Primary Day has arrived, and Hell Gate is hitting the streets up to the last minute to hear from New Yorkers about the issues that are most important to them, and who they like (and don't like) in the Democratic mayoral primary race. Read our other installments in this series here, and be sure to check out our live blog throughout the day to hear from even more voters.
Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park
Pink and purple plastic tulips danced in the breeze as bugle fanfare signaled the first race of the day at the Aqueduct Racetrack. Horses wearing brightly colored and numbered saddle cloths trotted around the paddock. "See number seven?" one man asked me. "No sweat. Looks good." This was the kind of strategic thinking of the betting man that I had come to the racetrack to find. Then the man gave me a honey echinacea Ricola, meant to help soothe my throat after (hopefully) yelling my horse to victory.
The regulars at the track, mostly elderly men sitting outside chain-smoking, were staying cool on the hot day with canned Arnold Palmers and tallboys of Foster's.
Inside the building, racegoers sheltered from the heat and watched the races unfold on the television screens across from the betting stations. Male leisure wear was on stunning display: cargo shorts with white socks and New Balance sneakers, khakis and penny loafers with smart polos, heavy gold rings with various insignia and jewels, tropical button-ups, and cabbie hats of every make and model.
L, 57, who lives in Richmond Hill and asked to be identified only by his first initial, was wearing tinted-blue aviator glasses, a gold chain and ring, a Tommy Bahama shirt, and had his gray hair combed straight back, De Niro-style. L had voted for Eric Adams in the last mayoral election, a choice he said that he was not happy with. "All of a sudden everything just disappears," he said of the federal corruption charges against our mayor. "They say there's no quid pro quo there, but, you know, there's always that doubt."
As the cheering around us increased, we paused our conversation to catch the end of the race, which L's pick lost. "Oh, come on! I didn't have the five, I had the six," he bemoaned. In the mayoral race, L was a little less sure who he would put his money on, but said that he would certainly be casting a ballot.
He was, however, leaning away from Cuomo. "I don't like that he's being backed by the super PACs. That's what I don't like about Cuomo. The same people have backed Trump. So I'm more likely to vote for Mamdani. And then see what happens," L said. Then he cracked up.
L was at the race with his father-in-law, who sported a leather cabbie hat and gold chain with a votive-style portrait of his late wife attached to it. L's father-in-law chimed in when he heard Mamdani's name: "Aw come on, give me a break! This guy's talking!"
With tariffs, Iran, and immigration on his mind, L concluded of politicians, "they all belong to the same party. They all lie." His father-in-law added, "They have a big party and they're all drinking."
Errol Dixon, 65, who lives in Greenpoint, is another racetrack regular. Originally from Jamaica, he explained his thinking about the primary election to me—akin to the way that one studies horses, through their breed and ancestry. His pick was Cuomo. When I asked him why he had chosen the former governor, he said, in a patois-inflected English, "Him Italian. Him a sure winner. Can't be no worse. Frank Sinatra, right? Him win by a landslide." When asked if there were others he would consider, he added, "Irish or Jews."
Dixon had seen Mamdani on the TV before, but added, "But him is not Italian, you know."
When asked what he thought about Cuomo's resignation and the various scandals that plagued his gubernatorial career, Dixon had a lot of sympathy for his top pick. "Him trying best, you know? It's New York. Him just trying best," he said.
But, he added, he wasn't planning to vote in the primary.
Newcomers were also present that day, including Jill Neary, 37, from Staten Island, who was accompanied by Chris, 44, from Queens, who declined to give his last name. Both lifelong New Yorkers, it was their first time at Aqueduct. Both knew one thing: They were voting for Republican Curtis Sliwa in the general, who, Neary said, "understands the streets of New York day-to-day, moving through different settings and encountering different types of people."
Neither Neary nor Chris disclosed their registration or had anything against the other candidates in the race, but nobody else had won them over. Chris, who works for NYCHA, had heard of Mamdani. "I heard his mom directed 'Mississippi Masala,' which is amazing," he said. "So he's like a nepo baby, he could just be chilling. But he's trying to, you know, do good things."
Up in the stadium, I found the rare Whitney Tilson voter. Josh Friedman, 29, lives in Highbridge in the Bronx and said that he was a registered Democrat only so that he could cast a vote in the party's primary, as a sort of spoiler. Friedman voted for Sliwa in the last election, and this time he was hoping to support whichever candidate was the least far-left. In his eyes, that candidate was Tilson. "He seems like the most moderate," Friedman said.
