Eric Adams Says Primary Winners Should Get To Meet With Agency Heads; 'You Can't Say Let's Start From Scratch On Jan. 1'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Eric Adams hasn't officially won the Democratic mayoral primary, but he's already calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio to give the people who win their party's primaries a five month head start on the job.
As CBS2's political reporter Marcia Kramer explains, Adams was wearing running shoes - not the formal shoes he usually wore when campaigning. It was calculated and intentional.
"This is a new day for New York," Adams said Friday.
Even as he waits for the final tally from the Board of Elections, Adams is trying to get a running start on the job, take advantage of this year's early primaries.
He called on de Blasio to allow the Democratic nominee - even the Republican nominee - to begin meeting with agency heads immediately after the vote is finalized in July.
"Share what we are doing in the city. Here's what we should be looking like in the future. We need to engage in a conversation. You can't say let's start from scratch on January 1. That's unfair to New Yorkers," Adams said.
Adams was especially critical of the way the mayor and the NYPD are handling the gun violence that's plaguing the city. What started him off was the incident in the Bronx early Friday morning in which gunmen opened fire on five people outside a graduation party. But Adams didn't stop there - he pointed out that the NYPD is not doing a good job of policing so-called hot spots where there is a proliferation of gangs and guns.
"We're not covering all the hot spots, every hot spot that's identified by the police department should be covered with on the ground resources. We're not doing that now. We're ceremoniously covering one or two hot spots, leaving eight or nine vacant and open. We can't do that," he said.
Adams, a former police captain, says what will help is a strong partnership between the federal government and the NYPD to get the guns off the street.
"When Joint Terrorism Task Force, JTTF came together, we were able to stop terrorism for the most part in this country. We need to do it with handguns, and do it with the violence we're seeing in our inner city," Adams said.
Adams says he's also hoping to have some input on the new city budget, which is due next week.
