WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS IN A HUMAN PLACE

ERIC ADAMS Mayor of New York City

- LAVINA MELWANI

In the comic book universe, Gotham City and Metropolis are safeguarded by masked superheroes, superpowers, but in real life, New York City, on which these fictional cities are based, is under the charge of its 110th mayor, Eric L. Adams. An unlikely superhero, he has taken on all monsters— be it Covid-19, crime, inequality, financial downturns, racism and other evils that imperil a big city. He has brought New York back from the brink.

Adams, 62, has battled adversity; he and five siblings were brought up by a single mother who cleaned homes to make a living. From having battled dyslexia to making it to the dean’s list, Adams has seen both sides of life, and managed to transform outcomes.

Arrested and beaten as a teenager, he went on to combat injustice by joining the police force and rose to the rank of captain. As a founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, he worked on changing the system from within. Adams later became a state senator and was the first person of colour to chair the senate’s homeland security committee. In 2013, he was elected president of the Brooklyn borough, and while working to bring diverse groups together, public policy and good government became his mantra.

Adams is all about taking creative action to solve problems. When he temporarily went blind in one eye and was told he had type 2 diabetes, he took radical action, transforming his diet and losing 35 pounds.

It is said that when Adams was growing up in Jamaica, Queens, he would often carry a plastic bag of belongings with him for he never knew if he may be returning to an eviction notice on their home.

As mayor-elect, one of his first acts was to nominate five deputy mayors—all of them women, and two of them of Asian heritage (Meera Joshi is his deputy mayor for operations).