NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — In an exclusive interview with 1010 WINS, Mayor Eric Adams defended but refused to apologize for comparing an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor to a slave-holding plantation owner after she angrily questioned his support for cost increases on rent stabilized apartments at a Town Hall on Wednesday.
“I came from a family that my mom made it clear, never allow someone to be disrespectful to you,” said Adams. “That woman disrupted a meeting where all the participants were acting respectfully and cordially to get their issues heard. She disrupted that, and then she was degrading in how she communicated with me. I’m not going to allow civil servants to be disrespected, and I’m not going to be disrespected as the mayor of this city.”
Jeanie Dubnau, a Jewish tenant activist and biology professor at Rutgers University who fled Nazi Germany as an infant, confronted the mayor at a town hall in Washington Heights on Wednesday.
Dubnau interrupted Adams and demanded an answer as to why he supported raising rent on stabilized apartments.
The Rent Guidelines Board, a nine-person panel who were all appointed by Adams, voted last week to increase the maximum rent for one-year leases by 3% and two-year leases by almost 6%.
When Adams insisted he “does not control” the board, Dubnau responded while pointing: “We’re talking about the Rent Guidelines Board. You said before and after that you supported those rent increases. In Nassau, they had a zero percent rent increase. Why in New York City, where real estate is controlling you Mr. Mayor, why are we having these horrible rent increases last year and this year.”
“If you’re going to ask a question, don’t point at me and don’t be disrespectful to me. I’m the mayor of this city, and treat me with the respect that I deserve to be treated,” Adams responded. “I’m speaking to you as an adult, don’t stand in front like you treated someone that’s on a plantation that you own. Give me the respect I deserve and engage in a conversation.”
The audience at the Town Hall applauded when he started chastising Dubnau for her question, but abruptly stopped when he made the plantation remark.
“Treat me with the same level of respect I treat you,” said the mayor after comparing Dubnau to a plantation owner.
“Some can say that [I went too far], and her behavior was acting in a disrespectful way,” said Adams in the interview on Friday. “I’m just seeing this disrespect that we are displaying not only locally but nationally. Disrespect to police officers, disrespect to religious groups when they are in our city, disrespect to everyday people who deliver services, and it needs to stop.... I’m the representative of this city, and we need to start having a better dialogue on how we communicate with each other, both locally and nationally.”
“Oh, he’s not going to apologize,” said Dubnau in an interview with the New York Post. “I mean, you know the mayor. He thinks he’s the greatest and doesn’t want to be criticized.”
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