This post was originally published on May 22 and contains edits made on June 6. Edits are noted in italics.
I was going to go back to regular programming after those last few detours, I really was! But here’s the thing: I contain multitudes and while I’ve been a busy little beaver eating and exploring and learning and watching movies, there’s one aspect of life in NYC that’s been unavoidable - the upcoming June Mayoral Primary. That’s right, it’s about to get political up in here.
I won’t pretend to be an expert on all of the candidates or the policies up for debate; there are actually plenty of folks right here on Substack who already do an amazing job breaking down those nuances. I recommend reading , , or ; The City NYC and Hell Gate have also been providing fabulous coverage and updates (you can and should watch Hell Gate’s recent Mayoral Forum here). And recently published a great breakdown of some candidates here.
What I can do, though, is share my perspective. I don’t really shy away from providing you with my opinions in BCLF so you probably have a pretty good idea of what’s important to me already. Maybe you agree with me and maybe you don’t, but I’ve learned that it’s much easier to digest information when it’s coming from a relatable source, so I hope I can be that source for you. Please don’t use this as your single source of truth though; do your own research, diversify your feed so you’re exposed to multiple perspectives, and when it comes time to vote make the best choice you can with all of the info you have.
I’ve got some info below on how the heck to even vote, as well as a brief breakdown of some Mayoral candidates and what I like/don’t like about them. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
But first - a very special shoutout to my newest paid subscriber, Brandon! He very graciously subscribed at the Founding Tier(!), which really just means that I cry a bit more than usual when I get the notification. Brandon once helped me move my employees into a new office space in record time (hit him up for your real estate needs) and he’s a very fun lunch buddy. Thanks so much, Brandon :)
📝 Register to Vote
In order to vote in the June Primary, you need to not only be registered to vote, but registered to vote for a party. That unfortunately means you’ve gotta engage in our flawed two party system and pick a side - Republican or Democrat. The purpose of the Primary is to narrow down the singular Democrat or Republican candidate who will go onto the big election in November (we’ve only got Democrats to narrow down this June, so Republicans: sit down. please). Interestingly, we’ve also got two candidates running as Independents this year and those folks do not engage in Primary elections, so they’re automatically in the November election. We all see what you did there, Eric Adams…
Look up your voter registration
If there isn’t anything noted next to Political Party, then you’re not currently registered to a party and able to vote in the Primary.
Good news - you have until June 14 to register to a party to vote!
Early Voting - Begins June 14 thru June 23
Primary Election Day (aka the last day to vote) - June 24
🤓 Know What’s on the Ballot
I’m going to focus on the Mayoral candidates, but there may be other offices up for election depending on where you live. Check out all of the offices that might be on your ballot and learn about what those offices even do. Ballotpedia is also a great resource that’ll show you exactly who’s on your ballot. Since I’m focusing on the Mayoral candidates, here’s what that office is responsible for:
The Mayor is the leader of our city government. They serve for 4 years (up to 2 consecutive terms).
Propose the city’s budget 💰
Sign or veto bills passed by the City Council ✍️
Appoint leaders to city agencies, including the Schools Chancellor and Police Commissioner 📛
Set priorities and policy for city agencies 📝
Manage city land, impacting affordable housing, public parks, and street cleaning 🌳
And here are all of our Mayoral candidates (as of May 16):
🔢 Ranked Choice Voting
Here in NY, we use Ranked Choice Voting for certain offices in primary and special elections: Mayor, Public Advocate, Comptroller, Borough President, and City Council. What the heck is this?
Instead of hopping into the voting booth and just picking your single favorite candidate, you get to pick your top 5. And if you were around when MySpace was popular, you know just how hard it can be to narrow your faves down to just a handful.
Why do we do this? It actually gives you more say in who is elected. Previously, if your single pick didn’t get the majority of votes, you (and they) were outta luck. But now if your top pick doesn’t make the cut, you’ve still got your #2 in the game! Ranked choice voting has also led to a more diverse pool of candidates and cities that have implemented this system have elected more women and more women of color, making their elected officials more representative of their communities. Cool.
Wanna know more about how Ranked Choice votes are counted? I gotchu fam:
1️⃣ All 1st choice votes are counted. If a candidate receives more than 50% of votes, they win! The end!
🙅 However, if no candidate earns more than 50% of 1st choice votes, then counting will continue in rounds.
📉 Each round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. If your highest-ranked candidate is eliminated, your vote goes to the next highest ranked candidate on your ballot.
🎉 This process continues until there are only 2 candidates left. The candidate with the most votes wins!
More of a visual learner? Try playing this voting simulation or watch this video describing the process using legos (the lego one is really good)!
👀 Who will be your pick(s) for Mayor?
