NYC NOW - Black Voters, Gentrification, and the Race for NYC Mayor

Episode Date: November 1, 2025

With Election Day just days away, we unpack how gentrification, race, and identity are shaping the mayoral contest. WNYC’s Elizabeth Kim reports that some Black New Yorkers are weighing the city’s changing politics and what real representation means for their communities.

Janae, what do you think makes a person a real New Yorker? Oh, Liz, that's a touchy subject in this city. But for the sake of not pissing anyone off, I'm going to say a real New Yorker is someone who was born and raised within the five boroughs or even in the state. That's interesting. I'm going to say that. That's interesting. Well, this question has come up in this mayoral race. One candidate, Andrew Cuomo, says he represents the interests.

of real New Yorkers, and that his opponent, Zora Mamdani, represents the interests of gentrifiers. And Cuomo and Mayor Eric Adams have been directing that message at... Let me guess, Black New Yorkers. Right. And that's what we're going to unpack today. Gentrification and black voters. This is NYC now from WMYC. I'm Junae Pierre. In three days, New Yorkers will decide on its next mayor. Over the last several weeks, WMYC has been examining the issues shaping the race,

from young and new voters to public safety to the cost of housing and child care. Today is the last installment of our voter-driven series. And it's a story about a group that's been one of the pillars of the city's Democratic electorate, Black New Yorkers. Joining me now is Elizabeth Kim, who reports on City's, Hall and has also been covering the mayoral race. So Liz, tell me what drew you to this story? So during the primary, as Mamdani was surging in the polls, I kept hearing a lot of skepticism from political experts. And that's because the political wisdom in New York City is you can't win a

citywide race without winning the black vote. And Mamdani was in a bit of a tough spot. He was competing against Andrew Cuomo, who's a household name in politics, and also three other black candidates. He also wasn't really that well known in New York City, including in the black community. He's a 34-year-old Queen's Assembly member who's also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. And black voters, especially older black voters, tend to be more moderate. Yeah, but Memdani winds up winning the primary. That's right, Jeney. behold, he wins in a surprise upset. But what's also surprising is he doesn't win a majority of the

black vote. So these experts, they were wrong. Yeah, they were wrong. Mamdani gets edged out by Cuomo in the predominantly black neighborhoods. I'm talking about Southeast Queens, parts of central Brooklyn. But he makes up for that by winning other voters, voters like Asian and Latino voters. And he also runs up the score in gentrifying neighborhoods. Places like Clinton Hill, Fort Green, Crown Heights, Flatbush. Yeah, neighborhoods that have been historically black. Yes, but which have been transforming. Younger, more affluent, and yes, more white. So this is the tension I wanted to get at. So with the election on the line, I wanted to talk to black voters about gentrification and Mom Donnie.

And I knew exactly who to start with. Renee Collimore has watched the Brooklyn neighborhood of Clinton Hill cycle from a middle-class enclave of black homeowners to a casualty of the crack epidemic to one of the most desirable places to live in the borough. I meet her on a treeline block of stately brownstones and immediately spot the one that belongs to her family. I give her a call. Hi, Renee, I think I'm here.

Are you, is your house the one with the Eric Adams sign? Okay, I'm outside. She's actually waiting for me behind the wheel of her white Mercedes. All right, so. You're going to take me on a tour? Yes. They purchased this house here where you just saw in like late 50s, 60, 90s.

But they bought it for $6,000. And that brownstone today is appraised for $4 million. $1 million. Colomor is very active in local politics. In 2021, she ran for the city council. She didn't win, but when residents were upset about a nearby migrant shelter last year, she was the one who arranged a meeting between her neighbors and Mayor Adams. He came. He was by himself, and when he walked in, everybody was to stare at him because they couldn't believe it. But Colomor is a dying breed in this affluent and racially diverse section of Brooklyn. She's a black moderate, Democrat who opposes Zoran Mamdani and everything he represents. That includes his membership in the Democratic Socialists of America. Their agenda is to take over New York City.

His signature campaign policies. Free buses? There's no such thing as free buses. Who's going to pay for that? It's going to be us. It's going to be the people. And his support in gentrifying neighborhoods like Clinton Hill, where Mamdani won over 60% of the vote in some areas. Every black person knows if there's ever a black person. community, when white people start moving into the neighborhood, rent goes up. If that sounds familiar, that's because Mayor Eric Adams is saying the same thing.

Who is his base of support? Gentrifiers. Gentrifiers have raised the rent in the city and disrespected communities for far too long, and he's the king of the gentrifiers. After dropping out of the race, Adams is endorsing Andrew Cuomo as his successor. Well, you criticize Andrew and you called them names. You know what? And he called me names. But you know what? Now it's time to fight for the family.

Cuomo edged out Mamdani in majority black neighborhoods. And he's hoping for a repeat. The former governor is framing his strategy this way. We're going to get the Latino vote. We're going to get the black vote. We're going to get the white vote. We're going to get every New Yorker who's a real New Yorker. A real New Yorker.

Christina Greer, Fordham University Political Science. professor says this kind of political message is a tale as old as time. And if you hear the messaging enough and you're in this scarcity mode, then you're more receptive to that type of messaging. This year's mayoral race represents a shift in the balance of political power between the Democratic establishment represented by the likes of Cuomo and Adams and the party's grassroots, which fueled Mamdani's upset primary win. That shifting dynamic has prompted soul-searching among politically active residents of many gentrifying black neighborhoods.

