Google Street View of the location where the pop-up plaza will take place

Next Saturday, Astoria is trying something simple, transforming a small part of 32nd Street, between 30th Ave and Newton Avenue, into a pop-up pedestrian plaza. Anyone who walks by this area knows it’s one of our quirkiest intersections. It’s also been one of our most dangerous.

No permanent changes. No construction. Just a temporary pop-up to see what happens when you pedestrianize one street for just a few hours.

This may not sound like a big deal, but turning streets into plazas has faced opposition in the past. Community Board 1 has been asking to transform this eccentric intersection (IYKYK) into a more pedestrian-friendly space for 25 years; a prior plan to create a pedestrian plaza here failed 14 years ago amid vocal opposition from then City Council Member Peter Vallone. In fact, the 30th Avenue and Newton Avenue intersection has been one of the most dangerous in Queens

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The effort to pedestrianize 32nd is a collaborative initiative among Central Astoria LDC, 31st Avenue Open Streets, and other neighborhood groups, including QNS Collaborative and the Rolling Library.

One local business that spoke with the author was thrilled about the prospect of a weekend pop-up and selling more espresso to new passersbys, stating, “We’ll make a lot of money.” And who says walkable streets aren’t good for business?!

Soon, Astorians and Queens residents will see the power of simple changes to have a big impact on the quality of life while simultaneously boosting the local economy.

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We don’t always need studies, millions of dollars, or armies of consultants to make neighborhoods more walkable. Sometimes, we just need to use our streets more creatively. And that’s exactly what Astoria is doing.

Obstructed bus lane on 21st Street


It’s 8:15 am in Astoria, and I rush out of my apartment to catch the bus on 21st Street.

At the stop, 30 of us are already waiting.

We stare at a bus about five blocks away, snarled by traffic, zigging out of a bus lane filled with double-parked cars.

When it finally arrives, it pulls into a giant, mushy snow pile. The bus is nearly full.

Boarding is excruciatingly slow; we spend 3 minutes squeezing. Many riders are unable to board. They are the unlucky left-behinds.

Before the clock even hits 9 am, New York policymakers have made a decision about your time. You will probably be late for work.

This isn’t a random bad morning. This is a system: long headways, traffic-clogged streets, and poorly implemented services. The collision of bad policy choices congealed into a miserable morning.

Our bus system exposes where our transit system can be better and how we should reprioritize our city streets. Many view the bus system as secondary, but buses move 1 million New Yorkers every day; unfortunately, 30% of buses in New York are late.

But if improved, buses have the potential to dramatically upgrade how we get around and challenge us to use our streets more wisely.

The bus lane that isn’t

Buses in New York move at a glacial 8 MPH, that’s thousands of riders stuck in traffic each day, basically planned congestion. Only 163 miles of the city’s 6,000 miles of streets have dedicated lanes of any kind, about 3% of our street network. And where we do have bus lanes, they are often insufficient and poorly enforced.

Since time immemorial, politicians have promised New Yorkers a cadre of bus investments: new bus lanes, express routes, and frequent service. But the improvements are constantly watered down by old-school thinking.

This is how my bus route on 21st Street ended up with the dysfunctional lane. The corridor had been studied for years to improve pedestrian and transit access. Finally, in 2021, the city began moving forward with a bus lane along this 2-mile corridor, which serves roughly 30,000 people per day and connects northern Astoria to transit hubs in Long Island City.

But when push came to shove, the city backed off its plans for separate, dedicated bus lanes that the local community supported and would have delivered faster buses.

Drivers complained, with one angry resident stating, “I know there are people who want everyone to use bicycles, but that is not feasible.” Department of Transportation Officials scuttled the center median lane, saying it would be nearly impossible to do.

What makes this most striking is that, during the study period, the Department of Transportation found that at many intersections on 21st Street, there were more pedestrian crossings than vehicles, but we ended up designing the street for cars anyway. Astoria got curb lanes–easily blocked, and less effective than the proposed center median lanes.

The plan was scaled back deliberately to a less effective method and would inadvertently prove bus haters right, as NIMBY’s could point to a broken bus lane as evidence that the city can’t get anything right. This is where we lose the plot.

Redesigning City Streets for People

But the deeper problem isn’t just that we compromised on one bus lane. It’s that we never changed the street it runs on or the mindset shaping it.

