Only 104 votes separate Kristin Jordan from the incumbent, Bill Perkins. 104 ballots (out of 25,626 ballots cast in the City Council 9 race means that we’re headed for a manual recount.
We have not heard from the Board of Elections specifically that Bill Perkins’ wife – a patronage appointee to the NYC Board of Elections – has (or will) recuse herself from the process.
The City has the answer to all the ranked choice confusion swirling around in our collective zeitgeist
By going through their version of political online dating, The City will show you which candidate’s answers to the same questions, most parallel yours:
If you’re one of the approximately 320 million Americans who don’t live in New York City, it might seem like its Democratic mayoral primary has gotten an outsized amount of media coverage. But even I, a Bostonian, can admit that the complex politics of New York City makes Tuesday’s election one of the most intriguing races of the year.
The city is a stark reminder that “heavily Democratic” does not necessarily equal “far left.” The front-runner for mayor is Eric Adams, a Black former Republican who has staked his campaign on his opposition to defunding the police. Kathryn Garcia, Maya Wiley and Andrew Yang are also within striking distance in the polls, but only Wiley unambiguously belongs to the party’s progressive wing.
But it’s too facile to just say it’s progressives vs. moderates in New York City — there are far more divisions at play. The city’s politics may share the same contours that have defined so many Democratic primaries nationwide, but its racial diversity, parochial neighborhoods and sheer number of Democratic voters — each with his or her own cross-cutting identities — expose fissures within fissures.
To illustrate this, we’ve redrawn New York City’s five boroughs into five political regions based on the results of four recent Democratic primaries: for president in 2016 (Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders), and for governor (Andrew Cuomo vs. Cynthia Nixon), lieutenant governor (Kathy Hochul vs. Jumaane Williams) and attorney general (Letitia James vs. Sean Patrick Maloney vs. Zephyr Teachout) in 2018.1
You already know Clinton and Sanders; Nixon, an actor and progressive activist, and Williams, a self-identified socialist then serving on the New York City Council, waged spirited primary challenges to moderate incumbents Cuomo and Hochul but ultimately fell short. James, the New York City public advocate at the time, had previously been a progressive darling but aligned herself with Cuomo in the attorney general’s race; instead, Teachout, a law professor who had unsuccessfully primaried Cuomo from the left in 2014, claimed the mantle of the left in that race. (Maloney, a moderate upstate congressman, was a nonfactor in most parts of New York City — with some important exceptions.) These four races produced four different voting patterns, so together they provide a not-half-bad template for understanding the city’s political geography.
So hop on the virtual subway with us and take a tour of New York City’s five “political boroughs.” These categories will come in handy while following along with and interpreting the results of the mayoral election over the next several weeks (it’s expected to take until mid-July to get final results because New York is slow to count absentee ballots, and because the city is using ranked-choice voting for the first time). But even if that’s not your bag, the mix of ideology and identity that marks these boroughs can help deepen our understanding of the broader divisions within the Democratic Party nationwide.
The Elite Circles
When people say that New York City’s political, economic and social elite live in a bubble, this is the bubble. The Elite Circles borough2 includes most of Manhattan from the Financial District to Central Park as well as adjacent parts of Brooklyn and Queens. It’s defined by its high levels of education (63 percent of residents age 25 or older have at least a bachelor’s degree) and its whiteness — a majority of its residents (56 percent) are non-Hispanic white. However, the political borough also includes some gentrified but historicallyethnicenclaves with significant Hispanic, Asian American and Black populations.
Elite Circles demographics
DEMOGRAPHIC
PERCENTAGE
White
56%
Black
8
Hispanic
20
Asian
14
Bachelor’s degree or higher (among 25+ population)
63
White, Black and Asian American residents are non-Hispanic.
SOURCE: AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEYADVERTISING
The Elite Circles is the most progressive slice of the city. It was Williams’s best political borough in the 2018 lieutenant governor race and was the only one to support Nixon for governor and Teachout for attorney general. Sanders also turned in an above-average performance here in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.
Recent Elite Circles election results
RACE
CANDIDATE
VOTE SHARE
2016 Pres.
Clinton
61%
Sanders
39
2018 Gov.
Cuomo
49.6
Nixon
50.1
2018 Lt. Gov.
Hochul
38
Williams
62
2018 Att. Gen.
James
31
Maloney
15
Teachout
52
SOURCE: NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF ELECTIONS
But different parts of this political borough are different degrees of progressive. Some, especially hip neighborhoods with lots of young professionals, are dyed-in-the-wool leftist, even socialist — for example, all four progressive candidates carried the state Assembly districts that cover Ditmars Steinway and Astoria in Queens and Greenpoint and Williamsburg in Brooklyn by at least 8 percentage points. And in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Sanders got more than 30 percent of the vote in these areas even though he had already dropped out of the race by the time New York voted.
