{"id":98,"date":"2023-11-15T22:27:58","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T22:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/table-of-success.local\/?p=98"},"modified":"2024-10-02T18:57:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T18:57:52","slug":"ingrid-lewis-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tableofsuccess.mysites.io\/ingrid-lewis-martin\/","title":{"rendered":"Ingrid Lewis-Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Much has been written<\/a> about the near-limitless authority<\/a> Ingrid Lewis-Martin has within the Adams administration, how she ruthlessly wields that authority<\/a> in support of powerful and parochial interests, and how she does not care about what others think of her combative style. Allow us to add one more story to her legend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On August 2, a group of elected officials\u2014including a member of New York’s congressional delegation\u2014gathered for a meeting scheduled by Lewis-Martin, according to a person who attended. Lewis-Martin showed up late, Zooming in from a dentist\u2019s chair. After a few minutes of pleasantries, the aforementioned congressmember began forcefully asking for something they wanted from the City. According to the attendee, Lewis-Martin turned her camera on, cut the politician off, apologized for being at the dentist, informed them that she was going on vacation and that she’d deal with the issue when she returned, then ended the meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (The Mayor’s Office has not responded to our questions about this account.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n “She does not get bullied around and that is a very useful power\u2014when it’s on your side,” <\/strong>that source, who works in City government, told Hell Gate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the mayor has credited Lewis-Martin for striking deals<\/a> with labor and securing big real estate projects<\/a>, the chief adviser has mostly been in the news for her behind-the-scenes battles, including torpedoing<\/a> street safety projects<\/a> and planned bike lanes<\/a> across<\/a> New York City in line with the desires of business interests and certain well-connected New Yorkers. Lewis-Martin has wide purview and little oversight except for the mayor himself (Where the mayor needs me, I\u2019m in it<\/a>,” she told City & State.) Her “penchant for overriding other officials on even minor issues” has pissed off<\/a> some of her colleagues, including First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, who reportedly asked<\/a> <\/strong>Adams to not bring her into his administration, although both women deny this. (“Sheena and I have never had a cross word,” Lewis-Martin told<\/a> the New York Times. “For sources to lie and focus on some made-up fighting, as opposed to quality work being done in our office, is an insult to women and, in particular, Black women.”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n A different source in City government said that Lewis-Martin, who pulls in a $251,000 annual salary<\/a> at her position, “undermines the way government is supposed to work.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Which is not, one person who’s like, ‘tear up the street’ or ‘undo whatever,’ and then makes it happen,” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid reprisals. “She is not the executive, she is not the person who should be making those decisions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n