Mayor Eric Adams (D) represents the last stage of political empowerment for the working-class Black neighborhoods of New York City.
As his administration buckles under the weight of federal charges of bribery and fraud, the concerns of his outer-borough constituents will be lost in the chaos, along with a critical moment in the city’s Black political history.
Adams’s downfall foreshadows a larger problem for New York’s Black political class and the community they presume to represent. They are being squeezed out by demographic trends and changes in the municipal election system. As such, it appears that a historic period of representation will be short-lived and squandered.
The city’s Black political class holds more offices than at any time in history. In recent years, the Black voting bloc has propelled representatives to the highest levels of executive, legislative and judicial offices. Yet their leaders are proving incapable of using the positions in a coordinated fashion to advance the concerns of the community.
Besides Adams, there are the high-profiled figures of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, State Assembly Leader Carl Heastie, State Attorney General Letitia James, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Bronx DA Darcel Clark, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and City Council President Adrienne Adams. In Congress, there are Reps. Gregory Meeks, Yvette Clarke, Jamaal Bowman and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Leader in the House of Representatives.
Adams is the most important of them all. As the city’s 110th mayor, and second Black mayor, he oversees the machinery of municipal governance. As such, he is in position to, for example, organize a unity summit around an equity agenda for his base, or to establish an independent think tank to research and develop strategies for how government and self-help........