NEW YORK: Eric Adams, a Black ex-cop who fought racial discrimination within the police, is poised to be elected New York’s next mayor on Tuesday, tasked with leading the city’s post-pandemic recovery.

The 61-year-old centrist Democrat and passionate vegan will become just the second African American to lead the Big Apple, a job often described as the most difficult in the United States after president.

It caps a remarkable rise for Adams, who was born in poverty in Brooklyn and ran errands for a gang as a teenager before joining the NYPD and then pursuing a political career.

He is all but certain to defeat Republican rival Curtis Sliwa in Tuesday’s vote in overwhelmingly liberal-voting NYC and succeed unpopular progressive Bill de Blasio, whose two-term limit ends on December 31.

Adams considers himself a strong leader — a champion of the working class and a fighter against racial injustice, but also someone who is tough on crime and friendly towards big business.

As mayor for more than eight million people, he will oversee America’s largest municipal budget, crippled by the pandemic, and its biggest police force and public school system.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2021