Why Real Estate Doesn’t Fire Indicted NYC Mayor Eric Adams

Except for New Yorkers living under a rock — as some stressed out by the presidential election may well be — calls for Mayor Eric Adams to step down have been hard to miss.

But real estate leaders have been essentially silent since federal prosecutors on Sept. 26 unveiled Adams’ indictment on bribery charges. He pleaded not guilty the next day.

There’s a case to be made that the city – and the industry – would be better off without Adams. His approval ratings were awful even before the indictment wiped out any political capital he had left to advance his agenda. A poll found 53 percent of voters want Adams to resign, while 40 percent think he should serve out his first term, which runs through next year.

When city officials fanned out across the boroughs to promote the administration’s City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, the mayor himself was missing. It was an admission that his association with the proposal would actually hurt its standing with New Yorkers and thus its chances of approval by the City Council this fall.

Industry views the mayor’s scandal as a major blow.

“The business community has appreciated the mayor’s policies,” said Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, which represents the city’s largest companies. “Public safety, jobs and affordable housing are all priorities employers and most of their employees share. So his indictment is a real disappointment.”

City Hall, however, is not wholly dependent on Adams.

“The question for us is whether the administration can function effectively in spite of the travails the mayor is facing,” said Wylde.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has helped answer that question by pushing the mayor behind the scenes to get rid of the “agents of chaos,” as one anonymous businessperson dubbed Adams’ cronies.

Adams tends to defy conventional wisdom, ignore others’ advice and stand by his friends even if the optics (not to mention results) are terrible. But Hochul has the power to remove him from office, so the agents of chaos had to go.

Adams has continuously and preposterously refused to tie their departures to his scandal and says they left on their own volition, but never mind that.

What matters to the business community is who remains.

“The city is not leaderless,” Wylde said.

On that front, many of the non-cronies Adams hired are competent and still in their posts.

These include Deputy Mayors Maria Torres-Springer, Meera Joshi and Ann Williams-Isom; Commissioners Dan Garodnick (City Planning), James Oddo (Buildings) and Rit Aggarwala (Environmental Protection); and Economic Development Corporation President Andrew Kimball, who formerly ran Industry City and the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Two new hires are also well regarded: Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chauncey Parker and Melissa Aviles-Ramos, the new schools chancellor.

The mayor’s forced retreat from the policy playing field has actually empowered City Hall’s professionals to do their jobs. People outside of government — business, civic and labor leaders — can also help the city get what it needs from the City Council, Albany and Washington, D.C.

“Political capital can be your own or it can be borrowed,” Wylde noted.

“The mayor is one man who is very important and clearly damaged, but that isn’t the whole story,” she added. “The question is whether the rest of us can step up and fill in the gaps.”

Some factors that keep real estate leaders from pushing Adams to quit are obvious. They doubt he would listen anyway, and they are unimpressed by or openly dislike those in line to replace him: Brad Lander, Zellnor Myrie, Jessica Ramos, Scott Stringer, Zohran Mamdani and Jumaane Williams.

Campaign finance reform and pay-to-play rules have limited real estate executives’ power in city government. Bundlers of campaign donations can still get mayors to do them favors, but lack agency to elect or remove anyone, let alone get Adams to resign.

And, except for Elon Musk, businesses have stepped back from taking what could be controversial political stances that could trigger a backlash from their customers or employees.

Wylde, for her part, is not the type to urge the city’s industry titans to pursue change at a time like this, with the mayor accused but not convicted and his administration functioning well enough.

“No one outside of the governor, the mayor, and maybe the U.S. attorney have any power over the situation,” Wylde said. “It’s just inappropriate for others to be interfering with the legal and political process if they don’t have any accountability.”