Adams Wants NYC Business Workers Back Amid COVID Surge

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Eric Adams made history during a typically exuberant event to highlight efforts to help New York City's businesses.

No, it wasn't the executive order he signed that aims to cut back on fines and violations for small businesses. Nor was it him repeating a call for big businesses to bring back office workers amid a massive COVID-19 surge.

"And if you know it or not, I am the first mayor in the history of New York that wore a hoodie," he said Monday as he pulled over a sweatshirt bearing the words "Vaccine And Testing."

Whether or not Adams was indeed a sartorial mayoral pioneer quickly got consumed by the coronavirus. A reporter asked what thought about big businesses, particularly in the Financial District, tell their employees to hold off returning to offices as omicron rages.

Adams said he wants big businesses to come up with a "closer deadline" for their return. Not doing so will have a devastating effect on other workers, from cooks to dishwashers to shoe shiners.

"This is not a separate thing to get through this," he said. "We have to get through this together. I need them to shorten the span. I need people back into the office."

The domino effect Adams outlined dovetailed with the purpose of his visit to Pearl River Mart in Chinatown — an executive order reforming how the city deals with small businesses.

He ordered city agencies — specifically the Department of Buildings, Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Sanitation, Fire Department, Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene — to review and identify the 25 violations that lead to the greatest number of summonses and fines. Officials must then look toward eliminating them, scaling back fines, give first time warning or allow businesses a chance to cure first-time violations.

Agencies no longer will walk into small businesses and issue fines instead of promoting fixes, Adams said.

“We have used our agencies to turn the American dream into a nightmare,” he said. “Every day, all day, in the way of small businesses, not allowing them to flourish.”

“Pearl River Mart, we’re going to put you on a new river — a new river of hope and prosperity, where we’re going to be your partners and not your enemy,” he said.