DAVID MARCUS: New Yorkers tell me election 'Is what it is'

All over America, the New York City mayor’s race is causing agita and anxiety to both the left and the right, except maybe for one place: Gotham itself.

I met Al in a park in Mott Haven in the Bronx, under a World War I monument. He is in his early 40s and works for the Metropolitan Transit Authority. "Free buses is stupid," he told me of Democrat Socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposal, but added, "It’s never going to happen anyway. My bosses like money."

Over the past two days, I crisscrossed the Big Apple, talking to voters. And I have to report that the attitude toward this election is, frankly, quite blasé.

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I met Derrick in midtown, where he works in hospitality. He is in his fifties and somewhat confusingly told me he thought socialist Bill de Blasio was a better mayor than current mayor Eric Adams, but that he is supporting Curtis Sliwa.

If that leaves you scratching your head, well, I was too. But he explained that "we know Curtis and he loves New York City," in a Brooklyn accent that sounds exactly like Hakeem Jeffries. "I saw Guardian Angels on the subway when I was a kid, he gets respect."

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo slammed rival Zohran Mamdani as the two battle to be mayor of New York City. (Angelina Katsanis/Pool via Reuters; Mike Segar/Reuters)

Derrick is a great reminder that voters, especially in New York City, do not fall into the neat little boxes we want them to, and maybe that is a good thing.

The following day, in St George in Staten Island, I met Cindy and Denise at Steiney’s Pub, a stone's throw from the ferry station. Cindy, the bartender, mom of one in her early 30s and Denise who is retired, both worked in the school system.

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"It just doesn’t matter that much," Cindy told me. "Life happens here, not up with the kings who run stuff."

Denise nodded in agreement. "I’ve lived under all of them [mayors], you work hard, you do good, it's OK," she said.

By now, I was feeling a bit confused about what was supposed to be the election of the century. Was I going to meet anybody who was excited about it?

New York City mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa speaks to reporters in Manhattan on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025, with two weeks until Election Day. (Fox News Digital/Deirdre Heavey)

Naveed, my Uber driver to Brooklyn, provided the answer. He is from Pakistan, has two daughters in college, one of whom, much to his chagrin, is studying journalism. "We had discussed law school," he told me.

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"On the first day of early voting, all of my Pakistani friends in California were texting me to go vote for Zohran, but I was already in line," he laughed.

He told me that in his community, the excitement for Mamdani is off the charts, like nothing he has ever seen. It was the only example of such ebullience that I would find, which may be very telling.

Getting out of the car in Bay Ridge was a homecoming. It was my nabe before I moved to West Virginia two years ago.

I went to Bay Ridge very specifically, not just because I missed the Brooklyn-style wings at Salty Dog, but because it is a Republican enclave and vital to Andrew Cuomo’s chances to win.

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There I met Steve and Suzanne, lifelong residents of the neighborhood, together 23 years.

"Has Cuomo even been to Bay Ridge, Suze?" Steve asked, and she shrugged. The consensus there was that he hadn’t or at least nobody had seen him.

Sliwa, I was told, was there like every other day. That kind of says all you need to know about Cuomo’s entitled approach to Republican New Yorkers. I call it outright political malpractice.

"Who’s going to win?" he asked me, and I said, "I’m supposed to ask you that." He responded, "I don’t know, probably what’s his name, but Bay Ridge doesn’t change."

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Suze added, "It is what it is."

And honestly, that is a pretty good way to sum up the reactions I have gotten from almost all the New Yorkers I have talked to. This might be the "It is what it is" election.

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On its surface, no city changes as much, as quickly, as New York, and yet, at its center, under management that is strong or disastrous, there is a core identity and a beating heart that remains the same. At least in the four decades that I have known it.

Nobody I met thinks that Comrade Mamdani can change that. After all they all lived under socialist Bill de Blasio’s mayorship, and New York is still standing.

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Gotham is its people, the guys like Steve who wake up at 4 a.m. and go to work on Long Island. They feel impervious to Mamdani, and maybe they are.

New York City is New York City, the people here aren't freaking out, even if national news says they should. This is the Big Apple, and truly, it is what it is.

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