Who needs details when you have good vibes?
“You’ve had a lot of mayors that did the waltz. One, two, three. One, two, three,” Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday. “I do the bugaloo! I salsa!”
Whether it is his schedule, his housing policy or the migrant crisis, Adams’ leadership has been less about specifics and more about governing from the gut.
Reporters asked him Tuesday about the lack of transparency in his schedules.
“If you give me your number while you’re home in your nighties, I’ll text you and say, ‘Come and hang out with me on the N train,’” Adams said.
His response was part mockery of reporters and part reminder that he lives a life of spontaneity.
He also ambiguously said he is “reassessing” city practices on providing shelter to asylum seekers.
Clarity on how he could navigate the city’s legal obligations came two weeks later.
“The migrant crises is outside of the housing initiative that we’re doing in the city for right to shelter,” Adams said.
Many of the city's challenges can be described in numbers: a looming $10 billion budget shortfall, 56,000 people in shelters on Tuesday and a 37% jump in robberies this year over last.
This summer, Adams released a housing plan without quantifiable goals.
“If that is one of the on-topic questions you're going to ask me, don’t, because I’m not answering that. ‘How many people we going to put in housing?’ We need to put people in housing,” Adams said in mid-June.
“In his mind, it’s the ‘I got it. Don’t worry. I got it.’ And that only works for a little while,” Democratic consultant Camille Rivera said.
Adams does stay visible, however.
“Let's be clear. He’s got a lot of folks who support him, who want him to succeed,” Christina Greer, associate professor of political science at Fordham University, said. “And I think part of it is — some people would say it’s Trumpian — but you sort of give off the air of confidence and competence and the rest will follow.”
The mayor recently visited hurricane-battered Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republican with no plan — he wanted to show solidarity and listen, he said.
And he does try to champion the Big Apple as a post-pandemic “city of yes.”
“Call it recovery, renewal or vibe shift. It’s undeniable, just like our city is undeniable,” Adams said in early June.
But there will come a time for receipts.
“He is going to have to show some policy gains,” Greer said.
“You’re going to have to show when you’re going to get there, how you’re going to get there,” Rivera added. “So that you can establish a long-term trust.”