TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
- New York City mayoral candidate Eric Adams was spotted in his element by reporters.
- Adams, the Democratic nominee, was the subject of an extensive stakeout.
- Questions have lingered over where he actually lives, but he did appear at his listed residence.
In an effort to pin down where New York City mayoral favorite Eric Adams actually lives, reporters from New York magazine held a stakeout outside of his Brooklyn brownstone in the build up to Election Day.
The results did not disappoint.
Adams, the 61-year-old Democratic nominee and former NYPD captain, was observed by reporters engaging in a series of late night and early morning hijinks that typified his quirky personality.
At 4:18 a.m. last Tuesday morning, a New York magazine reporter saw Adams pull up to the Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone he's listed as his official residence and look for a place to park. The Brooklyn borough president's presence at the apartment in itself was noteworthy, given the ongoing confusion over where he really lives and revisions he's made to his tax returns after facing inquiries on that front.
However, Adams showing up to where he purports to live ended up being the least interesting part of the stakeout, with reporters sharing their first-person observations in Curbed, a division of New York magazine and Vox Media.
"Either way, once he went inside, things got slightly weird," one of the reporters recalled. "The Prius, it seemed, was illegally parked in front of an active garage for a plumbing-supply company. Which quickly became a problem for the trucks attempting to enter said supply company: They were soon backed up all the way down Lafayette Avenue, causing a bona fide pileup while Adams slept inside."
The traffic jam went on "for hours," according to Curbed.
By around 8 a.m., a forklift arrived and Adams' car was "towed it a few feet so things could get moving."
One of seven reporters then came by for a shift change, and witnessed an even more dramatic saga unfold.
"Willy arrived just in time to see Adams - definitively Adams - leave his apartment, climb into the car from the passenger side, shimmy into the driver's seat, then drive the car up onto the sidewalk," the article says. "He drove blithely on the sidewalk until he was past the jam, then turned right on Stuyvesant Avenue."
Adams has been the subject of illegal parking controversy previously, refusing to take action on placard abuse from city employees until a citywide solution would be in place. The placards allow city employees to park in areas where regular drivers cannot.
When asked about his illegal parking maneuver witnessed during the stakeout, Adams came clean.
"I got home late and drove around my neighborhood several times looking for parking, like so many New Yorkers do, and thought I would be out of the house early enough to move my car before the business opened," Adams told Curbed. "There is no excuse for it. In reflection I should have just rode my bike."
After conducting the stakeout, the team at Curbed did not come to a conclusion about whether Adams really lives in the Bed-Stuy brownstone he claims to.
"So does Eric Adams live in his own home? Maybe," the authors write. "Though if there ever was a time for Eric Adams to 'live' in 'his' apartment, it would be the week before election day."