I’m not going to run through every single candidate on the ballot, because truthfully I don’t know too much about all of them. Instead, I’m going to give you my Top 5 and explain why I’m ranking these folks.
1. Zohran Mamdani
If you are a human on the internet, you’ve probably seen Zohran and heard his campaign promises: free and fast buses, rent freezes, and no-cost childcare. The rent is too damn high and you all know I’m a bus baddie (I miss my free B60), so I’m all for this. Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist and those words scare some people, but tell me just how bad this sounds: “Democratic socialists argue that capitalism is inherently incompatible with the values of freedom, equality, and solidarity.” Yeah, no shit. He’s been a member of the NY State Council since 2021 and has sponsored bills to establish safe bike lanes, prohibit landlords from demanding broker fees from tenants, and increase wages alongside inflation hikes. Sign me the fuck up.
Mamdani also notably maxed out his campaign donations, which is all the more impressive as most of that money came from small donors (including this bitch) instead of rich dudes looking for kickbacks or via other less legal means (Eric Adams knows what I’m talking about). I don’t think I’ve ever seen a candidate work so hard to connect with actual real ass New Yorkers (that is, folks across all demographics, not just the ones with $$). Mamdani routinely shows up at protests and isn’t afraid to demand answers from politicians with tight buttholes. He even filmed an ad in Spanish and got accused of using AI because people couldn’t believe anyone would actually put in effort to connect with underserved communities. The bar is that low.
Mamdani is probably the first candidate I’ve encountered (for any political race, let alone Mayor) who I actually feel shares my values. And he’s a brown Muslim man and I’m a lil white Jewish girl; on the surface we probably could not be more different! But I think we both love New York and want to see the city thrive by lifting up the people who make it the wonderful and crazy place that it is. And that’s who the Mayor should be - someone who represents all New Yorkers, not just despite our differences, but because of them.
Do I believe he’ll accomplish all of his campaign promises? No. The city is big and complicated and he’s already become a target of ire for many folks. But I appreciate that he’s dreaming big and he’s willing to try and I think we need a leader who has this type of vision for what NYC could be. I’m also just really tired of having old/rich/disconnected people run shit.
2. Brad Lander
Ohhh Eden, your first pick was so *diverse* and now you’re picking ye standard olde white guy? Listen, I’ve been a fan of Brad’s since he was elected Comptroller (the guy who controls the money) in 2021. He’s been consistently sticking it to both Trump and Eric Adams when it comes to making sure our city’s budget is being used effectively and he even cursed out Andrew Cuomo in Yiddish after Cuomo accused Lander of antisemitism while speaking at a synagogue. He really Dikembe Mutombo’s his ass and said “no meshuggenah in my house.”
Lander’s priorities are making our city safer, solving our housing affordability crisis, standing up to Trump and Musk, and cleaning up corruption in City Hall. Again, love all of that. Before being elected Comptroller, Lander spent years on the New York City Council and is also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Are you sensing a theme here? Baby Brad campaigned to pass a bill for paid sick leave, brought a/c to all NYC classrooms (why was this not happening anyways?), and was arrested on multiple occasions throughout his career for engaging in civil disobedience (love a civilly disobedient baddie).
Like any white man, though, my boy Brad isn’t perfect. He did admit to violating ethics rules after seeking donations to a nonprofit he helped start in 2019. As far as violations go, it’s certainly not the worst thing he could have done and he’s really turned things around in a big way since the pandemic. He helped move unhoused folks into vacant hotel rooms during that time, he urged police to suspend criminal arrests, summonses, warrant enforcement, and parole violations for low-level offenses, and he wasn’t afraid to go out of his comfort zone during the Black Lives Matter protests.
He said in 2020 that it was a core ideal of his to "comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable" and I think he’s really done that in the last few years. Lander later expanded on that idea with what is probably one of the most self-aware statements I’ve heard from a white man: "As a white man, [the work of racial justice] starts by listening as honestly as I can to Black people about the anger and pain they are feeling, and the system of white supremacy and systemic racism it reflects. That is not easy – because it implicates me...." Go off, king.
I think Lander’s experience as Comptroller will serve him really well and for an old white guy, he’s surprisingly progressive. I think he could be the political dad that we missed out on with Tim Walz because he absolutely has Dad Brad energy. And we have a great candidate on the ballot with lots of city finance experience to take his old job - Justin Brannan will be getting my vote for Comptroller.
No change for Mamdani or Lander - they’ve held steady in my #1 and #2 positions for a while. In a perfect world, I’d love for them to co-mayor a la Step Brothers because I feel like they complement each other really well. Mamdani is the dreamer, Lander is the guy with the experience who can reel it in. I would be very happy with either of them as mayor, but considering that Mamdani’s current polling has him closely behind Cuomo, I think ranking him as #1 is my best chance at knocking Cuomo out of the race.