We keep trying to fix transit while leaving everything else the same: the parking, the traffic, the constant competition for space.

So the bus ends up doing what it always does: arrive late and sit in clogged lanes.

But when we successfully redesign our streets for transit, it works. Bus lanes in New York City can reduce travel times for customers by 47%. That’s huge. To make this point even starker, a bus lane can move 8,000 people per hour, compared with 1,600 in a car lane. We know what works. We just don’t build it.

Why Does this Matter?

Our commutes are often our most universal civic experience. Transit is where governance becomes tangible and where small improvements have outsized impacts. The simple act of tolling cars below 60th street took 73,000 cars off the road in Manhattan.

The big question is, how do we bring smart, high-yield improvements beyond Manhattan and into outer-borough neighborhoods? The next step for New York transit is not another study. It is to pilot and pioneer low-traffic neighborhoods.

If we want a better transit system, it starts with designing our neighborhoods for the people who live in them.

Neighbors gathering on the 31st Avenue Open Streets in Astoria to participate in the Longest Table, a giant potluck.

Open Streets As Town Center

I have found no easier way to meet people in New York than volunteering with the Open Streets program in my neighborhood of Astoria, Queens. From April through December, two blocks of 31st Avenue are pedestrianized each weekend, transforming into Astoria’s unofficial town center. What makes Open Streets so powerful is that it functions as civic infrastructure: a shared, low-barrier public space that strengthens community life in the same way libraries, parks, and schools do.

Neighbors, old or young, rich or poor, mix to watch movies, play cards, or attend potlucks. The Open Streets program demonstrates the power of reclaiming streets for people, not just cars. What’s happening on 31st Avenue is not unique to Astoria; similar transformations have taken place on Open Streets across the city.

With a new mayor and new councilmembers coming into office, now is the time to expand the program and make Open Streets a defining feature of New York City life.

A Simple Idea With Outsized Impact

The history of the Open Streets program shows what’s possible when decision-makers think outside the box. Simple ideas can have profound impacts. During the pandemic, policymakers and activists worked to pedestrianize public space to boost local business, protect public health, and give New Yorkers a safe way to remain socially connected outside their homes. In May 2020, the Department of Transportation began granting temporary permits to local orgs, business improvement districts, and community groups to launch open streets. Witness the birth of a policy miracle!

Neighbors in every corner of New York participated in this experiment. City streets closed to vehicles, opened to people, and surprise…. new programming and outdoor dining thrived. The open streets program became permanent in 2021, and today there are over 200 open streets across all five boroughs.

The Power of Public Space

Data from the city showcases the immense benefits that the Open Streets bring to areas that are home to pedestrianized streets. A 2022 report from the New York City Department of Transportation found businesses on open streets strongly outperformed peer businesses in corridors that were still vehicle-only. Sales growth and new business openings were significantly higher, while business closures were lower than on comparable vehicle-only corridors.

The benefits aren’t simply economic; they also strengthen community ties and belonging. Relationships forged by open streets organizers in Brooklyn led to revivals of dormant block parties, the community reuse of an abandoned church, and, here in Queens, the 31st Open Streets program has turned into a town center. In a culture facing rising social isolation and declining civic trust, Open Streets create regular, informal opportunities for neighbors to meet and participate in shared public life.

Designing Streets for How New Yorkers Live

Open Streets also serves another policy function by right-sizing a mismatch between what we allow our streetsystem to be used for and how New Yorkers actually get around. And the numbers don’t lie.

New York City has over 6,300 miles of streets, 75% of which is reserved exclusively for cars, 24% for sidewalks, 1% for bike lanes, and .02% for bus lanes. But here’s the kicker: only 54% of New Yorkers own a car, and in my neighborhood of Astoria, that number is just 42%.

So Open Streets is pretty great. How can we supercharge the program? A few ideas below:

• Dedicated yearly funding for Open Streets that isn’t subject to yearly budget battles

• City-funded seasonal staff who can help volunteers with traffic management, clean-up, set up, and breakdown

• Reforming the open streets permit process–specifically the Street Activity Permit Office– to make it more straightforward and more intuitive to apply for a permit.

• Creating a city-negotiated umbrella liability insurance program

• Self-reinforcing designs that make it easier for pedestrianized plazas to remain closed to traffic

These are easy, achievable, and practical ideas to cement program reach and allow its continued expansion. The City Council and the new mayor should treat Open Streets as a core public service and move quickly to give the program the funding, staffing, and structural support it needs to grow.

