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      How Andrew Yang Won Over Orthodox Brooklyn

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      A slew of influential ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders endorsed Mr. Yang, motivated by one overriding issue: “Yeshivas, yeshivas, yeshivas.”The campaign material began appearing in Yiddish earlier than usual this year, declaring that the best defense that ultra-Orthodox Jews in New York City could have against a hostile world would be to elect Andrew Yang as mayor.One ad, invoking a passage from the Babylonian Talmud, told voters that Mr. Yang was the sort of honest man who is loved by God, not someone “who says one thing with his mouth but means another in his heart.”Another ad cast the choice in existential terms, urging people to vote for Mr. Yang because he alone supports “our right to educate our children according to our fundamentals” and “values our way of life.”With the June 22 Democratic mayoral primary roughly a month away, Mr. Yang, a former 2020 presidential candidate, has been able to push to the top of the contest through a potent mix of celebrity, optimism and tireless outreach, both in person and on social media.As he did in his presidential candidacy, which had support from a broad spectrum of disaffected voters, Mr. Yang has been able to widen his appeal in New York, attracting a significant following from influential ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders.There are at least 500,000 Orthodox Jews in the New York area, by some estimates, and the endorsement of ultra-Orthodox leaders is highly coveted because the community is seen as a formidable voting bloc, especially in a race that has so far not energized the electorate.The endorsement of ultra-Orthodox leaders is highly coveted because the community is seen as a formidable voting bloc.James Estrin/The New York TimesThe key for Mr. Yang was his early declaration that he intended to take a laissez-faire attitude toward Hasidic yeshivas, the private schools to which almost all ultra-Orthodox families send their sons, as well as toward the schools where they educate their daughters.The yeshiva system has faced intense criticism over the failure of some schools to provide a basic secular education. Some also operated secretly during the pandemic, in violation of public health rules.“We shouldn’t interfere with their religious and parental choice as long as the outcomes are good,” he told The Forward, a Jewish publication, in February.That approach has helped him undercut rivals, particularly the Brooklyn borough president, Eric Adams, a former state senator who has a long working relationship with the Orthodox community.In the 2013 Democratic mayoral primary, Hasidic groups in Borough Park, Brooklyn, backed Bill de Blasio, who had once represented the area in the City Council.But in the last two presidential elections, neighborhoods with large ultra-Orthodox populations were islands of deep red in overwhelmingly blue Brooklyn. Some precincts in Borough Park voted for President Donald J. Trump by more than 90 percent in 2020.It remains to be seen how much influence Hasidic leaders will have in the Democratic primary; most ultra-Orthodox Jews support the Republican Party, according to a study published last week by the Pew Research Center, and the 2020 presidential election results in Orthodox Brooklyn seem to bear that out.Nonetheless, for Hasidic leaders, the decision to endorse a newcomer like Mr. Yang over a known quantity like Mr. Adams highlights their anxiety after a yearslong series of calamitous events: a devastating pandemic, a rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes and a long history of clashes with secular authorities over issues like social distancing, measles outbreaks and high school curriculums.Mr. Yang comes to city politics without the baggage of those past clashes. Capitalizing on that blank slate, he has won over allies with well-honed rhetoric on religious freedom, a sophisticated messaging campaign in Yiddish media and a willingness to adopt the hands-off approach favored by Hasidic leaders.“The most burning issue is yeshivas,” said Alexander Rapaport, a community leader who has organized voter registration drives in Borough Park in the run-up to the primary. “It’s not like something else is issue No. 2. Everything else is issue No. 25. The first 24 issues are yeshivas, yeshivas, yeshivas.”Alexander Rapaport, a community leader in Borough Park, said that for many voters, where candidates stood on yeshivas was a defining issue. Kevin Hagen for The New York TimesIn past elections, debates over yeshivas often centered on the allocation of public funds to the religious schools, which receive millions of federal, state and city dollars through education and child care programs.But the political conversation changed after a 2015 legal complaint filed by yeshiva graduates who said they had been given little secular education. That complaint led the city to open an inquiry that found that 26 of 28 yeshivas that were investigated were not meeting a legal requirement to provide education “substantially equivalent” to that provided in city public schools.No action was taken, but it prompted a citywide dialogue that cut to the heart of the yeshiva’s role in Hasidic society and profoundly insulted many in the community. There are more than 50,000 students in Hasidic schools in New York City, according to a 2017 report by Young Advocates for Fair Education, an ultra-Orthodox advocacy group.