Eric Adams will be sworn in as the 110th mayor of New York City in Times Square in the wee hours of Jan. 1, shortly after the Waterford Crystal ball drops on 2021.
“Times Square has long been synonymous with the New Year — a place of excitement, renewal, and hope for the future,” Mr. Adams said in a statement on Wednesday. “These are the same themes that animated my campaign and will inform my mayoralty, as I prepare to lead the city out of this challenging period.”
The city clerk will swear him in using Mr. Adams’s family Bible, and he will take office on Saturday at the tourist hot spot sometimes called the “Crossroads of the World.”
Mr. Adams has made a point of reveling in New York City’s nightlife, something that he has cast as boosterism for the city’s struggling club and restaurant scene. His swearing-in will come on the heels of Times Square’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration, featuring live performances by KT Tunstall, LL Cool J, Chlöe, and Journey.
Some epidemiologists have argued that Mayor Bill de Blasio should cancel the outdoor event in deference to the spread of the Omicron variant, but he has resisted, instead agreeing to limit the crowds to 15,000 from the normal 58,000 and requiring masks and full vaccination.
Mr. Adams recently canceled an indoor inauguration ceremony he had planned for Saturday evening at Brooklyn’s opulently restored Kings Theatre, citing the surge in coronavirus cases. In the news release on Wednesday, he said he would reschedule that for another date.
