Tuesday’s election has packed City Hall with Brooklynites: mayor Eric Adams, public advocate Jumaane Williams, comptroller Brad Lander. In local elections for the City Council — many reps were term limited out — Democrats dominated in Brooklyn. And after several elections marred by snafus such as closed polls and delivery of wrong ballots, election day was relatively trouble free, locals reported.

The second Black mayor of New York, Adams was elected on a platform of reducing crime and reforming policing. His stated policies on the staggering number of issues he faces in office similarly appear to thread the needle between progressive politics and pragmatism. The many challenges the city faces include crime, homelessness, mental illness, traffic safety, affordable housing, land use, education and business. Based on Adams’ record so far, whether he can deliver is unknown.

mother and child in voting line
A mother hit the polls with a future voter. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell

His stance on land use is perhaps more clear than on any other issue. As borough president, Adams neither rubber stamped nor denied developer proposals. He backed local community boards in certain cases, such as on rezoning Atlantic Avenue and Crown Heights, and attached conditions to his votes requesting benefits for local communities. Locals give him props for helping them out with housing and other issues as borough president.

While Bloomberg jump started the city’s use of upzonings to develop formerly industrial waterfront areas and Downtown Brooklyn while also pursuing landmarking and protected industrial zones, de Blasio standardized the set asides for affordable housing while vastly increasing the number and scope of upzonings, particularly in outer-borough areas that supported Adams. So far, Adams has said he supports upzonings in wealthy areas. Whether that means we will see upzonings in Park Slope and downzonings in, say, East Flatbush, is another unknown. 

ballot privacy sleeve
Photo by Cate Corcoran

At a Tuesday night election party, he pledged to be pro business and deliver taxpayers a better city. He choked up on election day when he said his campaign is for the voiceless, those living in shelters, for people who were told they would “never amount to anything.” He also said he would reconsider New York City’s vaccine mandates.

Curbed staked out his Brooklyn townhouse to see if Adams really lives there and found he parked illegally and drove on the sidewalk — but at the very least he seems to treat the place as a pied-à-terre. (He admitted there was “no excuse” for breaking the law.)

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Clinton Hill. Photo by Susan De Vries

The voting experience was a calm one, with simple choices between major political parties and smoothly running polling sites without the snafus in recent elections — such as malfunctioning scanners or the wrong ballots.

Results for most City Council races are still being tabulated, as are the ballot initiatives. Lincoln Restler replaces Stephen Levin in north and northwest Brooklyn and Park Slope voted in Shahana Hanif. Clean water and increased court tort amounts have won. Antonio Reynoso is Brooklyn borough president.

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