Editor’s note: City & State’s double magazine cover is on fire

Timing is everything. The cover of last week’s issue of City & State juxtaposed New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ motto of “Stay focused, no distractions, and grind,” with the increasing signs that, regarding the rumors of corruption in his administration, where there is smoke, there may be fire. Days after that cover was published, the fire arrived. The bombshell news of New York City’s first sitting mayor criminally charged with bribery, fraud and soliciting foreign campaign donations left us no choice but to pivot over to the biggest story of the year. With a tip of the hat to the Trump-era Time magazine covers that depicted the former president becoming increasingly deluged with self-inflicted problems, Creative Director Andrew Horton suggested that we simply take last week’s cover to its now-obvious conclusion. Apologies to Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Laurie Cumbo, who was planned to be featured as part of our debut Arts & Culture Power 100 list, an unprecedented story in New York politics demanded the full attention of City & State’s editorial team (and we’ve included the commissioner’s cover as a bonus).

Inside this week’s magazine, you’ll find our City Hall reporters Annie McDonough and Sahalie Donaldson’s story on the indictment of Adams on federal corruption charges and Senior State Politics Reporter Rebecca C. Lewis’ analysis of why Gov. Kathy Hochul will likely not suspend the mayor. We also include a rundown of the moderates calling for the mayor’s resignation. There hasn’t been this much alleged scandal to report on since Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned. Maybe not for Adams, but for our readers, this issue’s a keeper.