New Yorkers voted earlier this month for the least strange candidate of two oddos: Democrat Eric Adams easily defeated Republican Curtis Sliwa (founder of the not-quite-vigilante group the Guardian Angels). Not because he owns a dozen-and-a-half cats, but because Sliwa was clearly the most insane candidate. Adams, on the other hand, is peculiar to say the least. He was even caught illegally parking and driving on the sidewalk outside the Bed-Stuy apartment he may or may not genuinely live in just before the election.
But now that he’s mayor-elect, set to take office on January 1st, he appears to be working to restore order to the city. As Jerry Seinfeld will confirm, the Big Apple is far from dead. In reality, it’s been quietly reviving in recent months, with vaccination rates soaring and restaurant, bar, and other public places returning to pre-recession levels of patronage. On Tuesday’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Adams discussed how he painted the town red on the night he won the election, when the streets were nearly empty at the height of the pandemic.
Adams named the clubs he visited on Election Night, including Zero Bond in the East Village, one of Cipriani’s three Manhattan locations, and Sugar Hill in Bed-Stuy, where he is rumored to reside.
“I am the mayor, this is the city of nightlife. I must test the product. I have to be out,” Adams told Colbert. He then pitched his idea for a new New York City: “I want New Yorkers to come back. We used to be the coolest place on the globe. We’re so damned boring now, man. We have to be among the people, enjoying life. I want the cross-pollination of our energy and the diversity of this city. We have some beautiful places in the city. So I’m going to be out.”
That said, Adams does rise earlier than most, though by no means all, New Yorkers. “If you’re going to be hanging out with the boys at night, you gotta get up with the men in the morning,” he said. “I’m up at 5am every morning.”
As a result, Adams, who appears to be a workaholic, may yet find time to enjoy the city’s resurgent nightlife. When he’s finished, he can do what he’s threatened to do: crash not at Gracie Mansion in Yorkville, but all the way down in Lower Manhattan, sleeping in his City Hall office.
