Mayor, Governor, and Mayor-elect Express Newfound Spirit of Cooperation

By Yehudit Garmaise

When Mayor Bill de Blasio, this morning, had both Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor-Elect Eric Adams speak this morning on what was one of his last mayoral press conferences, a perhaps once-missing spirit of cooperation stood out as having been restored.

When Gov. Hochul spoke, she thanked the mayor for “his partnership and his collaboration from the very beginning to fight this surge.”

“I love the collaboration that's going on between our Departments of Health, something that was missing, but is now in full gear,” said Gov. Hochul, who remembered meeting with the mayor last month, “when we’d just heard about the very case of Omicron that appeared in New York State and New York City.”

“That afternoon, we sat together and pledged full cooperation together to let people know that we would be united in our attack on this virus and do everything we can to keep New Yorkers, as well as every New York State resident safe,” she said.

To “continue that pledge of collaboration,” the governor sent more than 600,000 rapid tests to the city’s Department of Health last week. She also announced five new state-run testing sites that will be launched tomorrow, 37 pop-up testing sites and 17 more planned. 

“So, the state and the city [are] working together, [and] we're going to make sure that there's no shortage of supply, as well as making sure in the case we need ambulances: we just sent 10 more ambulances to New York City as well,” said Gov. Hochul, who also praised the collaboration that Mayor de Blasio’s administration has extended to the incoming Mayor-elect Eric Adams. 

“That is what the public wants to see,” Gov. Hochul said. “They don't want any battling: no turf battles here, because we have one common battle to fight, and that is against this variant.”

When introducing Mayor-elect Adams, the mayor pointed out, “There has been, I have to say: a seamless transition.

“I hope New Yorkers will get to see that this has been one of the smoothest, most collaborative, and most positive transitions I've ever seen in anywhere: at any level of government,” the mayor said. “And the credit goes to our mayor-elect for the spirit he's brought to this.”

Later in the afternoon, when Adams held his first press conference alone at his last day at Brooklyn Borough Hall, he was asked, as he often is whether he agrees or disagrees with different policies of Mayor de Blasio.

“I am very sensitive to not create chaos,” said Adams, revealing the emotional intelligence he promotes. “There is a lot of anxiety now, and when I sat down with the mayor a couple of months ago, I said, ‘Mayor, we cannot add to the anxiety.’

“When I am in the streets, I [sense and hear] the level of fear that people are feeling. When they hear the mayor, the governor, and the mayor-elect at each other’s throats, saying that we contradict each other, that just adds to their anxiety.

“All of us saw at the beginning of COVID, when it first hit, it was an embarrassing time to see the mayor and governor and everyone fighting with each other.

“I was extremely sensitive not to do that.”

“If I agree, I stand with people, and if I disagree, I am not going to criticize at all. I believe, what my mother used to say: ‘If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all.’”