Big Business Backed Mayor Eric Adams. Now It Waits to Learn His Fate.

Big Business Backed Mayor Eric Adams. Now It Waits to Learn His Fate.

New York’s business sector is concerned that the possible removal of Mr. Adams from office would leave it without one of its biggest boosters.

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By Jeffery C. Mays and Stefanos Chen

When Mayor Eric Adams took office, the city’s business community breathed a sigh of relief.

For eight years, business leaders had railed against the liberal ideology and policies of Mayor Bill de Blasio. He won office on a promise to end income inequality, reverse the economic policies of his predecessor — the business friendly billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg — and thrived on criticizing the city’s business elite.

Mr. Adams, on the other hand, spoke about how important wealthy taxpayers were to New York’s coffers and how companies provided middle-class residents with good jobs. He often cited the city’s healthy bond rating as one of his major accomplishments.

The connection between Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Adams was on full display in the months after Mr. Adams’s victory in the Democratic primary.

Mr. Bloomberg released a video backing Mr. Adams before the general election. A day after the endorsement, at a conference filled with the former mayor’s fellow billionaires, Mr. Adams declared that “New York will no longer be anti-business.”

“It was a reversal,” said Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy group. “He took Bloomberg as a mentor and embraced the policies that are most important to businesses and their employees.”

But since Mr. Adams was indicted on charges of bribery, conspiracy, fraud and soliciting improper foreign campaign donations, much of the business and labor community has fallen silent with worry. Mr. Adams appeared in a courtroom in Lower Manhattan on Friday and entered a plea of not guilty on five counts. Representatives for the city did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

District Council 37, the city’s largest public employee union, of which Mr. Adams’s mother was once a member, endorsed him in 2021 and called him a “friend of labor.” But on Thursday a spokeswoman declined to comment on the criminal charges.

The Real Estate Board of New York, the industry’s main lobbying arm, did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did the service employees union, 32BJ SEIU, which has been a frequent presence at the mayor’s events.

The Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, the influential union that represents hotel and casino workers in New York and New Jersey, gave a measured response.

“It’s too early to pass judgment or make any political decisions other than to say our union will continue to do what we always do, which is work with the mayor and city government on issues important to our members,” a spokesman said in a statement.

The mayor’s indictment leaves many in the business world without a clear candidate in the next election and stirs the fear that a progressive candidate won’t cater to them as Mr. Adams has. Four candidates have announced runs for mayor and all are considered left of Mr. Adams.

“Mayor Adams is one of the few elected officials at his level in the entire nation who fundamentally understands technology,” said Julie Samuels, the president and chief executive of Tech:NYC, a trade group that represents tech companies ranging from Google and Meta to startups.

The alternatives have not inspired confidence among her members. “Most of them don’t even know who a lot of these candidates are,” she said.

The mayor held 14 town halls in conjunction with the Partnership for New York City to meet with employees at various companies. After the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Adams called for workers to return to the office even though there was a push toward hybrid work-from-home schedules.

And the relationship with Mr. Bloomberg continued when Mr. Adams entered City Hall. Sprinkled throughout Mr. Adams’s schedules for 2023 was a notation “Call with Mike” — an apparent reference to Mr. Bloomberg, who regularly spoke with Mr. Adams. Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, declined to comment, but a person familiar with the thinking of some of Mr. Bloomberg’s advisers said they had “high hopes” for Mr. Adams.

Mr. Adams was not afraid to employ policies that are unpopular with progressives but that business leaders saw as key to maintaining a quality of life that is conducive to business, such as clearing homeless encampments and flooding the subways with police officers in response to crime.

One business leader in the world of Wall Street who asked not to be named to preserve relationships, said an email was circulating Thursday morning seeking to recruit a candidate for mayor from within the business community.

The candidates for mayor so far are: Brad Lander, the city comptroller; Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn; Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Queens; and Scott M. Stringer, the former comptroller.

Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is also considering running in a special election if Mr. Adams were to resign. Jumaane Williams, the public advocate who made a name for himself by speaking out against discriminatory policing, would become mayor if Mr. Adams resigned or was removed from office and would likely run in the special election to complete the term.

Some critics of City Hall don’t see Mr. Adams’s pro-business leanings as a good thing.

Olivia Leirer, co-director of New York Communities for Change, a progressive advocacy organization that focuses on issues such as global warming and affordable housing, said that the mayor has sided with the real estate lobby when it comes to enforcing a new climate law designed to reduce pollution from large buildings and that his policies on homelessness and crime are harmful.

“The business community may be happy that Eric Adams is sweeping all of the homeless people off our streets,” Ms. Leirer said. “But people who care about our communities know that housing and programs for youth are what actually support our communities and bring crime down in the long run.”

Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, said business leaders have sometimes expressed disappointment in Mr. Adams, such as with his handling of the city’s influx of more than 200,000 migrants. But many in the business sector remain more concerned about the possible alternatives to Mr. Adams. Under the Adams administration, New York City regained all of the nearly one million private sector jobs lost during the pandemic.

“There’s a concern that we have to start all over, at a time when we’re still very weak from Covid lockdowns,” Ms. Gelinas said.

The mayor’s indictment could also jeopardize some of his signature policies, including the so-called City of Yes zoning code amendments that could enable over 100,000 more homes to be added citywide.

On Wednesday, the City Planning Commission approved a version of the proposal, setting the stage for the City Council to vote on the changes in the next few months. Some fear that the upheaval at City Hall could make the plan a tougher sell.

“We can’t let what’s happening at Gracie Mansion distract from such a critical issue,” said Annemarie Gray, the executive director of Open New York, a nonprofit organization that supports new development.

City officials say the proposal is on the original timeline they created and they expect the City Council to vote on the plan this fall.

Gary Barnett, the president and founder of Extell Development, the real estate firm that helped reshape the strip of luxury condo skyscrapers in Manhattan known as Billionaires’ Row, said he was reserving judgment.

“I wish he could finish the job,” Mr. Barnett said, lamenting what the indictment could mean for the rest of Mr. Adams’s term as mayor. “It happens all the time that people are indicted and they are later declared innocent.”

Mr. Adams, surrounded by supporters in a defiant news conference outside of Gracie Mansion on Thursday, seemed intent on finishing his work, in spite of the serious criminal charges he was facing.

Asked who would be the liaison with the city’s business community in the wake of his indictment, the mayor did not hesitate to answer.

“When you say: ‘Who’s the point person that’s going to deal with the business community? Who’s going to deal with the business of running the city?’ The point person is Eric Adams,” the mayor said to cheers from his assembled supporters. “I’m the mayor of the City of New York.”

Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting.

Our Coverage of the Adams Administration

• Adams Indictment: Federal prosecutors unveiled a five-count indictment against Mayor Eric Adams, charging him with bribery conspiracy, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations.
• What Happens Next?: The indictment of Adams prompted calls for his resignation, but there is no legal requirement that he leave office. Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove him.
• Federal Investigations Swirl: The case against the mayor is among several federal corruption investigations that have reached people in Adams’s orbit.
• Housing Proposal: Adams’s plan to ease the city’s housing shortage by making way for more than 100,000 new homes cleared the City Planning Commission, setting up a tougher fight between the administration and the City Council.
• Stop and Frisk: The N.Y.P.D.’s discipline for illegal street detentions is lax at every level — a failure that reaches all the way to the top of the force — according to a review ordered by a federal judge.