Even before his weekly news conference began Tuesday morning, it was clear that the administration of Mayor Eric Adams had entered a less blustery era.
Gone was City Hall’s aptly named Blue Room, whose blue walls normally set the backdrop for the mayor’s media availabilities. Gone was the long blue table from which the mayor would usually hold court before the press, flanked by as many as 10 of his senior aides.
And gone was the walkout music that traditionally accompanied the mayor’s entry into an event — Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’s “Empire State of Mind,” with the layover of the mayor’s voice intoning, “There are only two types of Americans: those who live in New York and those who wish they could.”
In their place was a far starker stage.
The mayor stood alone, beneath City Hall’s majestic rotunda, flanked only by a cantilevered marble staircase and poster boards on easels proclaiming his achievements: “Protecting Our Water.” “Keeping NYC the Safest City in America.” “Investing in Our Kids.”
Seats for reporters were few. Cameras abounded. And the mayor bristled with confidence.
New York City, he said, was getting a front-row seat to the mayor’s resiliency.
