Outside Liberty Pool in Jamaica, Queens, near home Mayor Eric Adams grew up, Rosa Soriano watched her 6-year-old son play in the sweltering heat of a midsummer heatwave.
Soriano, a manicurist, thought about Mr. Adams, the challenges he faced in his first year in office, and his genuine interest in improving the city. But then she reflected on her own difficulties. She worries about crime and says she’s careful not to go to the park after 7 p.m., for fear that “someone will rob you.”
She wanted her son to learn to swim, but the city canceled a program that offered Free lessons, in part because of a shortage of national lifeguards. And she wants more from her son’s education: His classes are overcrowded, she said; The mayor opposed a state bill on lower class size.
Seven months into Mayor Adams’ term, the hope and excitement many New Yorkers felt after his election are giving way to concern that he hasn’t taken the bold steps needed. to solve the city’s most intractable problems.
Their list of concerns is long: increase in crime, high inflationagain wave of coronavirus cases and a monkeypox epidemic. There is discomfort about the city The homeless shelter system is overwhelmed, increasingly worried about its economic recovery from the pandemic and the complaints about piles of toxic garbage scattered on the street.
Many New Yorkers are supporting Mr. Adams, a former police officer who ran for mayor with a public safety message. Even so, more than 55 percent of residents said recent poll that the city was going in the wrong direction.
The New York Times interviewed New Yorkers in the city’s parks, pools, playgrounds and street corners to get an understanding of how Mr. Adams did his first year.
Mr. Adams clearly enjoyed his job, instantly becoming the city’s top cheerleader and a notable presence in the city’s nightlife, but some say he can’t control it. charming city. His affordable housing plan has been criticized for being too weak, and School budget cuts raised concerns about his commitment to improving education.
“I love him – I think he’s amazing,” said Mitzie Clarke, 68, a retired teacher living in Jamaica. “He’s one of us.”
While exercising in the park one recent morning, Ms. Clarke said she was most worried about homelessness, and she supported the mayor’s campaign to eliminate street homeless. She said she had been praying for years for a woman who lived outside the subway stop who recently left the place.
“When the mayor actually removed them completely, I said ‘hallelujah,’” she said.
Ms. Clarke also appreciated the mayor’s style and the way he showed empathy.
“I like the way he dresses,” she said, adding: “His heart is so good. He is rich in compassion.”
One teacher, Maria Mohammed-Richards, 28, says her school is affected by the proposed budget cuts recently flipped by a judge. Enrollment was down, and the principal had to make tough decisions.
“She was asked to cut eight teachers,” she said, speaking at Liberty Pool, where she brought her young daughter, Sehven. “I should have been on the list, but she could have kept me.”
School budget cuts have become a political issue for Mr. Adams, and he has battled with City Council over restoring some of the money. Mr. Adams said a cut of more than $200 million for the next school year was needed because about 120,000 families have left the school system over the past five years, mostly during the pandemic.
The mayor opposes the bill to reduce class sizes – passed by state legislators in June but not yet signed by Governor Kathy Hochul – because he says the school system does not have the money to fund the schools. limited and that many classes have been reduced in size. by lower enrollment.
Mr. Adams has called himself “the future of the Democratic Party,” but his approval rate in New York City has rapidly dropped. Only 29 percent of New Yorkers rate his performance as good or excellent in a recent NY1 and Siena College poll.
The mayor has focus on crime more than any other issue and argued that he was making progress. Murders and shootings are down this year, but major crime is up more than 35%.
His team has highlight other achievementsInclude New funding scheme to improve public housingTourism figures rebound, universal dyslexia screening for schoolchildren and reduced fares for poor and disabled ferry passengers.
However, the poll shows that only 21% of New Yorkers think Mr. Adams has done a great job or is excellent at fighting crime, and 45 percent rate him as poor in that regard. He received higher marks for encouraging tourists to visit and managing city services.
Mr. Adams has a higher approval rating among Black residents – about 39 percent rate him as good or excellent, compared with 25 percent of white residents. Among the counties, his strongest support is in the Bronx.
In the Hunts Point neighborhood in the Bronx, a field that Mr. Adams won in the primaries, Jade Figueroa, 20, said the mayor has not affected her life. While Mr. Adams has pledged to make child care more affordable, Figueroa said she has not received help paying for child care through the city’s 311 service.
“The application was so complicated that I gave up,” said Figueroa, playing with her 1-year-old daughter at a playground. “It would be nice if the city didn’t make services so hard to get.”
Mr. Adams received some of his worst polls on homelessness. Just 18% of New Yorkers rate him as excellent or good at tackling homelessness and 49% say he’s doing a terrible job.
He cleared out homeless shelters while pledging to add 1,400 extra beds in homeless shelters. He release a plan in june to invest billions of dollars in affordable housing, but he declined to say how many the city wants to create.
Julio Rivera, 38, a fast food vendor who lives in the Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx, said he believes the mayor isn’t doing enough to help the homeless. Mr. Rivera said he has spent most of his life in and out of shelters and many of his friends who are homeless have not received vouchers for housing.
“The mayor just wants to make homelessness go away,” Mr. Rivera said as he waited for his son’s school bus. “That’s not the way it works. You give them a home, give them job opportunities and services so they don’t have to go back to the streets. “
The Siena poll shows strong support for some of the mayor’s policies: 85 percent of residents support adding more police officers on the subway; 60 percent support the demolition of homeless camps.
Sarah Grassi, 23, sat amid a sea of office workers and tourists at Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan on a recent afternoon. She works at a logistics company in Manhattan and says she feels lucky to live in a stable rental apartment in the Glendale neighborhood of Queens.
Grassi said she voted for Maya Wiley, a left-leaning Democratic primary for mayor, and did not support the mayor’s “very pro-police mentality” and your relocate the homeless.
“Just because something becomes less visible to you as a resident doesn’t mean the problem will go away,” she said.
One explanation for the city’s homelessness crisis is the severe shortage of affordable housing. Rents have skyrocketed this year and average Manhattan rent for new leases has increased to $5,000.
Arturo Hernandez, 22, grew up in New York City and moved back this spring after finishing college. As soon as he climbed up to the fifth floor walking in the heat to see a small Manhattan apartment he could barely afford with two roommates, he felt like a failure.
“The cost of living in the city is crazy,” he said, sitting in Bryant Park, adding that he considered moving to Chicago because it seemed more affordable.
Mr. Hernandez did not blame the mayor for the current housing market, but he said he was not confident Mr. Adams was moving aggressively to address the issue. The mayor seems more focused on enjoying the perks of work, he said.
“He goes out and thinks he’s a celebrity,” he said, “when he should get on the ground to roll up his sleeves and do the work.”
Sadef Ali Kully contributed reporting.
