I've been asked by a good number of people on Bluesky and elsewhere for my voting endorsements. I've collected my voting recommendations here.
CANDIDATES
NYC Mayor: Zohran Mamdani. I was publicly skeptical of him in the primary, and I'm still not crazy about a lot of his ideas. But he's the best option in the field because he's correctly identified what NYC's problems are, and he's surrounded himself with competent people. The alternatives are far worse. Andrew Cuomo ran the subways into the ground when he was governor. Curtis Sliwa is an incoherent crank, even though some of his ideas are good and he genuinely wants the best for the city. Eric Adams, mercifully, dropped out.
Public Advocate: Both candidates suck. Jumaane Williams is a NIMBY slumlord who keeps making bad-faith commentary about how Eric Adams's rezoning plan, City of Yes, needs more "real affordability" and more "community involvement" of the kind that got us into this mess in the first place. The Republican, Gonzalo Duran, wants stronger rent control measures and even more hyperlocal control over development decisions. One is nominally a Democrat and the other is nominally a Republican but they're effectively the same on housing. Personally, I'm writing in Abby, my friend Amanda's dog. Abby is very cute, and will do no harm if she is elected.
Abby the Dog would make a better Public Advocate than either candidate.
Comptroller: Mark Levine. Levine is the kind of earnest Jewish guy who has kept the mayor's office honest, and he's been excellent on bus lanes and expanding bike lanes.
Manhattan Judges: No recommendation. I don't litigate anymore, so I can't offer public endorsements beyond the courthouse scuttlebutt I hear from friends and colleagues.
Manhattan DA: Alvin Bragg. Crime is down in NYC. I give him bonus points because Bragg had the stones to go after Trump and secure a conviction when so many other prosecutors failed.
Manhattan Borough President: Brad Hoylman-Sigal. Hoylman-Sigal supports more bus lanes and a resumption of outdoor dining, and has been an effective legislator in Albany. I endorse him wholeheartedly.
Brooklyn Borough President: Antonio Reynoso. Reynoso vocally backed City of Yes, and has consistently supported reforming the laws to address the housing crisis. He's also been really good on biking, pedestrian and transit infrastructure. I offer him my unqualified support.
City Council, District 1 (LES, Chinatown, Tribeca, FiDi): Both candidates suck. Christopher Marte, the incumbent city councilman, is awful. Marte opposed Mayor Adams's City of Yes housing plan - one of the few good things that Adams did. I loathe Adams, but credit where credit is due: City of Yes was genuinely good, and it's a shame that the City Council watered it down. Marte's also against congestion pricing. Strike two. And while he's not as openly corrupt as Eric Adams, I will note that Marte's brother mysteriously managed to get one of the first legal marijuana dispensary permits in the neighborhood at a time when those were nearly impossible to get. Strike three.
I would love to vote for someone else, but the other candidate is Helen Qiu, a MAGA pastor with a completely unserious plan to fix the housing crisis that's so stupid it's not even worth my time to break it down. Seriously, the sum total of her plan is "abolish rent control and allow public housing tenants to buy their apartments." That's not a plan or even the outline of a plan - that's a tweet.
My neighborhood deserves a real alternative, so I'm writing in Nira the Cat. Nira is a native New Yorker, a lawyer barred in CATalonia, and she lives in the district (about 15 feet away from my bedroom). Nira's extremely good at keeping my apartment rodent-free, which is a major accomplishment in NYC.
Nira the Cat, Esq. would make a great city councilor.
City Council, District 36 (Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights): Chi Osse. This is my old neighborhood on Brooklyn. Osse is a thoughtful councilman who has been aggressively promoting better housing policy, and Osse has clearly gotten into the weeds of how to fix the zoning and building codes. He also sponsored the law to abolish mandatory broker fees. I moved back to Manhattan a few weeks ago, but he deserves your vote.
BALLOT PROPOSITIONS
Proposal 1 (Cross-country ski trails in the Adirondacks): Planning to vote no, but open to hearing other opinions. There are plenty of upstate ski resorts already, and the State had to bail out the upstate resorts less than a decade ago.
Proposals 2 + 3 (Streamlined review for affordable housing and small projects): YES, YES, YES. New housing is forced to go through way too much bureaucracy already, and anything that can speed the process is good.
Proposal 4 (Affordable Housing Appeals Board): YES, YES, YES. Currently, city councilors have the power to veto affordable housing in their districts. Proposal 4 would strip this authority, and instead put it in the hands of a three-person committee made up of the Boro President, City Council Speaker and Mayor. This is good, because the new committee answers to the whole borough and whole city, not to just the hyperlocal concerns of one neighborhood.
Proposal 5 (Creating a new digital city map): Yes. The current official city map uses paper maps. Centralizing and digitizing this function is a no-brainer.
Proposal 6 (moving local elections to even years): Yes. Right now, NYC local elections are held in odd-numbered years, when fewer people turn out to vote. Holding local elections in presidential years increases voter turnout dramatically and reduces election administration costs. California experimented with this law and it was a huge success.