The City We Could Build

The fight doesn’t end at those practical next steps; we also have to build the city that does not yet exist. What do we want the Open Streets of 2036 to look like? I’m envisioning a New York where we have permanent 24-7 pedestrianized thoroughfares, lined with small businesses, plazas where neighbors gather to eat on their lunch breaks, and weatherized public spaces that provide year-round access to civic life. I see revitalized corridors where neighbors creatively reuse vacant buildings and reinvest in their communities.

All of this is real and doable. Open Streets has far exceeded what many activists thought possible when the program started in 2020. Looking at what’s been achieved in just five years, we should start thinking seriously about what the next five can look like. What type of Open Streets program do you want to see in your community?

We will explore a more fleshed-out vision of the Open Streets in another post.

In this episode, we explore how his campaign reshaped the Democratic electorate—and where challenges remain for Mamdani as New York heads toward the mayoral general election this November.

With housing costs hitting record highs and voter turnout stagnant, New York City officials are considering new ways to help locals have more say in addressing cost-of-living issues and other quality-of-life problems across the boroughs.

At the helm of those efforts is the Charter Revision Commission, a temporary government body that is aiming to make major reforms to New York City's foundational legal document, the City Charter. The Commission's efforts are focused on overhauling guidelines for land use and election procedures—two matters that have profound impacts on New Yorkers’ quality of life.

Currently, the Commission has recommended placing four questions that would amend the city Charter on voters’ ballots this November. All of the amendments directly address livability issues.

Later this summer, the Commission will finalize which amendments will be placed on voters ballots.

The Civic Pulse spoke with Charter Revision Commission Executive Director Alec Schierenbeck about why city dwellers should care about the Commission's proposed reforms and how those potential changes could make New York more livable.

Let's get into it:

Civic Pulse: For those who may not be familiar, what exactly is the City Charter and why is it important?

Alec Schierenbeck: The Charter is the city’s constitution. It establishes the offices of mayor, city council, borough presidents, the public advocate, and the comptroller, as well the FDNY and NYPD, defining how they operate. It also sets the rules for decision making, including land use.

So, if you want to change zoning or use public land for housing, the charter governs how that happens. It’s foundational to how New York City runs.

Civic Pulse: The proposed ballot initiatives cover everything from housing to election reform, but the proposals focus heavily on land use. Why?

Alec Schierenbeck: I spent the better part of the last two-plus years working out of City Hall on another housing proposal called City of Yes. That was a historic reform we’re very proud of—it’s going to make it easier to build a little more housing across the city. But, City of Yes was [only] what we could get done through the system of land use that we have today.

If you think long and hard about our housing crisis, you realize that we need to change the system itself if we’re going to deliver the amount of new and affordable housing that’s actually needed to get prices under control.

The Charter Revision Commission is a natural next step after City of Yes. It’s about reforming the system of zoning review itself to unlock more housing.

Civic Pulse: Of the five ballot proposals, four focus on land use. If voters approve them, what changes would New Yorkers actually see?

Alec Schierenbeck: Let’s break it down by each question [that will be on voters’ ballots]:

• Question 1 would fast-track affordable housing. It would make it easier to build more affordable housing across the city—at a quicker pace and at lower cost—as well as ensure that every community contributes. Right now, some neighborhoods don't contribute at all to efforts to create more affordable housing.
  

• Question 2 would simplify the review process for modest housing and infrastructure projects. That includes things like small housing additions, flood protection, resiliency efforts, new open space, or adding solar panels to public buildings. These are things we need to be doing more of and at a faster rate.
  

• Question 3 would strike a better balance between local, borough, and citywide officials. Right now, the local councilmember can block a housing project, regardless of broader needs. That’s not the process New Yorkers approved when they adopted our current charter. This proposal would eliminate the mayor’s veto and replace it with a new appeals board made up of the borough president, city council speaker, and mayor, bringing a wider range of voices to the table.
  

• Question 4 would modernize the city map. Today, the city map is made up of more than 8,000 pieces of paper stored in five different borough offices. That slows things down. We want to centralize and digitize the map so changes that currently take months or years could be done in minutes or days.