“The perceived threat to the autonomy of the yeshivas is greater now than it ever has been in part because there are critics from within the community publicizing what they see as the problems with the yeshiva system in a way that hasn’t happened before,” said Nathaniel Deutsch, a professor at University of California, Santa Cruz.Mr. Yang’s approach to the community was on full display at a recent event in Midwood, Brooklyn, where he received the endorsement of two local politicians, Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein and Councilman Kalman Yeger.Standing before a crowd of reporters, Mr. Yang vowed to fight anti-Semitism and told Hasidic voters they were part of the “beautiful mosaic” of New York City.But when asked by The New York Times about yeshivas, Mr. Yang stood quietly behind Mr. Eichenstein and Mr. Yeger as they heatedly defended the schools, attacked “so-called advocates” for reform and decried the city investigation.Mr. Yang appeared bewildered by their anger — at one point, Mr. Yeger accused members of the City Council of being “OK with our kids getting blown up” — and sought to calm tensions with a joke about the “high-value add” they made to his campaign.He then took the microphone and criticized the city for allowing investigators “to check for infractions of various kinds” in yeshivas. He said he would take a different approach as mayor..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-1jiwgt1{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;margin-bottom:1.25rem;}.css-8o2i8v{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-8o2i8v p{margin-bottom:0;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}“To the extent that there are issues in individual schools, I think we have to come together with the community and say ‘Look, like, is there something we can do to help?’” Mr. Yang said.“When there are issues, the approach should be one of correction and collegiality rather than contentiousness and adversarialness,” he added. “Which, unfortunately I think, has been the dynamic that the city has engendered for far too long.”Mr. Yang has expressed a willingness to adopt a hands-off approach to yeshivas, winning over many Hasidic leaders.Dave Sanders for The New York TimesMr. Adams has also praised yeshivas, saying he was “genuinely impressed” by one of the schools investigated by the city when he visited in March. But he has stressed that they must meet city standards and seemed to favor intervention when they do not.“We have to ensure that these yeshivas — those that are failing, which is not all the yeshivas, but those that are failing — we have to ensure that they meet the minimum standards,” he recently told The New York Times.The endorsements for Mr. Yang have been notable for how early they arrived. Hasidic leaders tend to wait until polls have established a favorite so they can try to back the winner, said David M. Pollock, the public policy director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.But the fact that ultra-Orthodox voters have voted as a bloc in the past does not mean they are a monolith, Mr. Pollock said.That has been especially clear at the local level. Even in 2013, when Mr. de Blasio won the Borough Park neighborhood, he did so only by a slight margin over William C. Thompson Jr., who beat him in other neighborhoods with large ultra-Orthodox populations.“The dynamic is not that there is one bloc vote, but that there are multiple political players who can deliver votes wholesale,” Mr. Pollock said. That can be especially potent in an election with ranked-choice voting, which this mayoral race is using for the first time.“If you’re not going to endorse someone as your No. 1, you can say, ‘You’ll be our No. 2,’” Mr. Pollock said. “That’s not bad if you can sway 6,000 votes.”Mr. Yang has sought to appeal to Hasidic voters on issues besides education, including support for the right of parents to choose a circumcision ritual, metzitzah b’peh, which is used by a minority of Hasidic mohels and has transmitted herpes to babies, and support for Israel in its conflict with Hamas.But yeshivas have become the dominant issue in part because they play a larger role in Hasidic society than schools do in the secular world, Professor Deutsch said.They employ many Hasidic people, act as a social network that connects people with jobs and marriage prospects and are a primary medium through which the community’s history, values and Yiddish language are passed on to new generations, he said.They are also an important lever of power for community leaders, who can threaten to bar a child from yeshiva to enforce standards of behavior on their parents, such as a prohibition on renting property to gentrifiers, Dr. Deutch said.Indeed, Yoel Greenfeld, a young man leaving prayers at a 24-hour synagogue in Borough Park, said he would vote for Mr. Yang in the general election because Hasidic leaders endorsed him. But he cannot vote in the primary because he is a registered Republican.“I’ll vote for Yang because the community here wants Yang, and when people say that they mean the leaders want Yang,” Mr. Greenfeld said. “My opinion is nothing compared to theirs. But personally, I want a Republican.” More

