Down-Ballot Recap: A Great Night for the Livable Streets Movement

The message: Stick to the livable streets guns.

All across the city in the down-ballot races, candidates who boldly asserted the importance of bike lanes, public transit, and open streets won — while revanchists lost.

“Safer streets and better public transit continue to be winning issues for politicians,” said Eric McClure, executive director of StreetsPAC, who openly taunted former Gov. Andrew Cuomo hours after his defeat by transit champion Zohran Mamdani.

“Better buses beat the Summer of Hell. Citi Bikes beat Dodge Chargers,” he said, referring to Cuomo’s history of MTA mismanagement and his omnipresent car.

Council candidates who campaigned on their support for safer streets were largely rewarded:

• Lincoln Restler (D-Williamsburg), who advocates for year-round outdoor dining as well as street safety projects, soundly defeated Sabrina Gates, who not only opposed the McGuinness Boulevard redesign, but also ran her campaign largely against Restler’s support for the Bedford Avenue bike lane.
• Shahana Hanif (D-Windsor Terrace) fought to extend the Ninth Street bike lane and pushed to increase housing stock in her district — and soundly defeated Maya Kornberg, a newcomer who focused on Hanif’s support for the Arrow Linen development.
• Shekar Krishnan (D-Jackson Heights) championed the full buildout of Paseo Park, the largest and most successful open street in the city — and beat Richard Pacheco, who has complained about the open street for years.
• Assembly Member Harvey Epstein (whose notorious first and last names prompted an excellent SNL piece) has been a staunch safe streets advocate — and he defeated disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner, who has a history of opposition to protected bike lane projects (though has softened that position and is now a devote Citi Biker).

Obviously, not every race hinged on advocacy for a bike lane or daylighting intersections — but like chicken soup, it couldn’t hoyt.

Chi Ossé advocated for the Bedford Avenue protected bike lane, as part of a much broader campaign for housing affordability. He won.

And Crystal Hudson worked to secure an $115-million commitment for street safety improvements in the Atlantic Avenue Mixed Use Plan, also as part of a broad progressive agenda. She also won.

Beyond the Council

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who has supported eliminating parking mandates so developers can build more housing and do so more efficiently, defeated Queens Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar, who ran for higher office singlemindedly advocating for e-bike registration and crackdowns on cyclists.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who has advocated for a state review of the West Side Highway and has called for the city to raze the FDR south of the Brooklyn Bridge, won the Comptroller race over Justin Brannan, who waffled on issues such as the redesign of Fourth Avenue and spoke out against congestion pricing last November.

Ben Furnas, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, saw the election as a vindication of what advocates have been saying; he called next year, when Tuesday’s winners take office, “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape our streets and create a city where everyone can get around quickly, safely, and affordably, and with dignity.”

Mamdani has long championed dignity in a campaign that mostly focused on affordability in the broadest sense. But his agenda also connected to New Yorkers’ desire to live in a transit-friendly, walkable, bikeable, livable city.

“A life of dignity should not be reserved for a fortunate few,” said Mamdani, who has called for pedestrianizing streets in the congestion relief zone, expanding protected bike infrastructure, and cracking down on NYPD parking abuse.

Clearly, that’s the winning formula.