Good morning. It’s Friday. Today, a guide to navigating the 10 days between now and Election Day. And, details on a program to provide theater tickets to families in public housing.
Elections wrap politics and policy choices together. We’ll get to some of them. But there are mundane things to keep in mind, too, starting with early voting, which begins on Saturday in New York City and runs for nine days, through Sunday, Nov. 1.
Voting early: Where, when and who
The place to cast your early ballot in New York City may be different from your polling place on Election Day. You can put your address into this poll site locator from the Board of Elections to find out where you can vote early and when, because the hours will differ as the week goes on.
Jarret Berg, a co-founder of Vote Early New York, expects an uptick in the early voting turnout this year, in part because Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy for mayor drew thousands of new voters last year. He also said that early turnout could reflect concerns about voting by mail. President Trump has long promoted baseless claims that mail voting is plagued by fraud.
Berg said that mail voting remains “a great option.” But he advised sending in mail ballots early “so you’re not relying on an underresourced post office,” even though ballots postmarked by Election Day must be counted.
There are deadlines. Saturday is the last day to apply online for a mail-in ballot. You can apply in person through Nov. 1, the Sunday before Election Day, by going to the Board of Elections office in your borough, and each office will be open longer on weekdays and will open this weekend and next. The hours are listed here.
Politics
What to know as hard-fought campaigns speed toward a conclusion?
The races on the ballot in New York City are not considered competitive. The attention-getting congressional contests were effectively decided in the Democratic primary in June, when two left-wing candidates, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brad Lander, ousted incumbent Democrats. A third candidate, Claire Valdez, won in an open seat in Brooklyn. All three had Mamdani’s support.
He is expected to campaign for Gov. Kathy Hochul, beginning as early as today in Brooklyn.
That could add to what appears to be her comfortable lead. A statewide poll released on Wednesday by Quinnipiac University put her ahead among likely voters, at 55 percent, against 41 percent for Bruce Blakeman, the Republican. He has played down his ties to President Trump, who has campaigned for him upstate.
Policy choices
New York City’s political class has been chattering about five ballot proposals drafted by Mamdani’s Commission on Government Efficiency, whose name was a takeoff on Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. My colleague Emma G. Fitzsimmons calls the five proposals “wonky and obtuse.” But here goes anyway.
The first four are intended to streamline procedures for public spaces and street safety projects, which could allow Mamdani to expand outdoor dining (Question 1) and step up housing development by simplifying the permit process (Question 4). The watchdog group Common Cause opposes Question 1, saying that government efficiency “should not come at the expense of public participation and legislative oversight.”
Here’s a quick look at two others:
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Question 3 would “speed up safety projects,” which could let the city build bicycle lanes more quickly. That has drawn support from transit advocacy groups like Transportation Alternatives. “There’s this massive time suck between when people want to make a street safer and when it becomes safer,” said Alexa Sledge, a spokeswoman for Transportation Alternatives. “During that time, the street remains dangerous.”
But Janet Schroeder, a founder of the NYC E-Vehicle Safety Alliance, called the proposal “very authoritarian” because, she said, it would reduce community input. “It’s like something Trump would do,” she said, adding that she was not against bike lanes, though she argued that they do not necessarily “make things safer for pedestrians.”
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Question 5 calls for setting “targets” for the city’s so-called rainy day fun. Reinvent Albany, a watchdog group that supports the other four measures, opposes this one, as does the Citizens Budget Commission, another accountability group.
Its president, Andrew Rein, said that the city had put too little into the fund — only $2 billion, while $14 billion is needed to see city government through a recession or a serious emergency. He said the proposal would require the city to put 12 percent of city revenue into the fund — also too little, he said.
Reinvent Albany said that Question 5 would permit City Hall to make withdrawals “when it’s not ‘raining.’” That, the group said, amounts to allowing mayors “to write their own permission slip to raid the piggy bank.”
Weather
Today will be sunny with a high near 60. Tonight will be mostly clear with a low around 45.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Nov. 1 (All Saints’ Day).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We know this is unacceptable.” — John Esposito, the Fire Department’s chief of department, on the time it now takes for ambulances to respond to emergencies, 41.2 percent more than a decade ago for life-threatening calls and more than twice as long for non-life-threatening ones.
The latest New York news
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Banning horse-drawn carriages: The City Council voted to banish the carriages from Central Park. The measure is likely to face a court challenge before it goes into effect in 2028.
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A vote on housing: The City Council approved the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, or COPA, which gives a select group of nonprofit organizations a head start on buying distressed residential buildings.
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Weddings canceled at the Plaza Hotel: After the hotel announced it would close for at least four years, some couples — who had booked their weddings and paid deposits well in advance — were left scrambling to find new venues.
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N.Y.P.D. trial: Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch ordered a department trial for Wayne Isaacs, the police officer who was acquitted of murder in the fatal shooting of Delrawn Small in Brooklyn in 2016. Isaacs could lose his job if he is found guilty of improper use of force and police misconduct.
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City Hall shake-up: A staffing shake-up within the Mamdani administration resulted in the departures of the chiefs of staff for three deputy mayors from their jobs, and the unexplained firing of Valentine Sanders, a top aide who led the mayor’s advance team.
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What we’re watching: On “The New York Times Close Up,” Jeffery C. Mays talks with Stuart A. Thompson, a Times reporter who covers artificial intelligence, and Aisha Khan, The Times’s deputy standards editor. The program is broadcast on CUNY TV at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Free theater tickets for families in public housing
In August, the Theater Development Fund announced a lottery to give tickets to Broadway and Off Broadway shows to 2,000 high school students. Last month, the Metropolitan Opera said it would give away 70,000 tickets this season, also through a lottery.
Now New 42, a nonprofit, is offering as many as four free tickets to households in public housing. The tickets, available on a first-come, first-served basis through a portal for residents of New York City Housing Authority buildings, will be for productions at the New Victory Theater. Roughly 200 tickets will be available for each performance through the season, along with prepaid OMNY cards for the trip to and from the theater.
Russell Granet, the chief executive of New 42, said that it was an expansion of a program that began in 2022 and is a partnership with the Theater Development Fund — and that families could get good seats. “A family can go to the website and sit in fourth row center” if they want, he said, instead of being relegated to the balcony.
What matters, he said, is “getting kids into seats” and getting them in the habit of going to the theater.
METROPOLITAN diary
Gershwin plays
Dear Diary:
I was an art history graduate student in the mid-1980s with an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s medieval department.
At some point, I was assigned to accompany a staff member to an apartment in an old walk-up building that I think may have been in Greenwich Village. We were there to collect a painting or drawing that would be part of an exhibition unrelated to the medieval department.
A lovely older man welcomed us into a cozy apartment that was brimming with books, art and personal treasures.
The talk turned to the man’s player piano, and he kindly pulled out original piano rolls of George Gershwin performing.
I was absolutely entranced as we listened to what was essentially Gershwin giving a performance in a warm, intimate setting.
I have completely forgotten what we were there to pick up, but I have never forgotten the charming musical interlude.
— Leslie DiNella
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you Monday. — J.B.
Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Davaughnia Wilson and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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