Fending off questions about living in New Jersey part-time, New York City mayoral candidate Eric Adams invited reporters on Wednesday to tour his ground-floor home in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Featuring a fireplace, wood floors and a stairway down to the basement bedroom, the modest apartment revealed the routines of everyday life: a crumpled comforter with several pillows askew, a few suits hanging in the closet, a gray t-shirt over a bed and a few pairs of slippers in a corner.
It was a remarkable moment for the Brooklyn borough president, who leads the polls in the crowded Democratic race with less than two weeks until the primary election on June 22. The early morning visit to his home followed a Politico report that questioned his official place of residence, as he owns property in Brooklyn and Fort Lee, N.J., but seemingly sleeps at his office in Borough Hall.
“How foolish would someone have to be to run to be the mayor of the City of New York and live in another municipality?” Adams asked rhetorically.
Joined by his 25-year-old son, Jordan, outside the red-brick residence, the former NYPD captain grew emotional, wiping away tears with napkins, as he said his privacy is rooted in an incident in which the back windows of his car were blown out by gunfire when Jordan was a baby.
“Throughout my entire police career, none of my colleagues knew I had a son,” Adams said. “I wanted to shield him from the reality of what I was doing. I became very private.”
But he let go of privacy, letting journalists explore the home on the ground floor and basement of 936 Lafayette Ave., a building he owns. He said renting out other floors helped put his son through college at American University.
Standing in his bedroom, Adams said he’s continued to sleep on a mattress on the floor of Borough Hall about two-to-three nights per week during the mayoral race, adding that long workdays make the setup more convenient. He said he also sometimes bikes back to Bedford-Stuyvesant in the early hours of the morning.
Also in question was how often Adams stayed with his partner, Tracey Collins, an educator. Adams said he saw Collins on Saturday, but that it was the first time he spent time with her in over two months. She lives in Fort Lee, N.J., and shares a co-op with Adams.
“My opponents who trail me, they can tell you where I’ve been: I’ve been entering Borough Hall at 1 in the morning, working until 3 or 4 with my staffers who come in because they believe,” Adams said. “It’s not a mystery where I am.”
Rivals seized the opportunity and immediately raised questions about Adams’ sleeping habits and real estate history. For years, Adams failed to register the Lafayette Ave. building with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development — his campaign in January chalked that up to an honest mistake.
Ray McGuire, another mayoral candidate and a former executive at Citigroup, said on Wednesday morning that he believed the story about Adams’ residency added to a fog of ethical concerns around Adams.
“You cannot simply have a cloud over the leadership of this city having to do with whether the rules of engagement have been followed,” McGuire told the Daily News. “Nobody gets a pass in this city. Nobody should get a pass.”
He was far from the only candidate who targeted Adams.
Kathryn Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner, said in a statement that it appeared Adams was “misusing his political office at the taxpayers’ expense.” Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor de Blasio, called the story “straight-up bizarre.”
And Andrew Yang, the former White House hopeful, said in a news conference in Queens that Adams “probably lives in New Jersey.” He called on Adams to release E-Z Pass records from his vehicle. (Adams’ campaign said it would.)
Yang and Adams — who have typically topped limited polls in the primary that’s widely expected to determine the city’s next mayor — have been locked in a bitter rivalry in the race’s final days.
Adams insisted at his news conference that he never hid that he owned the New Jersey co-op and that his “primary residence is in Brooklyn.” He added that he spends most of his time in the borough.
Neighbors loitering near Adams’ home in the Wednesday morning heat said that they often see the politician. Lionel Conway, 72, provided an image of himself and Adams that he said was taken on the block on Friday. He said Adams is a “very good neighbor.”
Another neighbor, Kaseam Baity, 49, said he’s lived on the block for over 20 years. He dismissed the question of Adams’ residence.
“To me, you’re not focusing on the real issue,” said Baity, adding that he plans to vote for Adams. “We should be worrying about police reform, housing, crime. Not this. This is BS.”
With Shant Shahrigian
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