NEW YORK — After two and half months in the city’s top job, Mayor Eric Adams has the approval of 61% of city residents, according to a new poll released Monday by Marist College.
The poll, which was taken during the first eight days of March, also shows that 40% of registered voters surveyed believe Adams is doing an excellent or good job.
That’s about the same as the 39% his predecessor former Mayor Bill de Blasio got after taking office in 2014, but lower than the 50% rating that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg got after stepping into City Hall.
“This poll clearly demonstrates that Mayor Adams is off to a good start,” said Marist pollster Lee Miringoff, who spoke with reporters Monday afternoon over Zoom. “He’s not particularly polarizing. The support is wide, but not necessarily very deep.”
Miringoff attributed broad support of Adams to the positive polling numbers Hizzoner received across party lines — with a 67% approval rating among Democrats and 55% among Republicans — as well as relatively high ratings that came in across borough and demographic lines.
To some extent, this marks a departure from de Blasio. Where Adams approval numbers among Blacks, whites and Latinos are all comparable, de Blasio was all over the map when he first took office, Miringoff noted.
Still, the pollster added that some of Adams’ numbers appear to indicate the support he’s now getting isn’t very deep. One indicator is the 15% of those polled who reported they’re “unsure” about whether they approve or disapprove of his performance so far. Another indicator, according to Miringoff, is that while 47% answered that Adams is changing the city for the better, 34% said he’s not changing it at all, 12% were unsure and 8% opined that he’s changing it for the worse.
“In this case, almost half the city doesn’t have a sense of whether things are going better or worse,” he said. “He’s winning those who’ve made up their minds. He’s just not connected with an overwhelming majority on these questions.”
Adams, who ran his mayoral campaign on improving public safety in the city, notably got decent marks there, but not overwhelming approval. According to the poll, 53% approved of his handling of crime, 35% disapproved and 12% are still unsure.
“The warning signs are there with the reality of crime, and people are feeling right now not as strong on that issue as they are on others for him,” Miringoff said. “But it hasn’t sunk his popularity overall. People are giving him the benefit of the doubt during this early phase in his administration.”
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