Other neighborhoods in this borough — especially traditionally tony neighborhoods in Manhattan — are more progressive-curious. For instance, districts containing Chelsea and the Upper West Side split their 2018 tickets between Cuomo for governor and Williams for lieutenant governor. And districts that include Midtown East and the Upper East Side voted strongly for Teachout in 2018 but even more strongly for Clinton in 2016.
In this year’s mayoral race, expect that division to manifest itself again. The Elite Circles seems like it will be fertile ground for both Wiley and Garcia, who are especially strong with college-educated respondents in polls. But the more technocratic Garcia, who has the endorsement of The New York Times, seems like a better fit for Manhattan, while the more ideologically leftist Wiley, who was endorsed by the Working Families Party and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, will likely do better in Brooklyn. (A recent Marist College poll for WNBC, Telemundo 47 and POLITICO provides evidence for this.)
The True-Blue Bronx
On the other side of the ledger, the True-Blue Bronx3 is the least college-educated (just 18 percent) and most consistently pro-establishment region of New York City. Clinton defeated Sanders 70 percent to 30 percent here; Hochul beat Williams 59 percent to 41 percent. Teachout got only 8 percent in this political borough, well outpaced by both James and Maloney. Most dramatically, Cuomo defeated Nixon 84 percent to 16 percent here.
Recent True-Blue Bronx election results
RACE
CANDIDATE
VOTE SHARE
2016 Pres.
Clinton
70%
Sanders
30
2018 Gov.
Cuomo
84
Nixon
16
2018 Lt. Gov.
Hochul
59
Williams
41
2018 Att. Gen.
James
69
Maloney
20
Teachout
8
SOURCE: NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF ELECTIONS
As the name implies, the True-Blue Bronx overlaps closely with the real-life borough of the Bronx, except without its northwestern neighborhoods like Riverdale, which are noticeably more progressive than the rest of the borough. (It also takes in North Corona and East Elmhurst’s Assembly district in Queens, just across the East River.) That the Bronx is a safe haven for moderate, even conservative, Democrats won’t come as a surprise to observers of city politics: One of the borough’s best-known politicians is Democrat Rubén Díaz Sr., an anti-abortion city council member who has spoken favorably of former President Donald Trump.
True-Blue Bronx demographics
DEMOGRAPHIC
PERCENTAGE
White
7%
Black
29
Hispanic
57
Asian
5
Bachelor’s degree or higher (among 25+ population)
18
White, Black and Asian American residents are non-Hispanic.
SOURCE: AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY
The True-Blue Bronx is predominantly (57 percent) Hispanic, with particularly strong Dominican and Puerto Rican communities. However, there is also a notable non-Hispanic Black population (29 percent), and the EastBronx is pretty racially heterogeneous. Although every district that constitutes the True-Blue Bronx voted more establishment than the city as a whole in all four primaries, progressives tended to do especially badly in more homogenous districts.
With multiple moderates in the mayor’s race, it’s hard to predict how this borough will vote on Tuesday. As the overall front-runner, Adams could do well here, but one recent poll suggested Yang is the preferred candidate of Hispanic voters. Which candidate carries this political borough may well decide who wins the mayoralty.
The Black Bloc
The Black Bloc4 also tends to vote strongly for establishment-aligned candidates. In fact, it gave a higher share of the vote to Clinton (73 percent), James (a whopping 81 percent) and Cuomo (an even more whopping 86 percent) than any other political borough.
Recent Black Bloc election results
RACE
CANDIDATE
VOTE SHARE
2016 Pres.
Clinton
73%
Sanders
27
2018 Gov.
Cuomo
86
Nixon
14
2018 Lt. Gov.
Hochul
48
Williams
52
2018 Att. Gen.
James
81
Maloney
13
Teachout
5
SOURCE: NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF ELECTIONS
But what sets it apart from the True-Blue Bronx is that it also voted for the progressive Williams for lieutenant governor, 52 percent to 48 percent. The likely explanation: Williams, a Black man, enjoyed strong support with New York City’s Black community even as his running mate Nixon and other progressives fizzled with them. And the Black Bloc is heavily (63 percent) non-Hispanic Black.
