Photo by Miriam Quiñones
Norwood News caught up with Bronxites at the polls on Primary Day, Tuesday, June 22, to gain some insights into their most pressing concerns, their top choice of candidates, their thoughts on ranked choice voting, and their hopes for the borough’s future. We also scanned social media to see how different candidates were passing the day.
District 14 Race
Emmanuel Sarpong, 51, is a security worker and we caught up with him at P.S. 306 in Morris Heights, located in City Council District 14. “In the Bronx, we’ve been left really far behind,” he said. “I travel around all the boroughs for my job, and with infrastructure and development, we’ve been left behind. So, I had to come out and vote to make a difference. Now, we’ll have to be patient and wait and see who wins and see what they can do for us.”
Photo by Dawn Clancy
Currently leading in the District 14 race, as reported, is former Obama administration staffer, Pierina Sanchez, with 38 percent of the vote share, followed by Yudelka Tapia and Adolfo Abreu. Sanchez was either starting Election Day early or had not yet gone to bed at 3 a.m. on June 22, when she tweeted out a short video of her campaign center, saying simply, “3 o’clock in the morning vibes,” as staffers were seen in the background preparing campaign materials.
On June 23, the day after Election Day, Sanchez tweeted, “As we await the final tallies from the #RCV process, I remain as grateful, optimistic, and ready to lead, as ever. Our #BX community has waited too long for its fair share from the City and I can’t wait to continue to fight alongside my neighbors to make that a reality.”
~ 3 a.m. vibes~ #cantstopwontstop #goodenergy #letswin Get out and vote today if you haven’t! pic.twitter.com/ygnkhiwlMR
— Pierina Sanchez NYC (@PiSanchezNYC) June 22, 2021
The weather was not optimal on Election Day, potentially keeping many away from the polls. Campaign volunteers were captured standing under umbrellas in raincoats in the Fordham Hill area of University Heights doing their best to get out the vote for their respective candidates.
Meanwhile, at 2455 Bailey Avenue polling center in Fordham Manor, the street outside the center was flooded, again due to heavy rain.
As we wait for the final tallies from the #RCV process, I remain as grateful, optimistic, and ready to lead as ever. Our #BX community has waited too long for its fair share from the City & I can't wait to continue to fight alongside my neighbors to make that a reality.
— Pierina Sanchez NYC (@PiSanchezNYC) June 23, 2021
District 15 Race
Deseri Tuck, 59, is retired and we spoke to him at Thomas C. Giordano Middle School, in Belmont, located in City Council District 15. “I find rank choice voting to be too much,” he said. “Usually, you would just choose one person for one thing if you’re Democrat or Republican. “Now, you gotta vote for a bunch of different candidates, but maybe you don’t know their politics. You can’t just leave it blank, and not vote because then that’s a lost vote.”
Though Tuck’s line of thought is understood, it should be noted that voters did have the option of only voting for their top-choice candidate and were not obliged to rank five.
Photo by Miriam Quiñones
Elsewhere, campaign volunteers were seen handing out flyers in front of P.S. 86 on Kingsbridge Road and Reservoir Avenue in Kingsbridge Heights, with more posters on view than there were voters. An easel showed a poster of District 15 City Council candidate, Ischia Bravo, that had been peeled off underneath its plastic covering.
Bravo posted a photo on Twitter on Election Day of her casting her vote alongside her two sons, one of whom is a little boy, and tweeted, “Yes we voted together. Civic engagement is crucial at an early age. #momoftwo #PrimaryDay #voteforwomen #voteformoms.”
Photo by Miriam Quiñones.
In another photo and tweet, she was seen carrying her younger son in her arms, and tweeted, “We just voted,” followed by heart and ballot box emojis. “I do it for them, and for all the hardworking moms who were told they couldn’t do it. Cheers to all my mamas in District 15. I will fight for us like a mom fights for her kids. #vote #PrimaryDay“
When Norwood News spoke with Bravo previously during her campaign, she was as optimistic and energetic as ever. Currently, the district manager for Bronx Community District 7 (CB7), as reported, has won 19 percent of the vote share in the District 15 race after Round 1, and trails incumbent Councilman Oswald Feliz, who has won 39 percent of the vote after Round 1.
