In final stretch of mayoral race, Andrew Cuomo pivots to tech
Mayor Eric Adams promised to be a “tech mayor.” In his four years in office, Adams embraced crime-fighting robots, accepted a handful of paychecks in cryptocurrency, remade a de Blasio-era plan to provide internet at public housing buildings and partially delivered a new app for accessing city services.
Whether Adams earned the label of tech mayor or not is beside the point for now: He’s not running for reelection. In his absence, another candidate may be seeking that title.
With less than a week left before early voting starts, independent mayoral candidate and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a proposal to hire a “chief innovation officer” if elected. As described in a short press release, the new role would seek investment from emerging technology industries, as well as improve how the city uses technology to better deliver services. The “senior administration position” – which a campaign spokesperson later said would be a deputy mayor-level position – would be chosen in consultation with an “Innovation Council” made up of leaders in biotechnology, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency and blockchain. There may be some appeal in that proposal for technology leaders, or even crypto fans with deep pockets and no candidate. And the other mayoral candidates’ relative lack of focus on tech and innovation leaves a small lane for Cuomo to occupy.
But to some, the proposal read more like a last-minute political play than a substantive policy proposal. “It seems like a very cynical ploy to try to claim a mantle of being a tech and innovation person,” said a former city technology official, who added that Adams did the same and failed to deliver. The former official was granted anonymity to speak about the current state of civic technology in the city.
https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2025/10/final-stretch-mayoral-race-andrew-cuomo-pivots-tech/408982/?oref=csny-homepage-river