New York Metropolis held its primaries for November’s mayoral race yesterday, the place New Yorkers delivered an upset: Socialist Supply Zohran Mammedi received out over disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo within the first spherical of voting. Mamdani was anticipated to both endure an in depth loss total or creep again from behind by successive ranked-choice rounds, relying on which ballot you belief, however the 33-year-old by no means dipped under a 7% lead over his centrist opponent — an upset that even the Mamdani camp did not count on. Wanting over the info exhibits an odd development: Mamdani’s victory was constructed on the backs of people that do not personal automobiles.
Aaron Kleinman, director of analysis for The States Mission, recognized the development late final evening on Bluesky. It is the sort of factor that New York residents would virtually instantly discover on a map of the 5 boroughs — Mamdani received in higher-density districts, Cuomo took less-dense areas — however the knowledge backs up the vibes. The much less time you spend in a automobile, the extra doubtless it’s you backed Zohran Mamdani.
Automobile homeowners supported Cuomo
On pure alignment, the breakdown is sensible. Mamdani does not personal a automobile, preferring to take transit or bike, whereas Cuomo famously owns a Dodge Charger Scat Pack Widebody that he operates with little regard for NYC driving legal guidelines. Every represents their very own constituency with their modes of transport, however the variations go deeper than that. Mamdani ran a closely pro-transit marketing campaign, promising quick and free buses and a rise in bike lanes, whereas Cuomo wished to flood the subway system with police — a transfer broadly loathed and seen as wasteful by the subway riders who see cops scrolling TikTok on the platforms each day.
Even past transit itself, automobile possession in New York Metropolis’s outer boroughs speaks to their inhabitants density. The chart within the lead picture right here dates again to 2018, earlier than the pandemic car-buying growth and post-pandemic mass automobile sell-offhowever the common distribution stays largely unchanged: In denser areas of New York, higher served by transit and with extra flats per road parking spot, automobile possession merely is not value it. These are the areas that have been drawn in not simply by guarantees of enhancements to the MTA, however guarantees round a lease freeze, city-owned grocery shops, and additional protections for tenants — pocketbook points tailor-made to New York Metropolis’s working-class residents.
The maps will not be completely aligned — Cuomo managed to underperform in Staten Island of all locations — however they communicate to how numerous the dwelling conditions in New York’s 5 boroughs actually are. From the density of Manhattan or Downtown Brooklyn to the single-family properties of Staten Island or Japanese Queens, ideologies can range as a lot as property sizes do. Automobile possession and transit ridership function a shorthand for somebody’s total dwelling state of affairs — and, apparently, their politics.
