Hochul, Adams present a united front on public safety after subway security spat

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul signaled on Tuesday that their relationship is too important to let a power struggle over who polices New York City subways get in the way.

The Democratic executives rushed to “reinforce the depth” of their alliance, as Hochul said, after hints of a rift last week: Adams did not appear with Hochul to announce the deployment of the National Guard in subway stations. Instead, he went on his own media blitz, appearing for seven live interviews the same day and emphasizing New Yorkers’ concerns over safety.

A top NYPD official later voiced a condemnation of Hochul’s plan on X.

“There’s just so much of y’all trying to pull us apart. It’s just not going to happen,” Adams said Tuesday, standing next to Hochul at a news conference on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge — formerly the Triborough Bridge. They were there to announce a new license plate task force.

“This is a partner,” Adams added.

The relationship between the state’s governor and the mayor of its biggest city has not always been chummy. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former Mayor Bill de Blasio famously sparred over everything from funding preschool to custody of a lost deer in Manhattan.

But Hochul emphasized the shared desire for cohesion.

“We said at the very outset that the era of the governor of the state of New York and the mayor of the city of New York fighting is officially over,” Hochul said.

Adams has been singing the same tune throughout his two-year tenure. It’s part rhetoric — distancing himself from de Blasio, who the mayor often portrays as a poor politician — and part reality. Adams has relied on Hochul to be an advocate in Albany amid tense relations with the two legislative leaders.

Hochul, in turn, can also differentiate herself from the notoriously vindictive Cuomo, while maintaining a relationship with a powerful Black politician supported by the same voters she needs for her own political future.

A top-ranking chief in Adams’ own NYPD was among those last week who criticized Hochul’s deployment of 1,000 National Guard and state police troopers to check subway riders’ bags, arguing that city cops were already keeping crime down. Others like Public Advocate Jumaane Williams pegged it as posturing, and said the money would be better spent elsewhere.

But the mayor defended Hochul at length in a separate, wide-ranging press conference earlier Tuesday.

The NYPD is working on subway safety, and Hochul asked “how can we enhance that?” Adams recalled. “The presence of a uniform makes people feel better. And if the National Guard or the state police want to add to that presence, I applaud that.”

Adams complimented the state troopers uniforms, calling them “cool as hell.” He said the governor and her team met virtually with him and his team two Thursdays ago to discuss perceptions of safety in the subway, and the plan for extra troops came from that.

Hochul and Adams were ostensibly together to announce the creation of a multi-agency task force to crack down on cars with scratched up or fake license plates, which served to underline their continued cooperation.

“I just want to just reiterate,” Adams said, “just how much this governor has played [a role] in the entire apparatus of public safety, time and time again.”

City Hall declined to comment on the substance of NYPD Chief of Department John Chell's post. A spokesperson noted that Adams made his own position on the governor's initiative "clear."