Primary Day is tomorrow, and Hell Gate is still hitting the streets 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.
Friday afternoon and evening outside the Parkchester Islamic Center in the Bronx
On Friday afternoon, between afterschool pickup and the Asr prayer, I stopped by the Parkchester Islamic Center in the Bronx to speak to voters about the election. Literally everyone I spoke with there was all in for Zohran Mamdani—not just because he celebrated Eid al-Adha there earlier in June, and not just because he would be the first New York City mayor of the Muslim faith. Rather, they supported his push for a more affordable city.
"I'm going to vote for Mamdani," said Mohammad Hossein, a 45-year-old bus operator living in Parkchester. "I think he's a good person. Andrew Cuomo, you know, he was the governor of the state, and now he comes back to the city. I don't know what he wants." Mamdani, he said, "is a new person." "I'd like to do something, you know, different," he added. "[Cuomo] was governor. Why he come here? I don't understand. Maybe he missed the power? That's why I decided, 'Okay, I don't vote [for him.]'"
Hossein, who is originally from Bangladesh, has lived in the Bronx for over 20 years. The most pressing issue for him is affordability. "New York City is so expensive now. Everything: rent, food cost, transportation. It's too difficult to live here, to be comfortable here," he said, adding that he likes that Mamdani talks about addressing those issues.
