"You simply can't trust Eric Adams nor those that are closest to him," former assemblymember and Mayoral candidate Michael Blake said as he sat down with FAQ NYC hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel on Tuesday.

"And when you have four deputy mayors who have quit on him after Eric Adams quit on New Yorkers on MLK Day, it's a clear indication that it's time for us to quit on him and move on. And so where do we go from here? I'm laying out a very different vision of what can be for New York City."

In a wide-ranging interview — part of a series with each of the mayoral candidates — Blake dug into his idea of a guaranteed livable income, his plans to significantly increase public-school spending and slash the NYPD's overtime bill, his case for why he's the right candidate to meet this moment in New York City, and much more.

The author joins Harry Siegel and guest host Brian Berger of Straus News for a deep dive into his latest book, the excellent and almost undefinable Brooklyn Crime Novel.

Lethem digs into his reasons on re-reexamining the Brooklyn he wrote about 20 years earlier in The Fortress of Solitude, but doing so this time with the tools of a journalist including long interviews conducted amid the dislocation and isolation of the COVID lockdown, and much more:

When Katie Honan called in to discuss the latest New York City news Monday morning with co-hosts Christina Greer and Harry Siegel, she did so while posted outside of the David Dinkins Municipal Building where Mayor Eric Adams had convened his top commissioners and officials.

Katie hopped off the call mid-way through the episode to get back to reporting, and then broke then news that Hizzoner had told his team to trust him and refrain from criticizing Trump or interfering with ICE. Hours later, the memo dropped with Trump’s Justice Department suspending the mayor’s criminal trial on corruption charges that had been scheduled to begin in May.

Here’s an instant-vintage glimpse back at what the state of the city seemed like on Monday morning.

“I've always represented a community that knew we could hold two things together at the same time: that we want to hold officers accountable when they step over the line but also that we need them as part of our public safety ecosystem,” state Senator and mayoral candidate Zellnor Myrie said in a wide-ranging interview.

“I've never been a defund-the-police Democrat, because my community has never been a defund-the-police community. We have always asked for police officers, but my mom doesn't want her son getting pepper sprayed. She wants to feel safe, and that is what this plan is about.”

When Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy put out the news Sunday night that Mayor Eric Adams wasn't feeling well and was clearing his public schedule, it came just a week after City Hall's late-night news that he'd cancelled his Martin Luther King Jr. Days plans and was driving to D.C. to attend Donald Trump's inauguration.

Sally Goldenberg, the senior New York Editor at Politico, joins hosts Christina Greer, Katie Honan and Harry Siegel to talk about the embattled mayor's surprising news and much more, including why Andrew Cuomo remains the non-candidate to beat, why socialist Zohran Mamdani's early surge isn't likely to continue without significant pushback, and much more from another jam-packed week in New York City.

“I think this election is about who can put the city back together, and I don't think people are going to buy the woe-is-me Eric Adams story,” Stringer said in a sitdown interview. “Maybe Trump will buy it, but I don't think voters are going to buy it.”

In a wide-ranging conversation —the first in a series with all of the declared candidates — the former comptroller who lost to Adams in the 2021 primary explained what he’s been doing since then as “a New Yorker without portfolio,” laid out his view of a city in crisis (“we have a crime issue, and it’s real”), and pitched himself as the right person to connect with voters and to turn things around

A new poll shows the former governor with 32% support among likely voters. It's not just name recognition, though, or the mayor vying for a second term wouldn't be at just 6%, tied with Socialist Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, and behind State Senator Jessica Ramos at 7%, Comptroller Brad Lander at 10% and former Comptroller Scott Stringer leading the declared challengers at 12% — putting all of them way behind "Unsure" at 18%.

The FAQ NYC hosts discuss all this, and much more, about the awfully uncertain and unstable election that's not even six months away, as it gets late early here.

On the first weekday of NYC’s new congestion-pricing era that's already being threatened by the incoming Trump administration, Jose Martinez, THE CITY’s senior reporter covering transportation, offers some perspective on what this means for the trains and streets inside the zone and throughout the five boroughs:

"Politicians use the words historical a lot, but I do think that when they flipped the switch on this thing Saturday night, yeah, that was a bit of history here in New York. It's something that has just been brewing for years — now it's here."

Nicole Gelinas, the author of Movement: New York's Long War to Take Back Its Streets from the Car, explains why she opens her epic account with the mayors who fought against the street-car system that once transported New Yorkers a billion times a year.

From there, Gelinas talks with editors Harry Siegel of THE CITY and Ben Max of New York Law School about the promise of congestion pricing, the challenges to getting big things fixed let alone built here, the ghost of Robert Moses, and much more

The mayor’s right-hand woman was in cuffs, while Adams was taking part in a ridiculous perp walk that played out more like a glamor shot for a murderer. Hizzoner’s friend and ally in the NYPD, who Adams has gone to bat for again and again over charges of abusing his authority, resigned after being accused of using overtime to coerce a subordinate into sex.

Even as there were two more terrible train murders on Sunday, Adams laid low. As the hits keep coming for an historically unpopular mayor who’s trying to duck the local press and ride out the end of the year while New Yorkers are otherwise occupied, hosts Chrissy, Katie and Harry discuss all that and much more.