Any serious discussion of Mayor Bill de Blasio's legacy almost invariably begins with universal prekindergarten.
In the eyes of policy wonks, it was a so-called "big idea," an initiative in which all New Yorkers with children stood to benefit but which was backed by data suggesting outsized impacts on those who were low-income. Tying universal pre-K to his critique of income inequality, de Blasio carried out the plan in his first year and went on to trumpet New York City as a trailblazer in education. Now, President Joe Biden, the leader of the Democratic Party, wants to fund pre-K at a national level.
That may sound like a political success story that any mayor should want to replicate, but eight years later, New York City appears to have elected a very different Democrat. Eric Adams, the current Brooklyn borough president, ran a winning mayoral campaign that seized on public safety concerns amid a public health crisis. Although he and other candidates tried to introduce what they saw as big ideas, some complained that they lacked boldness and originality.
Adams, however, has repeatedly argued that Democratic politics should be rooted in pragmatism rather than progressive proposals that try to push the envelope. "We don't need a college professor," he once said of his Democratic opponent Maya Wiley, referring to her ideas on police reform.
During interviews with national media outlets the day after his election victory, the former police officer summed up his approach with an acronym. “I’m not going to be a philosophical mayor. I’m going to be a mayor that’s going to be a GSD mayor. Get Stuff Done," he quipped.
The emphasis on execution comes as the pandemic has introduced heightened urgency around managing New York City's sprawling bureaucracy. Although billions in federal stimulus funding and a successful vaccination effort have allayed some of the anxiety around the city's comeback, Adams will face a host of thorny challenges, including a rise in shootings, homelessness, small business closures, and a dampened tourist economy.
Political experts have said that this year's mayoral race turned out to be a referendum not on big ideas but on competency. During the primary Adams barely edged out Kathryn Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner with far less money and name recognition but who campaigned on her track record as a manager.
Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at NYU, scoffed at the notion that mayors need to come up with a big idea.
"The problems facing New York cannot be put into a nice ribbon around a single idea," he said.
Moss argued that after eight years of de Blasio, New Yorkers are most of all yearning for new leadership. "We’re electing a person, not an idea," he said. Paramount to the job of mayor, he added, is being a good manager (as opposed to a campaigner of ideas.)
"New York is the idea," he said. "It's the idea that never goes away."
Similarly, Alicia Glen, who worked as de Blasio's deputy mayor for housing and economic development, observed that one of Adams' strongest attributes is being an unapologetic cheerleader for the city. In defending his decision to party at night clubs with business leaders and celebrities (as he did after winning the general election), Adams argued he was promoting the city's nightlife and reminding people that New York City is open 24 hours.
"His personality—his joie de vivre, if you will—is his policy," Glen said approvingly. "That's his big idea."
At the polls, voters consistently cited quality-of-life concerns as well as the pandemic. Hailey Kaizur, an Upper East Side resident who works at a marketing agency, said she voted for Adams because she viewed him as being "passionate about the COVID recovery, which I think is one of the biggest things we should be focusing on right now."
Evan Thies, Adams' spokesman, said Adams would argue that he has "some pretty big ideas." He cited several plans: creating a website portal for New Yorkers to access all their benefits, providing incentives that could lead to universal childcare, and expanding the earned-income tax credit, which would direct cash subsidies to low-income workers.
Still, in his promises to solve municipal dysfunction and impose data-driven solutions, the mayor-elect increasingly appears to be setting himself up to be a technocratic manager in the vein of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire who also took over the city during a crisis, one marked by post-9/11 fears of terrorism and a battered downtown. The latter entered office in 2002 and quickly went about fulfilling his pledge to rebuild the city and restore confidence. After three terms, he racked up a series of targeted policy achievements that, while maybe not awe-inspiring at the time, were later credited as transformative—a 311 hotline for complaints, banning smoking in public spaces, letter grades for restaurants, and the expansion of green space and bike lanes, to name a few. (He was also blamed for catering the city to the wealthy, and expanding stop-and-frisk police tactics.)
In a notable departure from de Blasio, Adams has sought out advice from Bloomberg, who fundraised for him during the general election.
Ester Fuchs, an urban politics professor at Columbia University who worked as a policy adviser to Bloomberg, agreed that ensuring a capable and functioning government will be imperative.
"The city’s got to be managed well. We’ve got to restore quality of life," Fuchs said.
But experts also say that tackling inequality needs to be woven into the mayor's policies, whether in policing, education or the economy. Job losses in New York City continue to total roughly half a million compared to February 2020. The pandemic's economic effects have disproportionately affected low-wage earners, who are mostly people of color.
In a report released this week. The "continuing hardships experienced by a substantial number of low-income New Yorkers, particularly Black and Brown workers all across the state, calls for a more targeted response," wrote James Parrott, an economist at The New School in a report released on Tuesday.
Fuchs said that will be the real test for Adams. "Fundamentally, the role of city government is around service delivery, but we need services to be effective, efficient and equitable," she said.
As the city's second Black mayor who drew on a base of working and middle class voters in the outer boroughs, Adams has indeed folded concerns about racial and economic disparity into his proposals. On education, he has called for mandatory dyslexia testing in public schools and an expansion of the city's gifted and talented programs, particularly in lower-income neighborhoods.
His biggest challenge is whether he can fulfill his core campaign promise of reducing crime while also ensuring swift accountability of police officers for wrongdoing and repairing the NYPD's strained relationship in communities of color.
From a political standpoint, having a big idea may be less crucial at a time when Democratic party is increasingly fractured and activism is organized around specific issues.
Neal Kwatra, a political strategist, said signature policy issues can still be successful and that elected officials should certainly push for them. "But we now live in an era of very mature and sophisticated social justice movements around issues that frankly force focus by politicians on a range of matters from climate to criminal justice," he said.
Kwatra argued that if Adams manages city services well, strikes a balance between policing and accountability, helps the city with its COVID recovery and makes smart climate investments, "he will be more than fine."
Most agree that the best chance do to implement a big idea will be at the beginning of Adams' term, before his administration becomes mired in day-to-day challenges and unforeseen emergencies.
Basil Smikle, a political strategist who heads the public policy program at Hunter College, said he believed Adams should come out with a signature policy fairly early on and "be dogged in his pursuit of it." From a funding standpoint, he pointed to the leverage Adams is expected to have with Governor Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat who is running for a full-term and needs to appeal to downstate voters.
Plus, he said, there's the added urgency of the midterm elections, in which Democrats could lose control of Congress and make it more difficult for the city to secure federal money for its big initiatives.
Adams will likely face pressure from left-leaning Democrats, including a more progressive City Council who will likely want bold measures on issues like policing, housing and climate change. Brad Lander, a Brooklyn City Councilmember who was elected as the progressive candidate for city comptroller, said that while residents want basic services like seeing their garbage picked up, they also want exciting, trailblazing proposals.
New York City is, after all, a city that likes to believe in its own greatness.
"The virtue of doing something big is you fire people’s imagination," Lander said. "We’ve got to open back up but I hope we do it in a way that leans into it ambitiously."
