Culture Wars/Current Controversies

The Eric Adams Smash-and-Grab

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Today’s story, a profile of the alpha lobbyist Frank Carone, is superb for two reasons. (1) It is an extremely useful document for understanding the Eric Adams era of New York City, in which governing is an afterthought and the pay-for-play spirit is rampant. (2) It’s just really goddamn funny. Everyone in New York politics and lobbydom talked to our reporter, David Freedlander, and they seem to be trying to outdo one another at colorfully capturing what a character Carone is and how nakedly his transactionalism is on display. That includes Carone himself, who observes at one point, “I can be a real motherfucker.”

—Nick Summers, features editor, New York

The Eric Adams Smash-and-Grab It’s a brazenly transactional era of government here in New York City. Frank Carone is its master practitioner.

Photo: Dolly Faibyshev for New York Magazine
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Categories: Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Electoralism/Democratism

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