Civic Pulse: If voters approve these new fast-track proposals, would we be able to build more affordable housing on public land?

Alec Schierenbeck: Absolutely. Question one, in particular, is targeted at creating a path for affordable housing to be built quickly in more places and at lower costs. If we spend money on processes, we're not spending it on housing.

These changes would allow us to get more housing at deeper levels of affordability and in neighborhoods that currently don't have it. Today, just 12 community districts produce more housing than the other 47 combined. That's a broken system, with some communities seeing transformative levels of growth while others are barely changing at all.

Right now, a local council member can block a housing project, irrespective of citywide needs or interests. That's not the land use process we're supposed to have. It's not the one New Yorkers approved when they approved our current charter.

We spend a lot of time and effort on lawyers and lobbyists and consultants. A lot of that public energy and those dollars could be going toward construction workers and engineers who are actually building. If we spend less money on white-collar people, we can put more blue-collar people to work.

Civic Pulse: This Charter review is complex. What is the Commission doing to communicate the stakes of these amendments to everyday New Yorkers?

Alec Schierenbeck: We’ll have a big public education campaign once the ballot questions are finalized. That will start this summer and continue into the fall. We’ll be creating simple explainers and working with civil-society groups across the city to help summarize what voters are being asked to decide.

Civic Pulse: You're proposing moving local elections for offices like mayor to even-numbered years, in addition to considering whether to end closed primaries. What impact could these initiatives have on our local democracy?

Alec Schierenbeck: Even-year elections are a big deal. New York City has a really robust civic life, but turnout in local elections is terrible—and it’s been going down. We just had higher turnout in the Democratic primary last week, but even that is still well below what we saw for most of the 20th century.

Other cities have seen big turnout increases when they move their local elections to years when the president is on the ballot. In New York City, presidential elections bring 2.5 times or 3 times more voters than local elections.

Very rarely is there one simple change that could double or triple the number of voters participating in local races, but this could be one of them. That’s good for democracy.

The Commission is considering another reform that would end New York City’s system of closed-party primaries. Currently, if you want to vote in a primary, you have to be a registered member of a political party. That excludes over a million New Yorkers who don’t belong to any party.

Most big cities in the U.S. do it differently. They either have nonpartisan elections or open primaries where every voter can participate and all candidates compete in one race. That’s the kind of reform we’re still looking at.

Civic Pulse: How much public outreach have you done? Can people still weigh in?

Alec S.: We’ve held nine public hearings across the five boroughs, heard from hundreds of New Yorkers and received hundreds more written comments. We’re still accepting written testimony through July 15. So, if people have feedback or ideas, now’s the time [to submit them].

New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani secured the mayoral nomination in last week's Democratic primary election—a sign local voters connected with his promises to ease rising grocery prices and other symptoms of the city's crippling cost-of-living crunch.

A recent report offers an explanation for why his message landed.

Prices outpace income

Grocery prices have risen 56% across the New York metropolitan region between 2012-2013 and 2022-2023—roughly 10% higher than the national average, according to a cost-of-living report released in April by New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. By comparison, household incomes haven't kept up with those increases, growing just 52% during the same period.

In addition, New York City’s food-price index—a statistic that tracks price changes among various pantry staples—rose 8.8% from 2021 to 2022, marking its largest increase in more than four decades.

“Food prices rose sharply during the pandemic, putting more New Yorkers at risk of going hungry,” DiNapoli said in the report.

The Comptroller’s report came amid Mamdani's bid to clinch the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor with a platform that focused on affordability issues, including the rising cost of food across the city.

On the campaign trail, Mamdani addressed voters’ concerns by vowing to create a pilot program of municipal-owned grocery stores that would sell pantry staples such as flour and eggs at ultra-competitive prices. Over the last decade, grocery prices have outpaced income in New York by 14 percentage points, and it’s clear that New Yorkers are feeling the pinch.

A new poll by non-profit organization Data for Progress found that 91% of New Yorkers are concerned about the impact of inflation on their ability to put food on the table. Meanwhile, more than 40% of New York voters have pointed to the skyrocketing cost of living in the city as their chief concern, putting the issue ahead of crime and immigration, a 2023 Siena College poll shows.

Mamdani has vowed to address those concerns by ratcheting back regulations for mom-and-pop grocers, a move that would allow more small grocers offering potentially competitive prices to set up shop in the city. Additionally, the candidate said he would grant special tax breaks to small grocers, allowing them to offer better deals to shoppers.