3. Jessica Ramos
I live on the less cool side of Bushwick (not near House of Yes) where the population still skews pretty Hispanic and Latino, so I’ve seen a lot of posters for Jessica Ramos near my apartment. Not only is she the only Latina running, but she’s one of only three women in the race (Adrienne Adams and Selma Bartholomew being the others). Ramos’ campaign is running in support of working families, affordable housing, fair wages, and safer communities - all very good stuff and not too dissimilar from Mamdani.
She previously served on Queens CB3 and was a Queens County Democratic district leader for 4 years before being elected to the NY State Senate in 2019. And she’s not afraid to stick it to the orange cheeto in the White House. In 2025, Ramos introduced the "Recourse Act," which would allow the NY State Governor to withhold state tax dollars if the President cuts federal spending the city relies on for supporting critical agencies. She really said "If Trump cuts our funding, then we will withhold our taxes" and I said “yes ma’am, I don’t wanna pay that shit anyways.”
Like Mamdani, Ramos feels like someone who is down to earth and in the race for the right reasons. She’s not doing it for the Indiana Jones Fortune & Glory of it all - she actually wants to make our city better and has the experience to do it.
After watching some of the debates, I found that I was really no longer impressed with Ramos or her platform. She was rather timid during the debates and if we have any hope of standing up to Trump, we need someone who isn’t afraid to raise their voice a little (get Hilary Duff in here!). She also all but gave up and just endorsed Andrew Cuomo for Mayor, so no thank you ma’am.
3. Michael Blake ⬆️1️⃣
I’m gonna be honest, Michael Blake kind of came outta nowhere for me. I haven’t been following his campaign, but as I started digging into each candidate more I realized that I dug a lot of his views. His platform supports jobs and economic freedom, public education, safe communities, and healthy and strong neighborhoods. He hopes to do this by creating tax breaks for middle-class homeowners, guaranteed income for all New Yorkers and universal childcare. His website actually goes into a good amount of detail around his campaign promises, so I recommend giving that a look.
Blake served one term on the NY State Assembly back in 2014 and was unlucky in subsequent races for Public Advocate and House of Reps. Prior to his own political career, though, he did work with President Obama as an aide where he advocated for minority and women-owned businesses.
So while Michael Blake isn’t my first choice, I certainly don’t hate the guy and would put him above some others in the race.
Blake was previously my #4 pick after Ramos. Before Ramos even endorsed Cuomo, I was already planning to move him above her. I thought he performed really well at the debates, he had a strong voice and strong opinions and called out Cuomo on multiple occasions. He even dropped this banger: “The people who don’t feel safe are young women, mothers and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo,” he said. “That’s the greatest threat to public safety in New York City.”
4. Scott Stringer or Adrienne Adams 🆕
Scott Stringer always sort of just missed making my list. I thought he did a good job both as Comptroller and Manhattan Borough President. He also served in the NY State Assembly, but I was a bit too young then to really follow what was going on. What I like about Stringer is also what I don’t like about him - he’s practical. He’s mentioned multiple times that a mayor needs to have years of government experience behind them and I do believe that’s true, but in Stringer’s case I feel like it’s causing him to stop dreaming and do the bare minimum simply because he knows he can get it done. Of course I want a mayor who will get shit done, but I also want someone who has a vision for what NYC could be if we aren’t afraid to step outside of the current status quo. I thing Stringer would do fine, but I want someone who can dream bigger.
I feel similarly about Adrienne Adams (no relation to Eric Adams, something I’m sure she’s tired of saying). She’s the current Speaker of the NYC Council and also brings a good deal of government experience. But like Stringer, she’s pretty straight laced and practical and I’m afraid she’ll slip into just being comfortable in the role. I did appreciate how she grilled Cuomo at the debates and her honesty in admitting that she regretted voting for Eric Adams for mayor. I think she would get shit done, but again I think things would just be mostly status quo.
I think I’m ultimately leaning towards Scott Stringer here, but it might be a game time decision.
5. Zellnor Myrie
Myrie is another candidate I haven’t been following too closely, but how can I not rank a guy whose name sounds like it belongs in a Star Wars movie? Myrie’s website is a bit sparse compared to picks 1-4, but I do like some of his views. He supports gun safety, abortion rights, climate change legislation, and affordable housing.
He was elected NY State Senator in 2019 and sponsored legislation to pause evictions during the pandemic. He took part in the protests that formed after George Floyd was killed. And most importantly, he voted against a bill to make baseball NY’s official state sport. Baseball is fucking boring and Myrie gets it.
Myrie sounds like a decent dude, and while I don’t think he’s going to go all the way, I don’t mind having him on my ticket.