For the number two spot on his ballot, Friedman said, "I think I'm going to pick Cuomo just to keep Mamdani out of there. I didn't really like the job that Cuomo did, but compared to the alternatives, you know?" Friedman remembered Cuomo as somebody determined to get something done, even if it wasn't done well. "He had his things he wanted to do and he did it his way whether it made sense or not," he said.
He specifically remembered Cuomo pushing for the installation of countdown clocks in the subway stations, which Friedman says was not completed effectively. "He wanted it done. So what happened? It didn't get done right, but you'll still see them," Friedman said.
Dave & Buster's, Atlantic Center
Over at the Dave & Buster's in Atlantic Center, a whole other subset of New York City voters was partaking in the thrill of competition with games like Spinner Frenzy, a fidget spinner-based "Wheel of Fortune"-style arcade game, fueled by flights of fluorescent margaritas.
Crushing Dance Dance Revolution was Dylan Lyon, 33, who danced to Mutsuhiko Izumi's "Jet World," and who modestly told me that his overall score was only 700-something (he hadn't played in years). "It was a song that I don't have memorized but it's a song with a lot of nostalgia," Lyon explained, since he had played it at his friend's house growing up.
Lyon, who lives in Washington Heights, plans to vote in the mayoral election for the first time in his life, and that's thanks to Zohran Mamdani, a candidate he said finally speaks to his politics.
"I've been very disenfranchised for years," Lyon said. "I've been far-left most of my life, social Democrat kind of a thing. And he's speaking to what I like." Lyon rattled off a list of Mamdani's policies that won him over: "The free buses, the free child care is great. Rent freezing for those who it applies to is going to be amazing. The grocery stores—City-run grocery stores should be a thing in this large of a city."
As for the rest of his ballot, Lyon was planning to rank Brad Lander second and Adrienne Adams third, despite the latter's more moderate, and to him, uninspiring policies.
Over in the bar area, no less than 39 television screens were showing a variety of sports, and in between ads for Charmin toilet paper, medication to relieve bloating and gas, and lots of cars, Cuomo advertisements flashed periodically. Those ads touted Cuomo's leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, narrated over a black-and-white image of a person in a hazmat suit sitting on a stoop, head in hands.
Jocelyn Murphy, 60, lives in East New York and works as a court clerk. She had already cast her ballot, and up at the top had been Adrienne Adams. "She's the head of the City Council and I think it's time we supported a woman for mayor," Murphy said. Murphy didn't remember all of her rankings, but had placed Zohran Mamdani third and Zellnor Myrie fifth.
Murphy said that she had mixed feelings about both Cuomo and Eric Adams, whom she voted for in the last mayoral election. She said she would not be supporting either candidate this time around. Like many other New York voters, she was suspicious of both the corruption that Cuomo and Adams had been accused of as well as the political motivations of the accusations themselves.
Murphy said that she liked Cuomo as an administrator, and added, "I still have problems with all the stuff with the women, but I have problems also with why all of that didn't come out earlier, you know?"
Carli, 42, who did not want to share her full name, is part of a queer softball team who decided to skip practice in the heat to spend a day at the arcade. Carli had also already voted in the election. "I ranked Brad Lander first, Zohran second, and then honestly, the last three were just names I recognized," Carli said.
To the best of her memory, Carli said, she had ranked Adrienne Adams third, Zellnor Myrie fourth, and Jessica Ramos fifth.
She had placed Lander first, ahead of Mamdani, after she had seen Lander get arrested while accompanying a migrant to immigration court. "It really impressed me that he stood up to ICE and got arrested. It just pulled my heartstrings," Carli said.
Beyond that, Carli said, "I like that he has a lot of experience, but he seems like he's really for the people, you know, not like a rich guy who's supported by the wealthy, like I feel like Cuomo is."
Despite ranking him second, Carli shared enthusiasm for Mamdani's policies. "I like that he's all about making the city more affordable. Some of those things can seem like pie in the sky, but he is doing them right. I want someone who is grass roots, who is for the people and is trying to make the city more affordable," she said.
Carli works as an administrator in higher education with a focus on DEI, which, she said, would soon be called something else. As she's watched her colleagues lose their jobs and grant funding, she said that she wants a mayor who will not be bullied by Trump. "I've seen mayors in other big cities pushing back," she said. "And I definitely want a mayor who is the same, who's pushing back."