Mayor Eric Adams and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams got into a nasty personal spat over who lives where after the two faced off over proposed legislation to rein in the NYPD.
Clashes between Williams and Adams are not unusual with the progressive public advocate willing to call out the centrist mayor for his stances on the city’s right to shelter and use of solitary confinement in jails and Adams similarly criticizing Williams. The latest confrontation began last month when the City Council approved the How Many Stops Act, co-sponsored by Williams, which would require police officers to report on all lower-level stops and investigative encounters between police and civilians. Critics of the bill, including Adams, believe the legislation’s requirements are too arduous and that it would divert police resources toward paperwork and away from ensuring public safety. The bill’s proponents say the legislation will increase police transparency and that the reporting process is fairly simple.
During a Wednesday event to highlight a drop in crime, Adams blamed many of the city’s remaining problems on legislation passed by left-leaning politicians, saying the city’s narrative had been “hijacked by a numerical minority.” Then he turned his attention to Williams.
“Like, I find it astonishing that we have a public advocate who pushed for this police bill. He lives in a fort. He lives in a fort. He doesn’t take the subway,” Adams said. “So to be able to advocate to erode the ability of police to do protection when you have an entire army protecting your family and you drive around with police protection. And I don’t know when the last time he was on the subway system.”
Williams and his family live in civilian housing on the Fort Hamilton Army base in Brooklyn, a fact that has been frequently raised about the public advocate, who has pushed for police reform. After Adams’s comments, Williams held a Zoom press conference in which he addressed his critique by raising questions about the mayor’s own living situation.
“I live in Brooklyn with my wife and kids,” Williams said, according to the Daily News. “My understanding is the mayor lives in New Jersey with his girlfriend, so it’s funny for him to try to say something like that to me.”
That’s a reference to the allegation dating back to 2021 that Adams actually lives in Fort Lee, New Jersey, with his partner and not in the Bed-Stuy building he owns, which he famously toured with reporters during his campaign for mayor. Officially speaking, the mayor’s residence is Gracie Mansion.
Williams’s retort prompted a rare social-media post from Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Adams’s top adviser, who wrote on X, “This is really beneath you. You should be ashamed. You live in a fort on an army base. The mayor lives in Bed Stuy with his constituents. Shameful beyond belief.”
Williams attempted to end the online discussion, responding to Lewis-Martin’s post: “There’s a lot of things this administration should be ashamed of. I don’t think a discussion of them is productive on Twitter, though. So, hopefully, we can pause here.”
The antagonism between the two Brooklyn-based pols has yet again raised speculation about whether Williams might challenge Adams next year, though Williams has indicated that he intends to run for reelection. Notably, the public advocate is first in the line of succession if the mayor’s office suddenly becomes vacant.