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      Maya Wiley Lands Major Endorsement From Rep. Hakeem Jeffries

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      Mr. Jeffries, New York’s top House Democrat, said he intended to engage in significant efforts on Ms. Wiley’s behalf, including making campaign appearances with her.Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the state’s highest-ranking House Democrat, is throwing his support to Maya D. Wiley in the race for mayor of New York City, a significant endorsement at a critical juncture in the race.The decision by Mr. Jeffries, who is the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens, comes at an inflection point both for Ms. Wiley and in the volatile race more broadly, nearly five weeks before the June 22 primary that is likely to decide the next mayor.“This is a change election, and Maya Wiley is a change candidate,” Mr. Jeffries, who could become the first Black House speaker, said in an interview on Saturday afternoon. Ms. Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, is fresh off an assertive debate performance in which she repeatedly sought to put Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, on the defensive. Mr. Adams and Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate, have generally been regarded as the two leading contenders, with Ms. Wiley trailing in the sparse public polling available.Still, she has acquired a number of notable endorsements, including the backing of Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union. An endorsement from Mr. Jeffries, coupled with her debate performance and the start of her advertising campaign, may bolster her efforts to introduce herself to voters and to gain steam in the final weeks before the primary.“Maya’s life experiences, if she can get out and tell that story, will be particularly compelling,” Mr. Jeffries said. “An African-American woman who lost her father at a very young age but rallied back from that adversity to follow in her father’s footsteps as a civil rights champion is a quintessential change candidate.”Mr. Jeffries is expected to appear with Ms. Wiley on Sunday at Restoration Plaza in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. He said he intended to engage in significant efforts on her behalf, with hopes to campaign with Ms. Wiley as well as with Representatives Yvette Clarke and Nydia Velázquez, who have also endorsed her candidacy. Notably, those three lawmakers, who all represent slices of Brooklyn, did not side with Mr. Adams, a fellow elected official and a veteran of the borough’s politics. Their endorsements of Ms. Wiley may be seen as blows to Mr. Adams as he seeks to consolidate his own support. Mr. Adams and Mr. Jeffries have found themselves on opposing sides of a number of political battles over the years.Asked about some of those dynamics, Mr. Jeffries said that “my respect and relationship with Eric Adams at the present moment is a strong one, and I wish him the very best.”Ms. Wiley, one of the more left-leaning candidates in the race, said she had heard from Mr. Jeffries on Friday night, adding that he, along with Ms. Clarke and Ms. Velázquez, were “leaders whose constituents trust them, respect them, and they move votes.”“To have Hakeem Jeffries standing up with me saying, ‘This is my candidate,’ is hugely impactful in a critically important part of this city to win for anyone who wants to be mayor of New York City,” she added.In the June primary, New Yorkers will be able to rank up to five mayoral candidates, and Mr. Jeffries indicated that he might reveal other rankings of his choices for mayor but said he had not yet reached a decision on how he would proceed.In the interview, he sketched out a detailed map of what he saw as Ms. Wiley’s path to victory, though certainly, with a crowded field of candidates, there is significant competition for every major political constituency in New York.“I expect that Eric Adams and Maya Wiley will perform the best in the communities of central Brooklyn, as well as in other traditionally African-American neighborhoods throughout the city of New York,” Mr. Jeffries said, going on to note Ms. Wiley’s potential in “both traditionally African-American communities” and parts of the city that are home to many white liberals, mentioning neighborhoods like Chelsea, in Manhattan, and progressive Brooklyn enclaves. “That’s a pretty powerful electoral pathway, if the campaign can continue to put it together over the next few weeks,” he said.Some rival Democrats have feared the prospect of a late surge from Ms. Wiley, and the coming weeks will test her ability to execute on that possibility.“Every day I will be out to speak, and we will be making sure that our message is getting out both on television and on radio,” she said. “People are starting to turn their attention to this race in earnest and we’re going to make sure they know who I am and what I stand for and what I’m going to do.”.css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}Mr. Jeffries said that at a policy level, he was drawn to Ms. Wiley’s promises to lead an equitable economic recovery coming out of the pandemic. Ms. Wiley, a civil rights lawyer, speaks often of “reimagining” New York, a city marked by significant racial and economic inequality.“Those communities who have been hurt the most in terms of an economic crisis have often been helped the least,” Mr. Jeffries said. “Those communities that have been hurt the least have often been helped the most. It seems to me that Maya Wiley is the person to make sure that this time will be different.”In recent weeks, issues of violent crime have moved to the forefront of the mayor’s race, amid a significant spike in shootings and a number of high-profile attacks in the subways. Mr. Adams and Mr. Yang have been especially direct about the role they believe the police can play in restoring calm, even as they also support combating police misconduct.Ms. Wiley released a plan to combat gun violence months ago. But she has also supported reallocating $1 billion from the New York Police Department’s funding “to fund investments in alternatives to policing,” her campaign said. And she has resisted the idea of adding more police officers to patrol the subways, breaking with the two perceived front-runners during the debate on that issue as she emphasized the importance instead of empowering mental health professionals.The next mayor, Mr. Jeffries said, must strike “the right balance between promoting public safety and promoting fairness and justice in policing.”“It seems to me that Maya Wiley gets that we have to do both,” he said. Mr. Jeffries said he had reached his decision after extensive conversations with candidates, others in the New York congressional delegation and constituents.His mother did not wait to see where her son would land, telling Ms. Wiley weeks ago that she was on board, NY1 reported.“My mom totally got out ahead of me on that one,” Mr. Jeffries said. “Far be it from me to break publicly from my mom.” More

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      N.Y.C. Mayoral Candidates on the Issues

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      Naik Path (left), 33
      Self-employed from Rego Park

      “Empower law enforcement for people’s safety because there’s a lot of shooting, a lot of stabbing, subway crime, hate crimes — it’s spiking.”

