Mayor Eric Adams Ends Term With One Last Screw-up

It’s fitting that Mayor Eric Adams is going out with a fiasco — one final harebrained scheme that blows up in his face.

His top aide, Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro, was supposed to prevent foolishness like the Elizabeth Street Garden drama that marred Adams’ last day in office. Instead Mastro orchestrated it.

Remember when the City Council refused to confirm Mastro as corporation counsel because he was too conservative? Adams’ argument was that he was competent. Guess not!

Two days ago Adams and Mastro publicly announced that Pennrose would be designated as the developer of a city project at 22 Suffolk Street. Then the press release noted that Pennrose had not actually agreed to that.

I started covering city government in 1992. Never have I seen the city announce a deal before it was reached.

Pennrose had two days to agree to the city’s offer. In exchange, the developer would have to drop its lawsuit against the city for designating the Elizabeth Street Garden as parkland, blocking Pennrose’s project to build affordable housing for seniors there.

I doubt I can fit all the ways that Adams and Mastro screwed this up into a column. Here’s the Cliff Notes version:

Adams was gung-ho to evict the statue garden and let Pennrose build the housing, preserving some open space for the community. His lawyers won the court case, ending a 10-year battle with statue guy Allan Reiver, his son Joseph Reiver and privileged Nolita residents who opposed the project.

Then Adams appointed Mastro and suddenly everything changed. The city reversed its position, siding with the Reivers and against Pennrose. It was the political equivalent of Aaron Judge switching from the Yankees to the Mets in the middle of a World Series between them.

Mastro then cut a deal with the local Council member, real estate hater Chris Marte, who promised to approve three future housing projects if the statue garden could stay. Mastro continues to insist that without Marte’s approval, that housing cannot be built. That is false.

In November, voters approved City Charter revisions that remove much of Marte’s leverage to stop projects. The incoming mayor, Zohran Mamdani, should be able to get the affordable housing done without Marte’s cooperation.

When Mamdani won the election and promised to revive the housing plan, Adams and Mastro had to act before Mamdani shuts the City Hall doors behind them and changes the locks. Their brilliant idea was to designate the site as parkland so housing couldn’t be built there.

Pennrose sued, saying the city didn’t follow any process in designating the land. That’s the lawsuit that Adams and Mastro wanted the developer (which was partnering on the project with RiseBoro Community Partnership and Habitat for Humanity) to drop.

No way were Pennrose, RiseBoro and Habitat going to do that. They’ll likely win the lawsuit, and if not, Mamdani can get Albany to reverse the parkland designation.

Besides, had they accepted Adams’ offer, there’s no guarantee it would have held up with Adams and Mastro out of power. And the developers would have had to start from scratch on the Suffolk Street site, wasting 10 years’ of effort on Elizabeth Street.

The kicker in the city’s press release Monday was that the statue garden, which was to receive a 10-year lease, is behind on its rent for the city-owned site. It owes $10,000.

Rewarding a deadbeat tenant is bad optics. But optics went out the window long ago on Elizabeth Street — and the Adams administration.