While it’s not yet certain that Mamdani will secure the mayorship on Election Day in November, one thing is clear: Our city’s next leader would be wise to make a point of addressing the dire need to combat ballooning food prices across the boroughs.

Zohran Mamdani won a significant victory on Tuesday, and it has major implications for the issues we care about at Civic Pulse. Below, we examine how Mamdani beat Andrew Cuomo and why what comes next could be challenging.

The Obama of Steinway Street?

Some people don’t love comparing Barack Obama and Mamdani, but it is fitting in several ways. On the streets of New York, the energy emanating from his campaign felt similar to 2008. Zohran’s volunteers were everywhere, in every neighborhood, ready to elect their candidate. His campaign knocked on almost every door in my apartment building—more than once.

In 2012, I spent 6 months in Nevada organizing to keep Obama in the White House. Yesterday, as polls closed, I ran into one of my former bosses in Astoria. He was out campaigning for Zohran in 95 degree heat. There was something poetic about bumping into him on this night.

It felt like a passing of the torch. A fitting coda to a night that ended with Mamdani doing the unthinkable—picking up votes in places long considered hostile territory for leftist candidates. Mamdani won votes in Corona, Bensonhurst, and Floral Park, territory that had been off limits to progressives. He carried Asian voters by 15 points. He ran up the score in white, high turnout, highly educated precincts, merging his new coalition into something real. That’s huge.

New York Times precinct-level data shows Mamdani’s strength in majority Asian neighborhoods.

He managed this even while losing Black voters by 18 points and low-income voters by 13 points, a sobering gap for a campaign centered on uplifting the working class. That raises big questions about the durability of his coalition and his ability to govern effectively, especially when it comes to swaying the city council or Albany. Still, he enters November with something very real: momentum, a reenergized electorate, and voters deeply committed to his project.

Like Obama in 2008, Mamdani won by expanding the voter universe. The moment I knew Cuomo might lose was when I read that one in four early voters hadn’t voted in 2013 or 2021; they were entirely new voters.

That’s the playbook for reshaping the electorate. Many thought that Mamdani’s early vote lead would exhaust his base. But instead, his campaign expanded the voter universe. They brought in new voters—exactly what we were trained to do on the Obama campaign in 2012: identify, register, and turn out voters who had never been in the system.

Mamdani did that. Cuomo did not.

New York Times precinct-level data showing Mamdani’s struggle in majority-Black voting precincts.

But Now, It Gets Harder

Assuming Mamdani wins November’s general election, the campaign will cease, and the governing will begin January 1st. He will have to deliver.

New York City has more than 300,000 municipal employees—more than the entire population of Pittsburgh. In the era of resurgent Trumpism, federal funding is tightening, pressuring blue states’ budgets. Governor Hochul has pronounced Mamdani’s proposed tax increases dead on arrival. The City Council is divided. And Mamdani faces a Democratic Party that is split between establishment and insurgent factions.

New York’s systemic failures aren’t going to go away quickly; they are entrenched and embedded. On election night, I experienced this firsthand. En route to attend a victory party for another candidate, it took me 90 minutes to reach Manhattan from Queens—the NRW and G trains were all inexplicably shut down due to a “power outage”. Cuomo had just conceded, and while others were watching returns, I was stuck on a stalled subway car for 40 minutes. And that’s just a typical MTA subway debacle. And we haven’t even touched housing issues. My own non-stabilized lease is up next month, like many renters, I’m one increase away from having to move.

These systemic failures that Mamdani campaigned against? They will soon belong to him. Rents that keep skyrocketing? Groceries that are too expensive? Broken bureaucracy? He is about to inherit it all.

Promises vs. Power

Here are a few of Mamdani’s headline promises:

• Free & fast bus service – Requires $800 million yearly from the state-run MTA, an agency controlled by Governor Kathy Hochul. No new funding has been identified.
  

• Universal childcare – Mamdani wants to pay for this by increasing state taxes. These have been dismissed by the governor as non-starters.
  

• City-run grocery stores- Also tied to the rejected tax proposals.
  

• 200,000 units of social housing via increasing NYC’s debt limits – This would require a change to the state constitution.
  

• $30/hr minimum wage by 2030-This needs approval from both Governor Hochul and Legislature.

