Candidates aim ire at MIA Eric Adams at Upper West Side mayoral forum

In a mayoral forum Wednesday night that covered everything from the affordability of child care to cops on the subway, candidates zeroed in on President Donald Trump, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo as public enemies of the Upper West Side, and the city at large.

None of the three, of course, were in attendance at the Upper West Side forum. Cuomo has not actually entered the race, and Adams has yet to attend a mayoral forum this cycle. But Adams still attracted most of his challengers’ ire.

At one point, each candidate was asked to name two things they had in common with other candidates on the stage. Everyone on the dais agreed, Comptroller Brad Lander ventured, that “neither Eric Adams nor Andrew Cuomo should be the next mayor of New York City.”

“None of us canceled MLK events to go to a Trump inauguration, and none of us are trying to get a pardon,” former Assembly Member Michael Blake added. 

While the mayor’s absences at previous forums haven’t raised too many eyebrows – his incumbent status allows him to stay in the mix without running around to forums across the city every week – his absence this week created a void that sucked up plenty of the attention. 

For the past three days, Adams has had no public schedule, with a City Hall spokesperson notifying press on Sunday night that Adams hadn’t been feeling his best and saying that he would attend “a number of doctors’ appointments and undergo routine medical tests.” Citing his right to privacy, representatives for the mayor have not provided more information about his health condition but have said that he continues to work remotely. On Monday night, he hosted two major labor supporters – Rich Maroko, president of the influential hotel workers union, and Manny Pastreich, who leads building service workers union 32BJ SEIU – at Gracie Mansion for private meetings, Politico New York first reported.

The New York City political class has been bouncing off the walls with speculation about what Adams going dark signified. In a new development in Adams’ federal corruption case, The New York Times first reported on Wednesday that officials with the U.S. Department of Justice have discussed with prosecutors the possibility of dropping the charges against Adams, and have also had discussions with the defense team. Those kinds of discussions aren’t unusual, the Times reported, but stick out now under a Justice Department still in flux at the outset of the Trump administration. Adams has developed a notably friendly posture to the Trump White House over the last few months, in what some view as angling for a pardon.

Earlier on Wednesday, Alex Spiro, the defense attorney representing Adams in his federal corruption case, shut down rumors that Adams is preparing to resign or take a plea deal on the charges against him, to which he pleaded not guilty last year. 

Adams is expected to return to his public schedule on Thursday, attending Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s State of the NYPD speech and hosting an interfaith breakfast. No further information about his health has been shared.

The Upper West Side is not a part of the base of support that propelled Adams to success in 2021. He finished third to Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley in the area in the last cycle’s primary. Stringer, who lives on the Upper West Side, previously represented it in the Assembly, and Lander also performed well there in the 2021 comptroller race.

In a discussion that touched on plans to create affordable housing, and how to protect federal funding and vulnerable populations under Trump, differences between candidates’ positions emerged on a few issues, including how to regulate Airbnb and mask bans. State Sen. Zellnor Myrie and Blake both said that regulation of the short-term rental company shouldn’t cut off the ability of small homeowners to take in extra income through the app. 

In one of the sharper distinctions during discussion of a proposed mask ban, former hedge fund executive Whitney Tilson said that he supports the right to protest, but said that people “can’t do so anonymously, especially…if you’re behaving a way that is particularly frightening to our Jewish population and Jewish students on campuses.” Lander pushed back on that. “You do have the right to protest anonymously,” he said. He said that no one has the right to commit crimes anonymously, however, and suggested the possibility of adding a penalty for wearing a mask while committing a crime.

The Upper West Side forum was hosted by local clubs West Side Democrats, Broadway Democrats and Columbia University College Democrats, at B’nai Jeshurun, which was filled with attendees on Wednesday. The forum was moderated by Politico’s Jeff Coltin and Columbia University professor Ester R. Fuchs. Participants included state Sen. Jessica Ramos, Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, Myrie, Lander, Stringer, Blake and Tilson.