In the 2025 mayoral election in NYC, you’ll have the chance to vote on six ballot proposals. A bunch of different progressive groups and politicians are split on how to vote on these proposals, so I sat down on Halloween and went through all the guides I could find to make my big choices.
To be clear, reasonable people can disagree on these proposals. That’s fine! You should make your own judgements, and I hope the information in this post will help, even if you don’t make the same choices I did.
The one HUGE thing in this election is to be sure to VOTE FOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI — and please vote for him (and other Democrats for other offices on your ballot) on the Working Families Party line. That sends a big message to everyone — especially the mushy moderates in the Democratic Party — that you support genuinely progressive policies.
Find your polling location here and get to the polls on Tuesday, friends!
Okay, on to the ballot proposals.
YES on Proposal #1 regarding forests in the Adirondacks.
This Gothamist article gives a pretty good rundown of this proposal. I ended up voting for it because both the JFREJ Voter Guide and the PSC-CUNY voter guide note that the environmental groups in that area support it, which is good enough for me.
YES on Proposals #2-4 regarding affordable housing.
These are probably the most contentious of all of the proposals. You can read detailed descriptions of them in the JFREJ, New Kings Democrats, and Hot Girls for Zohran guides and in this Hellgate article, but the TL;DR is that they’d shift some power for approving new affordable housing construction from the City Council to the Mayor’s office (and the Borough Presidents). Brad Lander, the New Kings Democrats, Hot Girls for Zohran, and the Chinese-American Planning Council (among many other groups and individuals) are for these proposals. Justin Brannan and a bunch of City Council members are against them. The New York Working Families Party and a number of the most progressive City Council members and Mamdani himself haven’t issued a recommendation.
My initial impulse was to vote against these proposals because they came out of a process initiated by Eric Adams, whom I distrust entirely. I also worried about what would happen if a bad and/or racist mayor gained more power from these proposals. But I did my due diligence and went to a zoom meeting that featured Lander, Amit Singh Bagga from Yes On Affordable Housing, and Carlyn Cowen from the Chinese-American Planning Council.
Regarding the question of whether these are Adams’ proposals, the organizers of the zoom showed a card that read “these are not ‘his’ ballot proposals. The Commission’s work was fully independent and public. He had no say in the outcome.”
And regarding my concerns about how an evil mayor might abuse the additional power they might gain, Leslie Ehrlich, an economist on Bluesky, advised me, “the key scenario is not that the mayor will say no when the council (esp local council member said yes) but so the mayor can override the nos that are a reason so little housing gets built.”
After reading the actual text of Proposal #4 (what a novel idea!), I’m inclined to agree with Ehrlich. The key phrase is “This proposal would change the current land use review process when the City Council rejects or changes an affordable housing project.” This gives me the strong impression that the proposals wouldn’t allow a mayor to DENY new housing approved by the City Council; they would only allow for an appeal and possible APPROVAL of housing the City Council had denied.
Long story short: I’m not worried about these proposals any longer and I voted FOR them.
YES on Proposal #5 about digitizing maps of the city.
This proposal would have the city “Consolidate borough map office and address assignment functions, and create one digital City Map at Department of City Planning.” Good maps seem critical to proper city service, so I’m YES on this one. During the Yes on Affordable Housing zoom call, Bagga noted that the current system negatively affects new housing construction since developers currently have to refer to 8000 different paper maps. A digital city map would speed things up, and Bagga said he believed the physical maps would be preserved, which is important to me as someone who cares about archives and history.
I do recall reading that at least one union recommended voting against this proposal, in part out of concern for workers who might lose jobs as a result. That’ll be something for us as citizens to keep an eye out for during the implementation, along with ensuring the preservation of the physical maps.
NO on Proposal #6 about moving local elections from odd to even years.
Some groups I respect advise voting yes on this proposal because it would increase turnout. The New Kings Democrats also believe it would “promote a more inclusive and representative electorate” and “save millions of dollars” in election administration costs.
But I voted NO on this proposal because I buy the Hot Girls for Zohran argument that moving local elections to even years would make it harder for grass roots groups to have an effect on local elections. As the most obvious example, I’m not sure Mamdani would have caught fire the same way if big federal elections were happening at the same time.
Again, reasonable minds can disagree on these. But I hope that all helps, and please do vote!
Polls are open in New York City from 6 am to 9 pm on Tuesday, November 4, and you can find your polling site here!