      “Empower law enforcement for people’s safety because there’s a lot of shooting, a lot of stabbing, subway crime, hate crimes — it’s spiking.” More

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      Andrew Yang's Endorsement from Rep. Grace Meng Shows Momentum With Key Voting Bloc

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      The former presidential candidate won a major endorsement in the New York City mayor’s race from Rep. Grace Meng, a top Asian-American leader in Queens.When Andrew Yang ran for president last year, the surprising staying power of his candidacy was powered by a fiercely loyal, politically diverse group of supporters often referred to as the “Yang Gang.”He also enthusiastically embraced his Taiwanese-American background, drawing support from Asian-American voters, even as he occasionally fed stereotypical tropes like describing himself as “an Asian man who likes math.”Now, Mr. Yang is running for mayor of New York City, and his appeal to that constituency may be critical in the June 22 Democratic primary. Asian-Americans have generally accounted for 6 to 10 percent of voters in previous elections, and a large turnout could have an outsize impact on a race where voter interest has been lagging.On Monday, Mr. Yang received a major boost with an endorsement from Representative Grace Meng, the highest-ranking Asian-American elected official in New York, as he seeks to solidify support among Asian-American leaders.Ms. Meng, the city’s first Asian-American member of Congress, said she decided to back Mr. Yang after she kept hearing from her constituents in Queens who were genuinely excited by him.“They really feel like he’s someone who gives them hope,” she said in an interview.Standing outside a school in Flushing, Queens, with Ms. Meng, who is also Taiwanese-American, Mr. Yang said that Asian-Americans were often considered an afterthought in the life of the city. He said that he was glad that people were inspired by his campaign, but he also wants to focus on the nuts and bolts of improving their lives.Representative Grace Meng, center, said she endorsed Andrew Yang in part because her constituents in Queens said that he was “someone who gives them hope.”Sara Naomi Lewkowicz for The New York TimesMr. Yang, a former nonprofit executive, already has endorsements from key leaders in the community, including Ron Kim, a prominent Korean-American assemblyman in Queens, and Margaret Chin, a city councilwoman from Hong Kong who represents Lower Manhattan.Asian-American voters represent an important constituency, with strongholds in Flushing and in Chinatowns in Manhattan and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. But they are hardly a monolithic group: There is great diversity among Chinese and Indian voters and along generational lines, with older voters skewing more conservative.Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, was endorsed by a group of Asian-American leaders last week in Sunset Park and also has support from Peter Koo, a city councilman from Queens who grew up in Hong Kong.More than 700 people from the Asian-American community signed a letter opposing Mr. Yang, saying that he was too pro-police and perpetuated racist stereotypes, and that “representation alone is simply not enough.”Many of those who signed are involved in progressive politics, including a candidate for City Council who wants to cut the police budget in half and another who is a Democratic-Socialist.John Liu, a state senator who was a leading candidate for mayor in 2013, is considering endorsing Mr. Yang, but had not ruled out backing Mr. Adams or Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio. Mr. Liu said that he likes many of Mr. Yang’s plans for the city and that Ms. Meng’s endorsement was significant.“Grace is a visible and influential leader, especially in this particular moment that we’re in with the Asian-American community feeling under siege and unprotected and underrepresented,” Mr. Liu said.Mr. Adams had been banking on support from the Asian-American community and continues to make the argument that voters can rely on him because he has been their friend for many years.“Before Yang, I was the Chinese candidate,” Mr. Adams recently told The New York Times.Mr. Yang has focused attention on violent attacks on Asian-Americans in New York and across the nation and has spoken about the discrimination he faced growing up. Bruce Gyory, a Democratic strategist who is not working for anyone in the race, said Mr. Yang could try to boost Asian-American turnout in the primary to more than 10 percent. He compared his situation to Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, who was Italian-American and Jewish and who won in 1933 with those voters’ support at a time when Italians and Jews together represented a third of New York’s population.“His prospects depend upon that being the fact, just as it did for La Guardia among Italian voters in 1933,” he said.The League of Asian Americans of New York, an organization that has hosted forums in recent months with some mayoral candidates, has not yet made an endorsement. Many of the group’s members are Chinese-Americans who became politically engaged in recent years in order to oppose the elimination of admissions tests for New York’s specialized public high schools..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}David Lee, a leading member of the organization, said that the two most important issues for the group were public safety and education.Mr. Lee, a retired financial analyst and registered Republican, said that he liked Mr. Yang’s personality and approachability, and believed it was important to have an Asian-American mayor. But Mr. Adams was much stronger in supporting specialized testing and law enforcement, Mr. Lee said, noting that Asian-American shop owners have raised concerns about enforcement for shoplifting and violent crimes.“He’s a former police officer. That really says it all,” Mr. Lee said.Mr. Adams has hammered Mr. Yang for his decision to leave New York City during the pandemic and for not being a native New Yorker — Mr. Yang grew up in Schenectady, N.Y., and Westchester County, and has lived in the city for more than two decades since attending Columbia Law School.His wife, Evelyn, grew up in Flushing and attended public school there. Her father owned a small business, and her mother worked as an insurance and real estate broker before becoming a stay-at-home mother. Her first job, the campaign noted, was at a bagel shop in Bayside, Queens.Andrew Yang did not grow up in New York City, but his wife, Evelyn, left, did.Sara Naomi Lewkowicz for The New York TimesMr. Yang said on Monday that he had a “special connection” to voters in Queens because of his wife’s roots, and it was like a “second home” to him.In downtown Flushing on Monday, reaction to Mr. Yang and the mayor’s race ranged from optimism to indifference, even as large posters of the candidate were visible, including outside the busy New World Mall food court.Takla Tashi Lama, 42, who works in the jewelry business and was waiting in line at the Queens Public Library to be vaccinated, said he planned to vote for Mr. Yang.“He’s very hard working and sincere,” he said, adding that he hoped Mr. Yang brought transparency to City Hall.Benjamin Chin, 30, who was working at a vaccine site at the Queens Public Library, identified himself as a proud member of the “Yang Gang.” He said that one important issue for him was keeping the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test to make sure that Asian-American students have a path to a good education. (Mr. Yang said he wants to keep the test, but to also consider other criteria as part of the admissions process to the elite high schools.)But most of all, Mr. Chin liked that Mr. Yang was an outsider.“I’m very much in favor of not having a politician in office,” he said. “I don’t trust politicians.”Nicole Hong contributed reporting. More

