Good morning. It’s Tuesday — Primary Day in New York City. We’ll get an overview of what to expect if you’re voting. And the longtime Times reporter Sam Roberts will reminisce about Richard Ravitch, who helped the city navigate crises in the 1970s and 1980s.
First, some basics about Primary Day:
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It’s too late to vote early. The nine days of early voting ended on Sunday. The Board of Elections says that about 44,611 votes were cast in that time — less than a quarter of the early-voting turnout two years ago, when candidates for mayor were competing in the primary.
This time around, there are no citywide races, but all 51 members of the City Council will be running in the general election to keep their seats . Less than half of those races are being contested, and of those, 13 races feature more than two candidates — making ranked-choice voting necessary.
There are also primaries for district attorney in the Bronx and Queens.
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It’s also too late to register to vote today. The Board of Election says it must receive your registration form at least 10 days before the election you want to vote in. Also, remember that in New York, you must be registered with a political party to vote in a primary. Here’s where to find out if you’re already registered.
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Where to vote? This locator will tell you, and remember that your polling place today may be different than the one you would have gone to for early voting.
The two district attorneys in the Bronx and Queens — and several City Council members — are facing more conservative challengers who have criticized them on issues like public safety. These are some of the races to watch:
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In the Bronx, Councilwoman Marjorie Velázquez, a Democrat who ran as a progressive in 2021, is facing two challengers who say she is too far left. She quit the Council’s Progressive Caucus in February after it asked members to agree to a statement of principles that included less funding for the police; recently she was recently endorsed by the conservative Police Benevolent Association.
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In Lower Manhattan, Councilman Chris Marte, a Democrat, is facing opponents who have accused him of wanting to “defund” the police, something he denies. But Marte said he has does not intend to leave the progressive caucus and cast his opponents as being further right than their comments would indicate.
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In a district that includes Harlem, three candidates are running to replace Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan, a democratic socialist who is considered one of the most left-leaning elected officials in the city. She unexpectedly dropped out of the race last month.
Two of the hopefuls are members of the State Assembly, Al Taylor and Inez Dickens (who represented Harlem in the City Council before she was elected to the Assembly in 2016). The third, Yusef Salaam, was one of five men convicted and later cleared in the Central Park jogger case in 1989. All three are moderate Democrats.
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Melinda Katz’s main opponent for district attorney in Queens four years ago was a democratic socialist who had been endorsed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among others. Katz won by fewer than 60 votes.
This time around, Katz’s strongest challenger is George Grasso, a former first deputy police commissioner and former administrative judge. He told my colleague Jeffery C. Mays that there is “a gnawing sense among people throughout the city, and Queens in particular, that they’re just not feel as safe as the felt a few years ago, and they’re not seeing the political leadership respond in an assertive way.” Katz called his claims “ludicrous.”
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Darcel Clark, the district attorney in the Bronx, is facing a challenge from the criminal defense and civil rights lawyer Tess Cohen. Cohen told my colleague Lola Fadulu that more people in the Bronx could benefit from mental health services and a gun court program — which Brooklyn has had since the early 2000s to provide a second chance to young people facing gun possession charges — as alternatives to incarceration.
Clark said in a recent debate hosted by the access channel BronxNet that she and her staff had done “everything that we can to combat crime, whether it’s creating new bureaus in my office to deal with crime strategies, to deal with violent criminal enterprise — anything that will help with victims of crimes.” Clark has more money for the campaign as well as the support of the political establishment.
Weather
Expect showers and thunderstorms, persisting through the evening, with temperatures near the high 70s. At night, temps will drop to the high 60s.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect today. Suspended tomorrow (Eid al-Adha).
The latest Metro news
Remembering Richard Ravitch
Richard Ravitch, who helped New York City avoid bankruptcy in the 1970s and its deteriorating transit system avoid financial collapse in the 1980s, died on Sunday. Sam Roberts, who wrote Ravitch’s obituary, says that Ravitch left an indelible mark on government as one of the behind-the-scenes “wise men” who navigated high-pressure problems. (Ravitch was also lieutenant governor for a year and a half in 2009 and 2010, appointed by David Paterson after Eliot Spitzer resigned as governor and Paterson succeeded him.)
I asked Sam to reminisce about Ravitch, whose day job was being a private-sector developer and who was a progressive in the tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Adlai Stevenson. Here’s what Sam told me:
In the 55 years that I knew Dick Ravitch, what distinguished him from virtually every other public official I covered was his selflessness. He never wanted anything in return. He did favors for people but didn’t ask them to reciprocate. He was tough, a little self-righteous at times, but the fact that his primary goal was the public good, as he saw it with utter certitude, imbued him with a rare and robust independence.
It may also explain why he was never elected to political office and why so few elected officials listened to him.
He was also a Renaissance man, not just a good government wonk. He was a great gardener. He made great gazpacho. He was an accomplished woodworker. And he genuinely cared about his extended family, his business partner Peter Davis and longtime friends like Betsy Gotbaum, who was the Parks commissioner in the 1990s and the public advocate in the early 2000s.
He once paid me an ultimate compliment (at least I think it was): He said I had a healthy disrespect for everyone. I had a lot of respect for him. He deserved it.
METROPOLITAN diary
Locked up
Dear Diary:
I was in a seat toward the front of a 14th Street crosstown Select bus. We pulled up to a stop, and the driver released the folding ramp to accommodate two passengers with walkers who were waiting.
One followed the other up the ramp and both of them inched along, heads down, looking for a seat. One shuffled toward the left side of the bus, the other to the right.
Their walkers collided in a way that the wheels locked. They were blocking the entire width of the aisle but unable to reach down to unlock the wheels to clear the way. They didn’t even try. Behind them, five passengers waited.
The driver watched in silence. The bus didn’t move. I looked at the two people stuck with their walkers.
As I got up to try to help, a man sitting to my left got up too.
“I’ll get this one,” he said without looking at me and pointing to the walker to the left.
I went for the one on the right, took it from its owner and suggested she sit. As she did, the man and I untangled the walkers and folded them up.
We returned to our seats, the passengers who had been waiting moved toward the back and the driver started the bus.
— Georgie Lee
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.