Rising crime in New York has gripped the mayoral race. Eric Adams says he alone can fix it.

For the first few months of New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, the campaign seemed to be trundling along in search of a defining issue.

Covid-19 numbers were dropping, Democrats in Washington delivered financial aid to head off a potential budget crisis and, with the outlook generally bright, the candidates' plans -- many of them crafted in painstaking detail -- blurred together as the contest, which often played out in a long series of interminable Zoom forums, took a backseat to other provincial political dramas. But with the race now entering its final stretch, a series of high-profile shootings, instances of graphic street and subway violence and a rise in hate crimes -- especially against Asian Americans and Jews -- have sharpened the debate. Voters, as they finally zero in on the election, are listing crime as one of their leading concerns. The spike in violence has pushed visceral concerns over public safety into the spotlight and rekindled the brand of fiery rhetoric over policing that had mostly faded during more than two decades of diminished crime rates in the city.