PORTAL FOR PUNDITS & POLITICS: Scoops and Insider Insights

Showing the Votes & Support: Adrienne Adams Settles Speaker’s Race Showdown

December 17, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (right) with Head of Democratic Party Rodneyse Bichotte. Photo courtesy of @AMBichotte via Twitter

Another historic barrier is broken

Addriene Adams is also poised to become the first Black NYC Council Speaker, and the third woman to hold the post in history. She’ll take the helm of the first City Council class with a female majority, and the most diverse in history.

Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodenyse Bichotte Hermelyn (another pioneer who is both the first woman and first African-American woman to lead a county party in New York City), congratulated Adrienne, saying, “Adrienne Adams has the support needed to become NYC Council speaker, and I am proud to stand with her. With the most diverse council yet, a qualified woman of color is the best choice to lead us toward an equitable recovery. Adams will get the job done.”

Will Mayor Adams and Speaker Adams get along well as new faces around City Hall?

It will be interesting to see how Mr. Adams works with Ms. Adams, given that Mayor-elect’s circle (and some claim the Mayor himself) pushed for her contender to win. And Adrienne leans further left than Eric.

Yet, as Politico notes, Adrienne Adams did endorse Eric for Mayor, and the Mayor-elect’s statement of support shows promise for unity, which Eric has vowed to espouse city-wide.

Overheard at a conservative bar in Bay Ridge: “Two Democrats named Adams running the City—this could bring a new Adams Family movie series.”

Other insider insights: Omicron Overload & Outraged City Workers Who Can’t WFH

Covid-19 test positivity has doubled within a three-day period—a record-breaking speed, according to former City Hall aide Jay Varma. And NY State today had the highest single-day reporting of new COVID infections cases in one day (21,027 new positive cases), NBC NY reports.

Yet despite de Blasio sounding the alarm, and vowing increasing scrutiny over his mandates (and hefty fines), NYC municipal workers reported feeling left out (more like locked in, actually) by hizzoner’s mandate that they continue to work in-person.

Comptroller-elect Brad Lander took aim at de Blasio, tweeting Friday, “Given what we are seeing right now, I think it would be wise for the City & other large employers to let non-essential employees work remotely through the end of the year.”

Once the holidays are over, city workers might see some reprieve, and the rest of us might see some change, since Adams has said he’ll “revisit” de Blasio’s mandates. Yet, as a Bloomberg op-ed said, “New York’s omicron situation is changing by the hour”—so we’ll have to strap on our seatbelts and wait to see.