By Gus Saltonstall
The 2025 New York City primary elections are almost upon us, and early voting in the five boroughs begins this Saturday at 9 a.m.
There are a slew of races taking place across the city, including multiple ones that affect the Upper West Side.
Here’s what to know about in our neighborhood, including the races that will appear on the ballots of Upper West Side and Morningside Heights residents, how to find your neighborhood polling sites for both early voting and Election Day, and more.
Dates to Know
Early Voting Period is June 14-22
- June 14-16: Polling sites open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- June 17-18: Polling sites open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- June 19: Polling sites open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- June 20: Polling sites open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- June 21-22: Polling sites open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Election Day is Tuesday, June 24
- Polling sites open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
How to Find Your Polling Sites
The vast majority of people will have different polling sites for Early Voting and Election Day.
You can find all of your polling sites by typing in your address on the Board of Elections website — HERE.
Some of the polling locations in the neighborhood will be the American Museum of Natural History, the William O’Shea Campus, the West Side High School, P.S. 75, and the Red Oak Apartments.
Local Elections
Residents who live in City Council District 7 will be voting on their Democratic nominee for the seat. Running are incumbent Shaun Abreu, and challengers Edafe Okporo, Tiffany Khan, and Jomo Williams. District 7 begins around West 92nd Street and runs up to around West 163rd Street. You can confirm if you live within the district by typing in your address — HERE.
You can read our interviews with the candidates by clicking their names above.
There are no other City Council, Assembly, or State Senate races taking place on the Upper West Side or in Morningside Heights this cycle, but there are multiple citywide races that affect the neighborhood.
All of the races, except the election for Manhattan District Attorney, are done by Ranked Choice Voting, which you can get a refresher on — HERE.
Here are the other Democratic primary races that will be on ballots in our neighborhood. As of now, there are no Republican primaries in any of the races.
Manhattan Borough President
Manhattan District Attorney
- Alvin Bragg (incumbent)
- Patrick Timmins (read our profile)
New York City Comptroller
And then there is the mayor’s race.
Here are all the Democratic candidates still in the race as of June 13. As a reminder, Mayor Eric Adams is running as an independent, as is Jim Walden, and the lone Republican candidate is Curtis Sliwa.
- Andrew Cuomo
- Zohran Mamdani
- Brad Lander
- Adrienne Adams
- Scott Stringer
- Jessica Ramos
- Zellnor Myrie
- Michael Blake
- Whitney Tilson
You can find out more about all the mayoral candidates on City and State’s recent guide to the race — HERE.
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Ramos and Blake are no longer in mayoral race.
Hi Pamela, thank you for reading! Ramos and Blake are still in the race, despite neither qualifying for the debate on Thursday night, and Ramos endorsing Cuomo. Both candidates will still be on the ballot.
Don’t rank Cuomo!
I am very happy to rank Cuomo number 1!
Why?
Please be careful when listing candidates. The mayoral candidates are roughly in order of polling but not exactly – I don’t think Tilson is last. Always alphabetize or reverse alphabetize to avoid the perception of bias.
I think Stringer is a decent guy and will likely make my list but his ad that is constantly on where he calls Trump a schmuck is truly awful and tone deaf – it plays right into the perception of Stringer that he is a nebbishy Jew which is not a positive with many people (I am also one of those but I generally don’t it up unless I’m trying to get good seats for the high holidays).
I’m still waiting to hear how everyone will fund the promised rent freezes and everything else. Mamdani in particular is making a lot of promises that he has no plan to pay for. And I generally don’t care what a NYC mayor says about Israel but in his case it has been truly awful.
Tenants fund rent, freezing just means it won’t increase, there is no extra funding needed. Landlord LLC income does not need to be subsidized.
Are we voting in a cassone mobile trailer?
At this point, I would not be surprised to see our good old progressive neighborhood voting in majority for the marxist kid… Oy vey!
Mamdani wants to subsidize E-bikes. Insane. My taxes paying for vehicles that may run me over on the sidewalk?
Mamdani is not even an honest Marxist. He was endorsed by DSA and is a member of the organization. But during the last debate he conceded that his “campaign” disagreed with a basic tenet of of DSA, eg popular ownership of the means of production. No way I’m going to rank an opportunistic kid who is using the organization to further his own ambitions.
Where do candidates stand on regulating E-bikes?
NYC-EVSA (E-Vehicle Safety Alliance) compiled candidates’ views on E-bike safety and on Priscilla’s Law, a bill in the NYS Senate requiring E-bikes and E-scooters to be registered with the DMV and have license plates. The only candidates who effectively support some sort of registration and licensing of E-bikes appear to be:
Mayoral: Cuomo, Tilson, Walden. Lander wants to regulate the app companies. (Note: Mamdani wants to SUBSIDIZE E-bikes.)
Manhattan Borough Pres: Hoylman-Sigal
Comptroller: Brannan
Public Advocate: Rajkumar
Do your own research if interested.
Elect Timmins if you want people to stop stealing from stores left and right. ETC.
don’t rank Cuomo
Mamdani is a danger. I’m no fan of Cuomo, but at least he won’t turn NYC into Cuba!
Will the UWS vote for Bragg again?
Hope not.
Of course they will.