Gleaming and ornate, symbolic keys to the City of New York have been awarded to individuals for a variety of achievements — landing a plummeting plane safely in the Hudson River, writing influential punk music, winning a basketball championship. And since 2023, the keys have been supplied by Schoppy’s, a century-old trophy and plaque company.
In New Jersey.
“We do find the irony in the fact that the Keys to New York City come from New Jersey,” David J. Talarico Sr., the third-generation owner of Schoppy’s, in Linwood, N.J., wrote in an email. “But we love our neighbor and are proud to serve the City of New York.”
On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams, who has had to beat back accusations that he himself is based in New Jersey, handed out keys to organizations working to prevent violence across the five boroughs. The ceremony was one of his final public acts in the waning days of his term.
In a statement on Tuesday, City Hall did not comment on the keys’ provenance.
“The Key to the City is a ceremonial symbol and its significance comes from the meaning the city attaches to it, representing our collective appreciation, respect and recognition of an individual’s contributions,” the statement said.
The ceremonial keys used to be replicas of a real 1812 key to City Hall’s back door, and were made just six blocks away at Ashburns Engravers on John Street. Today, the phone number for Ashburns is disconnected.
The Adams-era key is blingier and chunkier than its predecessor, which was embossed with the city’s seal and plated in real gold, according to news reports. The Schoppy’s design, made of resin with a gold-paint finish, look more like an artist’s rendering of an antique key. But the cost of bestowing such an honor, like the cost of virtually everything in New York City, has gone up. In 2007, each key cost $100, The New York Times reported at the time. The five given out on Monday — including extra engraving, since each key had multiple recipients — cost just under $250 apiece, the mayor’s office said.
The tradition dates back to medieval times, when dignitaries were presented with keys to fortified cities with actual gates that they were free to unlock. In New York, the practice began in 1702, when what was known then as “Freedom of This City” was awarded to Viscount Edward Cornbury, who governed both New York and New Jersey.
Sometimes a key has been tarnished by its recipient. Mayor Adams awarded one to the music mogul Sean Combs, known as Diddy, in 2023, announcing, “The bad boy of entertainment is getting the key to the city from the bad boy of politics!” The next year, after video surfaced that appeared to show Mr. Combs attacking a former girlfriend, the mayor asked him to return it. He did.
Bill Cosby, whose 2018 conviction for aggravated indecent assault was overturned in 2021, had been awarded a key in 1987 by Mayor Edward I. Koch. It appears Mr. Cosby still has his key.
Mayor Adams has given out more than 50 keys since taking office in 2022, according to City Hall. David N. Dinkins appears to have given out the fewest of any mayor in the past few decades, according to records provided by the city — just two, to Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Nelson Mandela.
On Monday, Mayor Adams handed out five glossy cherry-finish plaques with golden keys during a ceremony in City Hall’s Blue Room. On the plaques were the names of 29 organizations that are part of a citywide violence-interruption program. The organizations hire mediators, usually people with criminal pasts, to reach out to troubled young people and gang members as a way to prevent shootings and other violence. Unlike in past years, the recipients were grouped by borough rather than being awarded individual keys.
At the event, some discussed sharing custody of the keys by rotating them every two months. Fabien Levy, a spokesman for the mayor, said the grouping of recipients was not a money-saving move but a way to highlight the cooperative nature of the organizations’ work. “We wanted to show that this was a community collaboration,” he said.
Tara Brown-Arnell, a chaplain at Bronx Connect, an anti-violence nonprofit in the South Bronx, said she was moved by the gesture. But, she added with a laugh, the groups would have preferred to receive their own keys.
They can always order more. The Keys to the City of New York are available online.
Sarah Maslin Nir is a Times reporter covering anything and everything New York … and sometimes beyond.
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