Eric Adams: The second African-American to be elected mayor of New York

The election of the second African-American at the helm of her municipality New York It is a fact. The speech of the former police officer and anti-racism activist, Eric Adams, who won yesterday, Tuesday (2/11), with ease in the election for the new mayor of the big city of the USA, a unexpected development for this child of a poor family who had flirted with crime.

The 61-year-old Democrat won, as expected, his Republican opponent, the 67-year-old Curtis Sligua, according to the provisional results announced by the New York Electoral Commission. Adams collected it 67% of the votes, compared to 27% for Sligua, and consequently the town hall of a traditionally left-wing city, but where the economic and social inequalities between the various communities are great.

“I made my dream come true tonight and with all my heart I will remove the obstacles that prevent you from realizing yours,” Adams said, smiling in the midst of a crowd of supporters gathered at a Brooklyn hotel. “It was about time. “Employees will have a voice from now on,” he said excitedly Jacquan Rivers, friend of the new mayor.

Who is Eric Adams?

This victory is the culmination of the career of Adams, who comes from a poor family and grew up in Brooklyn and Queens. At the age of 15, he was beaten by police when he was arrested for violating private property. This strengthened his determination to join the police, which he did in the mid-1980s. After 22 years of service, he retired.

In 1995 he founded an organization to fight racism in the police, the “100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care”. According to the APE-MPE, in 2003 he ran and was elected to the New York Senate and 10 years later he was elected chairman of the Brooklyn City Council, a position that was the starting point for his election to New York City Hall.

Adams is very proud of that became vegan in 2016 after being diagnosed with diabetes, and wrote a book to persuade African Americans to follow his example.

“The little boy”

With tears in his eyes, after voting in the neighborhood where he grew up, Adams assessed that this election for the mayor of New York is a social revenge for the “little boy” who was himself when he was young and therefore for the working class of the city.

“It is historic!”, He estimated Anthony Williamson, a 58-year-old worker, after voting for Adams. “It’s great, it shows that we all have the opportunity to succeed in New York and the United States, regardless of our skin color,” he said.

“The former police officer received a barrage of applause when he pledged again last night, Tuesday night, to be relentless in the face of crime, which has risen sharply in 2020.” We will not just talk about security, we will have security, “he said.

Until the last hours of his campaign, he appeared as a middle and working class supporter, but also as a man with close ties to the business circles of Manhattan, the global economic lung.

Budget up to 100 billion

The successor of the unpopular Bill de Blasio will be called upon to manage the largest U.S. municipal budget: $ 98.7 million for fiscal year 2021-2022.

Adams will also head the nation’s largest police force, with 36,000 people working for New York City police. He will have to carry out reforms in the body, without coming into conflict with the police, to which he also belonged, and its strong union. In addition, Adams will have to manage the return to normalcy in schools, shops and offices after the covid-19 pandemic, in a city that recorded 34,000 deaths from coronavirus.

At the same time, it is committed to tackling social inequalities, the lack of affordable housing, reforming New York City’s public education system, modernizing the city’s old infrastructure to better cope with extreme weather, and closing the infamous Rickers prison. .

Adams will become the 110th mayor of New York. The first African-American mayor of the American metropolis was David Dinkins (1990-93).