A handful of protesters disrupted a speech by Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday, storming a stage and accusing the mayor of caring more about the needs of the real estate lobby than the working-class New Yorkers he often talks about.
The demonstrators moved to within an arm’s length of Mr. Adams and chanted “How much money do you take from the rich?” before they were forcibly removed by police officers.
The surreal encounter, which took place at 583 Park Avenue, a historic landmark building now used as an event space, stunned the business leaders who had gathered there for a “power breakfast” held by the Association for a Better New York. Placed in the seat of every attendee was a one-page flier with a picture of the mayor titled “New York City’s Accomplishments.”
The flier centered on familiar themes of many of the mayor’s recent appearances, highlighting job growth and a reduction of some crimes — talking points that the mayor repeated in his speech.
Mr. Adams also announced progress on a massive office tower financed by Vornado Realty Trust and the Citadel founder Ken Griffin. The mayor said that, like the Empire State Building generations ago, the new building demonstrated faith in the city’s future, even as Manhattan’s office market was still struggling.
“This building is an investment,” the mayor said, advancing the notion that the new skyscraper was further indication that New York had fully recovered from the coronavirus pandemic. “It states we believe in our city.”
Mr. Adams dismissed the protesters, from a group called Planet Over Profit, as a handful of dissenters simply making noise and trying to stop the city’s progress. The group focuses on how the wealthiest Americans “are robbing us of a livable future,” according to its social media profile on X.
Four people were taken into custody, said police officials. It was unclear if they would face criminal charges.
The episode illustrated the tension the mayor was dealing with in attempting to hold together his coalition of working-class New Yorkers and business leaders as he heads into what is sure to be a hotly contested Democratic primary next year.
Even as Mr. Adams tries to reverse unfavorable budget cuts that his administration made to libraries and schools, and faces a federal investigation into his 2021 campaign and a decades-old allegation of sexual assault, the primary is sure to also focus on the mayor’s management of the city as it emerged from the pandemic.
Scott Stringer, the former comptroller who is exploring another run for mayor, has been sending fund-raising emails questioning Mr. Adams’s management. One email from last week said Mr. Adams had taken a “wrecking ball” to vital city services.
“I would do a little less campaigning and lot more governing if I were him,” Mr. Stringer said about the mayor’s speech. “If the priority is to build the second coming of the Empire State Building, then New Yorkers have a problem because we have an affordability crisis.”
Fabien Levy, the deputy mayor for communications, dismissed the protesters after the mayor’s speech.
“He’s the mayor of New York City,” Mr. Levy said with a shrug, “8.3 million people, 35 million opinions.”
Andrew Rein, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, was in the audience during Mr. Adams’s speech. The group recently released a survey that found that many New Yorkers were not happy with the quality of life or services in the city. Still, he said the mayor’s boosterism of New York was to be expected.
“He has to talk about all the good things that are happening because the more New Yorkers believe in New York, the better we will be,” Mr. Rein said. “It doesn’t mean everything is perfect.”
Speaking at an unrelated news conference after his speech, the mayor said he saw the demonstrators, who were carrying a sign, walk on to the stage and that he was unfazed by their presence.
“No banner is going to scare me,” Mr. Adams said.
Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting.
