So the FBI just raided the homes of the First Deputy Mayor, the Schools Chancellor (on the first day of school no less!), the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, and, oh, the police commissioner!
This is, uh, not good. But, if you've been following this blog and its musings on Hizzoner, it's not exactly a surprise. At this rate, Adams heading to be another Jimmy Walker or William O'Dwyer.
We live in interestinging times ... and it's so boring!
More than once or twice I've blogged about the oddity that is Mayor Eric Adams -- you can read all about it here, no need to rehash it.
This new article elaborates more on this oddness, calling him the "chaos mayor."
But more than cataloguing the mayor's chaotic reign, it also shows how Adams, like other prominent politicians of this era, simply have no idea whatsoever of what it means to be a leader. They spend their time blaming others for their problems, they use overheated crises-ridden rhetoric, they constantly attack the press as being out to get them, and they openly engage in self-pity.
Poor me! Poor me! Everyone's mean to me, I'm a victim, all these conspiracies and dark forces are out to get me!
It's not like they have power or something.
In Adams' case, it comes down to his handling of the migrant problem. When they started coming into NYC, Adams showed that he was overwhelmed and unable to handle it. He said this problem was a "crises" that would "destroy New York City" and that we were about to "lose" the city. When the press asked him how he plans to handle this problem, he told others that they had to provide the answers about how to handle the problem. He demanded severe budget cuts in order to handle the problem -- even though the city is running surplus. Instead of projecting confidence in his skills and in his administration's ability to handle this problem, he basically said "I can't handle it! Oh my god, the city is going down, you tell me how to fix it!"
Real leaders rush into a crises, come up with a plan, handle it in a pragmatic and confident manner, restore order, and fix it. Like that old guy in Godfather II, leaders say "This is the business we've chosen!" and get on with the job, showing that they're in charge and getting things under control. They don't whine and complain, attack their critics and demand pity. They work -- and the positive results speak for themselves and their leadership abilities.
You see this same problem with Trump --- the constant consipiracies, the constant attacks on critics, the constant self-pity. The former British Prime Minster Liz Truss, who managed to the screw up the UK economy in six weeks so badly that her own party kicked her out of office, is now out complaining that the Bank of England and the "blob" that is the UK Civil Service is responsible for her fall -- and not her own decisions. She was Prime Minister when the Queen died in 2022 and apparently Ms. Truss's reaction to this was "Why me?" Can you friggin' believe that?
It wasn't always like this. Leaders led and did the job. Jimmy Carter didn't complain, deflect, or demand pity during the Iran Hostage Crises. Reagan didn't either during Iran Contra. My God, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton got impeached and still worked hard!
Eric Adams, like Trump and Truss and others, doesn't seem to get this. They think serving in high office is an excuse either to live the high life or execute ideological agendas -- not govern, not serve the public. And when things don't go their way, instead of sucking it up and getting to work, they WAAAAAHHHHH!
The thing is, the public is much smarter than these folks. Trump lost the presidency (and hopefully will again), Truss was kicked out, and Adams looks like he'll lose next year.
The people want leaders and problem solvers -- not showboating, self-pitying egomaniacs. You chose this business, get it done.
A few years ago Mr NYC interviewed two people who were involved in the 1980s NYC adult film scene -- Barbara Nitke, an on-set photographer, and Lynn Paula Russel (a.k.a. Paula Meadows), an English actress who appeared in several films before returning to England and starting a successful career as an artist.
Both ladies worked, in their very different capacities, with a big adult star of the time named Siobhan Hunter. A gorgeous young woman with long brunette hair, she was a mysterious, alluring, and absolutely gorgeous creature of 1980s NYC adult cinema. She appeared in several films from 1984 until the early 1990s, working with all the big names of the era (men and women), and developed a huge fanbase.
And then ... she vanished.
The rumor is that she went to medical school in Mexico and became a pediatrician, living a quiet life far from her days -- in mind, body, and spirit -- from her time as a big NYC adult star.
Recently there was a short bio of her Siobhan posted to Youtube. You can watch it here along with my interviews with Barbara and Lynn here.
If you're out there Siobhan, Mr NYC would love to interview you!
I know a lot of people think this story about Robert Kennedy Jr. dumping a dead bear in Central Park back in 2014 is funny ...
... but it's not. It's deeply disturbing and gross.
He is a very sick man, a truly deranged individual, and to think that the scion of America's most famous political family would have done such a thing is mind boggling, truly stranger than fiction.
When this happened ten years ago it deeply confused and upset the city -- and this dude thinks it was a funny prank.
Now he wants to be president. Dear God. Here's the original story from 2014 -- ti wasn't funny then, and isn't now
Just last week I blogged about the difficulties that NYC Comptrollers face when they run for NYC mayor -- only one comptroller, Abe Beame, has gone to sleep in Gracie Mansion.
For more than half a century every subsequent comptroller has succumbed to the Curse of the Comptroller.
Doubtless when each of these comptrollers were first elected they must have felt, elated with the flush of a great victory, that the mayoralty was their's for the taking (only to find, years later, that it was out of reach).
Well, the current comptroller Brad Lander must feel the same way because he's just announced that he's running for mayor in 2025. This is going to get nasty really quick -- and as unpopular and vulnerable as Mayor Eric Adams is, it could wind up with both guys heading to their political doom.
But remember, when pundits start talking about the difficulties comptrollers runnings for mayor have, remember Mr NYC wrote about it first!
It's no surprise that I'm a big fan of the NYC podcast The Bowery Boys, blogging about episodes every so often and interviewing one of the co-hosts in 2018.
Recently the boys did a series of episodes exploring NYC's Dutch roots by actually going to Holland and visiting the towns and areas where so much of this city's history began. It's a fascinating look at how much of the city we know today, the mightiest city in the world, came from this small European country -- and how this town was once a colony of a mighty overseas non-English speaking empire.
America may have been born in the streets of NYC but, before NYC was NYC, it was a small Dutch town in the New World.
After all, New York City used to be New Amsterdam, neighborhoods like Harlem came from the Dutch town of Haarlam and the entire borough of Brooklyn came from a place called Breukelen.
And if you've ever read The Great Gatsby, it's famous last paragraphs, as Nick Carraway stares across Long Island Sound at the huge rich homes and the symbolic green light, he wonders about what it must have looked at, unmolested, for "Dutch sailors' eyes."
I haven't listened to the entire series yet but plan to finish it soon -- and encourage you to do so!