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      Kathryn Garcia for N.Y.C. Mayor: The Times Endorsement

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      article#story header { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 25px; } section#opheader{ width: 100%; max-width: 100%; } /* body{ overflow:hidden; } */ /* body.show{ overflow: auto; } */ /* body .art-wrapper img, body .headline-wrapper{ opacity: 0; } */ /* body.show .art-wrapper img, body.show .headline-wrapper{ opacity: 1; transition: opacity 1s ease-in-out; } body.show .headline-wrapper{ transition-delay: 0.25s; } */ section#vi-preview-target-standalone […] More

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      Andrew Yang’s N.Y.C. Mayor Endorsement Interview

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      Andrew Yang is an entrepreneur and the founder of the nonprofit Venture for America. He was a 2020 Democratic candidate for president.This interview with Mr. Yang was conducted by the editorial board of The New York Times on April 30.Read the board’s endorsement for the Democratic primary here.Kathleen Kingsbury: Good morning. Thank you so much for joining us. We have a lot of questions for you, as I’m sure you can imagine, and not enough time. So I wanted to jump in but ask that we try for brevity whenever we can just because we don’t have enough time for all the questions we have. And we want to start by asking just why do you want this job? Why are you the best candidate in the field?I’m running for mayor because our city’s in crisis and I believe I can help. I’m a public school parent and someone who’s raising his family here. And if you think you can help our city during this time, I feel like you should do everything in your power to do so.Mara Gay: OK, that was definitely brief. Thank you. Andrew, you haven’t voted for New York City mayor in 20 years, including after the Sept. 11 attacks. You left the city during the pandemic. Tell us why voters should believe that you are connected and committed to New York City.I put myself in a category with a lot of New Yorkers who have voted in national and gubernatorial elections here in New York City but haven’t been as actively engaged in local politics. I think that number is something like 76 percent of registered Democrats or so are in that category. And like many New Yorkers, I see that our city is hurting right now and we need to do more. We need to step up in different ways during the pandemic. I mean, one of the first things we did with my new organization, Humanity Forward, was distribute a million dollars in cash relief to a thousand struggling families in the Bronx, which I hoped would be something of a template for a national approach.And at the time, I was a surrogate for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and was campaigning for them just about every day. And my focus at that point was getting Trump out of office. And I think we can all agree that him not being in office has been a tremendous thing for us all, certainly for New York City and the country.And then after Joe and Kamala won, I then, as you probably know, moved to Georgia for a number of weeks to do everything I could to help win the Senate. And I think that those victories are already having profoundly positive effects here in New York City and also around the country.Mara Gay: Thank you. If elected, you would be the first Asian-American mayor of the City of New York. Does that hold meaning for you, and what might it mean for New York?One of the proudest things about my time running for president was when Asian-American families would bring their kids to me on the trail and want a picture and say, look, you know, like, you can grow up and do anything. And that was so touching for me.I mean, I remember growing up the son of immigrants in the ’70s and ’80s and not seeing many people that looked like me when I turned on the TV. And so the fact that I may be the first Asian-American mayor in the city’s history has a lot of meaning for me. And, you know, when a New Yorker who, frankly, was not Asian actually said to me, like, hey, you know, I think having someone from your community be mayor would be really positive for the city, that also meant a great deal.Mara Gay: What would it mean for New York? The second part of my question, sorry.Not at all. So I was talking to