Metro

Mayor Eric Adams blasted over NYC migrant tent city move, won’t say what it costs

Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that Randall’s Island was initially the favored location for his controversial migrant tent city — and claimed that moving it there from The Bronx would actually save taxpayers money.

But Hizzoner repeatedly refused to say how much cash he’d already wasted by scrapping the initial project after 10 days of construction.

And critics called the seeming blunder a result of “poor planning.”

“It’s not about money lost — it’s about using our dollars smartly,” he said during an unrelated event at the City College of New York’s main campus in Harlem.

“Once we get the exact cost, we will give it to you. We don’t do anything prematurely so you can say, ‘Eric lied on the cost.’ So, we’re going to give it once we get it.”

Just hours after announcing the unexpected change in plans, Adams said that “we could have mitigated the pooling of water” at the flood-prone Orchard Beach parking lot but that “we made the decision to move to Randall’s Island — and that’s what we did.”

“There’s a lot of pivoting and shifting that’s going to take place,” Adams said.

Growing defensive, Hizzoner insisted, “This is a humanitarian crisis!”

Mayor Eric Adams said that Randall’s Island was initially the favored location for his controversial migrant tent city. J. Messerschmidt/NY Post

“A lot of people have never dealt with humanitarian crises before. Realize that you have to make the right decision.”

Peter Warren, director of research for the conservative Empire Center for Public Policy in Albany, later told The Post: “It sounds like poor planning.”

“I don’t know why they didn’t just wait,” he said.

“If it’s such an emergency couldn’t they have suspended some of the seasonal activity on Randall’s Island? They’re certainly not in a position to be wasting money at this time if it’s avoidable.”

Warren alluded to a recent Post exclusive about Adams asking President Biden for at least $500 million in emergency aid, saying, “They’re banking on this federal relief right now.”

Both Adams and Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol claimed that using Randall’s Island would be “more cost-effective” than Orchard Beach. Anthony Behar/Sipa USA

US Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) said, “It’s sickening to see the way the city and the federal government are wasting taxpayer money to deal with problems they created that are totally avoidable.

“It’s frustrating to see the way money is thrown away by the city, state and federal governments at a time when we are dealing with budget issues, a $31 trillion debt and an economy where New Yorkers and Americans are struggling to get by,” she added.

During Tuesday’s news conference, Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol said that “one of the reasons that we did not originally place the camp at Randall’s Island was because of seasonal use, and that ends after Monday.”

This weekend, Randall’s Island is set to host the two-day celebration of “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” according to the powwows.com website.

Both Adams and Iscol also claimed that using Randall’s Island would be “more cost-effective” than Orchard Beach, with Iscol saying: “We’re actually saving money by moving to Randall’s Island at this stage.”

Neither detailed those assertions but in announcing the change Monday night, Adams said the Randall’s Island tent city would only accommodate 500 migrants, half the 1,000-person capacity planned for Orchard Beach.

Adams said the Randall’s Island tent city would only accommodate 500 migrants. Anthony Behar/Sipa USA

Adams also wouldn’t commit to an opening date for the delayed and yet-to-be-relocated tent city when asked by The Post.

“The day I say it opens,” he answered.

Also in response to a question from The Post, Adams said he’d spoken to Gov. Hochul and local officials upstate about housing some of the city’s migrant population, which on Monday was officially estimated to have swelled to 16,600 since May.

“Yes, we have been in communications with our colleagues in the state,” the mayor said before quickly pivoting to another subject.

Last month, The Post exclusively reported that US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) was seeking to send some migrants to upstate cities that could use the added population to qualify for pork-barrel funding from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Neither City Hall nor Hochul’s office immediately returned requests for additional information.