Mayor Hochul to the rescue? Heres how gov can help NYC as Adams flounders

No matter what Mayor Adams decides to do in the coming days — or what other people may do to him — Gov.Hochul will have to start pulling double shifts: her day job, and acting as New York City’s de facto mayor.Adams’ federal indictment last week on five counts, including bribery and wire fraud, has thrown City Hall into a chaos that Gotham can ill afford.Anything or nothing might happen by the end of this year: Adams may stick it out and stay on the job as he proclaims his innocence.Or he may resign, with his lawyers perhaps advising him that prosecutors may lose interest in a former mayor.

Or Hochul may suspend him — she has the right to do so — and start the process of removing him, which takes at least 30 days.In any case, New York is effectively, and indefinitely, mayor-less.Jumaane Williams, the city’s lefty public advocate, would take over if Adams leaves — but Williams has never managed anything.So whether a weakened Adams hobbles along until December 2025 or we have a special election in the intervening months with the inexperienced Williams in charge for a time, Gotham needs a strong governor to fill the power vacuum Hizzoner’s scandals have created.And Hochul does have powers she can wield to the city’s benefit.For example, she can step in to relieve our migrant crisis.

We’re hosting 61,700 migrants in city shelters, costing taxpayers $4.7 billion this year, including $1.3 billion in state funds.But New York’s supposed obligation to offer a bed to anyone is rooted in the state Constitution — and over the more than four decades that this “right to shelter” has constrained Gotham, no governor has ever proposed legislation to define it.Hochul has preferred to throw money at the problem rather than take responsibility, but she could instead push for legislation to hem in this court-declared right: Who is eligible, how long can shelter residents stay, and so on.True, Hochul hasn’t proven adept at steering lawmakers....