Mayor Eric Adams was in the U.S. Virgin Islands when a significant winter storm hit the city, bringing freezing temperatures and water to several areas of the city, delaying mass transit, and disrupting holiday travel plans.
After hiding them from the public for days, the mayor disclosed his weekend whereabouts during a separate press conference on Tuesday evening. Adams defended his choice to leave town, claiming that this was his second Christmas without his mother and that he was grieving for her.
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“After 365 days of commitment to this city, I decided to take two days to reflect on mommy. And to watch how you responded to my two days out of this city was really alarming,” the mayor told reporters in response to a question on his weekend travels. “I deserve a good work-life balance like you do.”
Adams requested compassion from the local media as he mentioned that he had to cope with murders, fires, and the deaths of police officers in the previous year without his parents. In 2021, when he was running for mayor, his mother passed away.
“If I take time off to get my mental capacity together, so I can take the city through the crisis, I deserve those two days,” the mayor noted.
Adams noted that he had adhered to the City Charter’s provisions, which provide that in the absence of the mayor, the first deputy mayor assumes control.
“Nowhere in the New York City Charter does it say I have to report to the New York City press where my whereabouts are,” he noted. “I’m not going to do that. And I’m not going to apologize for having the mental and physical capacity that’s needed to do the second-most difficult job in politics in America.”
While Adams was out of town, outgoing First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo led the city through a massive temperature drop, which covered city streets with black ice, and extreme flooding that left parts of Queens, Coney Island, and Lower Manhattan underwater. Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the mayor, said at the time that he was “still in touch with everyone on the ground.”
The mayor noted that other mayors before him have left town and said that it would be impossible to avoid any major event in a city with so much going on. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, for instance, was vacationing in Bermuda when a blizzard hit the city in 2010.
“There are going to be days in the future that I’m going to leave without letting you know beforehand, but we will have the right people in place to run a complicated city,” Adams said. “But I’m not going to always tell this press where I am, to have you sitting outside the location and saying my every move. I’ve learned enough of that.”
Adams has been questioned in the past about his home address and his nightlife habits. His spokespeople did not immediately respond to questions about which island he was on over the Christmas weekend.
