Source: Riccardo Savi / Getty
New York City Mayor Eric Adams tends to be quick to the podium when violence is on the rise in his city so he can bizarrely attack Black Lives Matter, but when it comes to less performative things like, say, a natural disaster wreaking havoc in NYC, he suddenly changes his name to Mayor Johnny ComeLately and leaves his citizens wondering where he is.
Last Friday, a torrential rainfall deluged NYC. The Intelligencer noted that it was predicted by meteorologists and Governor Kathy Hochul warned people about it, which means at least one elected official in New York was on their job. Adams, on the other hand, appeared to be MIA for hours before he finally poked his head up and essentially said to the public, “Oh, hey, you guys should probably find shelter.”
From the Intelligencer:
The rain — five-plus inches in Central Park and significantly more in parts of Brooklyn, making it one of the soggiest days in New York history — all but shut down stretches of highway, snarled subway service throughout the city, flooded part of LaGuardia airport, and generally made life miserable.
Adams appeared at a news conference with Hochul shortly before noon on Friday, telling New Yorkers to shelter in place and take “extreme caution” and warning of more precipitation to come. But by then many hours had passed since the first flash-flood warning in the city, which was issued around 2 a.m. — not to mention the grim forecasts the day before.
Adams did not appear in any media before the storm to warn New Yorkers of what was to come. That contrasted with Hochul, who, as Hell Gate notes, had been tweeting about the storm in the days leading up to it and making appearances on NY1, WABC, and other outlets on Friday morning. The city did issue a travel advisory in a press release late Thursday night that warned of possible widespread flooding as the forecast worsened, but without a citywide alert, it’s safe to say that most New Yorkers were unaware of that message.
You know who should probably take on the responsibility of issuing a city-wide alert? The person in charge of the city.
Adams was asked why he was so late addressing his citizens concerning the disaster and he basically gave a standard non-response that could have been written by an AI bot.
“All the necessary precautions were taken,” he said, adding that “we followed the right protocol.” He also mentioned that there was a travel advisory.
Adams also caught heavy criticism in July by NYC city council members who said he was slow to respond the month prior when heavy smoke from Canadian wildfires covered the city. Council members also complained that Adams failed to effectively communicate to the public the risk of being out on the streets during that time. And that’s pretty concerning, especially when you consider the fact that NYC officials have warned that smoke from ongoing Canadian wildfires is expected to hit the city again as early as Monday.
Hopefully, the guy in charge isn’t running on CP time when that happens.
