McGuire, Raymond J

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      Eric Garner’s Mother Endorses Raymond McGuire for Mayor

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }N.Y.C. Mayoral RaceWho’s Running?11 Candidates’ N.Y.C. MomentsA Look at the Race5 Takeaways From the DebateAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyEric Garner’s Mother Backs McGuire for Mayor Over Progressive RivalsGwen Carr said she was endorsing Ray McGuire because his financial background could help him lead New York’s recovery and make the city a “safer place.”In a nearly two-minute ad, Raymond McGuire and Gwen Carr visit the location in Staten Island where her son, Eric Garner, had his fatal interaction with the police.Credit…Ray McGuire for MayorFeb. 11, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ETIn the nearly seven years since Eric Garner died at the hands of the police in Staten Island, his mother, Gwen Carr, has helped turn her son’s cries of “I can’t breathe” into a national movement against discriminatory policing.Ms. Carr has also become a sought-after endorser for political hopefuls looking to represent themselves as candidates of change, especially on policing matters.That is especially true in New York City’s crowded Democratic primary for mayor, where several candidates have been coveting Ms. Carr’s endorsement in the wake of the national protests that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year.But instead of giving her endorsement to one of the more liberal, progressive Democratic candidates, Ms. Carr will announce on Thursday that she will endorse Raymond J. McGuire, a former Wall Street executive who served on the New York City Police Foundation and who has embraced calls to reform the police, but not defund them.Mr. McGuire, formerly the vice chairman at Citigroup, is a moderate Democrat who was recruited to run by the city’s business community and quickly raised $5 million in three months. But he still must overcome his lack of name recognition among most voters, and expand his appeal beyond the Wall Street elite.Ms. Carr’s endorsement could help Mr. McGuire with some left-leaning voters and shore up support in the Black community, which makes up 26 percent of the electorate.“Eric Garner and George Floyd are examples of what can happen to any Black man in this country and what has happened to all too many Black men in this city,” Mr. McGuire said in an interview. “Gwen Carr’s endorsement means she recognizes that I have what it takes to lead this city and to reflect the voice of those who would not otherwise have a voice.”Ms. Carr said the next mayor can only undertake the necessary police accountability reforms if the city’s future and finances are stabilized.“We know that the budget is in a mess, and from what I read he can balance budgets,” Ms. Carr said. “I have grandsons and granddaughters growing up in this city and I want it to be a safer place for them.”Mr. McGuire, who is Black, has adopted a policing stance that echoes that of Black lawmakers in the city who resisted calls to defund the police last year, citing rising violence in the communities they represent.“Black people want better policing. We want to reform, restructure and reallocate the dollars,” Mr. McGuire said. “We want our policing to be respectful, accountable and proportionate.”Mr. Garner was killed in 2014 after being placed in a chokehold by a police officer, Daniel Pantaleo. A grand jury did not indict Mr. Pantaleo and federal prosecutors decided against pursuing civil rights charges. Mr. Pantaleo remained on the police force for five more years until he was fired and stripped of his pension in 2019 by the police commissioner at the time, James P. O’Neill, after a police administrative judge found him guilty of violating a departmental ban on chokeholds.Ms. Carr said that her pursuit for justice in her son’s death was caught up in politics. She has been critical of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to delay a departmental trial and not fire Mr. Pantaleo. The mayor was elected in 2013 on a promise to overhaul the relationship between the New York Police Department and Black, brown and poor communities.“He has never been a politician,” Ms. Carr said of Mr. McGuire. “We need new blood.”Ms. Carr said she admired Mr. McGuire’s support of the National Action Network, the civil rights organization headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton. The group has been one of her biggest supporters since her son’s death. Mr. Sharpton has credited Mr. McGuire as one of many anonymous Black businessmen who had helped fund his organization during difficult times.Mr. McGuire’s campaign will reveal the endorsement on Thursday in a digital ad created by John Del Cecato, who is responsible for the successful 2013 campaign ad that featured Mr. de Blasio’s son, Dante; and Mark Skidmore, chief executive of Assemble the Agency, who wrote the script for Mr. McGuire’s campaign launch video that was narrated by Spike Lee.In the nearly two-minute ad, Mr. McGuire and Ms. Carr visit the location in Staten Island where Mr. Garner had his fatal interaction with the police. Ms. Carr holds onto Mr. McGuire’s arm as they walk toward the location, which is commemorated with a plaque and a mural. He refers to her as “Mother Carr”; she calls him “Mr. McGuire,” but he tells her to call him Ray.Her endorsement will be a disappointment to other candidates such as Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, and Maya Wiley, a civil rights lawyer who was Mr. de Blasio’s legal counsel and former head of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, said Susan Kang, an associate professor of political science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.“There are some moderates in the reform criminal justice world for whom this will carry a great deal of legitimacy, particularly those of Ray McGuire’s and Gwen Carr’s generation who are very likely voters,” Professor Kang said. “Trust is an important issue among older voters and that group makes up a high percentage of people who turn out to vote in municipal primaries.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Ray McGuire Has It All. He Still Wants to Be NYC Mayor

