Adams, Pledging to Aid 'Underserved,' Faces Daunting Challenges Ahead

Midway through a victory speech Nov. 2 celebrating his rise from a teenager "who sat in a precinct holding cell and was sure my future had already been decided" to his landslide election as the city's next Mayor, Eric Adams briefly departed from his impassioned rhetoric to point out, "We are fighting COVID, crime and economic devastation all at once."

Those will hardly be the only challenges waiting for him when he takes office Jan. 1. There is a public-school system that, he said repeatedly during the campaign, too often failed black and brown students in the city's struggling neighborhoods, and a homeless problem that grew worse over the past eight years—two areas in which Mayor de Blasio failed to deliver on promises he had made in 2013 while contrasting his priorities with those of his two immediate predecessors, Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani.