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When it comes to politics, New York City is not 'New York City'
Washington PostThere is a particular perception of New York City politics that is fairly well earned: It is a bastion of liberals, a manifestation of America’s hard-left. This perception is a bit like the perception that all of New York City is tall skyscrapers and bustling avenues — not entirely wrong, just incomplete. There is a New York that is deeply and vocally liberal just as there is a part of the city that matches the depictions seen in movies. But there is a lot of the city that is single-family homes and quiet streets. It’s less dense, less populated and less evocative in the national conversation, but this other New York City is a physical reminder that New York City is not equivalent to America’s understanding of “New York City.”
The prompt for this distinction is, of course, the city’s primary election on Tuesday. In a normal year, citywide elections are complicated things, demanding outreach to hundreds of thousands of voters who are often hard to contact and requiring that campaigns navigate complicated and conflicting political communities. This year, though, the city has moved to ranked-choice voting, meaning that voters will be able to indicate their preferences for up to five contenders for positions such as mayor. For the candidates, that means securing a vote isn’t enough; you need to not only have a core base of support but be palatable even to those whose first choice is someone else.
Over the course of the election, New York City Democrats — from whose ranks the next mayor will almost certainly come — have consistently moved relatively moderate candidates to the front of the pack. Eric Adams, a former police officer, has led in most recent polling, having usurped the lead held by former presidential candidate Andrew Yang earlier in the year. More progressive candidates such as Maya Wiley have trailed.
For those whose assumptions about New York are rooted in the idea that the city is midnight-blue, this is probably a bit strange. After all, it’s not simply the case that the more progressive candidates are splitting the vote; even when accounting for vote-ranking, Adams has held a lead. The answer, as suggested at the beginning of this article, is simple: New York isn’t as left-wing as its public perception.
That perception is a function of visibility, just as is the perception of New York being all skyscrapers and taxicabs. Media outlets and Hollywood tend to focus on Manhattan because it’s visually interesting and densely populated. Manhattan therefore has an outsize voice in the media conversation. It has an outsize voice in the political conversation, too, thanks in part to that same density. It’s also thanks to the hyperdensity of wealth in the borough, with the Zip codes that line Central Park often topping the lists of the most generous political donors to both political parties.
The prompt for this distinction is, of course, the city’s primary election on Tuesday. In a normal year, citywide elections are complicated things, demanding outreach to hundreds of thousands of voters who are often hard to contact and requiring that campaigns navigate complicated and conflicting political communities. This year, though, the city has moved to ranked-choice voting, meaning that voters will be able to indicate their preferences for up to five contenders for positions such as mayor. For the candidates, that means securing a vote isn’t enough; you need to not only have a core base of support but be palatable even to those whose first choice is someone else.
Over the course of the election, New York City Democrats — from whose ranks the next mayor will almost certainly come — have consistently moved relatively moderate candidates to the front of the pack. Eric Adams, a former police officer, has led in most recent polling, having usurped the lead held by former presidential candidate Andrew Yang earlier in the year. More progressive candidates such as Maya Wiley have trailed.
For those whose assumptions about New York are rooted in the idea that the city is midnight-blue, this is probably a bit strange. After all, it’s not simply the case that the more progressive candidates are splitting the vote; even when accounting for vote-ranking, Adams has held a lead. The answer, as suggested at the beginning of this article, is simple: New York isn’t as left-wing as its public perception.
That perception is a function of visibility, just as is the perception of New York being all skyscrapers and taxicabs. Media outlets and Hollywood tend to focus on Manhattan because it’s visually interesting and densely populated. Manhattan therefore has an outsize voice in the media conversation. It has an outsize voice in the political conversation, too, thanks in part to that same density. It’s also thanks to the hyperdensity of wealth in the borough, with the Zip codes that line Central Park often topping the lists of the most generous political donors to both political parties.
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