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }N.Y.C. Mayoral RaceWho’s Running?11 Candidates’ N.Y.C. MomentsA Look at the Race5 Takeaways From the DebateAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Upper Crust Has Its Candidate. Don’t Call Him ‘the Black Bloomberg.’Raymond McGuire has lived a grand New York life, conquering Wall Street and kibitzing with Steve Martin. But in his campaign for mayor, he is eager to reach beyond his wealthy supporters.Raymond J. McGuire at his home in Manhattan.Credit…Todd Heisler/The New York TimesThe New York City mayoral race is one of the most consequential political contests in a generation, with immense challenges awaiting the winner. This is the first in a series of profiles of the major candidates.Feb. 10, 2021At last, Raymond J. McGuire was among friends.“I see my crew from Citi!” he called out to his Zoom gathering, midway through a virtual fund-raiser for his mayoral campaign, its grid of video feeds looking like a chapter meeting of the 1 percent: grand libraries and fire-warmed living rooms, Steve Martin in a smart white button-down, a Tisch, a Seinfeld, a Knick.“I see my crew from Citi!”Mr. McGuire sounded almost giddy to be in such company. It had been an uneven couple of weeks for his candidacy, driven by an audacious if unproven idea: that the times demand a trailblazing Black businessman with nearly 40 years of experience on Wall Street and none in government, pledging to deploy his prolific contact list in service of his city.While Mr. McGuire, 64, had raised more than $5 million in the three months since announcing his run, propelling him to the race’s upper tier, he also often looked the part of a first-time campaigner.Opponents chafed at his repurposing the tagline of Shirley Chisholm (“unbought and unbossed!”), observing that the former congresswoman declared such independence because she lacked ruling-class connections, not because she had too much money to care. Reporters started asking about Mr. McGuire’s past business ties to the Koch brothers and to the government of Saudi Arabia while at Citigroup. And when pressed in public forums, Mr. McGuire occasionally wobbled, defaulting to the slight pique and projected self-assurance (“Let’s go! I’m good!”) of someone not used to being challenged.Mr. McGuire is trying to create a coalition that includes affluent Manhattanites and lower-income residents of the other boroughs. Credit…Todd Heisler/The New York TimesBut the fund-raiser, at least, was a safe space — for Mr. McGuire, yes, but also for a most devoted constituency: masters of the universe who feel like pariahs in the New York City of Mayor Bill de Blasio.Mr. de Blasio is the first mayor in at least a generation who has not been openly solicitous of the city’s business elite, which was uniquely spoiled by 12 years with one of its own, Michael R. Bloomberg, at the controls. In Mr. McGuire’s bid, New York’s upper crust sees a prospective return to the civic influence and unquestioned relevance they long assumed. It just so happens that they are projecting these visions onto a man who rejects comparisons to Mr. Bloomberg as reductive and racially ignorant, no matter how many admirers call him “the Black Bloomberg” out of earshot.Both Mr. McGuire and his most powerful supporters recognize that the path to City Hall runs through neighborhoods far from his duplex in the famed San Remo building on Central Park West. And so his team is working to stitch together an unusual Democratic coalition, crafting appeals to affluent Manhattanites — aggrieved by Mr. de Blasio’s snubs — and to lower-income, predominantly nonwhite voters in the other boroughs.The cold math of off-year elections with an unwieldy, divided field makes this theory of the case more than plausible: The winner of the primary might need to persuade perhaps a few hundred thousand people — if that — a total slightly greater than the population of the Upper West Side.For now, that is the slice of the city that probably knows Mr. McGuire best. Presiding over his fund-raiser from his home office, surrounded by leatherbound volumes of Shakespeare and Faulkner and an exhaustive collection of African and African-American art, Mr. McGuire gazed upon the pixelated faces of success.In one virtual window, the academic Henry Louis Gates Jr. sipped a drink while muted. In another, Jessica Seinfeld, the cookbook author and wife of Jerry Seinfeld, sporadically replaced her video feed with an away-screen headshot of her regal-looking cat, Javier.At one point, a businesswoman spoke up to assure Mr. McGuire that her husband, a financial news anchor, covertly supported the cause but was not attending “because of journalism.”Others waited for Mr. McGuire to address them directly:“Bewkes! My man!” (That would be Jeff Bewkes, the former chief executive of Time Warner.)“Charles Oakley in the house!” (The retired Knicks great nodded from his rectangle.)“Peter Malkin in the house!” (Mr. Malkin’s Zoom window was blank. His portfolio is not: The Malkin family controls the Empire State Building.)This is the Mr. McGuire, loose but in command, whom friends hope the city will come to see: the world-straddling overachiever from Dayton, Ohio, studying his way out of trying financial circumstances in his youth; the savvy dealmaker who rose to vice chairman at Citi, after stints at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch; the man who would be mayor, if only the city would start listening to its highest earners again.“He’s very popular,” said William J. Bratton, the former police commissioner and veteran Manhattan schmoozer. “Even watching him at the Harvard Club, it took him a while to get to his seat, saying hello to people.”Mr. McGuire is “very popular,” said William J. Bratton, the former police commissioner. Credit…Todd Heisler/The New York TimesWhile Mr. McGuire wears his high status openly, never known to lean on the faux modest “school in Cambridge” construction like some classmates, he has resisted analogies to Mr. Bloomberg, for reasons difficult to refute: Mr. Bloomberg did not grow up Black and scraping, across from paper mills so pungent that a blast from an open refrigerator door was sometimes the surest way to find fresh air. Mr. Bloomberg was never mistaken for the security guard or the bathroom attendant as he climbed. Mr. Bloomberg does not know what it means to be profiled still, no matter his assets, when he steps out from the comforts of his tony address.It happened again just a few months ago, Mr. McGuire recalled: He joined a driver, also Black, in a waiting car, set to ferry him to a film shoot for his introductory campaign video, which was narrated by Spike Lee. Within a few blocks, police sirens howled.“Driving while Black,” Mr. McGuire said in an interview. “There are occurrences like this that help shape how you think about the world, right?”Yet in a signal of the disparate support bases that the campaign plans to court, Mr. McGuire declined twice to answer whether Mr. Bloomberg had been a good mayor. (A campaign spokeswoman, Lupe Todd-Medina, said Mr. McGuire “does not recall” ever voting for Mr. Bloomberg but remembers supporting his Democratic opponent, William C. Thompson Jr., in 2009.)Mr. McGuire noted the damage that stop-and-frisk policing had inflicted upon nonwhite New Yorkers under Mr. Bloomberg but added that the former mayor had “managed the city the right way.” Mr. Bloomberg himself has stayed out of the race publicly but is said to have a fondness for Shaun Donovan, his former housing commissioner.In some ways, Mr. McGuire seems to be moving against some of the city’s prevailing Democratic winds. He is a supercapitalist without apology, betting on the sort of center-leftism that ascendant progressives like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shun.Mr. McGuire has sought to position himself as the jobs-focused candidate, a budget-minded realist who laments inequality but questions some left-wing proposals for shrinking it, like a universal basic income program. He has called for wage subsidies at small businesses and a yearlong post-Covid “comeback festival” to boost tourism and nightlife, emphasizing the need for federal aid and speaking mostly euphemistically so far about any politically painful crisis remedies.Possible cuts? Mr. McGuire says he would “review inefficiencies and spending levels.”Tax hikes? He says leaders must “consider tax increases on those who can afford it,” as he can, and is quick to label himself a progressive despite any suggestion to the contrary.