Mamdani was unable to get traction on these issues as a state legislator (he passed three bills during his 4 year tenure). As mayor, he has more visibility and a huge platform—but not necessarily more authority. This dynamic isn’t new. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio struggled mightily in his battle for 3 K with Andrew Cuomo. However, Mamdani brings a suite of strengths to this fight.

Will he be able to leverage his impressive campaign apparatus to pressure Albany—a legislature known for stopping change—into action? Can he use his media savvy to rally the public to succeed where other mayors have failed? Does the DSA have the organizational and advocacy muscle to support its mayor?

Whether Mamdani delivers for the city will depend on how he answers these questions.

The Test of Governance

So here are the questions we’ll be asking(and you should too) if Mamdani assumes office in January:

• Will the city build those 200,000 units of social housing? And when?
  

• Will buses become fast & free across the five boroughs?
  

• Will we see a rent freeze that benefits those in stabilized apartments?
  

• Will affordability improve, or will working-class New Yorkers continue to be pushed out?
  

• Will we get universal childcare, or just another press release?
  

• Will a $30 minimum wage become law?

A year from now, will rents still be climbing? Will transit commutes still be as painful?

Mamdani’s future—and perhaps the future of New York’s progressive movement—may depend on how we answer those questions. These issues aren’t just about Mamdani or New York; they’re about whether we can build cities and states that reflect our values. New York has risen to the occasion in the past, from the construction of the subway to the Mitchell-Lama housing program, the Empire State has seen a government that built.

We can be that New York again; we don’t have to settle for the New York of broken trains and Abu Dhabi levels of inequality. The labor rights movement started here, the queer rights movement took hold in the Village. 20th-century New York was the launching pad for innovation, for civil rights, for a public sector that is expansive and imaginative. Mamdani’s agenda matches much of what we fight for here at Civic Pulse: world-class transit, affordability, and good governance. It is an agenda worth fighting for. Here’s to hoping he gets it done.

Most voters aren't familiar with local down-ballot candidates, and many don’t know who currently represents them in City Hall. From inaccessible candidates to concerns about housing and public safety, voters were eager to share their frustrations with the state of the city, even if they hadn’t voted in a while.

In this audio story, we hear directly from the voices behind the headlines, offering a firsthand look at the civic engagement gap and its impact on everyday life.

Listen in and meet the voters who could shape New York’s future.

The document, which was drafted in 1898, controls everything from local zoning rules to voting procedures.

But now, the charter is going through a MAJOR rewrite that stands to impact various aspects of New Yorkers’ daily lives, including the future of affordable housing and representation in local government.

In this first episode of our new audio series, we explain what the charter is and why it matters. In future episodes, we will delve into HOW the charter can, and probably will, reshape New York City. Take a listen!

Interested in getting more involved in New York's local politics? Check out our 2025 Democratic Primary mayoral guide linked here.

On June 24, New York City voters will flock to the polls for the 2025 Mayoral Primary Election. And while the outcome of the race remains uncertain, one thing is clear—there's no shortage of candidates vying for New Yorkers’ votes.

Sitting New York City Mayor Eric Adams is staring down a tough path to re-election after facing corruption charges that tanked his lukewarm approval ratings late last year.

And while the embattled politician is running for re-election as an independent, his decision to ditch New York's Democratic Party suggests his swan song is less a possibility than an eventuality.

With Mayor Adams likely on the way out, a dozen Democratic contenders have lined up to become Gotham's next mayor. The crowded candidate pool includes former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, lefty-left TikTok sensation Zohran Mamdani, YIMBY poster-boy Zellnor Myrie and Adams archrival Brad Lander.

According to one new poll, Cuomo has a nearly 2-to-1 lead over his nearest rival, Zohran Mamdani, leading his opponent by 22 points. By the final round of the pollster's ranked-choice voting simulation, Cuomo had notched 53% of the vote, while Mamdani and Comptroller Brad Lander received 29% and 18%, respectively. 

How New Yorkers ultimately cast their ballots, however, is anybody's guess.

But, one thing is certain: Whoever wins the primary election will represent the Democratic Party in the 2025 Mayoral Election on November 5—a race that Democrats are favored to win, as they outnumber Republicans roughly 6 to 1.