my wife, Evelyn, about the fact that there is at least some chance that if I become mayor, there would be, like, a sign saying: Welcome to New York by Mayor Andrew Yang. And like, I thought, like, wow, that would be kind of positive, I thought, in terms of sending a message that New York City is the kind of place where people of different backgrounds can lead and contribute.Mara Gay: That’s great. Thank you. As mayor, you would be running a city with more than 300,000 employees, a budget larger than that of many small nations. You’ve run two nonprofits, several small businesses and two campaigns, of course. How would you describe your management style?I’m someone who wants to identify people who are passionate and dedicated and mission-driven, and then wants to give them room to run. The fact is, we have so many challenges we’re facing right now in New York. And you have 67 agencies and a mayor’s office of, as you said, you know, several hundred thousand workers. And so it can’t be the kind of organization where everything comes to you. Like, you need to empower leaders and managers and in different environments and different agencies so that they feel like, as long as their values are sound and their process is good, that they can make decisions on their own. And that’s something that I’ve tried to establish in every organization I’ve been a part of, for profit or nonprofit, that people feel like they’re able to make their own decisions, as long as it’s consistent with the vision and the values.Mara Gay: And that would include hiring a former sanitation worker or, excuse me, Commissioner Kathryn Garcia. Is that — do we have that right?Well, so to be very, very clear. It’s of course going to be up to Kathryn — if I do win this race — and she certainly would be one of the first people I call and say, “Hey, Kathryn, we need you.”[When we asked Ms. Garcia about this idea, she said: “If Andrew Yang thinks I need to run his government, then maybe I should just run the government and we should stop having me actually do the job and you get the title. I just reject that.”]But, you know, I think Katie asked me, like, if Kathryn wins and calls you, like, would you answer the call? And I said yes. I mean, like, this is a situation where you need all hands on deck. Certainly if you have someone like me as the mayor, one of the first things I should be doing is trying to find people like Kathryn who are very experienced in New York City government and the specific agencies, because you want to have that experience so that we can help move some of these bureaucracies, you know, towards action in different environments. But yeah, to be very clear. I mean, obviously, you know, like, it’s completely going to be up to Kathryn what kind of role she might have, if that’s the situation. But she’d certainly be someone I’d be thrilled to work with.Nick Fox: Your interview with The [New York] Post made it sound like more than just that you would hire good people for roles. It gave the impression that your vision was that of unusually detached from day-to-day operations, and the mayor of New York has been called the most, or the second most, difficult job in the world. And what you described sounded more like — cheerleader might be a little too glib, but ——So here’s my experience: The only way to make organizations work is to pay attention to what’s happening on the ground. And I think the leadership you don’t want, frankly, is someone who’s just in boardrooms making decisions, saying, “Do this, do that.” And then they’re having impacts, you know, blocks or miles away, and you’re not mindful of that.And so my approach is actually, Nick, kind of the opposite, where what I like to do is I like to go to the ground and then talk to the people who are doing the work. And say, OK, like, “What are you seeing? What are you doing? What can we help you with? What can we do better?” And you learn so much that way. I mean, that’s the way, in my mind, like, effective organizations run.So when I run an organization — so one of the lessons you do learn when you’re the C.E.O. of just about anything is that it’s easy for people just to tell you good things and not good things. Like, I remember the first time I called, like, an instructor when I was a C.E.O. — not the first thing, it was probably like, you know, I’d called people hundreds of times. More