“My definition,” he said, “is I have a life of progressing through the system as a Black person in a 99.9 percent majority world.”Making his case on the mostly virtual campaign trail, Mr. McGuire describes his considerable means with a blunt accounting that can bear little resemblance to typical political messaging.Absent governing credentials, he has argued that his philanthropy should count for something.“Health care, long before Covid, I helped fix it — not too far away, at the nurses’ station, emergency room, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, 168th Street,” he said in Harlem last month. “You go there, look above that nurses’ station and see whose name is there.”Questioned by activists at a recent forum about his commitment to social justice, Mr. McGuire said he had given money to the mother of a 1-year-old named Davell Gardner Jr. who was shot and killed in Brooklyn last summer.“Who put furniture in that apartment?” Mr. McGuire demanded. “Who furnished it?”The Rev. Al Sharpton, whose National Action Network has benefited from Mr. McGuire’s largess, said the candidate’s focus on his own wealth — and how he has used it — had a way of connecting with Black voters.“There’s something that resonates, particularly in our community,” Mr. Sharpton said, “when you are who you are.”Mr. McGuire’s commitment to candor is not absolute. He declined to discuss his wealth in detail or ballpark his starting salary in finance, characterizing it as “enough” and stressing that he grasps the realities of poverty because of his own humble origins.For his more senior posts, like helping to lead Citigroup’s corporate and investment banking, those familiar with the industry said annual pay for managers in equivalent positions could generally range from the high single-digit millions to the teens.Mr. McGuire’s most sustained relationship to the city’s civic life has come through the arts, with board or executive committee roles at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Lincoln Center, among other institutions.Mr. McGuire’s home on Central Park West features museum-quality art works.  Credit…Todd Heisler/The New York TimesMr. McGuire’s book collection in his home in Manhattan. Credit…Todd Heisler/The New York TimesHe is an avid art collector whose pieces include a Kuba cup.Credit…Todd Heisler/The New York TimesHis apartment has doubled as a museum unto itself through the years, shared with his wife, Crystal, an author and filmmaker; their two children from her prior marriage: Cole, 20, now a guard for the N.B.A.’s Orlando Magic, and Ella, 18; and the couple’s 8-year-old son, Leo.The space’s front rooms greet guests with masterworks by Henry Ossawa Tanner, a renowned African-American painter; a sculpture by Elizabeth Catlett, an African-American and Mexican artist, of a reclining woman poised across a marble table; and an array of ancient African masks and other objects dating to 300 B.C.“Kuba cup, man,” Mr. McGuire said, giving a tour recently, approaching a treasured piece. “That’s the cup of kings.”Then there are the books of kings: the Bard (“you see the Shakespeare collection?”), the Romantics (“these are my guys here, Keats and Shelley!”), a memoir by Susan Rice (“good friend”).Mr. McGuire, schooled in English literature, refers to his academic history as “the 4H club”: the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut; then three degrees from Harvard, for undergraduate, business and law.David Paterson, the former New York governor who has known Mr. McGuire since the 1970s, marveled at the social circle his friend had built from Manhattan to Bridgehampton, N.Y., where the McGuires also own a home.“I’ve run for a few things,” Mr. Paterson said. “Spike Lee never made a video for my campaign.”Taking stock of his feats and contacts, Mr. McGuire can often sound enthralled by his own arc, wondering aloud if Hollywood could dream up anything quite so unlikely.“Even with your big brain, you can’t imagine anything like that — you can’t imagine writing anything like that,” he said of his path. “Who else has got anything like that? Who else?”During a recent afternoon at his home, Mr. McGuire handed over four stapled pages of accomplishments that included board leadership roles at Hotchkiss and the San Remo Tenants Corporation. (Residents over the years have included Dustin Hoffman, Diane Keaton and Mary Tyler Moore; Madonna was once rejected by the co-op board.)He pulled out a book of art that featured “Springtime in Washington” by Alma Thomas, before revealing the work on the wall of his dining room: “You may see some similarities between this and that.”Later, word came that the author Malcolm Gladwell had praised his candidacy during a talk, a surprise to the campaign. Mr. McGuire was asked if they knew each other.“Malcolm?” he said, eyes flickering in semi-offense. Of course he knew him. He knows everyone.Mr. McGuire talks with Marta Castro, a resident of the Melrose Houses, during a visit to the South Bronx.Credit…Todd Heisler/The New York TimesAnd where he does not, Mr. McGuire is moving to catch up, convening with current and former officials in a crash course to find his municipal bearings.Several people who spoke to Mr. McGuire as he considered a run this past year described him as a conspicuous novice in city policy and politics. He said he had filled stacks of notebooks beside his desk in the interim, with a particular focus on New York’s turbulent 1970s.“Talked to Dick Ravitch,” Mr. McGuire volunteered, citing the former New York lieutenant governor with deep experience weathering fiscal calamity in government.In an interview, Mr. Ravitch called the candidate a “fast learner” with a skill set to meet the moment. He added some caveats.“He doesn’t know a thing about the city government,” Mr. Ravitch said, preceding “thing” with an expletive, before adding: “Do I think Ray would be the best of the candidates? Yes.”Gale Brewer, the Manhattan borough president and another government long-timer with whom Mr. McGuire has spoken, said diplomatically that there was only so much she could convey in a phone call.“It’s a hard city,” she said.Mr. McGuire has said that voters should prize executive experience over government résumés. On this score, some former colleagues at Citi report mixed returns. In interviews, they appraised Mr. McGuire as an approachable leader and willing mentor, particularly to younger Black talent, but also as an image-conscious manager who could struggle with indecision if a looming choice seemed destined to upset someone.Allies have framed such qualities as an instinct for defusing conflict, noting that the candidate even tried to play peacemaker between Mr. de Blasio and his wealthy antagonists: In 2015, Mr. McGuire hosted a reception for the mayor and his wife, Chirlane McCray, hoping they might grow closer to assorted business titans. (It didn’t take.)Some competitors have moved quickly to attach the political stench of banking to Mr. McGuire, whose rivals include Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president; Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller; and Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate.Operatives for other campaigns have focused especially on Mr. McGuire’s business dealings with figures unpalatable to Democrats, like the Koch brothers.Friends say that this, too, speaks well of him.“We are investment bankers!” said William M. Lewis Jr., a co-chairman of investment banking at Lazard who has known Mr. McGuire since their time at Harvard. “We get paid a lot of money to help bridge differences. People should view it as a compliment that somebody, who is as different at their core as Ray, would look to Ray to try to help them get something done.”Mr. McGuire, who has no background in city government, visited the South Bronx with a City Council member, Rafael Salamanca.Credit…Todd Heisler/The New York TimesFor those eager to hasten the cleanest break from the de Blasio era, the attraction to Mr. McGuire often seems as much about attention as ideology — about being seen, and heard, and seen being heard.Mr. McGuire has been adamant that personal relationships would confer no special treatment at his City Hall. In fact, he has turned the implication on its head, accusing the current mayor of operating an “exclusive government, not an inclusive government.”And don’t the successful care about the city, too?“Let’s face it: Anybody that lives above 57th Street doesn’t feel that Mayor de Blasio has been attentive,” Mr. Bratton said. “The next person in, they want to be able to have access.”