Curious about which Democrats will be on the primary ballot on June 24? We've got you covered:

Andrew Cuomo 

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has emerged as the most dominant figure in the 2025 mayoral race, a sign that legions of COVID-era Cuomo-sexuals (yes, it's a thing—look it up at your own risk) never truly abandoned their affections for the straight-shooting New York native.

Jumping into the fray in late March, the ex-governor, 67, has successfully reshaped what was once a stagnant campaign, earning heaps of buzz from local and national media. It all bodes well for the former governor, who is gunning for a political comeback just four years after he resigned from office as sexual harassment allegations against him swirled.

The scion of one of New York's most prominent political families has centered his campaign on hiring more police officers, strengthening public safety in the city's subway system and building more affordable housing.  

He has also made his past managerial experience a focal point of his campaign—a record his opponents have challenged aggressively. 

Adrienne Adams

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is running for mayor with considerable political experience, having served in the city’s main law-making body since 2017.  

Since launching her campaign in March, Adams, 64, has earned high-profile endorsements from New York State Attorney General Leticia James and a spate of unions. 

Her platform centers on addressing the cost-of-living crisis, supporting non-profit organizations and public libraries, and expanding mental health and child care services throughout the five boroughs. 

“New Yorkers can’t afford to live here, City Hall is in chaos, and Donald Trump is corrupting our city’s independence. It’s time to stand up,” Adams said in a statement in March.

Zohran Mamdani

State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, 33, is a media-savvy millennial who has emerged as a leading figure in the crowded Democratic primary race.

Hoping to mobilize young left voters, Mahmdani has leveraged his massive social media — his TikTok account alone has nearly 80,000 followers and 1.6 million likes— to spread his socialist message. 

And by the looks of it, that strategy is working:  “Idc if he's a mayoral candidate[,] that's babygirl,” one young fan wrote on TikTok, referring to Mamdani. 

The leftist's platform champions fare-free bus service and no-cost childcare, in addition to freezing rents for tenants of stabilized housing units across the city. He also aims to raise the city’s minimum wage to $30 by 2030. 

Mamdani is the second highest-ranked mayoral aspirant in the polls, after Andrew Cuomo. 

Brad Ladner

New York City Comptroller Brand Lander is a well-known Democrat in New York City. 

Lander, 56, has attracted public recognition for denouncing several of Mayor Eric Adams’ policy pushes, including his handling of migrants.

His platform centers on passing police reform and addressing issues arising from the city’s acceptance of migrants over the past few years. Lander also aims to address the affordable housing crisis by greenlighting the construction of more apartments throughout the city. 

Paperboy Prince

Paperboy Prince may not be a polling leader, but the Brooklyn-based creative is bringing their unique brand of politics to the mayoral race. 

The 30-something Maryland native and owner of Bushwick's Love Gallery, is running on their so-called “Utopia Plan.” (That also happens to be the title of their latest track released this month on Spotify.) 

Prince's proposal includes turning the police into a love team and converting public housing into mansions. Under the plan, residents would also receive universal basic income—a socialist policy famously championed by Andrew Yang. 

Those plans may sound out of the ordinary, but, well, nothing about Prince is ordinary.

The political hopeful has run for office before, making an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2021 and for Congress in 2020. Third times the charm? 

Scott Stringer

Former New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer boasts more than three decades of experience in local politics, including a 13-year tenure as a state assemblyman and a stint as the Manhattan Borough President.

Stringer, 65, is running on the promise to make the city safer and more affordable.  

His platform counts hiring 3,000 more police officers in the boroughs and augmenting the NYPD’s presence throughout the subway system among its goals. Stringer has also promised to address New York’s affordable housing crisis by building more low-income units for families throughout the city. 

Zellnor Myrie

New York State Senator Zellnor Myrie has represented parts of Brooklyn since 2019. 

The 38-year-old's platform aims to make New York City a “more livable, more affordable, better managed city.”

Much like many of his political challengers, Myrie has promised voters to mitigate the city’s affordable housing crisis. His plan calls for building and preserving one million homes across the five boroughs. 

Another focus of his campaign is reforming the city’s electoral processes—a goal that harkens back to his efforts in the State Senate to pass legislation like the John R. Lewis New York Voting Rights Act, which blocks voter suppression and discrimination tactics. 

Whitney Tilson

Whitney Tilson, 58, is “a businessperson not a career politician,” as per his own words. 

