"Are you out of your mind? Are you out of your mind? Are you out of your mind?"

The mayor's mysterious break, plus the WORLD PREMIERE of photos I've been saving for a right time that may never come #111

Mayor Eric Adams made a fiery return to the public eye on Thursday after the late Sunday night update from his “deputy mayor for communications” sharing that the mayor “wasn’t feeling his best” and would have a limited schedule all week.

What ailed the mayor? We don’t know for certain. We just know that it was bad enough for him to say in Gracie Mansion the first half of the week and not ever have a public press conference (even virtually) but not bad enough that he couldn’t not meet with union leaders Monday night.

We were all there for his return at two breakfast events — one low-key (the State of the NYPD) and another not so low-key, his Interfaith breakfast a few avenues over. The mayor hit that stage fired up. He addressed the rumor of him stepping down, saying it was reported he would resign in 72 hours (It was just Sal Albanese’s tweet saying that) and defiantly, again, saying he wouldn’t step down but instead would step up.

He went after the press, as usual, positioning us as the elites and his administration as the true working class. He even went after a rabbi who silently held up a sign that said, “Mr Mayor: Show Mercy to Our Immigrant Friends.”

“Walking around with your silly signs,” the mayor said angrily later, after he encouraged her to hold it up, and after he worked himself up in the speech. “Stop doing the signs and give the sign that you believe in God and go join the work that these people have done in this city. That's the sign we need to see.” (I’m a cultural Catholic but I’m gonna guess a rabbi believes in God.)

That rabbi, Sharon Kleinbaum, later told me she loved the Interfaith breakfast but couldn’t sit there silently as the mayor “capitulated” to the Trump administration on immigrants. She wasn’t upset by his anger so much as intrigued. She’s also worked for decades with the city’s immigrants, launching a legal clinic and working with multiple groups. A suggestion that she just sits at home in her pajamas while the mayor and his team works is laughable when you hear all that.

“I guess he was paying attention, which I’m grateful for,” she told me.

“He is absolutely wrong in his attacks on immigrants and he’s absolutely wrong on who New York City is.” (The full story is here.)

🎧LISTEN🎧

I was thinking this week about a band I love, Pattern is Movement, and the time I went with friends to see them play at some bar in Philadelphia (happy to share in person the story of the fight we all got into after the show.) Here’s a live performance of “Right Away” from a very long time ago and a YouTube mixed tape of them and other bands.

Sally Goldenberg joined us on FAQ to discuss the suddenly reclusive mayor and other political things.

And I can’t wait for the documentary on house music. [VULTURE]

Other interesting stories

Another big week at THE CITY. First, we launched RANKED CHOICES, our election newsletter. The first edition went out Thursday but you can SIGN UP HERE (please do!)

Then my colleagues had so many great stories — on recycling, on the commissary provider at Rikers, on the migrant vendors who are hiding, on NYPD car chases reducing 66% after policy change, on how Trump’s federal funding freeze will hurt the city, at the city’s business improvement districts pushback on bins.

Wheeeeeeere’s Johnny?

POLITICO reported this week that Johnny Petrosyants, a defendant in a medical billing fraud case, was missing. Attempts to serve him with a subpoena were not successful; Johnny left the country.

Almost exactly two years ago I went to a hip-hop photo exhibit at Fotografiska that the mayor added late to his public schedule. Soon after the mayor arrived, as I stalked behind him, I noticed a man in a green turtleneck who also seemed to be lurking. I texted a photo to my friend and former editor Jim Fanelli, the first to write about the Petrosyants and their relationship to Adams.

“I think that’s Johnny,” he said after I sent him a pic. I took more pictures and briefly spoke to Petrosyants, asking why he was there and if I could have his cell for any future stories. He declined.

I hoarded these photos waiting for the perfect story about Adams and the La Baia brothers, since mostly everyone, us too, uses that same Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce pic. I turned down one request from another outlet to use them in another story. I waited.

But now Johnny is out of the country, so what the hell! I call this series “Johnny at the Gallery.”

Thanks for reading!