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      Mayoral Candidates Share New York Moments

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }N.Y.C. Mayoral RaceWho’s Running?11 Candidates’ N.Y.C. MomentsA Look at the Race5 Takeaways From the DebateAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyNew York TodayMayoral Candidates Share New York MomentsFeb. 5, 2021, 5:15 a.m. ET [Want to get New York Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.]It’s Friday. [embedded content]Weather: Mix of rain and snow in the morning; cloudy later, with a high in the low 40s. Saturday: Sunny, high around 40. Sunday: Occasional snow, high in the mid-30s.Alternate-side parking: Suspended today and tomorrow for snow removal. What’s the best way to show that you’re a New Yorker? Perhaps it’s your bagel order. Or your accent. Or your determination to avoid to Times Square.The more than 30 candidates who have thrown their hat in the ring to become the city’s next mayor will inevitably face questions about their New Yorkiness.“The candidates are starting to go after each other a bit more and distinguish themselves over policy proposals and personal narratives,” said my colleague Emma Fitzsimmons, the City Hall bureau chief.[The race to become New York City’s next mayor may be one of the most consequential political contests in a generation. Here are some of the leading candidates.]“I think there are five front-runners among Democrats at this point: Eric Adams, Ray McGuire, Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley and Andrew Yang,” Ms. Fitzsimmons said, naming them in alphabetical order.My colleague Corey Kilgannon recently talked with these front-runners and several other candidates about their New York pedigrees, specifically asking them about their favorite city moments. Here are a few of their responses, accompanied by illustrations from our Metropolitan Diary artist, Agnes Lee.You can also read all 11 responses here.Kathryn Garcia, former sanitation commissionerMs. Garcia was 14 when she and her friends decided to dress up and take the subway from Brooklyn into Manhattan to try getting into Studio 54.“Going into Manhattan was considered cool, and I loved to dance,” she said. She wore “candy red high heels” and stood outside the club, which, in 1984, was past its heyday but still highly selective.Shaun Donovan, former federal housing secretary“When you’re hugging people you never met before, you know something great has happened,” said Mr. Donovan, remembering how he cheered from a grandstand seat at Yankee Stadium the day Reggie Jackson hit three home runs to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1977 World Series.Carlos Menchaca, city councilman from BrooklynThree years after moving to New York from Texas, Mr. Menchaca was riding the F train to his Brooklyn apartment after having some beers with friends. He fell asleep and missed his stop. A subway worker woke him at the end of the line in Coney Island.Taking the train back, he fell asleep and missed his stop again. He got home at dawn.From The TimesLev Parnas, Giuliani Associate, Faces New Fraud AccusationsDid the Proud Boys Help Coordinate the Capitol Riot? Yes, U.S. Suggests3 Male Guards Charged in Attacks at Notorious Women’s PrisonThe Misogynistic ‘Dating Coach’ Who Was Charged in the Capitol RiotRoss Graham Dies at 93; Tenacious Fighter for New York CityWant more news? Check out our full coverage.The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.What we’re readingNew York restaurant industry leaders want Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to lift the 10 p.m. dining curfew before Super Bowl weekend. [New York Post]An anonymous note sent to some Long Island residents said, “Take your Christmas lights down! Its Valentines Day!!!!!!” — but one recipient had been busy with funeral arrangements. [NBC New York]What happened to Ample Hills Creamery, Brooklyn’s beloved ice cream company? [Marker]And finally: Your virtual social weekend The Times’s Melissa Guerrero writes:Although many performance spaces, museums and community centers are closed, people are finding creative ways to connect through virtual events and programs. Here are suggestions for maintaining a New York social life this weekend while keeping a safe distance from other people.John Lewis: A Pioneer for JusticeOn Friday at 7 p.m., listen to the actor Alton Fitzgerald White recite one of John Lewis’s speeches as part of Flushing Town Hall’s Black History Trilogy series. A discussion and Q. and A. will follow.R.S.V.P. for the free livestream on the event page.Corky Lee memorialJoin the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club on Friday at 7 p.m. to honor the life of the celebrated photographer Corky Lee.Register for the free livestream on the event page.‘Brown Baby’ book talkOn Saturday at noon, the authors Mira Jacob and Nikesh Shukla will discuss Mr. Shukla’s new memoir “Brown Baby: A Memoir of Race, Family and Home.”R.S.V.P. for the free event on Zoom or watch the livestream on YouTube.It’s Friday — embrace it.Metropolitan Diary: Sketching Dear Diary:I was prone to forgetting at least one important thing — wallet, phone, keys — when I went out, but I always remembered to bring along a notebook and pen.On days when my headphones were what I had left behind, I shortened my long commute to my job as a nanny on the Upper West Side by sneakily sketching my fellow train passengers.Those who were asleep were ideal subjects; those who were awake would inevitably ruin the pose as soon as they become aware of what I was doing.Once, a few years ago, I was on the D train a when I noticed a young man who was sketching an older woman across from him as she snored.Having a clear view of his profile, I took out my supplies and started to draw the artist as he drew. I felt strangely guilty, as if I were violating his invisibility as a fellow train sketcher. Still, I couldn’t resist.With the train pulling into 34th Street, I scrambled to finish sketching his hair while he gathered his things before getting off. As he stepped out onto the platform, I tapped his shoulder and handed him the sketch.There was just enough time to watch him process what he was looking at: the frown from being touched by a stranger to the embarrassed laugh as he saw his face on the page.Then the doors closed, and we pulled away.— Lila EliasNew York Today is published weekdays around 6 a.m. Sign up here to get it by email. You can also find it at nytoday.com.What would you like to see more (or less) of? Email us: nytoday@nytimes.com.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      11 Mayoral Candidates Share Their Favorite New York Moments

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      What’s your favorite pizza joint? How do you like your bagel? Do you ride the subway? Shop at bodegas? Mets or Yankees?

      Mayoral campaigns inevitably involve candidates facing questions about their New York pedigree.

      In that vein, we asked 11 mayoral candidates to describe a quintessential moment that shows they are New Yorkers rooted in the city they seek to lead. More

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      Who Wants to Be Mayor of New York City?

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      Eric Adams

      , 60

      Dem

      Brooklyn borough president; former New York City police officer

      Mr. Adams is running as a blue-collar New Yorker with deep ties to the city and experience in government. As a police officer, he was an advocate for reform from within the force, and he is a sharp critic of police brutality but does not embrace the “defund the police” movement. He has proposed that schools be open year-round. His outspoken manner sometimes gets him into trouble, as it did last year when he told gentrifiers to “go back to Iowa.”

      Maya Wiley

      , 57

      Dem

      Former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio; former chairwoman of the Civilian Complaint Review Board; former MSNBC analyst

      Ms. Wiley says it is time for the city to elect its first mayor who is a Black woman. An expert on criminal justice issues and a favorite among progressives from her appearances on MSNBC, she wants to reform the Police Department and focus on inequality. She proposed a “New Deal” for New York that would create 100,000 jobs. Her work in the de Blasio administration may counter her image as an outsider.

      Andrew Yang

      , 46

      Dem

      Former presidential candidate; former nonprofit executive

      Mr. Yang has distinguished his campaign with bold, if unorthodox, ideas. He wants to give 500,000 low-income New Yorkers $2,000 per year — a version of his universal basic income proposal from the 2020 presidential race — and he has proposed building a casino on Governors Island. He has strong name recognition, but has faced scrutiny over moving his family out of the city during the pandemic and the workplace culture at his presidential campaign and businesses.

      Scott M. Stringer

      , 60

      Dem

      City comptroller; former Manhattan borough president

      Mr. Stringer has worked in government for years and has suggested that his brand of being a capable, experienced manager is what New York needs. He is a public school parent, focusing his campaign on affordable housing and early childhood education. He has secured endorsements from a diverse set of progressive leaders and is the only candidate who has won citywide office before, but he is also a white man at a time when many Black, Latino and female candidates have been elected in the New York area.

      Raymond J. McGuire

      , 64

      Dem

      Former vice chairman at Citigroup

      Mr. McGuire was recruited to run by members of the city’s business community who feel they have not had a voice at City Hall since Michael R. Bloomberg was mayor from 2002 to 2013; they want someone with a financial background to guide the city’s fiscal recovery. His first major proposal during his campaign was to create 500,000 good-paying jobs, but progressive voters may be wary of any candidate linked to Wall Street.

      Shaun Donovan

      , 55

      Dem

      Former federal housing secretary; former White House budget director

      Mr. Donovan is a veteran of the Obama administration and the Bloomberg administration in New York City, and he has made his ties to the federal government a centerpiece of his campaign. He has released several policy proposals, including one to create “15-minute neighborhoods” to make sure every New Yorker has access to a good school, fresh food, transit and a park within 15 minutes of home.

      Carlos Menchaca

      , 40

      Dem

      City Council member in Brooklyn

      Mr. Menchaca is a progressive councilman who helped defeat a rezoning proposal to expand the Industry City complex in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. He supports the “defund the police” movement, is an avid cyclist and has helped create the municipal identification cards known as IDNYC.

      Dianne Morales

      , 53

      Dem

      Former nonprofit executive

      Ms. Morales has focused her campaign on improving life for poor and working-class New Yorkers. She has called for providing many of those residents with a guaranteed minimum income; cutting half of the $6 billion annual police budget to fund social services; and desegregating public schools.

