The same day Mayor Eric Adams celebrated a budget agreement with city leaders over a proposed $107 billion plan for New York City, the first-term elected made headlines for a testy exchange at a town hall event the previous night.
An exchange between Adams and a woman at the Wednesday meeting in Washington Heights had garnered several million views by the next day. In it, the mayor fires back after pressed by the woman about his role in the Rent Guidelines Board's move last month to raise rents.
"Why in New York City, where the real estate is controlling you, Mr. Mayor, why are we having these horrible rent increases this year and last?" she yelled at the mayor from across the gymnasium.
Adams, seemingly frustrated by the woman's question, did not hold back in his response.
"First, if you're gonna ask a question, don't point at me and don't be disrespectful to me. I'm the mayor of this city, and treat me with the respect that I deserve to be treated. I'm speaking to you as an adult," he responded.
That reply gained him a bit of applause from people in the room, according to video recording of the town hall. Adams continued:
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"Don't stand in front like you treated someone that's on the plantation that you own. Give me the respect I deserve, and engage in the conversation. Up here in Washington Heights, treat me with the same level of respect I treat you. So don't be pointing at me, don't be disrespectful to me, speak with me as an adult, because I'm a grown man. I walked into this room as a grown man, and I'm gonna walk out of this room as a grown man. I answered your question."
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The woman aiming to get the mayor to discuss housing affordability was later identified by several outlets as Jeanie Dubnau. Forward reports the 84-year-old is a known tenant activist and Holocaust survivor.
“This woman is Jeanie Dubnau, the Co-Founder of the Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association (RENA), a tenants & housing rights advocacy organization in Upper Manhattan,” Juan Rosa, national director of civic engagement at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, tweeted.
Forward got in contact with Dubnau, who called Adams "an enemy of the tenants."
“The fact of the matter is that he is a landlord himself,” she said. “He got millions from the real estate industry and he’s paying them back. He’s as corrupt as that.”
The Wednesday night exchange came on the heels of a new Siena poll reflecting a dip in the mayor's favorability.
The group of New Yorkers polled mid-June were slightly less favorable opinion of Adams than the previous month. In May, 49% of those polled had a favorable opinion of the mayor; that's down to 46%. His previous unfavorability number of 35% climbed to 39%.
Adams is certainly not the first NYC mayor to slip in favorability. His predecessors, Bill de Blasio particularly, faced waves of extreme criticism.
The Daily News, which reported out the poll, also noted the mayor's dip in statewide support among Black voters. Half of the group polled last month had unfavorable view of Adams.
