Fairytale of New York? NYC mayoral candidate Eric Adams gives reporters a tour of his Brooklyn apartment in a bid to end rumors that he secretly lives in NEW JERSEY
The front runner to be elected mayor of New York City on Wednesday staged a bizarre press conference to stave off rumors that he actually lived in New Jersey.
Eric Adams, the 60-year-old current president of Brooklyn, took reporters on a tour of his home in the borough - allowing them to peer inside his fridge and pore over his wardrobe.
Reporters noted the Democrat's scruffily-made bed, and creaky floorboards inside the Bed-Stuy townhouse, where he says he lives in the basement and rents out the floors above to pay for his son's college fees.
Adams' rivals and critics have accused him of actually living in New Jersey, where he owns a co-op in Fort Lee with his partner, Tracey Collins, an educator.
He dismissed the story as nonsense on Wednesday.
'How foolish would someone have to be to run to be the mayor of the City of New York and live in another municipality?' Adams asked.
Eric Adams, hoping to replace Bill de Blasio as the mayor of New York City, on Wednesday invited reporters to tour his basement home in Brooklyn, in a bid to prove that he actually lived in the city - rather than in New Jersey
Adams' home is seen on Lafayette Street in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. He lives in the basement and rents out the other two floors, he said, to fund his son's college education
The president of the borough of Brooklyn staged a press conference, beside his son, Jordan, 25, to insist that he did live in the property
Joined by his 25-year-old son, Jordan, outside the red-brick building, Adams, a former NYPD captain, tried to explain that he liked to keep his home private.
He said the feeling began when his son was a baby, and the back windows of Adams' car were shot at.
'Throughout my entire police career, none of my colleagues knew I had a son,' Adams said.
'I wanted to shield him from the reality of what I was doing. I became very private.'
His spokesman, Evan Thies, said Adams has lived on Lafayette Avenue in Bed-Stuy for nearly a decade, and gave several utility bills.
Adams' spokesman said that he has lived there for over a decade. Yet Adams was registered to vote until this year at yet another address, in Prospect Heights. His team say that was an administrative error, and the Bed-Stuy address is his main home
Adams is pictured speaking outside the home in Brooklyn. His spokesman insists he has lived there for a decade
Adams is registered to vote on the first floor, yet a tenant who has lived there for years is listed under the same unit in multiple documents obtained by Politico.
And last month, the publication City Limits reported that most of Adams' neighbors did not know he lived on their block, or that he is running for mayor.
Yet Politico, which monitored Adams as he came and went, found that he was frequently arriving in the Brooklyn Borough Hall offices after midnight, and leaving first thing in the morning.
He insisted it was to work.
The site reported that he also purchased a co-op in Prospect Heights with someone in 1992, and continues to list that property on official records, even though he says he hasn't lived there in almost 10 years.
He included that address on registration forms for his current mayoral and 2017 borough president campaigns, though his staff also added his Bed-Stuy property to the 2021 campaign form.
His spokesman said he has sold share of the Prospect Heights place.
They also noted that his Zoom calls have been from multiple different places, including his car and a nondescript cubicle.
Adams' Democrat rivals have seized on the questions.
Adams owns a condo in this Fort Lee building with his partner, Tracey Collins, an educator
Ray McGuire, another mayoral candidate and a former executive at Citigroup, said on Wednesday morning that Adams had serious questions to answer.
'You cannot simply have a cloud over the leadership of this city having to do with whether the rules of engagement have been followed,' McGuire told The New York Daily News.
'Nobody gets a pass in this city. Nobody should get a pass.'
Another rival, Kathryn Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner, said in a statement that it appeared Adams was 'misusing his political office at the taxpayers' expense.'
Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor de Blasio, called the story 'straight-up bizarre.'
And Andrew Yang, the former White House hopeful, said in a news conference in Queens that Adams 'probably lives in New Jersey.'
He called on Adams to release E-Z Pass records from his vehicle, proving how frequently he traveled to New Jersey.
Adams said he saw his girlfriend, Collins, on Saturday, but that it was the first time he spent time with her in over two months.
She lives in Fort Lee and maintains a low profile.
The primary will be held on June 22, and will in effect decide the election in the strongly-Democratic city. The election will be held on November 2.
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