      Kathryn Garcia

      , 50

      Dem

      Former city sanitation commissioner

      Ms. Garcia is running as an experienced manager who can lead the city during a crisis. She oversaw the city’s huge trash operation and is respected among many in city government. As part of the de Blasio administration, she helped distribute millions of meals to hungry New Yorkers during the pandemic.

      Loree Sutton

      , 61

      Dem

      Retired Army brigadier general; former head of the city’s Department of Veterans’ Services

      Ms. Sutton is a centrist who has not run for office before. She says her leadership experience makes her the best person to help the city recover from the pandemic. She helped reduce homelessness among veterans and wants to address the city’s broader homelessness crisis.

      Paperboy Prince

      , 28

      Dem

      Former candidate for Congress; rapper

      Paperboy Prince, from Brooklyn, is running on a platform of creating a universal basic income, abolishing the police and canceling rent — a campaign to forgive unpaid rent for those who cannot afford it. Last year, the rapper ran to be the first nonbinary member of Congress, but lost to Representative Nydia Velazquez.

      Sara Tirschwell

      , 55

      Rep

      Former Wall Street executive

      She rose to high positions at financial firms like TCW, the giant asset-management company, and filed a prominent sexual harassment complaint against her boss. Ms. Tirschwell is running as a moderate and believes Democrats have moved too far to the left. She wants to reduce burdensome regulations and increase funding for the City University of New York.

      Barbara Kavovit

      , 55

      Dem

      Founder of a construction firm

      Ms. Kavovit is best known for her appearances on the television show “The Real Housewives of New York City.” She is more conservative than some Democrats in the race; she does not want to cut the police budget and has said that Michael R. Bloomberg was her favorite mayor.

      Fernando Mateo

      , 63

      Rep

      Restaurant operator; former leader of a trade group for cabdrivers

      Mr. Mateo has led groups representing livery drivers and bodega workers, and runs a restaurant in the Bronx. He was born in the Dominican Republic and has ties to the city’s Latino community. He has been involved in politics for years and was linked to a scandal over Mayor Bill de Blasio’s fund-raising, but was never charged.

      Isaac Wright Jr.

      , 59

      Dem

      Lawyer

      Mr. Wright was wrongfully convicted on drug charges in 1991. The ABC television show “For Life” is based on his story, and he is a producer on the show, along with the rapper 50 Cent. He is calling for city control of the subway and desegregating public schools.

      Art Chang

      , 57

      Dem

      Former managing director at JPMorgan Chase

      He ran a voter outreach program and wants to create universal daycare for all children from age 1, to serve “a city of people who primarily live on the edge.”

      Joycelyn Taylor

      , 54

      Dem

      Chief executive of a general contracting firm

      She is running as a working-class New Yorker who grew up in public housing. She wants to cancel rent for New Yorkers who cannot afford it and convert vacant office buildings into housing for the homeless.

      Aaron Foldenauer

      , 45

      Dem

      Lawyer

      He previously ran for City Council in Lower Manhattan and has several ideas to improve the environment, including a “Bicycle Superhighway” that would run down Third Avenue in Manhattan.

      William Pepitone

      , 53

      Rep

      Former New York City police officer

      He wants to combat “anarchy” in the city by returning to the “broken windows” policing strategy that was first widely used in the 1990s, to target minor violations in an effort to prevent serious crimes. He is a nephew of Joe Pepitone, the colorful ex-New York Yankee.

      Christopher Krietchman

      , 40

      Ind

      Health and wellness leader

      A “futurist” and former bodybuilder, he once ran a meal delivery program. He wants to improve the city by combating greed and “white male privilege,” and allowing New Yorkers to “rent to own” a home.

      Quanda Francis

      , 40

      Dem

      Former New York City crime analyst

      She was a crime analyst for the New York Police Department who has talked about the struggles she faced when she dropped out of high school. She wants to focus on maternal health for women of color after she almost died in childbirth.

      Edward Cullen

      , 34

      Dem

      Entrepreneur

      A founder of the Harlem Tech Summit, he issued a 110-day plan to help the city rebound from the pandemic, with a focus on public-private partnerships. More

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      New York Schools Are Segregated. Will the Next Mayor Change That?

