Adams administration

Welcome to the Adams administration

By ERIN DURKIN, ANNA GRONEWOLD and DEANNA GARCIA

Eric Adams is entering day three as mayor of New York City, but without the traditional pomp and circumstance of a mayoral inauguration. His swearing in, after planned festivities were canceled due to the latest Covid-19 surge, underscored the challenges he will face in his first months in office: taking over city government as it battles record-high infections, rising hospitalizations, and new economic disruptions. Adams took the oath just after the ball dropped in Times Square, holding up a photograph of his late mother.

Adams’ first weekend in office featured a crash course in the challenges and emergencies faced by every mayor, including an NYPD officer shot in East Harlem and his first snowstorm briefing. He took the subway from Brooklyn on day one, stopping to call 911 to report a fist fight he witnessed on the street, and biked from Gracie Mansion on day two.

In his first address to New Yorkers as mayor, streamed live from City Hall, Adams declared: “Despite Covid-19 and its persistence, New York is not closed. It is still open and alive because New Yorkers are more resilient than the pandemic.”

Today, he’ll confront the difficulties of putting those words into action as he reopens schools with a new set of protocols in place to cope with the surge, which are drawing their share of criticism. Adams plans to head to a school in the Bronx with his new schools chancellor this morning, and on Sunday urged parents not to fear sending their kids back to the classroom. “The safest place for children, based on the data, is inside a school building,” he said.