Suddenly, black Democrats are worried they don't have the influence they once did. Non-Hispanic black residents declined by more than 6% between 2000 and 2020, according to census data. A Quinnipeak poll last month showed Mamdani winning support from 48% of black voters, compared to Cuomo at 34%. And Mamdani is seeking to increase his margin. Over the weekend, he spoke at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where his message of affordability received applause. So today, you will hear many politicians who will say this is the greatest city in the world.

But what good is that if you cannot afford to live here? Still, the 34-year-old Mamdani is unfamiliar to older black voters. At a recent event in Brooklyn, an audience of over 100 black progressives filed into a community center to hear from the candidate. Mondami is somewhat exotic to some folks. I hate to use that term, but I've got to be honest. Roger Green is a former Brooklyn State Assembly member who moderated the event. But as he's begun to move around and meet with other people, I think it's changing.

The city's second black mayor was viewed as a watershed moment. for black leaders. I won't be just another black face in a high place, but a person that's willing to do the job in a real way. But Green, who served as an important ally for the city's first black mayor, David Dinkins, argues that Adams and others haven't delivered for black New Yorkers. Head of the court system is black. Lieutenant Governor is black.

The Speaker of the Assembly is black. The majority leader of the Senate is black. The Speaker of the City Council is black. The mayor is black. Public advocate's black. And we still are marginalized. Whether Mamdani can advance the agenda for black residents is an open question. For some who worry that his support comes from neighborhoods

where liberal white voters have displaced black residents. At the forum, Mamdani receives a polite but not rousing reception. I know that there were progressives in that room who were understoress, because they were saying, basically, look, we don't want to see another example of white political hegemony controlling our communities either. In East Harlem, I meet 38-year-old Brandon Lloyd Adams. He runs two bakeries started by his father called Lloyd's Carrot Cake. It's a New York City institution.

Although he voted for Mamdani in the primary, some of the progress. Progressives' policies make him nervous. I'm all for, you know, having fair wages and things like that, but, you know, you hear a $30 minimum wage, and it's like, how do you survive? I don't want something like that. It's kind of scary to think about. The black business owners I spoke to seem worried about the rules changing after they've worked hard to build generational wealth. Adams, the bakery owner, tells me he doesn't know who he'll vote for. As a black person, there are a lot of different aspects that I have to consider.

and, you know, it's going to be a game time decision for me, honestly. Back in Brooklyn, Colomor tells me she's also torn. She's turned off by Cuomo's sexual harassment scandal. Up until recently, she was holding out hope that Adams might change his mind and get back in the race. This is going to be a problem. I know it's going to be a problem because, you know, we're not going to have any representation in City Hall. Mamdani has said city hall should, quote,

look like the city that it serves. In a city where their numbers are declining, that may be exactly what worries black New Yorkers. When we come back, we'll dig deeper into Liz's reporting in her conversation with black New Yorkers. So, Liz, in your piece, you speak to Roger Green. He's a black progressive who says that for all of the black leadership, the city has,

black people are still marginalized in this city. What does it mean for a mayor to have a black agenda? Well, for folks like Green, it begins with recognizing the disparities and the institutional racism that is behind those disparities. And there's plenty to talk about income, for example. Black New Yorkers make 44% less in median household income than white New Yorkers. Unemployment. The unemployment rate for black New Yorkers is far higher than. any other racial group and it's been rising even as the national unemployment rate for black

Americans is going down. Housing is another example. Black New York City residents are 30% less likely to own a home than white city residents. You know, I can go on and on. What people mean by a black agenda is it's not just about representation in City Hall. It's about how are you going to tackle these deeply rooted inequities with policy. And speaking of tackling these inequities, has Mamdani talked about these issues facing Black New Yorkers? And if so, how does he respond to the criticism from Adams, you know, that he's the quote, king of gentrifiers? I did reach out to Mamdani's campaign about the criticism around gentrification.

And they didn't respond. But I also spoke to one of the. his supporters. His name is Ernest Skinner. He's 82 years old. He's a black Brooklyn resident who's been out there during early voting campaigning for Mamdani. And this is what he says. I think that is a fallacious argument. Really? Yes. The fact of the matter is that Mandami has drawn his support across racial, racial, ethnic social lines. You know, Liz, what really strikes me about the criticism against Mamdani as a gentrifier is that, you know, it really doesn't track.

He's a South Asian Muslim guy who grew up in this city. And, you know, you can argue that he's more of a New Yorker than Andrew Cuomo. Exactly. That's a very, very fair observation. Mamdani has gone out and said that Cuomo and his supporters are making Islamophobic attacks against him. there was this AI video that the Cuomo campaign said was inadvertently released, but it depicted Mamdani's supporters as criminals. It had these AI scenes of Mamdani eating with his hands.

And there was another kind of very ugly incident in which Cuomo was doing an interview with a radio host who kind of suggested that Mamdani would not be prepared to lead the city during a terrorist attack, the implication there being because he's Muslim. And during that interview, Cuomo laughed. Yeah, yeah. And Cuomo is a guy that black voters know, right? But what do they think about his sexual harassment scandal? Are they willing to just overlook it?

Well, as you heard in the piece, the woman I start out with Renee Colomor, she was turned off by those sexual harassment allegations. And she doesn't want to vote for, quote. And what's important about what she says is that the black electorate is largely made up of black women. Women who you would think would be especially turned off by sexual harassment allegations. Now, polls show that Mamdani is getting just under 50% of the black vote. And he's doing better, actually, than Cuomo. But I will say that I texted Colomor this.

week and I asked her if she had voted yet. She told me no, but when I asked her who she was going to vote for, she told me Cuomo. That's WMYC's Elizabeth Kim. Thanks a lot, Liz. Thanks, Jeney. And thank you for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We'll be back on Monday.