Black Bloc demographics
DEMOGRAPHIC
PERCENTAGE
White
7%
Black
63
Hispanic
16
Asian
9
Bachelor’s degree or higher (among 25+ population)
23
White, Black and Asian American residents are non-Hispanic.
SOURCE: AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY
While virtually every corner of the Black Bloc voted the same way for president, governor and attorney general, Williams ran especially strongly in the western half of this bisected borough: heavily Black, low-income neighborhoods in Brooklyn like East Flatbush and Brownsville. But Hochul (narrowly) carried the eastern half, which comprises middle-class Queens neighborhoods like St. Albans and Queens Village that are more racially diverse. The difference may be because Williams has closer ties to the Brooklyn side of the borough (he grew up in East New York and represented East Flatbush and Canarsie on the City Council).
So the Black Bloc is probably best thought of as a stronghold for establishment Democrats, but one that will vote for members of its community first and foremost. In the mayor’s race, this probably bodes well for Adams, the moderate, Black borough president of Brooklyn. But there may also be an undercurrent of support here for Wiley, who is also Black and lives in Brooklyn.
The Lands of Contradiction
At first glance, the Lands of Contradiction borough5 is an enigma. It voted for Cuomo 71 percent to 28 percent, and it was Hochul’s and Maloney’s strongest political borough. But it was also Sanders’s strongest, voting for Clinton just 55 percent to 45 percent.
Recent Lands of Contradiction election result
RACE
CANDIDATE
VOTE SHARE
2016 Pres.
Clinton
55%
Sanders
45
2018 Gov.
Cuomo
71
Nixon
28
2018 Lt. Gov.
Hochul
61
Williams
38
2018 Att. Gen.
James
47
Maloney
27
Teachout
22
SOURCE: NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF ELECTIONS
But this incongruity makes more sense when you think of those votes for Sanders as votes against Clinton. In general, Democrats in the Lands of Contradiction tend to be conservative,6 but they likely voted for Sanders anyway as a form of protest against the national Democratic Party (it’s hard to remember now, but in early 2016, conservatives were a lot more anti-Clinton than they were anti-socialist). This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the Lands of Contradiction was by far Trump’s strongest political borough in the 2020 general election; President Biden carried it just 51 percent to 47 percent, whereas he won at least 80 percent of the vote in the other four political boroughs.
Another way to think about the Lands of Contradiction is that it votes less on ideology and more on a candidate’s brand (much like the Upper East Side, just inverted): Although they live in the biggest city in the nation, voters here consistently reject candidates who represent the urban, urbane Democratic Party and gravitate toward the party’s plain-spoken, industrial and/or rural image of yore. (This is also consistent with its support for Trump.) Hochul and Maloney both hail from upstate New York and grew up in middle-class Irish Catholic families; Sanders is from rustic Vermont and could never be accused of focus-grouping his appearance and messaging.
Lands of Contradiction demographics
DEMOGRAPHIC
PERCENTAGE
White
46%
Black
5
Hispanic
19
Asian American
26
Bachelor’s degree or higher (among 25+ population)
35
White, Black and Asian American residents are non-Hispanic.
SOURCE: AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY
These preferences make sense, given that the Lands of Contradiction is mostly white (46 percent, a plurality of the population) and non-college-educated. Italian and Irish Americans are the largest ethnic groups, although no area may sum up this borough better than the heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods of Borough Park and Midwood, deeply conservative pockets of liberal Brooklyn. In addition, the Lands of Contradiction has sizable Asian American (26 percent) and Hispanic (19 percent) populations. In fact, six of the seven most heavily Asian American Assembly districts in New York City are in this political borough.
Six of the city’s eight oldest Assembly districts (going by median age) are also in the Lands of Contradiction, jibing with its more old-school vision of the Democratic Party. And geographically, the borough covers most of famously contrarian Staten Island as well as the parts of Brooklyn and Queens at the ends of subway lines — in other words, some of the parts of the city that are farthest from Manhattan (and its Elite Circles that the borough so disdains).
This political borough can be unpredictable in who it supports, but look for Adams and/or Yang to rack up votes here. In the Marist poll, Adams was the overwhelming choice of conservative respondents, while several Asian American groups have endorsed Yang, who would be the city’s first Asian American mayor. (As a political outsider, he may also appeal to this borough’s disaffected voters.)
