In his four years in City Hall, Eric Adams has definitely left his mark on New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m an unusual mayor,” he said.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n From being sworn in as the city was coming out of the pandemic to being the city\u2019s second Black mayor, Adams came into City Hall with a lot of style.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the mayor has swagger, the city has swagger,\u201d said the 110th mayor at a school in the Bronx at the beginning of 2022.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Hailed as the public safety mayor, Adams immediately got to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n Within the first eight months, Adams announced initiatives for tackling subway safety, street homelessness, illegal motorbikes and guns, vehicles with fake plates and recidivist criminal offenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n He also launched his most controversial public safety push: involuntary removals<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not acceptable to us to clearly see someone who needs help,\u201d Adams said in November 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n By year two, Adams was deep into the migrant crisis that saw a surge of immigrants coming to the city daily.<\/p>\n Initially the mayor was welcoming.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a reason the Statue of Liberty sits in our harbor because we say welcome those who come here,\u201d Adams said in the beginning of 2023.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n But by the fall, the mayor was frustrated by a lack of help from then-President Joe Biden after having gone multiple times to Washington, D.C. to plead for assistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t see an ending to this. This issue will destroy New York City\u00a0\u2014 destroy New York City,\u201d he said in September 2023.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Adams closed out his second year under the microscope of federal authorities who were investigating his 2021 campaign fundraising practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would be shocked if someone states that our campaign coordinated in illegal behavior,\u201d Adams said in the fall of 2023.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The theme of year three was fiscal management.\u00a0<\/p>\n Adams started the year by announcing a slew of budget restorations and cancellations to the city’s services.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf we had to do the third round, it would impact garbage pickup. I it would impact services to our older adults, it would impact libraries,” he said in an interview with WABC in January 2024.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n But the good news only lasted so long, in September 2024 Adams became the first sitting mayor in the city\u2019s modern history to be indicted.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit. If I\u2019m charged I know I\u2019m innocent,\u201d he said in a video message in September 2024.<\/p>\n The indictment was the culmination of weeks of federal activity circling the mayor and his inner circle that included multiple raids and phone seizures of top officials. He was charged with illegally taking gifts from the Turkish government and creating a straw donor scheme that helped his 2021 campaign.<\/p>\n By his final year, Adams was fighting for his political future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The case was dismissed<\/a> by the Trump Justice Department but not without allegations of a quid-pro-quo relationship with the president, who took office shortly before Adams was set to go to trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n Adams went into his reelection campaign amid a record low approval rating.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI told you in the beginning, this was going to be the most interesting political campaign in the history of the city,” Adams said in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n