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyNew York Schools Are Segregated. Will the Next Mayor Change That?By deferring decisions on desegregating schools, Mayor Bill de Blasio has pushed those choices onto his successor — and into the race to replace him.The admissions process for elite schools like Stuyvesant High School has become one of the most fraught political issues in New York City.Credit…Christopher Lee for The New York TimesJan. 29, 2021Updated 8:12 a.m. ETDuring a recent forum on education, a moderator asked the crowded field of Democrats running to be New York City’s next mayor a question they may not have wanted to answer: How would they approach the fraught issue of admissions into the city’s selective schools, where Black and Latino students are starkly underrepresented? A few of the candidates’ eyes widened when they heard the prompt, and some avoided furnishing a direct answer, resorting instead to vague language.“There are a lot of things we need to do in this direction,” said Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate. Raymond J. McGuire, a Wall Street executive, noted that the issue had “historic significance.” Those halting responses illustrate just how incendiary school integration still is in this proudly liberal city. But with the Democratic primary just five months away, the candidates have little choice but to confront school segregation, which has divided New Yorkers for a half-century. An influential activist movement led by city students is accelerating pressure on the candidates to make clear how integration would fit into their plans to reshape New York’s public school system, the nation’s largest. And a national reckoning over racism has forced the candidates to square the city’s self-image as a progressive bastion with its unequal school system. During the last few weeks alone, the candidates have been asked about their positions on radio and television interviews, in multiple forums, and in a series of New York Times interviews. Together, their responses revealed sharp differences in how they are approaching some of the most contentious integration policies.New York City is home to one of the most segregated school systems in America, in part because of the city’s labyrinth admissions process for selective schools. Housing segregation and school zone lines have produced a divided school system that has been compounded by competitive admissions that separate students by race and class as early as kindergarten.Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced a sweeping set of changes to how hundreds of racially segregated selective schools admit their students — but left most of the details up to the next administration.Some of the mayoral hopefuls are in favor of addressing the extreme underrepresentation of Black and Latino students in selective schools by overhauling gifted and talented programs and changing admissions for competitive middle schools and elite high schools. Others are offering less sweeping approaches. And several candidates declined to say anything definitive about those proposals, or said they would mostly maintain the existing system.Scott Stringer, the city comptroller, with his son Max. Mr. Stringer had previously avoided integration debates, but has recently moved to the left along with his party.Credit…Kholood Eid for The New York TimesThe most progressive candidates, including Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller, and Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive, are hoping to differentiate themselves from the pack by declaring their intentions to push potentially disruptive change that could spur integration.There are subtle differences even within that lane: Maya Wiley, a former de Blasio administration official who has been a leading figure in the pro-integration movement, sometimes gave conspicuously broad answers to direct questions about the policies she would implement as mayor. Mr. Stringer, who had assiduously avoided integration debates even in his own neighborhood, has recently moved to the left along with his party. Shaun Donovan, the former secretary of housing and urban development in the Obama administration, has released the most detailed education policy plan so far, saying he would eliminate most academic prerequisites for middle school admissions and add weighted lotteries to further integrate those schools.More centrist hopefuls like Mr. McGuire, Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, and Kathryn Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner, all promised to expand selective programs and schools, rather than fundamentally change them. That position is shared by Mr. Yang, the former head of a test preparation company, who declined an interview. Some education experts believe that desegregation is one of the few remaining levers available for improving academic outcomes for the city’s vulnerable students, many of whom have had little choice but to enroll in low-performing schools.“The plainest way to think of integration is that it is a proven and effective school improvement strategy,” said Matt Gonzales, the director of the Integration and Innovation Initiative at New York University’s Metro Center. Decades of research supports that view — not because there is alchemy found in diverse classrooms, but because integration redistributes resources, funding and power across schools. Mr. Gonzales said the candidates’ positions on this issue are not merely a signal of their progressive bona fides, but an essential way of understanding their approach to education. Mr. de Blasio’s education agenda has largely not included desegregation measures, and he has left major decisions related to integration to the next mayor. Dianne Morales, who is running to be the first Afro-Latina mayor, has among the strongest pro-integration positions of any of the candidates.Credit…Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York TimesHe has largely ignored a recommendation, made by a school integration group he convened, that the city should replace gifted and talented programs with magnet schools and enrichment programs. The next administration will likely have to respond. Mr. de Blasio said this month that he would soon scrap the current gifted exam given to 4-year-olds against the advice of many experts, though the city’s educational panel may force him to end the test immediately. But most of the candidates had already committed to changing that test, and will now have to determine whether to alter the program itself. And last month, Mr. de Blasio paused the use of academic prerequisites for middle school admissions for at least a year because of the pandemic. That will leave it up to the next mayor to decide whether to make that policy permanent — or end it. Ms. Wiley, who helped craft that proposal as a leader of the mayor’s integration group, said she would end middle school screening, as did Ms. Morales. Some candidates tried to find a middle ground: Mr. Stringer and Mr. McGuire said they would consider this year a pilot program, and make a permanent decision next year. Ms. Garcia said she would look at changes on a district-by-district basis, and Mr. Yang expressed skepticism about eliminating middle school screening during a recent forum.Gifted education is a third-rail issue because the programs have long been seen as a way to keep white families in public schools, and have been embraced by some middle-class families of color as alternatives to low-performing neighborhood schools. But some experts have argued that gifted schools have created a two-tiered system that caters to families with the resources to navigate it. Roughly 75 percent of students in gifted classes are white or Asian-American. Mr. Stringer said that his own children, who are in gifted programs, had benefited from a flawed system because of their parents’ privilege. “I recognize as a parent, I’m going to do everything I can to do the best for my kid,” he said. “But as mayor, I have to do what’s best for every child.” Mr. Yang offered a starkly different message in a recent forum, arguing that some parents would flee the city without gifted classes. “Families are looking up and saying, ‘Is New York where my kids are going to flourish?’” Mr. Adams and Ms. Garcia said they would create more gifted classes in low-income neighborhoods, the favored policy position of many supporters of gifted programs. Activists have said that expanding gifted would only contribute to an inherently unfair system. Mr. McGuire said he would not “dismantle the programs, but I’d take a close look to make sure it’s fair and achieving its purpose.” Some candidates seemed eager to please all sides on the contentious if narrow issue of the entry exam for eight elite high schools, which is partially controlled by the State Legislature. In 2018, Mr. de Blasio started a campaign to eliminate the test. His effort failed after many low-income Asian-American families, whose children are overrepresented in the schools, mounted a massive effort to oppose the city’s plan. “I support efforts to desegregate the schools,” Raymond McGuire said in an interview. “This is basic equity, and it needs to happen.”Credit…Krista Schlueter for The New York TimesMr. Adams’ record on the issue demonstrates why so many politicians have tried to avoid staking out a position on the test. The borough president had long opposed the exam, and compared the specialized schools to “a Jim Crow school system.” But just a few weeks after he appeared at a news conference to trumpet the mayor’s plan, Mr. Adams reversed course following an outcry from some parents, particularly Asian Americans. Ms. Wiley has been a consistent critic of the exam, which she called discriminatory, but did not say exactly how she would approach the issue as mayor. Ms. Morales, Mr. Stringer and Brooklyn City Councilman Carlos Menchaca said that they would eliminate the exam.Ms. Morales graduated from Stuyvesant High School in the 1980s, and has watched with despair as the number of Black and Latino students at the school has dwindled. She said that going through the admissions process with her own children felt like an “obstacle course of barriers, targeted toward the people who are best positioned to overcome them.”Ms. Garcia, Mr. McGuire, Mr. Adams and Mr. Yang have said they would keep the exam in place, but promised to build additional specialized schools. That strategy was already tried by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, but has not led to greater diversity. The candidates have mostly not provided specifics for how their approach would differ.That came as no surprise to Christina Greer, a professor of political science at Fordham University, who expects the candidates to remain vague to avoid offending voters. “A lot of liberals like integration in theory, as long as it doesn’t touch their children at all,” she said. “For a lot of politicians, integration is a no-win.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Did Candidates Flee to Vacation Homes? 5 Highlights From the Mayor’s Race

