The Mayor Adams Style

Eric Adams has been Mayor of NYC for almost three months now and it's been ... interesting.

He's made it very clear that he wants to be tough on crime which, for a mayor, is de rigueur. He's targeting bail reform and bringing back the "anti-crime" unit for the NYPD (which I don't entirely understand since I thought the police's whole job was anti-crime but nevermind). He's also issued some business-friendly executive orders, encouraged remote workers to return to their offices, and is advocating for the state legislature to extend mayoral control of the public schools through 2026 (i.e. the remainder of his term and then some). Otherwise, policy-wise, he hasn't done much -- no big intiatives, no clear vision for the city -- but it's early days yet.

However, when it comes to style, he's done a lot. 

Adams talks a lot about bringing back "swagger" to the city, and loves to swagger himself. He goes to nightclubs, pops up all over city at any given hour, performs vegan-friendly cooking demonstrations, posts pictures on social media of him on his exercise bike while he holds online meetings, and he talks about sheep for some reason a lot. He clearly revels in being the town's #1 guy. This is probably what accounts for his (for now) high approval rating of 61%.

Adams' approval rating is all the more remarkable for the number of odd and, one would think, politically harmful unforced errors he's made -- appointing his brother and unapologetic homophobes to his administration, insulting low-skilled workers, and lying about being a vegan while eating fish. One might think that this kind of insensitivity, dishonesty, and tunnel-vision might harm a mayor's approval ratings but this is clearly not the case. (In case you haven't been paying attention, we are living in the era of shame-free politics). 

I think the reason all of this nonsense hasn't hurt Adams (so far) is that he loves being mayor -- that's very clear. New Yorkers generally like a mayor who enjoys leading the city, at least the mascot aspect of the job. Koch, Giuliani, and Bloomberg, all in their different ways, loved being mayor as well, and it showed -- no matter how divisive, controversial, or elitist they were. And New Yorkers, at the time, gave them a thumbs up for it. Adams has clearly learned this lesson from his predecessors but his love for the job is also obviously genuine.

But what's depressing about this is that it proves that styles matters over substance -- in politics and as in so much of life. For example, Mayor De Blasio had many accomplishments with extending sick leave, universal pre-K, expanding ferry service, more affordable housing, and keeping crime low. He also handled COVID well (not perfectly but then who did?). Not to mention that, during his tenure, the city's population absolutely exploded. De Blasio was re-elected in a landslide so his efforts weren't entirely unappreciated, but he became hated, especially by the press, because he didn't seem to love the job or the people and the city he governed. (Did he really have to openly root for the Boston Red Sox?) De Blasio did the job, and did it well -- that's the most important thing after all -- but his mayoralty had no style, no "swagger", he didn't seem care at all about being the city's #1 person, and it eventually generated public derision. (Especially his also arriving late for events.)

You gotta sell 'em the sizzle more than the steak.

This extensive profile on Mayor Adams and his early days as mayor looks at the man and his mayoral style -- but it also shows so much how image, how flash, how interesting quotes (like this really weird sheep obsession he has), and most of all how a combination of political shamelessness and policy vagueness overrides actually delivering good policies. The press is responsible for much of this -- they care more about the personality of politicians and their various conflicts instead of their policies and the impacts they have on people's lives. Adams and politicians like him play along because they understand the rules of the game. It's not enough for a politician to say "Here's my record, it's helped a lot of people, please like me for it" --  no, they need to feed the media beast with good optics and quotes and an appearance of non-stop energy. The public can understand the flashy side to politicians since the policy part is, ya know, boring. 

Style over substance is the Mayor Adams style -- perhaps that will change, perhaps his popularity won't last, perhaps more substance will be forthcoming -- but it's a telling sign of the NYC and American political culture that playing a politician is more important than actually delivering beneficial policies.