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      Dianne Morales’s N.Y.C. Mayor Endorsement Interview

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      Dianne Morales is a former nonprofit executive who led Phipps Neighborhoods, the social services arm of the affordable housing developer Phipps Houses.This interview with Ms. Morales was conducted by the editorial board of The New York Times on April 26.Read the board’s endorsement for the Democratic mayoral primary here.Kathleen Kingsbury: Thank you so much for joining us. We wanted to start out by asking you if you could spend one or two minutes talking about why you want this job and why you’re the best candidate in the field. Brevity will be appreciated on all these answers, only because we just don’t have enough time with you. But I will let you start from there. I am sure several of my colleagues will have lots of questions for you.Great. So sure. Thank you all for having me. Apologies for the technological difficulties early on. So, I’m running for mayor. Right now, 700,000 of the 1.1 million students who attend our public schools — the families, the majority Black and brown families — do not trust their kids to go back to our public schools. We know also that during the pandemic, some New Yorkers were treated graciously by friendly officers who handed out P.P.E. to them, while at the same time other Black and brown New Yorkers were met with more of the same brutality and unnecessary police force, physical force, that I have been speaking out about. The city boasted of its broadband efforts under the de Blasio administration. And yet, during this pandemic we’ve seen too many young people who actually felt the impact of the design of poverty on our city.[The Times editorial board has written on the need to expand access to broadband, particularly in the context of the pandemic.]And at the same time, food and housing insecurity has existed in the city while Wall Street has flourished over the course of the last 15 months in particular. And 20 percent of our household earners control over 54 percent of the city’s wealth. I am in this race because I think it is time for our city to live up to the rhetoric and the potential of actually being the greatest city in the world. And that means being willing to confront and reconcile and address the deep inequities and injustices that have been perpetuated in the city for far too long.We don’t need reform. We don’t need renewal. What we need is to actually transform our city and finally create a city and build a city together that works for all of us. We know that politics as usual has never worked. And the idea of continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different outcome is in fact the definition of insanity.So what I am proposing is a radically transformative new New York City that I am proposing to rebuild, to build in partnership with the communities that have been left behind for so long, that means women of color, it means the disabled, it means our essential workers, our undocumented workers. We need to build a city that works for them, because we know that throughout this pandemic they have worked for us. So that is why I want this job. I also believe that I have the skills and experience that make me uniquely qualified to do it successfully. So thank you for having me here today. I’m excited to be here for this conversation.Mara Gay: Thank you. It’s a great segue into the next question for you. As mayor, you would be running a city with more than 300,000 employees and a budget larger than that of many small nations. How does running a nonprofit prepare you for this role?Great question. Running a nonprofit prepares me for this role in a lot of different ways. One is, the nonprofit sector is probably the only sector where you know that you are going to be reimbursed from the beginning, that you’re going to be reimbursed at 80 cents on the dollar to the actual costs that it takes to operate and to provide services. I have done that not only successfully, I have closed those budgets.I have grown the program budgets in the organizations that I run. And I have done it without compromising the quality of the services that I’ve provided to the most vulnerable New Yorkers. In that capacity, I have served as an executive of large organizations whose job and mission is to actually serve communities and people directly, to have a direct impact on improving the quality of those people’s lives on a day-to-day basis, not writing policy papers that sit on the shelf, not opining about the impact of one policy or another, actually doing the work, being confronted on a daily basis with the challenges that people are facing and actually having to come up with the solutions and the strategies to help people overcome that. And I have done that successfully.The last thing I’ll say on this is that I also have lived experience that makes it such that I have direct understanding of the frustrations and the challenges that people have to overcome and navigate on a daily basis in order to try to live in dignity and provide for their families. So I think that all of those things in combination, actually, not only as a nonprofit executive, prepare me for this role, but actually uniquely prepare me for this role as opposed to some of my peers in this race.Mara Gay: Thanks. And just very briefly, about how many people have you managed, give or take? And what’s your management style?Sure. So the largest team I’ve managed was probably about 500. My management style is that I’m really good at surrounding myself with people who I think are smarter than me, people who I know sort of offset the different things that I may or may not bring to the table. Very collaborative in terms of trying to solicit people’s ideas and thoughts and also being able to co-create those solutions and strategies.But I think the other thing is the ability to sort of make tough decisions when need be and do it in such a way that even those who are in opposition somewhat begrudgingly come along, because they understand the rationale and the sort of reasoning behind the decision and feel invested in the long-term outcome. I think it’s really important that no matter how big the organization or the city, that every person that is connected and that is doing a job or work related to the city understands the role that they specifically play and the value that they bring. Because I think ultimately everybody just wants to feel valued and wants to feel like they’re doing a good job. No one gets up every day and says: “I don’t care. I don’t really want to do a good job at this.” So making sure that people feel valued and respected and a part of the solution is a critical part of being successful as an executive.Mara Gay: Thanks. Alex?Alex Kingsbury: I’m wondering if you can talk about what you think explains the rise in violent crime and what you would do about it if elected mayor.Sure. So I think we can’t really separate or tease out the rise in crime, the so-called rise in crime from all of the other insecurities that people have experienced over the course of the last 15 months.[With 447 homicides, 2020 was New York’s deadliest year in nearly a decade.]You know, we’re talking about people who have been increasingly housing insecure, people who have been increasingly food insecure, people who have not had access to health care or mental health care. There’s a level of sort of desperation that people are feeling and experiencing that is pushing people over the edge. And I think that there are definitely people that were experiencing, suffering from mental health challenges before the pandemic that have just gotten exacerbated as a result of it.So I think that one of the critical things that needs to be done in order for us to begin to address the increased violence that our communities are experiencing is to actually address our basic human needs, to make sure that everyone has a stable roof over their heads, that everyone has access to and knows where their next meal is coming from. And everybody has access to the basic sort of economic stability that they need. More

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      Kathryn Garcia's N.Y.C. Mayor Endorsement Interview