Yes we voted together. Civic engagement is crucial at an early age. #momoftwo #PrimaryDay #voteforwomen #voteformoms pic.twitter.com/lig2xSF6T7
— Ischia Bravo for City Council Dist.15 (@Bronxbravo) June 22, 2021
“We have worked really hard, Bravo said at the time. “We have the support of our labor unions, our hardworking Bronxites and the community,” she said. “I am someone who has worked in this community for the last 16 years. I have dedicated my entire life to public service. I am the only one that has invested into our community and I am raising my family here.”
As reported, Bravo secured major endorsements throughout her campaign from many major labor unions and local city officials, including that of Bronx borough president, Ruben Diaz Jr., who was seen campaigning with her from time to time across the borough. Bravo had also received the backing of anti-gun violence activist, Leandra Feliz, mother of the late Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz, who was murdered by gang members in the Bronx in June 2018, and whose anniversary fell on the eve of the primary elections on June 21.
We just voted 🗳💙💙
I do it for them and for all the hard working moms who were told they couldn’t do it. Cheers to all my mamas in District 15. I will fight for us like a mom fights for her kids. #vote #PrimaryDay pic.twitter.com/JJnKnnxAxI— Ischia Bravo for City Council Dist.15 (@Bronxbravo) June 22, 2021
Bravo had told Norwood News that a vote for her was a unique opportunity to ensure the first mother and the first woman would be elected to the District 15 City Council seat.
“We need someone that is experienced and that knows the inequities that our neighbors are facing through living experiences, through work experiences, and understand what our city agencies need to be doing to address our needs,” she said. She went on to say that tackling housing inequity was one of her priorities, as well as working with other council members to make sure that people had an option for proper housing, especially those facing possible eviction.
Photo by Miriam Quiñones
“[I plan on] making sure that we streamline the housing lottery process,” she said. “We have a lot going on in this district and I want to make sure that our neighbors are protected, before they face eviction, that they have more access to these units,” she added. She concluded by wishing her fellow candidates all the best and said that when the time would come, she looked forward to working with them.
Bravo was back in her usual role presiding over the last Bronx CB7 general meeting of the year on Wednesday, the day after the election. When it became apparent during the public session that there were many absences by local elected officials, who usually would have attended the CB7 meeting or who would have sent a representative, she joked, “It’s clear that yesterday was Election Day.”
Photo by Dawn Clancy
District 11 Race
On Wednesday morning, the day after Election Day, former District 11 City Council candidate, Jessica Haller, who ran in the March 23 District 11 special election, posted on social media that based on unofficial preliminary results, it looked as though more than 21 female candidates had been elected to City Council, following the primaries. This had been a longterm objective of a group which Haller now works for, 21 in ’21.
As reported, the group had previously endorsed Bravo in the District 15 primary race, among others, along with Haller as their first choice candidate in the March 23 District 11 special election. The group had also previously endorsed District 11 City Council candidate, Abigail Martin, as their second choice candidate. When Haller dropped out of the primary race, Martin moved up to first ranked position and Mino Lora, also a District 11 City Council candidate, was ranked second by the group.
As reported, incumbent councilman, Eric Dinowitz, currently leads in the District 11 race with with 41 percent of the vote share, similar to what he achieved in the District 11 special election after Round 1, on that election night. He is followed, once again, by Lora who earned 27 percent of the vote in the primary election after Round 1, also similar to her Round 1 vote share in the special election. Meanwhile, Martin, who did not run in the special election, secured 14 percent of the votes after Round 1 in the primary election.
When Haller withdrew from the primary after the special election, her name still appeared on the primary ballot, and she ended up winning 5 percent of the vote share after Round 1, as reported. As her campaign website was still up in advance of the primary and had caused one voter to question with us if she was still running, we checked in with Haller in advance of Primary Day to get her thoughts, and in case the website was causing any confusion among other voters.
Photo by Dawn Clancy
She responded, saying the website hadn’t been updated since March 23, the date of the special election, and that the default message on the home page referred to the now-outdated details of the previous March 23 special election. She added that most other candidates who had also dropped out of races across the city, out of the 400 or so candidates, still had websites up also. “It’s not atypical,” she said, adding that there was no particular reason why hers was up or not up other than the fact that her campaign team had been disbanded because she was no longer running.
