Eric Adams is in a hell of a lot of trouble right now. Not only is he the weirdest mayor New York has ever had (dethroning Bill DeBlasio), but he is now the first sitting mayor to be indicted and criminally charged. That’s not what we’re here to talk about, though. Nope, I want to chat about my favorite Eric Adams story that just happens to involve a car.
You see, back when Adams was running for mayor back in 2021, it wasn’t totally clear if he actually lived in the city he wanted to lead — even when he was the Brooklyn Borough President. Adams was insistent that he lived in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, but there was a lot of talk that he actually lived over the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Anyway, that’s not important. What is important is what New York Magazine’s Curbed saw when they staked out Adams’ supposed Bed-Stuy home to see how much time he actually spent there.
Here’s what Curbed saw during their around-the-clock stakeout from the back of a Nissan Sentra rental car:
The stakeout started at 7 p.m. on Monday afternoon. Two full shifts went by — 7 p.m. to midnight, then midnight to 4 a.m. — without a soul entering or departing the apartment. Then: 4:18 a.m. on Tuesday morning. I was sitting in the car, bored, when I noticed a gray Toyota Prius with New York City plates circling the block, finally parking just past Adams’s building. A tall Black man who looked a lot like Adams walked into the basement apartment, turned on the lights, then shut them off for about five minutes.
[…]
The Prius, it seemed, was illegally parked in front of an active garage for a plumbing-supply company. Which quickly became a problem for the trucks attempting to enter said supply company: They were soon backed up all the way down Lafayette Avenue, causing a bona fide pileup while Adams slept inside. This went on for hours — the trucks sat there; a few of the drivers got out to see what was the holdup — until finally, at 8 a.m., someone from the supply company came out in a forklift, tied a yellow rope to the back of Adams’s car, and towed it a few feet so things could get moving.
But wait, folks. It gets even weirder, according to Curbed:
Before my shift ended at 9 a.m., I texted Curbed editor Willy Blackmore to say that someone should come take over for me (we hadn’t planned to be there during the day) to confirm it was, in fact, Adams, and to see what he would do with the towed Prius, whose driver’s side was now blocked by the very traffic jam he appeared to have caused. Willy arrived just in time to see Adams — definitively Adams — leave his apartment, climb into the car from the passenger side, shimmy into the driver’s seat, then drive the car up onto the sidewalk. He drove blithely on the sidewalk until he was past the jam, then turned right on Stuyvesant Avenue.
Listen, I know if U.S. attorneys are to be believed, Eric Adams is a criminal, but holy shit this is hilarious and deeply concerning at the same time. It should have been a red flag right there. The man clearly feels he’s above the law and isn’t concerned with inconveniencing others just so his walk to his “home” is a bit shorter.
Regardless of whether or not you’re running for mayor, please do not park in front of active driveways or drive your car down the sidewalk. I know I shouldn’t have to tell you all this, but I guess not everyone knows not to do these things.
