Five of the leading candidates for mayor addressed their plans to build more housing, freeze stabilized rents and regulate e-bikes at a Crain’s mayoral forum — all while hammering the front-runner, Andrew Cuomo, with only a month remaining to lower his standing before the June 24 Democratic primary.
Comptroller Brad Lander, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, state Sens. Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos, and former comptroller Scott Stringer laid out broadly similar policy visions during Wednesday’s event at the New York Athletic Club — though they differed on issues such as whether to reduce the City Council’s ability to reject new development and whether New York should reexamine its near-ban on new hotels.
Former Gov. Cuomo and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani — who is running second behind Cuomo in recent polls — both declined invitations to participate. The other candidates hinted at plans to cross-endorse in the ranked-choice primary election, and they lambasted Cuomo for his consistent refusal to appear at events alongside his rivals.
“He is the one who is the coward, afraid to stay on this stage,” said Stringer. In a pointed jab at the audience, Stringer said the business world are “enablers” because many are donating to the controversial super PAC boosting Cuomo.
“You’ve enabled him to stay away from us,” Stringer said, “so you have to live with that.”
Below are other notable moments from Wednesday’s event.
Limit member deference? Not so fast
Candidates were split on the Charter Revision Commission formed by Mayor Eric Adams, which is considering major reforms that could limit the City Council’s final say on land-use projects and the “member deference” tradition — despised by the real estate industry — that lets individual lawmakers veto projects in their districts.
Speaker Adams said she opposes “the prospect of taking the people’s voice out of the process,” though she said she would support other ideas to cut red tape. Ramos, who has tried to leverage member deference in Albany to defeat Steve Cohen’s Queens casino, unsurprisingly agreed that lawmakers should keep their ability to withhold support as leverage to get “greater community benefits.”
Lander, Myrie and Stringer all said they would support the commission limiting member deference, though Lander noted he was skeptical of Mayor Adams’ initial motives for convening the charter panel.
Time to rethink the ‘shadow government’?
Crain’s asked the candidates whether the city should rethink its practice of outsourcing core functions to nonprofits — and, in the meantime, how to improve its chronically late payments to those vendors.
Ramos said the city should pay interest on late contract payments, while Stringer called for hiring more procurement officers. Adams argued against any widespread reforms, saying the current model “works” but has been mismanaged, and pointed to her own bill that would mandate more up-front contract payments. Lander disagreed, saying that greater up-front payments would be a “mistake,” and arguing that the city needs “a better strategic theory” for deciding which programs should be handled in-house versus outsourced.
E-bikes… and parking permits?
Pressed on how they would resolve chaos between drivers, pedestrians and e-bike riders, all candidates said the city should build more bus and bike lanes and better enforce the 2019 Streets Plan that mandates more lane construction. Asked whether they would consider expanding paid parking permits — a step taken by many other cities — all candidates said yes.
Ramos specifically criticized a new NYPD policy led by Commissioner Jessica Tisch, in which officers have begun issuing criminal summonses rather than traffic tickets to e-bike riders accused of traffic infractions. Ramos said the policy would leave “a bread-crumb trail for ICE to find undocumented people in our city.”
All five candidates said through a show of hands that they, too, oppose the NYPD’s new criminal-summons policy — although Stringer hesitated and watched his rivals respond before raising his own hand.
Should the hotel crackdown be reconsidered?
The construction of new hotels has essentially stopped in New York City since a 2021 law required a special permit, a measure that was sought by a powerful hotel workers’ union.
Now, with room rates at record highs and fears of a devastating drop in tourism, Crain’s asked the candidates whether the city should consider repealing or changing the hotel permit law. All said no except for Lander, who said it was “worth looking at.”
Defending a rent freeze
Under pressure from tenant groups, all five candidates onstage have said the mayor-controlled Rent Guidelines Board should freeze rents in the city’s 1 million stabilized apartments this year — despite mounting anxiety among landlords who say older buildings are facing financial crises.
Asked how they would ensure those buildings remain solvent, Myrie said he would support a state-level fund to help defray insurance costs, and let landlords recoup more money from rental aid vouchers. Ramos argued for focusing on the city’s unequal property-tax system, which critics say disfavors owners in lower-income communities. Stringer and Adams both suggested they would revisit state laws that limit how much landlords can raise rents after paying for renovations, while Lander proposed a mix of tax breaks and said he would consider rent hikes in future years.
Time for a cross-endorsement?
Asked about the elephant in the room — a former governor who continues to lead polls by double digits — candidates were delighted to lay into Cuomo for his handling of Covid-19 in nursing homes, accusations against him of sexual harassment, the $60 million taxpayers have spent on litigation surrounding him, and the new revelation that he is being investigated by Trump’s Justice Department over testimony to Congress about his pandemic record.
Walking a delicate line, Lander said he does not “trust the Trump Justice Department one iota,” but noted that Cuomo has been accused before of meddling in a state report on nursing-home deaths. (Cuomo has denied wrongdoing.)
Ramos, sounding weary, said she and other candidates have spent weeks rattling off Cuomo’s faults — “And somehow it is yet to stick.”
“I wish I could live in a world where sexual harassment against women actually changed the minds of voters,” she said.
No candidates were willing to announce plans to endorse their rivals on a ranked-choice slate. But several sounded close: Lander and Myrie both said they would say more “in the coming weeks,” while Ramos urged the audience to rank the five candidates who were present onstage. Adams pleaded with New Yorkers to “open your eyes and realize who this person really is,” and claimed Cuomo would use the mayoralty as a stepping-stone to higher office.