She added that our request had prompted her to check the site’s traffic in case it was causing commotion or confusion, and she found that after March 23 (Special Election Day in District 11), there was a huge drop, and thereafter, only a trickle of site traffic which she said she believed could be put down to city agencies gathering data and therefore, she didn’t see it as being an issue.
Photo by Miriam Quiñones
Haller added that potentially the more confusing thing for voters, in her opinion, was the fact that she was still on the ballot for the primary election. She explained that because of the timing of the ranked choice voting count process, which lasted several weeks into April, in order to remove herself from the primary ballot, she would have had to have begun the ballot removal process before knowing how many final votes she had received in the special election which, of course, would have and did influence her eventual decision not to run in the primary.
“It wasn’t even right. We didn’t even have a choice,” she said, referring to the timing element.
Photo by Dawn Clancy.
Meanwhile, Luz Bermudez, 64, is a grandmother and was voting at Mosholu Montefiore Community Center in Norwood, located in City Council District 11. “I voted for Eric Dinowitz and Nathalia Fernández because they are aware of the problems we have in Gun Hill Park,” she said, referring to the District 11 councilman and assemblywoman for A.D. 80, respectively. Fernández is a candidate in the race for Bronx borough president, and has won 14 percent of the vote share after Round 1.
“On Saturdays and Sundays, we have people that come from Washington Heights, from 195th and 183rd and 161st,” Bermudez continued. “We don’t mind if they come to use the park, but they leave their garbage, and we get a lot of big rats in the neighborhood, and the music is on until two, three, four o’clock in the morning, and they got a whole bunch of little ghetto kids. I know I’m in the ghetto too but I’m classy ghetto,” she said.
Photo by Dawn Clancy
Norwood News has reported on longtime complaints by other community members of noise and trash in nearby Mosholu Park, as well as large groups reportedly from Washington Heights showing up during the summer, playing loud music into the early hours, and in some cases, intimidating residents, and ignoring their requests to keep the noise down.
Meanwhile, Soledad Pinero, 48, was a first-time voter who works as a housekeeper. We also talked to her outside Mosholu Montefiore Community Center in Norwood. “Whoever wins this election [District 11], there are three things I would like them to handle: education for special needs kids, safety in the State of New York, and third is the opportunity for housing,” Pinero said.
“They need to make it more affordable for low-income people. I live in a studio with my daughter, and she has special needs. I applied for an apartment, but I can’t get one because of my low income. I feel so discriminated against,” she added.
Photo by Dawn Clancy
Mayoral Race
In other parts of the City, on June 21, mayoral candidate, Andrew Yang, who conceded the mayoral race on Wednesday morning, June 23, was seen dancing with supporters as he campaigned alongside fellow mayoral candidate, Kathryn Garcia. After Round 1, as reported, Yang won 11 percent of the vote share, while Garcia had earned 20 percent. Eric Adams led in the mayoral race with 30 percent.
Yang was also seen in a posted tweet, interacting with voters in The Bronx on Election Day, saying, “Let’s go, Bronx! The energy for our campaign here is amazing. Time to finish what we started – 11 hours to go!”
Bronx Borough President Race
Yang also tweeted on Primary Day, “Be like Congressman @RitchieTorres and vote for me today,” adding a smile emoji. Torres who represents congressional District 15 in the Bronx had endorsed Yang, as had District 16 Council Member and current leader in the Bronx borough president’s race, Vanessa Gibson. Gibson currently leads with 39 percent of the vote share, as reported.
Be like Congressman @RitchieTorres and vote for me today 😀 pic.twitter.com/9tMohWAdyN
— Andrew Yang🧢🗽🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) June 22, 2021
The councilwoman released a statement on June 23, following the election night, unofficial results, saying, “As we continue to watch the results of yesterday’s election, and await the final tally of absentee votes and the ranked choice process, I want to say thank you.”
She added, “This campaign has always been about talking to Bronxites about the issues that matter. Whether it’s affordable housing, education, public safety, or COVID-19 recovery, we know that there is a lot of work in the years ahead for our borough. But our campaign has always been about making sure that the future of the Bronx is bright.”
Gibson said it meant so much to see the confidence that Bronx voters had placed in the #ForwardTogetherBronx message on which her campaign ran. “We continue to stay positive and look forward to seeing every vote counted in the days ahead. Thank you again for all of your support,” she said.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.
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