The Crossroads
Crossroads demographics
DEMOGRAPHIC
PERCENTAGE
White
21%
Black
30
Hispanic
38
Asian American
9
Bachelor’s degree or higher (among 25+ population)
33
White, Black and Asian American residents are non-Hispanic.
SOURCE: AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY
Recent Crossroads election results
RACE
CANDIDATE
VOTE SHARE
2016 Pres.
Clinton
62%
Sanders
38
2018 Gov.
Cuomo
67
Nixon
33
2018 Lt. Gov.
Hochul
41
Williams
58
2018 Att. Gen.
James
57
Maloney
15
Teachout
25
SOURCE: NEW YORK CITY BOARD OF ELECTIONS
Finally, the neighborhoods that make up the Crossroads7 are the parts of the city that don’t fit neatly into one of the other four regions. Often, this is because they sit at the intersection of two or more of the city’s political camps. For instance, the gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and Flatbush are on the boundary of the Black Bloc and the Elite Circles. Black and Hispanic New Yorkers together make up the majority of the Harlem and Washington Heights neighborhoods of Manhattan. And Queens’s Jackson Heights and Corona neighborhoods might make sense in the True-Blue Bronx, with their large Hispanic populations, but their significant Asian American communities help them to vote more like the Lands of Contradiction.
Unsurprisingly, the Crossroads looks a lot like New York City demographically and politically. No racial group constitutes a majority, or even reaches 40 percent of the population; instead, there are roughly similar numbers of Hispanic, Black and white residents. And at the ballot box, it leans toward establishment candidates, but it will vote for progressives under the right circumstances — just like the city as a whole.
Of course, that’s just on average; different Crossroads neighborhoods vote differently (in general, they vote in between the two political boroughs they are a combination of). By its very nature, the Crossroads doesn’t have as cohesive an identity as the other four political boroughs. But this heterodoxy also makes it the most “New York” of all of them — and therefore the best bellwether of citywide elections. In the mayor’s race, look for all four major candidates to rack up solid support here, since everyone’s bases are represented.
If these five political boroughs sound familiar, it’s because we’ve seen very similar ideological and identity divides play out in recent Democratic primaries nationwide. Since 2016, an ascendant progressive movement has redefined the left wing of the Democratic Party, and it’s been fueled primarily by whitevoters. But progressives still make up a minority of the party nationwide. After all, Clinton and Biden won the Democratic presidential nominations thanks largely to their strength with Democrats of color.
That’s the challenge for the aspiring hizzoners who are fighting for New Yorkers’ votes on Tuesday. Because politics has become so nationalized, their support in many ways is predetermined and limited, even as they try to speak to every corner of a city dealing with inequality, segregation, crime, COVID-19 and an unpopular outgoing mayor. In the end, whoever does the best job expanding their coalition beyond their natural base is likely to become New York City’s 110th mayor.
Vote for your genuine favorites, in your order of preference. Don’t try to game the system and guess who has the best chance. Just vote for whom you like in the order that you like them. There’s no risk of losing your vote, because if your favorite is knocked out, your vote will go to your second favorite, and so on.
Don’t rank someone you don’t like. The last spots on your ballot should be for candidates that you are OK with or could live with. If there are candidates you disagree with or really do not want to win, do not put them on your ballot.
You don’t have to fill all five slots, if there are only three or four candidates that you like, you can just rank them.
A borough president is an advocate for their borough in a number of ways.
First, they have a sizable chunk of change at their disposal to fund local initiatives, groups and projects like buying technology for public schools, renovating local parks or spearheading community health outreach. Borough presidents share about 5% of the city budget to fund things in their borough — about $4 billion among them, according to the city’s Campaign Finance Board.
Borough presidents can also introduce bills in the City Council, though they do not get a vote.
They weigh in on land use proposals — in other words, development projects that need public approval — with an advisory vote and written decision. Their input is not binding, but it can be quite influential if they are staunchly for or against a project and lobby Council members or the mayor.
Working with local City Council members, Borough presidents also appoint all members of community boards, the local bodies that weigh in on everything from new bike lanes to liquor licenses for restaurants. With that power, the borough presidents can exert significant sway over neighborhood-level politics and projects.
In addition to their formal powers, the borough presidents play an important role as a champion and booster for their borough, calling news conferences to shed light on issues they believe need attention and making appearances at ribbon cuttings, groundbreakings and cultural events.
