In one of his first public appearances since abandoning his bid for reelection, Mayor Adams boasted Wednesday that he’s leaving the Big Apple “in good shape” and offered some blunt advice for the men running to replace him at City Hall.
“We need to make sure we don’t go backwards, and I’m gonna say it in the words of [Michael] Bloomberg when I became mayor: Don’t f— it up,” Adams said at NYPD Headquarters in lower Manhattan when asked at a crime stats briefing if he has any advice for his successor.
Stu Loeser, a spokesman for Bloomberg, said he’s sure his boss offered that advice to Adams before he took office in 2022. “He tells everyone that,” Loeser told the Daily News of Bloomberg. “Literally, every new hire he meets. He told me [that].”
Adams ditched his independent bid for a second term Sunday after weeks of pressure from President Trump’s team and others to help clear the field against Democratic front-runner Zohran Mamdani, whose tax-the-rich agenda has unnerved the business community.
The incumbent’s exit is expected to help Andrew Cuomo, who’s also running as an independent against Mamdani and polling as the runner-up to the democratic socialist. The only other major candidate left in the Nov. 4 election is Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, who has consistently placed third in the polls.
Adams — who was polling dead last in the mayoral race amid continued fallout from his corruption indictment and surrounding controversies — has refrained from endorsing any of the remaining candidates in the race since dropping out.
In his Wednesday press conference, Adams continued to withhold an endorsement and said he’s worried about the direction the city could take once he leaves office.
“I am not confident that New Yorkers are going to continue this success that we have witnessed,” he said, pointing to drops in crime and increases in housing production under his administration.
Even though he’s in many ways politically aligned with Cuomo, Adams has engaged in a war of words with the former governor for weeks. Just a few weeks ago, as he insisted he wasn’t dropping out, Adams called Cuomo “a snake and a liar.”
Adams didn’t take aim at Cuomo at Wednesday’s press conference, though. Instead, he singled out Mamdani for criticism without mentioning him by name.
“If you don’t have a welcome mat for businesses so that we have employment, if you’re not willing to sit down with billionaires who pay 50% of our taxes, those who are a million-plus, when you talk about taxing white communities, all of these things are hurting what it takes to have a successful city,” Adams said, exaggerating aspects of Mamdani’s proposals to raise taxes on millionaires and corporations in order to fund social programs like expanded child care and free buses.
Adams, who will leave office Jan. 1, capped off the press conference by telling reporters, “It has become so good for you guys” because of his administration’s achievements.
“You don’t even realize it,” he said, “but you know what, you’re going to miss me.”
Originally Published: October 1, 2025 at 6:52 PM EDT
