Election Day 2024
New York City shifts towards the right, #101
I spent election night 2016 in the Roosevelt Avenue offices of Make the Road New York, where members drew a map of the United States and colored in each state red or blue as the results came in. As people colored in the states throughout the night, the mood shifted.
When the election was called in 2020 I was in Philadelphia, where the Wall Street Journal sent me to cover any potential unrest (it didn’t happen so fast.) This week I was at the Chelsea Hotel for a humdrum party for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, where she was joined by Gov. Kathy Hochul, who didn't speak to reporters, although I got her out on the street (she said congestion pricing is “end of the year, end of the year we said.)
"I'm feeling good, I'm feeling great. It's a good night for Democrats," she said. The election results had not been tallied.
I'm not a columnist or a national reporter; I have no analysis or suggestions on how to feel today or any day. There's not a ton of wisdom in this week's newsletter, just links to work I find important.
I love being a reporter and know, from what it was like during the first Trump presidency, how tough it could be going forward (happy to share the stories of so many colleagues getting their news vans driven off the roads and local stations taking their logos off of them for protection.) Support journalism you like with money if you have it, sharing and clicks if you don't.
Nearly every neighborhood in New York City shifted towards President-elect Trump this year compared to 2020. Voters who spoke with my colleagues said the economy and public safety were their biggest issues.
“The economy is shot. We need more money out here spent in The Bronx. We got a lot of people out here that lost their jobs. You lose your job, you can’t go get a haircut,” barber Javier Rodriguez, Jr. said about casting his first-ever vote for Trump. (This WSJ analysis of the economy under Trump vs Biden, with plenty of charts, shows a mixed picture of our economic reality, although there’s often a disconnect between a chart and what you feel on the street.)
One man, cab driver MD Kabir, told my colleague in Castle Hill that he thought Trump “can stop the war of the Middle East” as well as fix the economy.
What some might see as a major negative, he saw as a positive: “he has good relations with all the killers like Putin, Netanyahu and North Korean — this guy — Iranian. He can control all the killers. He has that ability.” (It’s unclear if he has the interest or the ability to do that.)
You can read more of THE CITY’s election coverage here, here, here, and here.
The other post-election question is about the future of Mayor Eric Adams. Unlike the city’s other Democratic mayor in office when Trump was elected, he was tempered in both criticism of the Republican who won and praise of the Democrat who lost throughout the election. My colleague Greg Smith looked at whether the mayor — and his federal corruption case — could benefit from a Trump presidency. On Wednesday, he didn’t answer when I asked if he thought the new president would help his federal case. As we say in the biz, we shall see. But if Adams takes days to figure out his stance on flouride, we’re in for a bumpy ride.
Other interesting stories
↣ The mayor’s partner left her high-paying DOE job as the Department of Investigation launches a probe [DN]
↣ Hakeem Jeffries talks about the future of the house [NY1]
↣ The city is still in a drought watch so I can’t even take a relaxing bath [THE CITY]
↣ I enjoyed this guide to some of the city’s best sandwiches and thankfully Mama’s of Corona is there [YOUTUBE]
Here’s a photo of me dressed up as the Empire State Building last week.
Thanks for reading!