Vote for your genuine favorites, in your order of preference. Don’t try to game the system and guess who has the best chance. Just vote for whom you like in the order that you like them. There’s no risk of losing your vote, because if your favorite is knocked out, your vote will go to your second favorite, and so on.
Don’t rank someone you don’t like. The last spots on your ballot should be for candidates that you are OK with or could live with. If there are candidates you disagree with or really do not want to win, do not put them on your ballot.
You don’t have to fill all five slots, if there are only three or four candidates that you like, you can just rank them.
Scott Joplin
Walking the other day on West 131st Street I noticed a brownstone with a historic plaque:
The plaque refers to Scott Joplin that Wikipedia notes:
Scott Joplin (c. 1868 – April 1, 1917) was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions and was dubbed the “King of Ragtime”.[1] During his brief career, he wrote over 100 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first and most popular pieces, the “Maple Leaf Rag“, became ragtime’s first and most influential hit, and has been recognized as the archetypal rag.[2]
To listen to his piece “The Entertainer”, see below:
Join the Greater Harlem Coalition’s look at the intersection of Harlem and East Harlem’s quality of life issues and the 2021 NYC elections. Click here to learn more tonight.
City Comptroller
The person who oversees City Hall’s wallet is called the comptroller, a position currently filled by Scott Stringer.
Four contenders are vying to replace the term-limited Stringer (who is running for mayor). And while the ultra-crowded mayor’s race will undoubtedly steal most of the attention this election cycle, choosing our next comptroller is critical for city voters.
The primary vote is set for June 22 of this year. Given New York’s firmly Democratic lean, whichever comptroller candidate nabs a win then will have a strong advantage heading into November’s general election. A Republican has not been elected comptroller since 1938.
New York City’s comptroller is our municipal auditor and fiduciary.
The Office of the Comptroller does several things, but its chief responsibilities are to prepare audits and oversee how city agencies are spending their money, manage the city’s public pension funds — the largest in the world at $224.8 billion as of October, Stringer’s office says — and issue bonds to help pay for large projects. The comptroller also reviews city contracts.
To do all this and more, the comptroller employs a staff of about 800. The comptroller has another important role: serving as second in line of succession to the mayor, after the Public Advocate.Here’s a comprehensive list of duties from the comptroller’s office.
Benjamin, our Harlem neighbor and State Senator represents Harlem, East Harlem and the Upper West Side. The former investment banker and affordable housing developer pledged to return some donations in early January after THE CITY found donors named in campaign records who said they’d never given money to his campaign.
Lander currently serves as the City Council member representing Carroll Gardens, Park Slope and Kensington. Previous to government work, he directed a community planning center at Pratt Institute.
Parker, a Brooklyn native, is the current State Senator representing Flatbush and surrounding neighborhoods from Ditmas Park to Park Slope. Before taking elected office, Parker worked for local officials, including the then-state Comptroller H. Carl McCall and then-Flatbush Council member Una Clarke.
Weprin, a native of Queens, currently serves as the State Assembly member representing northeast Queens. He previously represented the area in the City Council, worked in the financial services industry and, in the 1980s, served on the state’s Banking Board.
As Seen on 2nd Avenue in East Harlem
Unfortunately, no, the 2nd Avenue Subway isn’t yet in East Harlem. This remnant of an earlier attempt to build the 2nd Avenue Subway is at 117th Street, and was part of the “cut and cover” trenching done in the 1970s
The new 2nd Avenue Subway will incorporate some of this earlier tunneling into the project.
Council members are responsible for proposing and voting on bills relating to all aspects of civic life, for example: policing, housing, street safety and environmental issues like the plastic bag ban.
Bills passed by the Council go to the mayor for to be signed into law. The Council can override a veto from the mayor with a vote of at least two-thirds of the members.
The Council also negotiates with the mayor to pass the city budget every year. Each Council member has his or her own discretionary budget to fund local projects and groups. The Council holds oversight hearings through its many committees. And, critically, the body votes to approve or reject development projects that need public approval.
You can think of the Council as like Congress for the City of New York, as this guide from the Council puts it. The city’s Campaign Finance Board created the below video outlining some of the duties and responsibilities of the City Council:
Sumptuous Gifts from a Black Women-Owned Harlem Business
If you want a gift from Harlem to take to a friend’s (now that you’re both fully vaccinated), the Harlem Chocolate Factory on ACP at 139, is a great place to consider.