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }N.Y.C. Mayoral RaceA Look at the RaceAndrew Yang’s Candidacy5 TakeawaysWho’s Running?AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyDid Candidates Flee to Vacation Homes? 5 Highlights From the Mayor’s RaceQuestions surrounding candidates’ second homes, ranked-choice voting and ties to casino interests arose in New York’s mayoral contest.Maya Wiley, center, and other candidates shared their whereabouts during the first several months of the pandemic. She spent 10 days outside of the city on Long Island in July.Credit…Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York TimesEmma G. Fitzsimmons, Jeffery C. Mays, Dana Rubinstein and Jan. 25, 2021, 3:00 a.m. ETOne of the main unanswered questions in this year’s mayoral race is how the introduction of ranked-choice voting will change the nature of the election.The first taste of how things will change came on Sunday, with an endorsement of two candidates, in ranked order.Other questions were also addressed last week, including how much time candidates spent outside of New York City during the pandemic, and how they view the long-term job prospects of the current police commissioner, Dermot F. Shea. (Hint: Count on a job opening in January.)Here are some key developments in the race:A double endorsement?For months, New York mayoral campaigns, political strategists and officials have quietly grappled with one of the biggest uncertainties in the race: how to approach the new ranked-choice voting system in the June Democratic primary, for which New Yorkers will be asked to rank as many as five choices. Can a candidate draw contrasts without alienating a rival’s supporters? Are alliances in order? Do voters even understand the process?On Sunday, some of those private calculations were placed on public display in what was billed as the “first of its kind” ranked-choice endorsement in the race: State Senator Gustavo Rivera named Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller, as his first choice, and Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive, as his second.Both of those contenders are seeking to emerge as the standard-bearers for progressive voters in the party, in competition with candidates including Maya Wiley, who out-raised Ms. Morales but trails Mr. Stringer in the money race. Mr. Rivera stressed their New Yorker bona fides at a time when Andrew Yang — another leading candidate in the race — has faced scrutiny over his political ties to the city.The joint campaign event with Mr. Rivera was not a cross-endorsement, Mr. Stringer assured.“Obviously I don’t want her to be mayor,” Mr. Stringer cracked as he appeared with Ms. Morales, and they stressed their interest in educating New Yorkers about ranked-choice voting.But the moment offered an early glimpse of how the new system may shape coalitions and highlight rivalries — and how elected officials with endorsements to dole out may seek to wield their influence.Yang pitches a casino on Governors IslandAdd Mr. Yang to the list of gambling and real estate executives eager to bring a full-fledged casino to New York City.Mr. Yang spent much of last week doubling down on his assertion that what New York City needs right now is a casino.During a discussion about the city’s grave fiscal needs and the imperative to draw tourists back, Mr. Yang argued that New York City should put a casino on Governors Island — to make the city money and to make it “more fun.”“That casino would generate so much money, it’d be bananas,” Mr. Yang said during the Jan. 14 interview.Andrew Yang has proposed putting a casino on Governors Island: “That casino would generate so much money, it’d be bananas.”Credit…Andrew Seng for The New York TimesCasinos are currently prohibited on the island, but Mr. Yang’s endorsement of a city casino raised some eyebrows among political types because Bradley Tusk, who is advising Mr. Yang’s campaign, is also chairman of IG Acquisition. The company, which seeks to acquire businesses in the leisure, gaming and hospitality industries, recently raised $300 million in an initial public offering.Via text message, Mr. Tusk acknowledged discussing the idea of a Governors Island casino with Mr. Yang, but said the idea is for the city to own the casino — the opposite of the industry’s preference.He argued that because he and Mr. Yang are proposing a city-controlled casino, rather than a private operation, there is no possible conflict of interest. A city-owned casino might still benefit from a casino consulting firm, but Mr. Tusk said that his company is interested in finding ways for people to bet on video games like Fortnite or League of Legends.“The point of saying public owned was to both maximize revenue for the city and remove it as anything that involves me,” Mr. Tusk said.Three weeks in the HamptonsWhen Mr. Yang told The New York Times that he had spent “more time upstate than in the city over the last number of months,” his fellow mayoral candidates saw an opening and highlighted how they stayed put.One candidate who did not throw any shade at Mr. Yang was Raymond J. McGuire, a wealthy former Wall Street executive who, with his wife, owns a second home in the Hamptons. Speculation rose that Mr. McGuire’s campaign was silent because perhaps he had spent much of the pandemic outside of the city as well.After reviewing his calendar, Mr. McGuire’s campaign said that he spent the first three months of the pandemic in Manhattan, and then a total of three weeks in the Hamptons with his family from June to August.His campaign staff shared a schedule that indicated that Mr. McGuire worked and took meetings in both Manhattan and the Hamptons during the summer; The Times confirmed that several of those meetings — with future staff members and an influential Black activist, Kirsten John Foy — did take place.“It’s pretty clear from the exhaustive and transparent accounting of Ray’s whereabouts that he was not living in the Hamptons during Covid,” said Mr. McGuire’s spokeswoman Lupé Todd-Medina.Ray McGuire’s campaign staff shared a schedule that indicated he worked and took meetings in both Manhattan and the Hamptons during the summer.Credit…Jose A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York TimesThe Times asked other candidates about their whereabouts from March to September. Ms. Wiley’s campaign said she spent 10 days outside of the city on Long Island in July, while Mr. Stringer said he spent three days in Connecticut with his wife’s family in August.Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, said he did not spend a full 24 hours outside of the city during that period. Mr. Adams, who slept at Brooklyn Borough Hall during the height of the pandemic, said he would spend eight to 12 hours visiting with his partner and family in New Jersey.Carlos Menchaca, a councilman from Brooklyn, said he spent a total of 14 days outside the city, mostly hiking and meditating but still working remotely. Ms. Morales said she spent two days in upstate New York in July, and one of those days was with her campaign team.Shaun Donovan, the former federal housing secretary, spent two weeks with his family in Washington, D.C., as they were in the process of moving to join him in Brooklyn, according to his campaign. Zach Iscol said he spent a total of 50 days outside of New York with his family in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in between working as deputy director at the Covid-19 field hospital at the Jacob Javits Center.Paperboy Prince raps about universal basic incomeIf there is one candidate in the crowded mayoral field who is most likely to be impersonated on “Saturday Night Live,” it is probably Paperboy Prince, a rapper from Brooklyn.At an online mayoral forum last week, Paperboy performed a rap in support of universal basic income, took two actual pies to the face and expressed concern about waking up a roommate.Paperboy, who ran to be the first nonbinary member of Congress, wore large bedazzled sunglasses indoors and easily had the most colorful backdrop. The rapper won about 14,000 votes in the Democratic primary against Representative Nydia Velazquez last year.Paperboy’s platform includes canceling rent, legalizing marijuana and psychedelics, abolishing the police and issuing reparations to “Black and brown people for the Drug War.”Other unorthodox candidates have garnered attention over the years — if not many votes. Jimmy McMillan ran for governor and mayor on the “Rent is Too Damn High” platform. He released a music video and was played by Kenan Thompson on “S.N.L.” in 2010.The forum, held by the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, featured other lesser known candidates: Joycelyn Taylor, the head of a general contracting firm who talked about growing up in public housing; Aaron Foldenauer, a lawyer who bristled at not being featured on the same panel as the leading candidates; and Quanda Francis, an accountant who said she dropped out of high school, which she said was an example of the failures of the city’s education system.A different kind of police commissionerWhen Mayor Bill de Blasio made a major announcement last week about stricter disciplinary rules for officers, he did so without Commissioner Shea.The mayor said that the police commissioner was still recovering from the coronavirus. Yet the commissioner apparently felt well enough to conduct interviews with reporters earlier in the week, raising questions about his support of the new rules and of the mayor.Mr. Yang said he wants to hire a “civilian police commissioner.” Credit…James Estrin/The New York TimesWhat seems clear is that Commissioner Shea does not have the support of most of the mayoral candidates. Ms. Wiley, a former counsel to Mr. de Blasio, even called on the mayor to fire him.Several candidates have talked recently about what they want to see in the next police commissioner. Mr. Yang said he wants to hire a “civilian police commissioner” who was not a police officer and who is “independent from the culture of the Police Department.”Mr. Adams, a former police officer, said he would hire a female police commissioner.At the Brooklyn mayoral forum, Ms. Wiley and Mr. Stringer, the city comptroller, would not commit to hiring a person of color as police commissioner, but pledged that their administrations would be diverse. Mr. de Blasio picked three Irish-American leaders, and the Police Department has not had a Black commissioner since Lee P. Brown resigned in 1992.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Why Kamala Harris Is a Star of the N.Y.C Mayor’s Race