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      Kathryn Garcia is a longtime civil servant who served as commissioner of New York City’s Sanitation Department.This interview with Ms. Garcia was conducted by the editorial board of The New York Times on April 30.Read the board’s endorsement for the Democratic primary here.Kathleen Kingsbury: Thank you for joining us today. We don’t have very much time together, so we do just want to jump into questions. Because we don’t have very much time, brevity would be very appreciated. So I just wanted to start off by asking you why you want this job — I’m sorry, I’m hearing an echo. I’ll fix that once we start talking — and also why you’re the best candidate in the field. And finally, are you going to ask Andrew Yang to join your team when you’re in City Hall?I’ll do the last one first. I’ve made no plans for specific people in my administration at this time, but we can always have a head cheerleader.[Mr. Yang has said he’d like to be the city’s “evangelist and cheerleader in chief.”]But I would say I’m running for mayor because I fundamentally love this city. And I know that I have the qualifications to get the job done for New Yorkers, with a real vision about how we can make programs work more equitably for people, and to really make sure that we’re treating New Yorkers like customers. I know what that means, and I understand how to get it done, which is why I’m both running and the best candidate for mayor.Mara Gay: Thank you for that. At City Hall, you served as sanitation commissioner. The mayor gave you some of the city’s toughest jobs: food czar during the pandemic, lead abatement at NYCHA. How does your experience as a city manager prepare you to be mayor? I have a follow-up to that, but I’ll leave it there for now.You know, the mayor’s job fundamentally has many pieces. You are the booster for the City of New York — you have to be able to talk about everything that we all love. But you also have to be the leader of 300,000-plus employees and get them to show up and do their work every day. And you have to know where your pitfalls are going to be: How are these agencies going to interact, and how are you going to make them work as a team? That doesn’t come automatically. And that is what I have systematically done, whether or not it was in lead, crossovers between D.O.B. and D.O.H.M.H. and NYCHA to effectively make change.And it’s what I did during Covid for ensuring that we were keeping everyone fed. You know, taxi drivers for delivery, Parks Department employees at the distribution hubs, many contract people, ensuring that we were using caterers to prepare food, putting together those teams and effectively delivering for New Yorkers, because at the end of the day, that is the one person I’m always thinking about. Who’s in the Bronx, who’s in Brooklyn, who’s in Staten Island, who’s in Manhattan, who is happy with the service that they got from the city.Mara Gay: How would you assess the mayor’s management style, and what would you do differently?The mayor is not a manager. The mayor has been a public advocate, and that is where he got his training. I fundamentally manage differently. It is about bringing the smartest people together, listening to them, developing the plan and holding people accountable for delivery. That is very different than what we have today.[Bill de Blasio was the public advocate before he became mayor. The public advocate acts as an ombudsman for the people of the city and a government watchdog. The public advocate is also first in line to become mayor in the event the sitting mayor is incapacitated.]Mara Gay: So as you said just a minute ago, a mayor has to do a lot more than manage the city. Can you talk a little bit about how you would perform the other tasks of mayor as the cheerleader, the negotiator, the chief lobbyist, the ambassador for the city in Albany and D.C.?Certainly. So in some ways, I’ve had microcosms of that role in the roles that I have had. I have had to go to Albany to advocate for funding for NYCHA. I have had to do the hard work of ensuring that the Sanitation Department really felt led and boostered. I have done fun things that promoted New York. I actually got two sanitation workers into Vogue because we made partnerships with a fashion designer to talk about textile waste. Unusual, interesting and a little bit of fun. We have to be able to celebrate New York City and embed all of these different, really talented people into our goals.[The artist and designer Heron Preston began a collaboration with the city’s Department of Sanitation, which was featured in Vogue in 2016.]Jesse Wegman: I want to move to the Police Department. We’ve all watched the last two mayors be essentially steamrolled by their police commissioners. You come out with some interesting and pretty specific plans for the department, including raising the age of recruits and ensuring that officers live in the city. How would your overall approach be different and make sure that the department is accountable both to the mayor and to the people of New York? And specifically, how would you deal with the New York police union?[Mr. de Blasio had a fraught relationship with the Police Department, and both he and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg adopted a hands-off approach to their commissioners.]N.Y.P.D. is made up of officers who are actually — or should be — residents of New York but are actually just people. We have a real opportunity at this moment — we have upper-level management leaving in droves — to formally reshape this entire organization. But I hold my people accountable. I don’t understand why the current mayor doesn’t hold his police commissioner accountable for delivering.When we think about what needs to transact, we have to make it so that discipline is really transparent. Otherwise, you are not going to rebuild trust with communities. You know one of the things that’s true? There are five deputy assistant district attorneys. There are U.S. attorneys. We sort of outsource discipline away from the police commissioner, as well as the chiefs. That is where it needs to be. Fundamentally, the mayor has to hold them accountable for doing that.And when it comes to the union, you sit down with labor. I sit down with labor. I am very open to labor issues. I don’t get steamrolled by labor. Nobody has ever accused the Teamsters of being pushovers. I have been able to work incredibly effectively with them to make sure we got the job done.Jesse Wegman: I think the steamrolling was done primarily by the commissioner within the last two administrations. Can you tell us what kind of commissioner you would choose or even give us some names of potential candidates?I am not picking a candidate now. It feels like that could jinx the election by presuming that I already have the title. I know I need to go ask people for their vote, but I do have some fundamental characteristics that I need from a police commissioner.I need to know that they are completely on board with the agenda that I have set and been very clear about; that they have the management chops to get it done; that they are prepared for culture change, which means that you’re going to have to take some tough stances; and that they understand that I will work with them to make that happen. But I am not necessarily looking for just a cop’s cop, which is what others seem to be choosing over and over again.Nick Fox: In an online Q. and A. you said the police commissioner should have the final say on disciplining officers. Why? Commissioners don’t have a very good record on holding officers accountable for misconduct.[Ms. Garcia, splitting from some of her rival candidates, has said, “My police commissioner would be strictly accountable to me on discipline decisions, and I would hire someone I trust to have final authority on that decision.”]The past commissioners have not had a very good track record of holding people accountable on discipline. But if you don’t make them responsible for discipline, then you’re giving them an out — that they are not fundamentally responsible for managing their force and for holding the chain of command completely responsible for ensuring that discipline is maintained. More