Boozy Rat Traps, Secret Office: Mayor Eric Adams's Strange 1st Year

NEW YORK CITY — Every New York City mayor has an eventful time in office, but Eric Adams's first year has surely been more memorable than most.

From calling 911 during his first day on the job to hiring his brother for a top city job to rolling out controversial mental health and subway safety plans, Adams has kept himself in our headlines nearly every day of 2022.

As the year draws to a close, here's a look back at Patch's biggest and strangest stories about Eric Adams's first year as mayor.

Eric Adams Calls 911 To Report Assault 1st Day As Mayor: Reports

Just hours after Adams was sworn in as mayor on New Year's Day, he called 911 to report a fight near the Kosciuszko Street subway station in Bed-Stuy, where he was catching a train to City Hall.

"Once a transit cop always a transit cop," he reportedly quipped.

Adams Blasted By AOC, Others Over 'Low Skill Worker' Comment

After a brief period of goodwill, Adams quickly angered some of the city's more progressive politicians by saying that "low-skill workers — my cooks, my dishwashers, my messengers, my shoe shine people, those who are working at Dunkin' Donuts — they don't have the academic skills to sit in the corner office"

The context of the remarks was Adams's calls for employers to bring workers back to their offices, since empty business districts filter down to other workers whose livelihoods depend on them. But some, like U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saw Adams's statement as an elitist slight.

Adams Defiant Over Nepotism Accusations: 'I'm The Mayor'

Adams also quickly drew accusations of nepotism and cronyism after choosing close friends for high-profile city positions — including his own brother as a security advisor.

The mayor's response: "I'm the mayor."

NYC Schools Go 'Vegan Fridays' Under Plant-Only Mayor Eric Adams

The famously vegan mayor introduced plant-based Friday lunches in an effort to "improve the quality of life" of students. Yet days later, following a POLITICO report detailing his late-night exploits, Adams admitted that he isn't fully plant-based himself — he eats fish.

Adams Called White NYPD Officers 'Crackers': Report

Weeks into his tenure, the mayor was also forced to apologize after the New York Daily News obtained a 2019 video that showed him referring to white police officers as "crackers."

City To Crack Down On Subway Rules In New Safety Plan, Adams Says

In one of his first high-profile moves, Adams announced a sweeping plan in February to crack down on people using the subway for anything but transportation — meaning "No more smoking, no more doing drugs, no more sleeping, no more doing barbecues on the subway system," he said.

Months later, Adams's administration announced that 1,379 unhoused people accepted services — through advocates noted that no details were provided about what kind of care they received.

Eric Adams Goes From Partying With Wells Fargo To Blasting Bank

Weeks after sharing an awkward dance with model Cara Delevingne at a private party sponsored by Wells Fargo, Adams announced that the city would stop opening city accounts with that same bank amid reports that the company committed widespread discrimination against Black homeowners. Whoops!

Ever-Private Eric Adams Has Secret Office Steps From City Hall: Report

A strange July report by POLITICO revealed that the mayor has set up a secret office in a Pearl Street high-rise known as the Verizon Building, using it as a satellite workplace for members of his team.

"It's not a secret location — it's a space that we utilize to do work, " the mayor shot back.

Eric Adams Promised Us Hope Through Boozy Rat Death Traps

In September, Patch took a deep-dive into the infamous 2019 press conference by then-Brooklyn Borough President Adams, in which he nauseated reporters with an alcohol-filled bucket containing the corpse of a dead rat.

Those rat-trapping devices were part of a pilot program in a few Brooklyn neighborhoods, which Adams vowed to expand citywide if elected mayor. But funding quickly evaporated, and a long-promised report on the program's results never materialized.

Mayor Tells NYPD, FDNY To Involuntarily Commit More Mentally Ill NYers

Another landmark Adams policy landed in November, when the mayor announced that the city would begin involuntarily hospitalizing people who appear too mentally ill to care for themselves.

Adams said the controversial directive would address crises of mental health and homelessness, but advocates said it would violate the rights of New Yorkers who pose no imminent harm.

Adams Defends Cuts By Citing 'Economic Tsunami,' Questionable Stats

After New York City's top fiscal watchdog raised concerns about his administration's plan to cut budgets at nearly all city agencies, Adams shot back by forecasting economic doom — and understating the vacancy rate for city jobs.

After Year Of Decrying Crime, Adams Says NYC 'Remains' Safest Big City

After spending months decrying crime in the city — in one case deeming it worse than when he was a police officer in the 1990s — Adams completed a pivot on the issue this month. Now, the mayor paints a hopeful end-of-year portrait of public safety, noting that murders and shootings both fell by double digits in 2022.

"New York remains the safest big city in America," Adams said. "And in 2023, we’re going to push this city to be safer."