New York City mayoral candidate and current BP of Brooklyn Eric Adams addressed campaign donors inside an Upper West Side bar and restaurant on Friday night — as the city was bracing for the imminent closure of indoor dining while the coronavirus outbreak surges anew.
He gave his stump speech to at least 18 supporters inside “Good Enough to Eat” on Columbus Ave.
“This is an amazing time, this is a great time and this is a great city and we’re going to do great things for it,” Adams declared.
“There’s food left. Please eat if you have the equipment. When you put the fork in your mouth, you have permission to take your mask down,” he said to laughs. “Those are the rules.”
When a Daily News reporter entered the restaurant before the speech, several attendees seated close to one another at tables were not wearing masks. They put masks on by the time Adams gave his remarks. He also was wearing a mask and thanked the organizers for taking safety precautions before launching into his speech, which lasted about 10 minutes.
“If you have not contributed yet, make sure you see me,” an organizer told the guests after Adams spoke.
Asked after his remarks if he thought it was appropriate to hold such a fundraiser during the COVID outbreak, Adams declined to comment.
“I finished my speech; I want to finish my meal,” he said.
Adams’s campaign spokesman Evan Thies said in a phone call, “They were complying with the rules and it’s important to make sure our small businesses are supported as long as it’s in line with the health policies of the city of New York.”
The fundraiser came as coronavirus is surging throughout the city, prompting the abrupt closure of public schools earlier this week. While restaurants are still allowed to serve customers indoors at 25% capacity, Mayor de Blasio said earlier Friday that the spike in COVID numbers means indoor dining could end as soon as the first week of December.
On Saturday, Deputy Brooklyn Borough President Ingrid Lewis-Martin attended a birthday party packed with people not wearing masks. She later apologized for doing so.
