Vox Pop: Brooklyn Voters React to Election Results and Prospect of a Mayor Adams

Photos by the author.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is very likely on his way to securing victory as the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City.  He won 31 percent of the in-person votes cast on election day and in early voting leading civil rights attorney Maya Wiley (22%) and former Sanitation Commissioner Katherine Garcia (19%). There are still more than 100,000 absentee ballots to be processed.  And since no candidate has secured a majority (over 50%) of first choice votes, the ranked-choice vote counting system will be implemented. Both Wiley and Garcia hope that can put them ahead of Eric Adams and on the path to victory. 

On Thursday,  The Indypendent hit the streets of Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and Midwood to hear the thoughts of working and middle-class Brooklynites and one recently reelected city councilwoman on the mayoral candidates  — particularly frontrunner Eric Adams. 

Junior, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens

“I think [Eric Adams] is the most-prepared candidate. He’s been present in the community for years, and out of all the candidates I think he’s the best prepared. Crime management is one of his fortes with his service in the police department. I think he understands precision policing and community policing.”

NYC Councilwoman Farah Louis (D), 45th District: East Flatbush, Midwood, Marine Park, Flatlands, and Kensington

“I think that there were great candidates, but the one that I feel had the most experience and could get us out of what we’re going through —right now we’re in the post-pandemic recovery phase and there’s only one person that had that experience, government experience — and that’s Eric Adams. As you can see overwhelmingly around the city he got a lot of support, he got most of his votes from Brooklyn because we understand his leadership. I know there’s other things people have to say about him and his history but what’s important is that he’s the unifying candidate in the city. There’s a lot of great candidates but he is the choice for New York City. As the numbers trickle in next week we’ll see more and more that people thought that he was the right person for the seat.”

Eric, Flatbush

“I ranked Maya Wiley first. In some ways she was the last progressive standing. I generally stake out the furthest left position knowing that the way bureaucracy works…any far-left position is gonna’ get watered down. Just in the course of doing business where there’s a ton of different stakeholders, a lot of different people who sit at the same table have voices.”

Will, Ditmas Park

“Well, I think the city really needs somebody who understands how the city works. For that reason I felt Katherine Garcia and Maya Wiley had more practical hands-on experience in a citywide context. I haven’t been particularly impressed with Eric Adams’ work as borough president, although he’s an admirable guy. I think that what we really need is extremely effective governance, and that means the nuts-and-bolts stuff. Eric Adams is not a nuts-and-bolts guy. Kathryn Garcia struck me as a nuts-and-bolts person.”

Maud, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens

“I ranked Maya Wiley first and Kathryn García second. NYC is long overdue in electing its first female mayor. Many other major cities around the country passed this milestone a long time ago and we are woefully behind. I put Wiley first because I think she is the most progressive candidate with solid ideas for making New York City a better place to live for everyone. I put García second because she has strong city government experience, but I was disappointed that she joined forces with Andrew Yang who I did not rank at all. I think Eric Adams will be our next mayor. I really fear Eric Adam’s conservatism. I don’t trust that he will really try to reform the police and I don’t think he understands public education at all.”

Sakia Fletcher (right), Midwood

“I wasn’t too fond of any of the candidates. I didn’t think that they were progressive enough. I didn’t think that they would improve the status quo, or get rid of the status quo. So my choice was really hard, Imma keep my ballot private…When I say progressive I mean a mayoral candidate that’s going to reform the way housing is in New York City, a mayor that’s going to make sure that homelessness is down..I just thought that everyone was playing politics and would be a regular politician, not necessarily someone who is going to be action-oriented with a lot of the things that are going on in the black and brown community.”

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