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An upbeat Mayor Eric Adams said Saturday that change is on the horizon for New York City and its “dysfunctional” government, vowing during his inaugural address to “make our city better every day.”
“Our government has been dysfunctional for far too long and it created its own crisis long before Covid,” Adams said from City Hall.
The new mayor said that issues like “crime-ridden communities or poor schools, economic inequality or racial injustice… have been normalized for generations while New York’s government struggled to match the energy and innovation of New Yorkers.”
“That changes today. I promise you one thing New York, I will make our city better everyday by making our city government better everyday,” said Adams who was sworn in just after midnight in Times Square becoming the 110th mayor of the Big Apple. “It means weeding out the waste and eliminating the inefficiencies. It’s about accountability.”
He said the theme of first 100 days would be “GSD” or get stuff done.
Adams made good on that promise before he even got to City Hall for first day in office. He called 911 to report an assault in progress on the sidewalk as he waited on an elevated platform for the subway in Brooklyn to take him to work.
Adams vowed to put more resources into fighting violent crime. His packed first day is also to include a meeting with officers at the 103rd Precinct in Jamaica where he was once arrested as a teen-ager.
The mayor also rejected any option to shut down the city so New Yorkers would not be endangered by COVID-19.
“This is 2022, not 2020,” he said. “With vaccines, testing and treatments, we have the tools now to Live with this virus and stay healthy if we all do our part to keep each other safe.”
Adams said he looked to his predecessors for their perspective, but did not mention his immediate one, Bill de Blasio.
Instead, he cited quotes from David Dinkins — who referred to the city as a “gorgeous mosaic” — and Ed Koch’s comments during the city’s financial crisis when he said “New York is not a problem, it is a stroke of genius.”
“I agree,” he said. “So today we remember our strength, we face our fears, and we start anew, confident that crisis will not define us.”
Adams went on to say that “the last two years have trapped our spirit and it is begging
to be let out. We have been stifled. We have been asleep. But we are a city of 9 million dreams and we are about to wake up.”
“I cannot wait to greet this new day with you,” he said.
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