Listen, I still love what Myrie is doing. I just don’t think he’s got what it takes to be mayor and stand up to Trump.
🙅 Don’t Rank Evil Andrew (Cuomo) for Mayor - D.R.E.A.M. for NYC
You may have heard some variations of this acronym going around and the idea is that you should not rank Andrew Cuomo at all on your ballot - not even at the bottom. And this goes back to how ranked choice voting works. If he’s on your ballot at all, even in the #5 spot, he still has the slightest change of winning the primary. However, he’s gotta be in it to win it, so if you don’t rank him at all, he’s out. But why shouldn’t you vote for Cuomo?
Andrew Cuomo was the Governor of NY for a decade and while he did some decent stuff during that time, the end of his tenure was pretty disgraceful (Dad Brad expertly rattled off his top 5 offenses during a debate). During the pandemic, Cuomo’s administration issued a directive requiring nursing homes to admit COVID-19 positive patients after they were discharged from hospitals, a move that was widely criticized for spreading Covid among vulnerable populations. Investigations then revealed that Cuomo’s team undercounted nursing home deaths by up to 50% and deliberately delayed releasing accurate data in order to fudge the numbers in their favor. Shortly after that, a slew of sexual harassment allegations came to light - enough that they have their own Wikipedia page. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty tired of having sexual predators in public offices, so no thank you.
And what about Eric Adams? Adams has moved to run as an Independent, so he won’t be on the Democratic primary ballot, but he will be up for vote in November. Adams has done nothing but clown around for his entire mayoral career. After he became the subject of a federal investigation around illegal campaign donations, Adams was very quick to buddy up to Trump in order to get those charges dropped. Do we really want a mayor whose lips are crusted with Cheeto dust from kissing Trump’s orange ass? Adams has also been accused of sexual harassment (do we see a pattern here?) and I think we’d honestly all be better off if he just rode off into the sunset on Turkish Airlines.
🌟 Eden’s Mayoral Top 5 🌟
Zohran Mamdani
Brad Lander
Michael Blake
Scott Stringer or Adrienne Adams
Zellnor Myrie
Still not sure who you want in your Top 5? Try taking the Meet Your Mayor 2025 quiz from The City NYC x Gothamist. My quiz results came very close to the ranking I’d already made on my own, so it can at least point you in some direction.
It takes a lot for me to go to Smorgasburg these days - the food doesn’t feel exciting like it used to and it’s also so so expensive. However, Sat May 24 they’re having an AAPI Festival of Tea. In addition to the usual vendors, there will be a bunch of specialty tea vendors, workshops, demos, tea flights, the works. I’m a total tea person, so I just might slather on sunscreen and roast in the Williamsburg parking lot for this one. More likely though, you’ll find me grabbing the Lazy Sundaes x Very Cool Ice Cream Mango Bingsoo Sundae, which is only available May 24 at Lazy Sundaes’ DUMBO location.
Another one for my tea lovers: Matcha Bowl Painting on Sat May 31 at Isshiki Cafe. $85 gets you one handcrafted matcha bowl to paint and keep, all painting supplies, and a drink while you’re there. Sure the price sounds steep, but there’s truly nothing I’ve come to love more than drinking tea out of the cups I created myself.
Ok I accidentally bookmarked yet another tea adjacent event this month - Meet Your Matcha on Sat May 31 at Yu & Me Books in Chinatown. This one’s going for the low low price of $12 and you’ll have the chance to meet your matcha-loving soulmate! Buy your ticket now for book trivia, matcha tasting, and more.
If you’ve already met your soul mate and need a date night idea, why not visit Last Place on Earth for their special Plus One & Only package? You can book this any night and the $35 price includes a 2-hour board game reservation, a tea & soda tasting flight (!), sweet & salty snack pairing, and surprise tokens of love (because who doesn’t love a little mystery?)
If you missed last weekend’s clothing swaps and still need a closet refresh, head to Fulton Park on Sun May 25 for Worn Not Torn Exchange’s Clothing Swap.
Reader Zoe sent me a cool link recently - http://nytrainproject.com/index.html. Freelance art director and sometimes photographer Adam Chang collected images of the tile patterns on the signage in every subway station in NYC!
And a tip that came to me from both Danielle and
- watch Nonna’s on Netflix. It’s based on the Italian restaurant Enoteca Maria in Staten Island that employs nonnas instead of chefs to cook. Maybe it’ll be a #StatenIslandGirlSummer after all.
Omg this is compreHENSIVE and I love it!
I love this and hate not getting to participate in NYC politics anymore! While I fully support DREAM, the ire directed towards Andrew Yang in the last mayoral race was way more fun. Let me complain about someone because they don't understand what a bodega is!