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Mayor Adams and the Brooklyn

Apartment He Just Can’t Quit
Despite Mayor Eric Adams’s multiple claims that he had sold an
apartment to an ex-girlfriend, he filed financial disclosure forms
showing he still owns it.

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Mayor Eric Adams’s ever-developing story about a Brooklyn apartment underscores

his tendency to sometimes tell stories that develop holes under scrutiny. Hiroko
Masuike/The New York Times

By Dana Rubinstein

June 7, 2023 Updated 4:38 p.m. ET

As Eric Adams ran for mayor of New York City, questions arose
about a Brooklyn apartment that he seemed to own, even though
he said he had transferred it to his former girlfriend.

The explanation was simple, Mr. Adams explained. His ex-

failed to file the proper paperwork cementing the deal.

After Mr. Adams was elected, it emerged that he still co-owned that
apartment. He then blamed his accountant for the mistake,
suggesting that the accountant may have been distracted because
he had recently become homeless. The mayor said the transfer to
his former partner was “underway.”

But on Wednesday, it became clear that Mr. Adams still owned that
one-bedroom apartment in Crown Heights, according to financial
disclosures released by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.

A spokesman for the mayor said that the process that was
underway last June is still underway.

“After previously learning that the transfer did not go through, the
mayor initiated the process last year to transfer the property, but
for tax-related purposes, it is currently being delayed, and the
mayor has filled out his C.O.I.B. paperwork to reflect that fact,”
the spokesman, Fabien Levy, said.

Mr. Levy declined to elaborate on the tax-related purposes that he

said were behind the delay.

Mr. Adams’s ever-developing story about the modest Editors’ Picks

Brooklyn apartment underscores his tendency to sometimes tell

As the Tonys Head
stories that develop holes under scrutiny. Uptown, Step Inside
the United Palace
‘Dream World’
The mayor last year told state legislators that he had been
convicted of a crime, when he had not been. In a 2019 Is ItBad to Wash
commencement speech , he took a pastor’s story about a dog Your Hair Every
Day?
dirtying his yard and made it his own. In recent weeks, Mr. Adams
has inaccurately suggested that migrants were occupying nearly Want a Class in
Leadership Styles?
half of the city’s hotel rooms and that fentanyl was a commonplace Look to the N.B.A.
ingredient in cannabis edibles. Finals.

And now, contrary to his years of saying otherwise, documents

show Mr. Adams continues to own the apartment he bought in 1988
with his then-partner, Sylvia Cowan, who could not be reached for
comment on Wednesday.

In March, a neighbor spotted a tax form from Emblem Health

addressed to Eric Adams in the communal mail area of the Crown
Heights building. That same month, the neighbor saw an envelope
for the mayor from American Express, on which someone had
appended a note reading, “LOL.” On Tuesday night, the neighbor
spotted a piece of official government mail intended for the mayor.

A spokesman for Mr. Adams suggested that it was commonplace to

receive mail after having vacated an apartment, and that it would
be no different for the mayor, even 16 years after he had
purportedly transferred — or thought he had transferred —
ownership of his apartment.

“It seems like you’re asking why someone would get mail at an old
address,” Mr. Levy said. “I’d point you to almost every New Yorker
who gets mail for old tenants.”

The Crown Heights apartment is one of several properties Mr.

Adams owns in the tristate region. He also owns a multifamily
rental property in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-
tuyvesant, and he co-owns a condominium in Fort Lee, N.J., with
Tracey Collins, whom he has described as his partner. Ms. Cowan,
his former partner, also purchased an apartment in that Fort Lee
building, just downstairs from Mr. Adams’s.

During Mr. Adams’s campaign for mayor in 2021, his co-ownership

of the one-bedroom Crown Heights apartment became an issue
because he had left it off disclosure forms that the state and city
require from elected officials.

At the time, Mr. Adams said he was correct to omit the ownership
stake because he had transferred that stake to Ms. Cowan in 2007.
To prove his point, he produced a three-sentence letter saying as
much, though the letter was not notarized and was not signed by
Ms. Cowan.

He blamed Ms. Cowan for failing to properly record the transfer.

When it emerged last year that Mr. Adams still owned the
apartment, he blamed his former accountant for the
misunderstanding.

“However, once he got a new accountant, the mayor realized all the
proper paperwork had not been filled out in the past and that a new
deed had not been filed by the other property owner,” Mr. Levy said
last year. “That process is now underway.”

Michael Rothfeld contributed reporting.

Dana Rubinstein is a reporter on the Metro desk covering New York City politics. Before
joining The Times in 2020, she spent nine years at the publication now known as Politico
New York. @ danarubinstein

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Explore Our Coverage of the Adams Administration

Tale Teller: Mayor Eric Adams has made an art form of telling stories about
himself that are nearly impossible to verify, adding fresh details to often-told
anecdotes. But when his tendency to hyperbole strays into policy, there are more
serious implications .

Right to Shelter: Mayor Eric Adams asked a judge for permission to relieve New
York City of its obligation to provide shelter for anyone who asks, asserting that
the influx of asylum seekers has overwhelmed the city’s ability to accommodate
all those in need.

Housing: Jessica Katz, the architect of the mayor’s housing policy, said that she
was resigning , dealing City Hall a setback at a time when rents are rising and the
homeless shelter population has reached record levels. The mayor’s opposition to
legislation that would expand the city’s rental subsidy program might have been a
factor in her decision.
Education: Half of children in grades three to eight in the city fail reading tests.
David Banks, the city’s schools chancellor, is planning to force the nation’s largest
school system to take a new approach .

Rent Increases: The city panel charged with regulating rents across nearly one
million rent-stabilized apartments gave preliminary approval to some of the
largest increases in years.

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