Eric Adams vowed to suspend fines for small businesses on his first day as New York mayor as a way to revive the city’s economy.
Opponent Curtis Sliwa would make the streets safer for returning commuters and repurpose unused office space for affordable housing.
Democrat Adams and Republican Sliwa sparred in a one-hour televised debate on Wednesday night in advance of the Nov. 2 election that will determine the city’s 110th mayor. Bill de Blasio, the Democratic mayor the last eight years, cannot run again because of term limits. He endorsed Adams, a heavy favorite in a city where Democrats hold a 7-to-1 advantage.
The economy was among several topics that covered vaccine mandates, public safety, outdoor dining, education, carriage horses and the crisis at the Rikers Island jail complex. De Blasio on Wednesday extended his vaccine mandate to all city agency workers.
Whoever takes office on Jan. 1 must cope with the lingering COVID-19 pandemic; the loss of residents and businesses to Florida and elsewhere; rising crime; and traffic congestion.
The city has only filled roughly half the 900,000 jobs it lost during the pandemic.
“It’s become more of a chronic loss of jobs, particularly at the entry level,” said Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. “Then there is the question of how many workers return to the office, which really hurts the value of office buildings.”
Outgoing city Comptroller Scott Stringer
Adams, 61, the Brooklyn borough president, a retired police captain, said suspending small-business fines would generate energy. “This is how we get out of COVID,” he said. “It’s not creative, it’s clear. This city is too bureaucratic, too siloed.”
New York, he added, has the potential to be a cybersecurity and biotech center. Adams also said he would fly to Florida shortly after he takes office to entice residents and businesses to return.
Sliwa, 67, founder of the Guardian Angels anti-crime citizens group and a former radio talk-show show, said beefing up public safety was common sense. “Many workers are willing to get paid less to get a better quality of life.”
He questioned whether office space will ever make a full recovery. “Hudson Yards, what are we going to do, turn them into mausoleums?”
Sliwa also called for taxing Madison Square Garden, Columbia University and New York University and using the funds to hire 3,000 officers, a plan former Democratic candidate Andrew Yang had supported.
“It was done by [David] Dinkins and Peter Vallone … Safe City, Safe Streets,” Sliwa said, citing the mayor and City Council president in the early 1990s.
Regarding climate change and in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida — which killed 13 city residents and caused massive flooding in streets and subways — Adams favors an advance warning system based on levels of threat, akin to terrorism advisories.
“We should not wait until 48 hours [in advance],” he said. “Know where the highways need to be closed. Know where the basement apartments are. We learn from terrorism; you don’t wait 'til the day when a plane attacks.”
Sliwa called for through maintenance of drainage and catch-basin systems and the construction of seawalls promised for Lower Manhattan and Staten Island after Hurricane Sandy struck in 2012.
While congestion pricing for Manhattan south of 60th Street is a state initiative subject to federal approval, both candidates chimed in on a plan aimed to ease traffic congestion while raising $15 billion for the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital program. The MTA, one of the largest municipal issuers with roughly $50 billion of debt, operates mass transit in the region.
“Yes, we need to invest in a first-rate transportation system,” said Adams, who favors exemptions based on special needs such as chemotherapy appoints. He also called for limiting the times of truck deliveries.
Sliwa called the plan a killer for middle-class, outer-borough residents. “How about putting it up for a referendum?,” he said. Should congestion pricing materialize, he said, outer-borough residents should get better discounts compared with drivers from New Jersey and Westchester County.
S&P Global Ratings and Moody's Investors Service rate the city's general obligation bonds AA and Aa2, respectively. Fitch Ratings assigns AA-minus while Kroll Bond Rating Agency rates the bonds AA-plus. All four assign stable outlooks.
