Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams was photographed riding a Citi Bike through Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning, still dressed in the same rumpled collared shirt and brown dress pants he wore to his 66th birthday party the night before. The images, taken near 46th Street and Madison Avenue in New York, showed Adams looking tired as he pedaled through the Upper East Side at 8:03 a.m., earbuds in, following a late night that included dinner at a Turtle Bay piano bar and cake at 10:30 p.m.
The photos were first published by the New York Post, which described the scene as a walk-of-shame moment for the former mayor, who has long cultivated a reputation as New York's party mayor. Adams celebrated his birthday on September 1 at Mimi's Italian Restaurant & Piano Bar, a longtime Midtown fixture located at Second Avenue and East 52nd Street in Turtle Bay, according to Realtor.com. He was joined at dinner by billionaire businessman and WABC radio owner John Catsimatidis, public relations executive Todd Shapiro, and sporting goods CEO Mitch Modell, per the same New York Post account.
A Familiar Late-Night Pattern
Adams also posted photos of the birthday celebration to X himself, according to the Post's report. It is not the first time his nightlife habits have drawn attention: he was a regular at Zero Bond, the exclusive NoHo private social club opened in October 2020 by Scott Sartiano, which hosted his 2021 mayoral election victory party, as Hell Gate has reported. That same club scene has previously put him in the company of celebrities; the Post's report notes he has partied with A$AP Rocky, Floyd Mayweather, and Cara Delevingne over the years.
The comparison to a bygone era of colorful City Hall figures is not new. Political commentators and historians have frequently likened Adams's affinity for nightlife to 1920s Tammany Hall Mayor Jimmy Walker, nicknamed Beau James, who was similarly known for late-night clubbing before resigning amid a corruption probe, according to background compiled by CUNY. Walker insisted at the time that he had accepted gifts rather than bribes before leaving office.
An Earbud Ride That Could Carry a Fine
Beyond the wrinkled shirt, Adams's bike ride may have brushed up against New York traffic law. Under Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 375(24-a), it is illegal for cyclists to ride on public roadways while wearing more than one earbud or earphone connected to an audio device, a violation that can carry fines up to $150, according to Rosenblum Law. The Post's photos showed Adams wearing earbuds during the ride, though it is unclear from available reporting whether he was cited.
Adams made his Wednesday commute on a Citi Bike, the city's dominant bike-share system. Citi Bike operated more than 35,000 bicycles across New York City and New Jersey as of late 2025 and has recorded over 250 million trips since launching in 2013, making it the largest bike-share network in the country, per the Washington Square News.
Life After City Hall
The birthday photos land at a moment when Adams is well into his post-mayoral chapter. He ended his reelection campaign in September 2025, five weeks before election day, and officially concluded his term as the city's 111th mayor on December 31, 2025, succeeded by Zohran Mamdani, according to PBS News. Hoodline previously reflected on his tumultuous term as he left office.
Adams's legal troubles from his time in office have largely faded, though not entirely. A federal judge formally dropped the federal corruption and bribery charges against him in April 2025 after the Justice Department requested the case's dismissal, following his September 2024 indictment on bribery, wire fraud, and foreign campaign donation charges. But the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board fined him $4,000 in February 2026 over a 2025 press conference where he used city staff to distribute whistles targeting political rival Andrew Cuomo, a violation Hoodline covered in a piece on his ethics fine over Cuomo attack.
Fallout from his administration also continues elsewhere. Former Department of Buildings Commissioner Eric Ulrich, who resigned amid corruption investigations during Adams's tenure, is set to face a state bribery trial this month over allegations he accepted more than $150,000 in bribes, according to City & State New York. Catsimatidis, who dined with Adams at Mimi's, has a history with the former mayor that predates the birthday party — the two appeared together on Catsimatidis's WABC radio show in September 2024 to celebrate their shared Virgo birthdays, per a transcript from NYC.gov.
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