government unlike any other in history and declaring himself the \u201cfuture of the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the first promise, the mayor more than delivered. But as his tumultuous term comes to an end, Adams, 65, finds himself in the political wilderness, his onetime aspirations as a party leader now a distant memory.<\/p>\n
Instead, he has spent his final weeks in power wandering the globe, publicly mulling his next private sector job and lashing out at the \u201chaters\u201d and \u201cnaysayers\u201d whom he accuses of overlooking his accomplishments.<\/p>\n
For many of his supporters, the Adams era will be looked back on as a missed opportunity. Only the second Black mayor in city history, he helped steer New York out of the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, often linking the city\u2019s comeback to his own rise from humble roots in working-class Queens.<\/p>\n
At a moment when many Democrats were struggling to address voter concerns about public safety, he drew national attention for a \u201cradically practical\u201d agenda focused on slashing crime and reactivating the economy. <\/p>\n
But while most categories of crime returned to pre-pandemic levels, Adams will probably be remembered for another superlative: He is the only New York City mayor of the modern era to be indicted while in office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a disappointment for voters, especially for Black voters, who had high expectations and aspirations,\u201d said Basil Smikle, a political strategist who served as executive director of the state\u2019s Democratic Party. \u201cHe entered with a lot of political capital, and that was squandered, in part because of his own hubris.\u201d<\/p>\n
Equally memorable, perhaps, were the strange subplots along the way: his hatred of rats and fear of ghosts<\/a>; the mysteries about his home<\/a>, his diet<\/a>, his childhood; and his endless supply of catchphrases<\/a>, gestures<\/a> and head-scratching stories<\/a> that could instantly transform a mundane bureaucratic event into a widely shared meme<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many mayors want to be filtered, they want to pretend who they are and act like they are perfect,\u201d Adams said during a recent speech at City Hall, a freewheeling affair that ended with the mayor burying a time capsule of his achievements beneath a Manhattan sidewalk. \u201cI am not.\u201d<\/p>\n Swagger versus seriousness<\/p>\n Adams took over from Mayor Bill de Blasio in January 2022, amid a COVID-19 spike that was killing hundreds of New Yorkers every day, along with a worrisome uptick in both violent crime and unemployment.<\/p>\n Adams, a former police captain, Brooklyn borough president and state senator, increased patrols on streets and subways, brought back a controversial anti-crime unit and appointed the department\u2019s first female police commissioner. He also raised eyebrows for installing many of his former Police Department allies, including some ex-officials with histories of alleged misconduct.<\/p>\n As he encouraged New Yorkers to return to their pre-pandemic lives, Adams made an effort to lead by example, frequenting private clubs and upscale restaurants in order to \u201ctest the product\u201d and \u201cbring swagger back\u201d to the city, he said.<\/p>\n But if New Yorkers initially tolerated Adams\u2019 passion for late-night partying, there seemed to be a growing sense that the mayor was distracted, or even slacking off, according to Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime Democratic consultant and supporter of Adams.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a tension between swagger and seriousness,\u201d Sheinkopf said. \u201cNew Yorkers wanted to see more seriousness. They didn\u2019t want to see him out partying at some club they couldn\u2019t afford to go into.\u201d<\/p>\n