Join the Greater Harlem Coalition for an Election 2021 conversation about what candidates have said they would do about the quality of life issues that impact you, your family, your guests, and your neighbors, on Wednesday at 7:00 PM. Register by clicking on this link:
The New York Board of Elections has finally produced a list of candidates for Harlem:
PRIMARY CONTEST LIST Primary Election 2021 06/22/2021, New York Democratic Party TENTATIVE – SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Member of the City Council 8th Council District
Tamika Mapp 342 East 119 Street 5B New York, NY 10035 Manuel Onativia 122 East 103 Street 19 New York, NY 10029 Antoinette D. Glover 2415 2 Avenue New York, NY 10035 Diana I. Ayala 430 East 118 Street 6H New York, NY 10035
Member of the City Council 9th Council District
Pierre A. Gooding 2050 Frederick Douglas Boulevard New York, NY 10026 Athena Moore 216 West 136 Street New York, NY 10030 William A. Allen 1925 Seventh Avenue 6H New York, NY 10026 Kristin Richardson Jordan 45 West 132 Street 2D New York, NY 10037 Bernadette McNear 159 48 Harlem River Drive New York, NY 10039 Ruth L. McDaniels 110 West 137 Street 3A New York, NY 10030 Mario Rosser 300 West 135 Street 4K New York, NY 10030 Keith Taylor 32 Edgecombe Avenue New York, NY 10030 Cordell Cleare 1851 Adam C. Powell Jr. Boulevard New York, NY 10026 Bill Perkins 1295 5 Avenue 15D New York, NY 10029 Billy Council 2130 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard 5J New York, NY 10027 Sheba T. Simpson Amsterdam 30 West 141 Street 8N New York, NY 10037 Joshua Albert Clennon 7 West 122 Street 1 New York, NY 10027
On Tuesday next week, the Harlem Neighborhood Block Association will host our final pre-election meeting at 7:00 PM. (we will be taking a break during July and August, returning in September with a – planned – hybrid meeting on Tuesday, September 14th)
We hope you’ll be able to join us on Tuesday at 7:00 PM to hear more from (and ask questions of) a number of candidates for office:
Joshua Clennon (City Council 9)
Mario Rosser (City Council 9)
Athena Moore (City Council 9)
Tali Farhadian (Manhattan DA)
If you’d like to join, please contact us on our Contact Us page: https://hnba.nyc/contact-us/ and we’ll get you the Zoom link
And yes, some of the candidates seem to be fuzzy on this as well…
Earlier in March, The City had a great breakdown of what City Council members do, and why you should care about their election. Here is part of The City’s email on the issue:
City Council is kind of like Congress, but for the city. It may seem like a small office, but since New York has 8.4 million people living here, a local office like the City Council has more influence than you may think.
Klein pointed out that some leaders — Mayor Bill de Blasio and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, to name two — have used the City Council as a stepping stone to higher office.
“City Council is an entry point into politics — and a way to build a bench for more diverse representation in higher offices years down the line,” she said. “One reason many people are disappointed in the mayoral field is because 15 years ago, the city wasn’t building an exciting and diverse bench of new political talent.”
City Council members represent a district that usually includes two to four neighborhoods, and they have four main responsibilities.
They pass laws
Just like Congress or the state Legislature, the City Council proposes and votes on legislation that makes the rules for all sorts of things ranging from public health, education, housing and transportation. You can see all the different City Council committees here.
After a bill is proposed, the Council holds a public hearing to get feedback from the community and potentially make changes. Then, members vote on the bill.
Bills passed by a majority of the Council go to the mayor to be signed into law. The Council can override a veto from the mayor with a vote of at least two-thirds of the members.
The Council negotiates with the mayor to pass the city budget every year. That means members help decide how your taxes and other revenue will be spent to fund different city agencies and programs — ranging from the public schools to policing to a bunch of social services. The most recent budget was more than $88 billion.
Your Council member can advocate for certain programs or projects to be funded in your neighborhood. And each Council member has their own discretionary budget to fund local projects and groups.
The Council makes sure agencies like the Department of Education, the Department of Housing and Preservation, NYCHA and the NYPD are doing their jobs well.
How land is used can affect if housing is affordable, what kind of greenspace is available and how much pollution is likely to affect a neighborhood, among other things.
Klein said: “City Council candidates are extremely accessible in a way that candidates for higher offices aren’t. If you want to get involved in local government, meet with your council candidates, get to know them and ask them questions.”
That means where to build, what to preserve and what to close (like Rikers Island). The Council has a major say in real estate deals for city-owned land and votes on all zoning changes or rezoning.
