New Mayor Eric Adams Wants to Lower Crime, Extend School Year

In September, Adams called for a change to NYC's “anti-business” reputation. Photo: ericadams2021.com

By MELANIE YE, FAROOQ SALAM, ERIC KRAYETS, and SHAYAN BAIG

The boy on the side of the street waiting for the cars to stop so that he can clean their windshields for desperately needed money. The boy who had to bring a bag of clothes with him to school just in case his family was suddenly evicted. That same boy will soon be the new mayor of New York City.

Eric Adams, a 61-year-old Democrat, retired police captain, and former state senator will take office as the city’s second-ever black mayor on January 1. He vowed to make the city once again “the coolest place on the globe.” 

“We’re so damn boring now,” Adams said on the Stephen Colbert Show November 17, after his victory. “We have to be among the people enjoying life.”

The mayoral election wasn’t Adams’s first rodeo; he was also elected Brooklyn Borough President in 2013 and 2017. His electoral successes show he’s come a long way from a poverty-stricken background. 

Adams grew up with an alcoholic father, who worked as a butcher, and a very busy mother, who worked as a housecleaner. Adams and his five siblings started life in a rat-infested home in Bushwick, Brooklyn. When his mother used to say that she was going to buy a new house, everyone laughed because of how absurd it sounded given their situation. But eventually, the family was able to buy a home in Jamaica, Queens. However, soon after, Adams’s father left the family. 

Abdullah Rouf ’23 thinks Adams’s life experiences “will help him understand how it feels to be in poor people’s shoes, which will allow him to make decisions that actually help them. So many politicians nowadays say ‘let's go help the poor’ just to get more votes, but they themselves never understand how their life is, so they end up making decisions that make the poor’s lives even worse.” 

A big part of Adams’s “100-Step Plan” as mayor will be targeting gun violence. According to the latest NYPD data, there have been over 800 shootings so far in NYC during 2021, an increase of 29% over 2020. Since July 2020, crime has seen a big increase in the city, especially in the low income communities of color where most shootings and robberies take place.

At the same time, controversial bail reforms have come under criticism for quickly returning suspects to the streets. While violence is still well below the levels of the 1980s and 1990s, concerns about recent trends are high. Adams campaigned on the issue, especially targeting gun violence. Many Midwood students were in full support of this plan.

“I feel like too many people have access to guns and they're not being responsible for it,” said Jessica Lin ‘23.

“It's crazy what's going on out there,” said senior Jacqueline Setyaputra. “We need gun violence laws to prevent more mass shootings.”

Adams plans to reform the old anti-crime unit into an anti-gun unit, fund the City’s Crisis Management System, form a Tri-State commission to make policies to end the flow of illegal handguns, and prevent guns in the MTA with spot checks. 

Adams’s background as both a former police officer and a victim of police brutality gave him credibility among voters on the issue of law enforcement. 

At fifteen years old, Adams and his brother Conrad got arrested after allegedly trespassing on a neighbor’s property. The pair used to take care of a woman who had broken her leg, and when they asked for money for their work, she refused and called the police. 

At the police station, Adams and his brother, handcuffed backwards, were brutally beaten by several police officers, who repeatedly kicked them in the groin.

“They didn’t hit us anywhere else because they didn’t want to leave marks,” recalled Adams in an interview. “The rage really engulfed me for years. I could not hear a siren without thinking about that. That’s what PTSD is all about: reliving it over and over again.” 

But that rage soon turned into motivation when a pastor encouraged Adams to join the NYPD as a means of changing the force from within. He joined the force in 1984, ended up serving for 22 years, and retired as a captain in 2006. 

Next, Adams wanted to get into politics, so he ran for the state senate. He served four terms as a Democrat from 2007-2013, representing the 20th senate district, which included Brownsville, East Flatbush, Prospect Heights, and Sunset Park.

Adams’s approach was sometimes considered “old school.” He made an instructional video showing how to search a child’s room for contraband, and posted billboards against sagging pants, which he believed was a first step into a criminal future. 

“This is probably not a perfect science, but if you start looking at how your child is dressing, it is an indicator of who his friends are and what group he’s associated with,” Adams said in an interview with The New York Times. “It’s all in the clothing.”

At the end of his time in the Senate, he ran for Brooklyn Borough President and won with 90.8% of the vote in 2013 amd again with 83% of the vote in 2017. Adams is the first African American to hold the position of Brooklyn Borough President. 

One part of Adams’s 100-Step Plan students may not be happy to hear about is his idea to change the September to June school year to a full year (every month) schedule. Students would have periodic two week breaks throughout the year rather than the two month summer break during the months of July and August. Adams’s cited studies showing that having a summer break negatively affects a child’s learning.

Out of all the students we spoke with, not one supported the idea.

“I think that with time off, students learn to appreciate school and the environment more,” said Francesca Alloggio ‘23. “It also gives their mind a break and rejuvenates it for more learning. I think keeping school open all year would actually ruin people’s work ethic. It's important to take time off.” 

Muhammad Rizwan ‘23 said, “Students require some time to relax their mind or their stress levels will increase. A child’s mental health is important as it can lead to a higher suicide rate.”

Students would not be required to stay in the buildings the whole year, Adams explained: “It can be a time when teachers and students are encouraged to see the city as their laboratory, their theater, and their museum.”

“I still don’t think they should be open all year long because students should be able to do the activities that they want to do and not stress,” said junior Matthew Wassif. “Students should have hobbies outside of school.”

Janis Wu ‘23 said, “I think that these trips should be applied in the actual school year, correlating with lessons. It would be reasonable if students had the choice whether they wanted to attend these trips or not.” 

Summer instruction would be taught by a small subset of teachers, giving remote lessons for 2-3 hours a day to large classes. 

“This is not going to help in any way,” said Ayman Uddin ‘23. “Two to three hours of teaching will not contribute to a student's success overall.”

Adams has also expressed support for vaccine mandates for students and a desire to drop mask requirements. “If we can find a safe way to do it, I look forward to getting rid of the mask,” he told CNN in November. “Part of the socialization of a child is that smile.”

Students expressed hope that the next four years might bring positive change.

“The most important part of being a mayor is making your people’s voices heard and to acknowledge other people's ideas,” said sophomore Benjamin Fedorovski. “The mayor must remember that they serve the people and not the other way around.”

“I think the most important part of being mayor is having zero bias,” said junior Jennifer Taninsk, “and genuinely wanting better for your community and allowing yourself to put emotions aside and look at facts.”

As curiosity lingers, we will have to wait until January 1 to see what changes Eric Adams has in mind for our city.