In his first 100 days of office, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made public safety and homelessness a key priority for his administration.
Only a couple of months into his term, the Adams administration dealt with devastating lows, from the fatal apartment fire in the Bronx to the senseless stabbing of a woman outside her Chinatown apartment, and celebratory new highs, like partying with recording artist A$AP Rocky and model Cara Delevigne.
Adams’ celebrity status has certainly granted him access to some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, including comedian/actor Dave Chappelle, who he visited in a Los Angeles hospital the night after he was attacked onstage by an armed assailant.
It even earned him the nickname, “The Swagger Mayor” by The New York Times.
But while he was speaking at a Cryptocurrency convention in California, new polling data from Quinnipiac University revealed that hizzoner’s approval ratings have dipped about three percent since February.
“Mayor Adams gets a positive score on his job performance, but it’s tepid. The biggest weight on his numbers: crime. It’s by far the most urgent issue and voters are holding him accountable,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Mary Snow said in a statement about the new poll data.
Adams, a former police captain, has been outspokenly leading the charge against crime in the face of a string of high-profile reports including the Sunset park subway shooting, the death of 12-year-old Kade Lewin, and a string of hate crimes.
In regards to how his administration is handling crime, Adams polled much lower than he did back in February, dropping from a positive 49 percent to a negative 37 percent.
“In the wake of April’s mass shooting on the subway along with an increase in major crimes, confidence slips in the Mayor being able to reduce gun violence,” Snow added.
Based on the data, only 34 percent of those polled approve of the Mayor’s $99.7 billion executive spending plan for the 2023 fiscal year, which essentially cuts funding for departments like Education while increasing funding to the NYPD and Department of Homeless Services.
The Mayor’s handling of the homeless crisis in New York City, such as the increased implementation of encampment sweeps citywide, has also netted him a negative 31 percent approval rating, according to the Quinnipiac polling data.
However, some of his decisions have been quite favorable to those polled, including his efforts to increase the number of police officers in the subways. Based on the polls, an overwhelming 86 percent majority of voters support having more cops working mass transit.
Adams has also said that he is looking towards ways to implement metal detectors at the access points to the subway system, in order to screen for potential weapons, a proactive measure that would aim at decreasing criminal violence on the subway before it happens.
According to the polling data, 62 percent think that adding metal detectors would quell any reservations that they have about taking mass transit, while 35 percent feel it’s a bad idea that could cause potential controversy over an individual’s right to privacy. The feasibility of affording and setting up an automated system, however, would be costly and take several years to roll out.
“I am less than six months into my administration, and so throughout these six months, it’s going to be a roller coaster, but at the end of it, we’re going to turn this city around,” Adams told CBS 2 News in response to the most recent polling data.
Considering how he has played into his role as the “broccoli mayor,” it could very well be that his actions while leaving a bad taste in the mouths of some voters presently, will turn out to be a great benefit to the City in the long run.
