Two months before the Democratic primary for mayor, arguably the most consequential New York City election in decades, many voters are focused on other things.In Brooklyn’s Church of St. Mark on a recent Sunday, Arlene Punnett, 82, listened patiently as a special guest spoke of his hardworking mother and his years as a police officer. His name was Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, and he had come to seek the church’s support in his run for mayor.But for Ms. Punnett, he might as well have been visiting from a distant country. Asked later how much thought she’s given the race to elect the city’s next mayor, she held her thumb and finger in the shape of a perfectly round zero.“What can I tell you?” she shrugged. “Right now that’s not the primary concern.”Days later at a park in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, a father shooting hoops with his family noticed a woman at a pop-up lectern nearby marked “Garcia for NYC Mayor.” He struggled to name other candidates: “I’m guessing de Blasio,” the father, Bob Mendez, 38, said.Nope. The current mayor is not on the ballot. He tried again: “Yang, or something?”The next mayor of New York faces a staggering slate of extraordinary challenges: resuscitating tourism and refilling the empty skyscrapers of Midtown Manhattan, bringing jobs back and the commuters to perform them, lowering crime while raising confidence in the city’s police and law enforcement. Those demands and many, many more have elevated the upcoming election — the Democratic primary that will likely decide the next mayor — to one of outsized consequence for millions of people.And yet, a seemingly large portion of New Yorkers, with only eight weeks left before the primary, remain utterly disengaged and oblivious to the race and the platforms of the leading candidates. For many, the ongoing toils of living with the coronavirus — vaccination appointments, unemployment, remote schooling — and lingering weariness from the 2020 presidential campaign have crowded out time or energy for local politics.Once again, New York seems to be telling a tale of two cities, with a mayoral race taking place in one of them while most everyone else is busy making do in the other.“They barely know that there’s an election going on,” said Ken Sherrill, a professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College and former Democratic district leader. “Who the candidates are, when the primary is going to be — that there’s going to be a primary, and how to vote in it. Towering over everything is the pandemic.”The coronavirus, besides reordering daily life for millions of New Yorkers, has eliminated some traditional sources of information about candidates and chances to interact with them. With no one working in offices, there are no water cooler moments to compare candidates with colleagues. For many, there are simply too many names — 13 on the ballot in just the Democratic primary. And there are far fewer opportunities to happen upon a candidate, say, greeting commuters at a subway station.A recent poll conducted by NY1 and Ipsos seemed to confirm the suggestions of disinterest seen on the streets. Just 33 percent of registered voters or those planning to register soon said they were certain they would vote in the June 22 primary. Among unregistered voters, only one in four intends to register in time. (The deadline is May 28.)Sandra Wharton, a counselor who attended the service where Mr. Adams spoke, gave voice to those poll numbers. “I have not been thinking about the candidates because there are so many more serious things happening,” she said, even as she acknowledged this might not be the most civic-minded view. “It’s important, who we vote for, who we elect.”In limited early polling of the race, Andrew Yang has seemingly emerged as the front-runner, with his 2020 presidential campaign giving him more name recognition than his rivals. Still, in one poll, half of likely Democratic voters were still undecided.The candidates, after weeks or longer of straining against the constraints of Zoom events, have begun hitting the streets and returning to traditional retail campaigning as temperatures have warmed and vaccinations become more available. But on busy corners, outside borough halls and inside churches and other photogenic backdrops, they are regularly met with blank faces and wait-I-know-you-from-somewhere moments.Vernon Dasher, 50, a train operator for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, leaned across his parked motorcycle outside Queens Borough Hall last week and watched a man whom he had first heard of only the day before attempt to make his case for mayor. The man, Raymond J. McGuire, a former executive at Citigroup, continued his pitch even as a nearby car alarm drowned him out.“I didn’t even know it was an election year for the mayor,” Mr. Dasher said. He has been preoccupied, to put it mildly, “hoping that the city opens up.”“Another way you could put that is: Covid,” he said.Mr. Dasher said he’d love to sit out this election — “I keep saying, ‘I’m not voting no more,’ because I don’t want to do jury duty!” — but knows he must not. “I guess there is always that thought, ‘Maybe my vote will count.’” (Also, New Yorkers are summoned to jury service whether they vote or not.)Andrew Yang speaking at an event in the Bronx last week. “The only thing I’m thinking about is Covid,” said one woman who recently saw Mr. Yang in the borough. Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesEven Mr. Yang has yet to break through the noise that is 2021 for many. Ms. Wharton, at the church service in Brooklyn, knew that one of the candidates for mayor had run for president, but couldn’t recall his name.When Mr. Yang appeared at an event in the Bronx last week, his arrival was more annoying than enlightening for Ena Farquharson, 72, a retired nurse rushing to visit nearby friends and finding the sidewalk blocked.She said she is too busy and drained to take on candidate research right now. “The only thing I’m thinking about is Covid,” Ms. Farquharson said..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;}The candidate Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive, held a block party in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn, with performers who included Christine Shepard, 24, who first learned Ms. Morales’s name when she was invited. “We’re so oversaturated in news,” Ms. Shepard said.Nearby, Kevin Nimmons, 35, a paralegal who had been playing basketball and walked over for a closer look, said national events — the presidential election, the Black Lives Matter movement, the trial over George Floyd’s death — crowded out local news.“There are a lot of more pressing issues, it doesn’t really leave too much space,” Mr. Nimmons said. “Racism, classism, nationalism, sexism.”Another factor unique to this race is the introduction of ranked-choice ballots, where voters will choose up to five candidates in order of preference for their next mayor. “I think most people are going to be unable to rank, period,” said Mr. Sherrill, the political scientist. “They’re going to give up. And it’s not their fault. This is the wrong race to be breaking in a new system.”These overwhelmed New Yorkers, of course, bump up against highly engaged neighbors at these events, and many are following the races closely. At Mr. Yang’s appearance on Tuesday, a construction worker, Benjamin Gibs, 36, from Mott Haven, paused his labor across the street to hurry over for a closer look. He said he liked Mr. Yang’s support for universal basic income and warnings about the rise of automation.“I vote on policy, not on party,” Mr. Gibs said. “He’s clearly all economics.”Kathryn Garcia holding a campaign event at Owl’s Head Park in Brooklyn last week. “Everyone’s undecided — they’re coming out of the hibernation of winter,” she said.Hilary Swift for The New York TimesAt the event in Bay Ridge for Kathryn Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner running for mayor, a lone man on a bicycle stopped outside a fence to listen. He was not just another curious voter, but a politician himself — Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate and a former councilman. He happened upon Ms. Garcia’s event on his morning ride.He said that in his experience, many voters believe it is too early to invest much time in the candidates. “It feels like they’re just starting to pay attention,” he said before riding off.Ms. Garcia also said voters typically wait until later in the race to more fully engage, and that this election was no different.“Everyone’s undecided — they’re coming out of the hibernation of winter,” said Ms. Garcia, who has actually been making personal calls to voters seeking their support — an indication of how low the turnout might be. “They get to it right as they’re getting to vote. That’s my experience. As a voter, too.”Still, for some, this election feels different. Audrey Rosenblith, 26, who was walking her dog near the Morales event, said she is normally highly engaged in local races, even volunteering for candidates. But this race just feels like too much.“It’s overwhelming right now because there are so many candidates,” she said. “Every time I try to do research, I abandon it because I get exhausted.”Juliana Kim More