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }N.Y.C. Mayoral RaceA Look at the RaceAndrew Yang’s Candidacy5 TakeawaysWho’s Running?AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhy Kamala Harris Is a Star of the New York City Mayor’s RaceThe candidates are competing over who can best capture Washington’s attention and assistance as New York navigates its recovery from the pandemic.Several mayoral candidates have boasted of ties to Vice President Kamala Harris, including Andrew Yang, seen greeting her at a presidential debate in 2019.Credit…Tamir Kalifa for The New York TimesJan. 22, 2021, 11:28 a.m. ETIn many tight political races, candidates battle over not just what they know, but whom they know. In the New York City mayor’s race, the most popular person to know isn’t even a New Yorker.“I’ve literally got the vice president’s number,” Andrew Yang told the news channel NY1.“We introduced the vice president-elect to New York City,” Raymond J. McGuire said on a podcast last month.Maya D. Wiley, another mayoral candidate, has a picture featuring that vice president — Kamala Harris of California — splashed across the top of her Twitter page.As a new administration takes over in Washington, there are signs of fresh battle lines in New York’s mayoral race, centered on connections to federal power.Political candidates often claim ties to major party figures in an effort to energize their bases, and that may be especially true with regard to Ms. Harris, the first woman and woman of color to serve as the country’s vice president.Yet this year, in a contest that may be defined by promises to stabilize an economically imperiled city, several prominent candidates are also competing over who is best equipped to capture Washington’s attention — and its assistance.“Having the bragging rights to relationships with these folks is appealing to voters,” said Jay Jacobs, the chairman of New York State’s Democratic Party. “It probably allows them to suggest that maybe they’ll be able to get additional help for the city if they become mayor.”New York already has vigorous champions for federal aid, starting with the new Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, who is known to be attentive to his home state’s needs. And for mayors, the most urgent and fraught relationship to manage is often the one with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has vast control over city operations and has his own dealings with Washington.But after New York’s rough relationship with the Trump administration, many mayoral candidates agree that the city needs as many strong ties as possible to the new Washington to help navigate issues like housing, transportation and pandemic relief.Yet there are sharp distinctions in the ways the candidates approach discussing Washington.Some of the leading contenders — like Scott M. Stringer, the city’s comptroller, and Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president — are vocal about the need for more federal relief, and they appear to be betting that the next mayor of New York will get through to Washington regardless of previous relationships.“It’s a powerful argument to remind people in power time and time again in Washington that New York City continues to be the epicenter of the national economy,” said Mr. Stringer, who as comptroller laid out New York’s “most urgent” economic needs in a recent letter to President Biden, Mr. Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. “The quicker we bring back New York City, the better it will be for everybody.”For candidates with fewer established ties to city politics, national name-dropping can be part of a broader effort to explain the less conventional ways they would fight for New York, or simply a tactic aimed at standing out through association.It is an approach that may attract attention from donors and endorsement gatekeepers, though many New York political experts are skeptical that such appeals move votes.The city comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, right, has working relationships with leaders in Washington, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, left.Credit…Richard Drew/Associated PressEmbracing the new administration may not be viewed as a particular asset in the most liberal corners of New York, where the White House is sure to be seen as too moderate. And strategists warn that the impact that Washington has on New York can be an abstract concept for voters grappling with more tangible challenges.“If you’re an insider, it obviously plays a larger factor,” the Queens borough president, Donovan Richards Jr., said. “For the person on the food line who’s disconnected from government, they don’t necessarily care about your relationship to Washington, D.C. They care about you being able to put some food on their plate.”Mr. Yang is trying to address the latter concern with a broad suite of policies as he seeks to emerge as the anti-poverty candidate. But Mr. Yang, a former presidential contender and political surrogate, is also emphasizing national relationships — even as he faces scrutiny over his connections to the city in which he has never voted for mayor.“My ties are strong with our partners in the White House and the Capitol; I have a lot of their phone numbers,” he said last week, adding that Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia had recently called him (though newly elected officials often make many phone calls to thank supporters).Calling Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris and Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary nominee, “friends of mine,” Mr. Yang added, “These relationships will pay dividends for our city when we want to get things done.”He also posted pictures of himself with Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris and Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Cory Booker of New Jersey. (Mr. Booker, declining to name the mayoral candidates he knew best, said he did not expect to endorse in the race because “I have so many friends that are running.”)The candidate with the deepest federal management experience is Shaun Donovan, who was a housing secretary under former President Barack Obama, and Mr. Donovan makes no secret of it. The biography on his campaign website opens with the promise to work with Mr. Biden, “ensuring that New York City’s voice is heard in the White House.”His campaign also issued a news release that highlighted “Obama-Biden alumni” donors, including Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Mr. Biden’s choice to lead the Homeland Security Department, and Tom Vilsack, his choice for agriculture secretary.Mr. Donovan said in an interview that his Washington relationships positioned him to see fresh opportunities for collaboration.“The question is, how deep are those relationships, how much trust do you have in the ability not just to call them on the phone, but to actually have worked side by side with them in moments of crisis?” he said. “No one has the depth and breadth of relationships that I do.”Shaun Donovan, center, a former housing secretary, has the deepest federal management experience among the mayoral candidates. Credit…Larry Downing/ReutersDespite those high-profile contacts, Mr. Donovan failed to meet the thresholds to qualify for the city’s matching-funds program, according to numbers released last week.Then there is Mr. McGuire, a longtime Wall Street executive, who has been a major Democratic donor himself and was a supporter of Ms. Harris before she ran for president.Mr. McGuire does not mention her at every turn, but he does have ties to her 2020 presidential primary infrastructure: The national finance chairman of her campaign, Jonathan Henes, is now a finance co-chair of his campaign, and there is additional overlap among prominent donors and on the finance team.Mr. McGuire and his wife, Crystal McCrary McGuire, also have personal relationships with Ms. Harris, according to a person who has worked for both Mr. McGuire and Ms. Harris. The person recalled, for instance, that after Ms. Harris gave a book talk at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan several years ago, she and her husband dined on cartons of Chinese takeout at the McGuires’ home.That doesn’t mean a Harris endorsement is imminent for Mr. McGuire or anyone else. A Harris aide said her team had been focused on the inauguration and on managing the coronavirus crisis. Others who have worked with her are skeptical that she would wade into a crowded mayoral primary.But the relationship is part of Mr. McGuire’s pitch that he would activate his sprawling network on behalf of the city. Mr. McGuire has publicly cited his ties with Ms. Harris and his connections with Washington decision makers.“Given that this is arguably the most important city in the country, it is important to have a relationship with one of the two most important leaders of the country,” he said last week, asked why that relationship was relevant.Ms. Wiley’s embrace of Ms. Harris is literal: The photo on her Twitter page shows her cheek touching Ms. Harris’s temple.In an interview, she detailed her own experiences navigating Washington, including testifying before Congress and meeting key officials across federal agencies, and described opportunities for the next mayor to work with an increasingly powerful New York delegation. And Ms. Wiley, who is Black and hopes to be the first woman to serve as the city’s mayor, also noted the historic nature of Ms. Harris’s ascension to the vice presidency.Female voters, she said, are “very energized by this White House, and by what it represents, not just symbolically but practically.”“The national and local are deeply connected for folks because we do need help from Washington,” said Ms. Wiley, a former MSNBC analyst who has worked with Ms. Harris’s sister, who added that she had traded the occasional text with Ms. Harris.Then there are the veteran New York politicians like Mr. Stringer and Mr. Adams who lack much of a national platform but do have deep local relationships.Given New York’s stature, some officials say, that should be enough — a stance adopted by Kathryn Garcia, the city’s former sanitation commissioner who is also running for mayor.“You are still the mayor of the premier city of the United States,” she said. “They’re going to take your call.”The former Representative Charles Rangel, the onetime dean of the New York House delegation, suggested that the mayoral candidates should keep fully focused on their own city.“I refuse to say anything that could be misinterpreted as not being positive about the power of the vice president of the United States,” he said. “But I’ll be goddamned if I can ever remember going to the vice president for any help for my city.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More