There are a lot of reasons to dislike Eric Adams as a mayor of New York. As a mayor of any city, really. He ran as a Democrat, and governs like a Republican. He says and does silly shit, which is almost charming until you remember that (a) he doesn’t think it’s silly in the least, and (b) he’s the mayor of the largest city in the country. He also thinks that God talks to him–told him he’d be mayor some day–which if true proves that God does indeed have a sense of humor.
All of this is easily explained: Eric Adams is so inflated with self regard that he thinks his copious lies somehow make him cool. There is a picture of a beloved statesman somewhere in his head, a beloved statesman who isn’t good at much other than cutting ribbons and giving repetitive speeches at flag-raising ceremonies for other countries, and he’s just trying to act (poorly) the part.
He’s also a corrupt piece of shit, with bribery and campaign finance violations leading his resume. He is so famously corrupt and surround by toadies as corrupt as himself, that the intrepid HellgateNYC created a single-purpose site called Eric Adams’ Table of Success, breaking down all of the toadies and their various corruptions, both heinous and mundane. His reward for this was a Federal indictment.
And yes, the Trump DOJ magic-wanded the charges against Adams, such that Adams has not been cleared but might be if licks every last piece of crud off of Trump’s boots–a fate so cowardly that it is only exceeded by the extent Adams will go to avoid being asked questions by the people whose jobs it is to do so. (Unless the questions are asked on FOX and Friends.)
For all those reasons, I dislike Eric Adams. However, there is a reason that I really fucking detest Eric Adams. I wrote about it in June of 2022, and I am reprinting it here:
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ABOUT THAT TWEET
A week and a half ago my old friend Dan Enriquez was murdered on a Q train on the Manhattan Bridge, headed for the Canal Street Station. And since Dan was murdered on public transit, his murder is more of a public matter than a murder of Dan, or me, or you, would have been if it had transpired in a non-public space. And since it was a public matter, Mayor Eric Adams had some things to say, as Mayor Eric Adams does.

I tweeted angrily in connection with this whole situation, and it got mildly viral despite itself, so instead of tweeting further or responding to responses, this is to explain of what I meant, now that I’ve had a week and a funeral to think it over.
What happened was, our mayor, who is a regrettable oaf, was speaking to the press the next morning. As he said the boilerplate stuff a mayor says–terrible loss, heart goes out, etc. — he added, “I thank God I’m the mayor right now.” This made me angry. To wit, if you asked Dan how Adams was doing as mayor and whether God should be thanked or not, he wouldn’t answer, because he was murdered on a subway train.
And this is not to say that Adams could have prevented Dan’s murder. A man has been charged with the murder, but nothing like motive is apparent. The Mayor, the Chief of Police and others made a big deal about bail reform after the alleged shooter was arrested (which arrest came after a buffoonish attempt by the Mayor’s crew to get the perp to surrender directly to the Mayor), but this particular fellow had twice posted six-figure bail, so unless bail reform means “no more pre-trial releases,” it would not have saved Dan’s life.
So I’m not angry that the Mayor didn’t do enough, or anything like that. What I resented was that Adams felt that the discussion of Dan’s murder was an excellent time for Adams to talk about how awesome he thinks he is. That, to me, was tap dancing on Dan’s grave. Adams was treating talking about Dan’s murder like he treats everything no matter how somber or inane: another really fun thing a mayor gets to do.
What I really wanted to tweet, to the Mayor particularly, was that he should go fuck himself, forever, or at least until such time as some incompetent public official with a personality disorder absolutely clowns it up while talking about the murder of an old friend of the Mayor.
I am not speaking on behalf of Dan’s family or his partner, and I’m not speaking on behalf of Dan’s friends–he had a shit ton of them. I knew Dan from Williamsburg, and we were part of a big mess of friends that did everything together. Everything nice said about Dan is true. He was generous and curious and stalwart. He was laid to rest on Tuesday. Nothing anyone, including Mayor Eric Adams, can do that will make him less dead.
But I want to be clear that when I’m saying mean things about the Mayor, I’m not saying them on Dan’s behalf–I doubt he’d approve. And I’m not representing myself as the Public Face of the Friends of Dan Enriquez. I’m just a guy who was lucky to know Dan. And Mayor Eric Adams is a guy who needs to learn that the hard part of being mayor is that it is literally never about you.
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Rereading that, I stand by it.
For what it’s worth, the flunky who tried to orchestrate the shooter’s public surrender to Adams, Bishop Lamor Whitehead, was later convicted of wire fraud, extortion (while invoking connections to Mayor Adams) and other charges, and sentenced to nine years. Donald Trump has yet to pardon Whitehead, but give it time.
Dan is doing whatever fun stuff angels get themselves up to, and Eric Adams has yet to fuck himself to my satisfaction.