In contrast to New York Metropolis’s outgoing first woman, Tracey Collins retains a low profile — in truth, she was conspicuously absent throughout her accomplice Eric Adams’ mayoral marketing campaign and Tuesday victory events in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
And when the mayor-elect takes over Metropolis Corridor subsequent yr, the single couple might face some moral challenges. Collins, 58, works for the town’s Division of Training as a college administrator, and Adams would successfully be her boss.
“We’ll ask for [the Conflict of Interest Board’s] steerage,” Adams’ spokesman, Evan Thies, advised The Put up.
It’s a job Collins has held not less than since 2008, in keeping with public paperwork, which additionally present that she took residence $173,710 final yr.
“She will get up at daybreak to run the biggest college system in the USA,” Adams, 61, wrote of his longtime girlfriend in his 2020 vegan way of life e book, “Wholesome at Final: A Plant-based Method to Stopping and Reversing Diabetes.” He famous that Collins usually labored “12 hours a day. She by no means will get a break.”
In line with Thies, Adams has beforehand stated Collins is not going to have a task in his administration. It’s unknown if she is going to transfer into Gracie Mansion when the mayor-elect is sworn into workplace in January.
In truth, little is thought concerning the couple’s relationship. In line with public information, Collins grew up in New Orleans and lives in a high-rise two-bedroom residence overlooking the Hudson River in Fort Lee, NJ, the place Adams has stated he spends his weekends. Adams has lengthy owned a house in Bedford-Stuyvesant, however has recently been dogged with questions on the place he spends most of his time.
Along with working as an educator, Collins is the writer of “Candy Promptings,” a 2007 inspirational e book for which Adams, then a state senator representing Brooklyn, wrote the introduction. It’s not clear in the event that they have been courting on the time, and even a fellow lawmaker who was near Adams throughout his years within the state Senate advised The Put up they’d no recollection of Collins. Again then, Collins labored in his Albany workplace as chair of his Instructional Process Power. (Adams was a state senator representing Brooklyn from 2006 to 2013, when he was elected Brooklyn borough president.)
“Students are learners that get smarter, wiser and kinder on a regular basis,” wrote Collins, who’s a former trainer and principal at faculties in New Orleans and New York Metropolis. In her e book, she describes spontaneous acts of kindness. Collins wrote how she determined to present away her previous automotive to a single mom “so [the woman] might deliver her kids to highschool, their place of religion, and get to work with some extent of sanity herself. The automotive was not given to her out of pity, however out of an genuine concern for her wellbeing and happiness that will cascade out to her household.”
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the e book was earmarked for victims of Hurricane Katrina in Collins’ hometown, Adams famous within the introduction.
In 2010, Collins and Adams collaborated on a billboard marketing campaign all through Brooklyn known as “Cease the Sag” to encourage youth to actually pull up their pants.
“Have delight in your look: When you increase your pants, you’ll additionally increase your picture” was the rallying cry of the marketing campaign, created along with Collins’ Brooklyn-based nonprofit Totally Persuaded for Kids and Households. The “youth growth” charity was integrated in 2007 and shut down in 2015, in keeping with public information.
The saggy pants look “is a type of points that influence younger individuals significantly. They stroll into lecture rooms, they stroll into faculties … and folks make an evaluation about their look,” stated Collins concerning the marketing campaign in a March 2010 press launch on Adams’ Senate web site.
Collins didn’t hit the 2021 marketing campaign path with Adams, who, all through his profession as a police officer and a lawmaker, has all the time been intensely personal about his private life.
“All through my whole police profession, none of my colleagues knew I had a son,” stated Adams throughout a June press convention at his Mattress-Stuy residence. Adams is the daddy of Jordan Coleman, 26. The mayor-elect and Coleman’s mom, former Every day Information reporter Chrisena Coleman, by no means wed and cut up up when Jordan was 2 years previous, Adams beforehand advised The Put up.
Regardless of the secrecy surrounding his rapid household, Adams invoked his beloved mom, Dorothy Adams, a housecleaner and prepare dinner, in a marketing campaign advert, and even emotionally carried her portrait to the polling place the place he voted Tuesday. Dorothy Adams, who singlehandedly raised her six kids in Brooklyn and Queens, died in March at age 83.
“Eric is the type of one that retains his girlfriend out of his enterprise,” stated a Queens political operative who has recognized Adams for many years. “He runs his personal stuff. When he was in Albany, he all the time went on the prepare by himself. She’s not going to be like de Blasio’s spouse. She is simply not going to be within the image.”
Collins will not be prone to be concerned with metropolis authorities as first woman Chirlane McCray has been over New York Mayor Invoice de Blasio’s two phrases in workplace. McCray was previously head of the town’s embattled ThriveNYC, which spent $1.2 billion on psychological well being initiatives because it was launched in 2015, elevating questions on its spending and effectiveness and lack of expertise on the general targets of this system. She is anticipated to be entrance and middle if de Blasio runs for governor subsequent yr.
Regardless of Collins’ low public profile, Adams described her as his soulmate in his current e book.
“We do all the pieces collectively, and I wasn’t prepared to leap onboard until she was,” wrote Adams, who satisfied Collins to hitch him on his well being quest. “Tracey and I aren’t individuals who do one thing half means. So … we threw out each single unhealthy meals in our kitchen.”
“I used to be frightened about … Tracey, who had been identified with pre-diabetes,” he wrote. “She … oversees faculties in Brooklyn and The Bronx. I’ve by no means met anybody extra dedicated to her job than Tracey. She was so devoted, in truth, that she sacrificed her personal well being for the sake of New York’s kids.”
Adams recalled that the food plan, on which they every misplaced greater than 30 kilos, was particularly arduous on Collins, who “emptied out meals storage containers crammed together with her signature dishes,” he wrote. “They have been previous favorites that made her consider her childhood, together with the jambalaya with hen that her mom used to make.”
As a substitute, the couple “rekindled” their love of cooking, heading to the kitchen to make vegan pot pie with cornbread crust and coconut milk and vegan gumbo with beans and okra.
Calls to Collins went unanswered.