A former hedge fund manager and Democratic political activist, he is running on the promises to halve violent crime throughout the city, trim local government spending and improve the city’s public schools. 

Like many of his peers, he has also pledged to bring down the cost of living across the boroughs. 

Jessica Ramos

New York State Senator Jessica Ramos, who represents the Jackson Heights and Elmhurst area in Queens, is another politician making a bid for the city's top government office. 

Ramos, 40, has expressed strong support for unions in the New York State Senate, and she formed part of a progressive wave of lawmakers that came to power across the state in 2018. 

Her platform prioritizes housing issues, centering initiatives that aim to grow home ownership rates throughout the city, in addition to supporting public housing improvements. She is also running on the promise to create more union jobs. 

Michael Blake 

Former Bronx Assemblyman Michael Blake has built a strong public profile through championing issues of social justice and economic equity. 

The 42-year-old champions boosting wages for working-class workers and expanding free childcare throughout the city, according to his platform. He also supports housing equality initiatives, with a focus on addressing policy issues that affect people of color.

Selma Batholomew

Selma Batholomew is one of the lesser known mayoral contenders.

She has a background in education and is centering quality of life issues in her campaign, but her public profile is modest. 

Bartholomew hasn’t attended any of the big-name mayoral forums. She holds just $972 in her campaign account, according to the latest campaign finance report.

And after four years of Mayor Eric Adams’ scandal-plagued administration, New Yorkers finally have a chance to turn the page and pick a new leader to run the city.

But the big question is… will they seize the chance?

In April, we hit the streets of Long Island City, Queens, to ask New Yorkers about their thoughts on the upcoming election.

And it wasn’t so much what we did hear—but what we didn't—that surprised us the most.

The New Yorkers we spoke to had loads of thoughts about what’s wrong with the city. But, they had very few opinions on who should be running it.

Broken bus lanes in Queens. This is the kind of policy failure we aim to challenge in Civic Pulse.

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Dude, where’s my bus lane?

Six years ago, New York City officials set out to bring bus lanes to a .8 mile stretch of Fordham Road in the Bronx.

The value proposition was simple: The busway would allow MTA vehicles to zip past traffic on the second-busiest commuter route in the five boroughs, speeding up commutes for the approximately 85,000 locals who travel along the corridor every day.

But while the plan was simple, its execution —like most things involving New York City's bureaucracy—proved far more complicated.

Over the next four years, the proposal fell apart as it crawled through New York’s sluggish public engagement process. That process included an endless stream of community meetings, unfortunately, that seemed to amplify the voices of a loud and privileged few who wanted to kill the project.

Ultimately, Mayor Eric Adams scrapped the busway in 2023 at the urging of Bronx Council Member Feliz Ortiz and local business owners who raised concerns that the proposal would reduce parking spots (it wouldn’t) across a large swath of the Fordham Rd area—a sticking point that hardly mattered to the area's mostly car-less residents.

The busway brouhaha serves as an allegory for much of what is wrong with our local politics: Bureaucratic inertia and political posturing often kill good ideas, hurting ordinary New Yorkers and often making them feel like their voices don't matter.

That's why we created Civic Pulse.

We are starting this newsletter as an experiment in solutions-oriented journalism. We want to challenge the “no-we-can’t attitude” that pervades much of New York City's local government.

So, what should you expect to see from Civic Pulse?

We'll be churning out stories on some of the biggest issues impacting New Yorkers, including the city's housing and public transit crises and other manifestations of local political dysfunction.

Civic Pulse's digital news and audiovisual content will spotlight some of the more than 8 million people who call this city home. Our sources come from all walks of life—they're ordinary city dwellers and business owners; voters and pollsters; and policy experts and politicians.

With the 2025 New York City Mayoral Election on the horizon, we believe now is the time to publish stories that spotlight the importance of local government in our lives.

Those stories will ask questions, and they'll also demand answers.

What does Civic Pulse believe in?

Civic Pulse believes that New York can and should be a city where housing is affordable, trains show up on time, and economic opportunities are plentiful. We want a New York that can thrive in the new century—a city that can and does build for the future.

Good reporting and writing has the power to inspire, outrage and drive collective action.

We hope this newsletter can serve as a vehicle to bring together people who want to solve New York’s greatest challenges.

To learn about our mission, click here.