When asked to describe 2023 using just one word, New York City Mayor Eric Adams took an alternative route and chose a noun: “New York”.
For Mr Adams, there was no other way to summarise his busy year than to give an ode to the city he loves and all the things it has to offer – even if those things include a major terrorist attack.
“This is a place where every day you wake up, you could experience everything from a plane crashing into our Trade Center to a person who is celebrating a new business that’s open,” Mr Adams said in an interview with local news outlet PIX11.
“This is a very, very complicated city and that’s why it’s the greatest city on the globe,” Mr Adams added.
The mayor’s remark lumped new business opportunities and, seemingly, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks together as reasons New York is “the greatest city on the globe”.
Rough 2,753 people died in New York on September 11th after two hijacked planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Mr Adams’ off-the-cuff response led to some criticism and mockery online.
“Jesus. As someone who represented lower manhattan….this made me feel upset,” Yuh-Line Niou, a former New York assemblywoman wrote on X.
The comment was just one of many the mayor made in his exclusive end-of-year interview with PIX11.
Later on, when Mr Adams was asked what he hopes to improve on in the next year, he said communication with New Yorkers about the positive work his office does.
He told PIX11, he feels not enough New Yorkers know about the good work he does.
At the moment, Mr Adams has an approval rating of 28 per cent, according to Quinnipiac University.
The mayor is currently tied to an ongoing federal investigation into his 2021 campaign finances. So far, Mr Adams has denied any wrongdoing and said repeatedly that he and those adjacent to his campaign are cooperating with the investigation.
He is also accused of sexually assaulting a woman in the early 1990s. Mr Adams has denied those accusations.
The Independent has reached out to Mayor Adams’ office for comment.
