Cash in a bag? We’ll miss you, Eric Adams

If Eric Adams were a normal incumbent New York City Mayor, he’d have a decent chance of winning re-election against slick TikTok-mastering bourgeois communist Zohran Mamdani and the decaying boomer persona of Andrew Cuomo. But Adams and his cronies can’t manage that. His New York is so corrupt it makes Coleman Young’s Detroit look like deacons passing a church collection plate. Even in the height of election season, Adams Inc. can’t help itself. 

Yesterday the NYC political website the City reported a story involving Adams advisor Winnie Greco, who, unbidden, approached a City reporter named Katie Honan and ended up dragging her into a Whole Foods, where Greco handed Honan, as the City put it, “a wad of cash in a red envelope stuffed inside an opened bag of Herr’s Sour Cream & Onion ripple potato chips.” 

“Honan,” the City reported, “thinking it was an offer of a light snack, told Greco more than once she could not accept the chips, but Greco insisted that she keep them.” First of all, Cockburn rejects the concept of flavored chips. Chips should taste only of two things: potatoes and corn. Maybe pepper and salt. Regardless, Katie Honan should have realized that in Adamsland, it’s never just a “light snack.” 

Honan looked at the money, “at least” one $100 bill and several twenties, and attempted to find Greco to return the money to her. This didn’t happen. Later, when the City contacted her, Greco said, “I make a mistake,” she said. “I’m so sorry. It’s a culture thing. I don’t know. I don’t understand. I’m so sorry. I feel so bad right now. I’m so sorry, honey.”

To make matters more hilarious, Greco (and the campaign’s) attorney is Steven Brill, founder of Court TV, who said to the City, “I assure you that Winnie’s intent was purely innocent. In the Chinese culture, money is often given to others in a gesture of friendship and gratitude. Winnie is apologetic and embarrassed by any negative impression or confusion this may have caused.” The campaign then removed Winnie Greco from its payroll. 

Cockburn isn’t as scrupulous as the City, and may very well have just taken that money and run to the nearest underground baccarat parlor to try and spin it into a real bankroll. But Greco, one of Adams’s many shady associates, didn’t offer him a red envelope. She instead chose to target a news outlet with integrity. 

Greco wasn’t the only Adams associate in the news this week. The New York Post reported yesterday that longtime Adams adviser and “campaign confidant” Ingrid Lewis-Martin is facing a fresh set of charges for “allegedly accepting bougie handouts in exchange for political favors.” They’re also investigating whether or not politically-connected businessmen paid for Lewis-Martin’s “well-known karaoke parties.” Lewis-Martin, who left City Hall in December, allegedly received $100,000 in bribes from a hotelier and a real-estate investor, which she then used to buy a used Porsche for her son. The Post says the bribes are related to the “McGuinness Boulevard revamp across Greenpoint.” Cockburn has no idea what that is, but it sounds very New York City. 

All this grift and graft is a bit too petty to be outrageous. A clumsy cabal of mayoral cronies flew too close to the sun, cash in hand, and it looks like the justice system isn’t going to let them get away with it. Soon their greasy-fingered reign will end. 

Cockburn is going to miss the Eric Adams administration. It hasn’t been perfect, but it’s also been an enjoyable throwback to the low-riding days of the 1970s, where every single public official was unapologetically on the take. Two months into the TikTok dances at city-run grocery stores in Mamdani’s New York, and we’ll all be wishing that reporter took the bribe in the potato-chip bag.