New York
Should a Straight Person Represent Stonewall’s City Council District?
For almost 40 years, a stretch of Manhattan’s West Side from Greenwich Village to Hell’s Kitchen has had a gay representative in the City Council, reflecting the district’s large L.G.B.T.Q. population and its role in history as the site of the Stonewall riots, a pivotal moment in the gay and transgender rights movement.
But a special election next Tuesday may see a straight person elevated to the Council seat for the first time in decades, after Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed Lindsey Boylan, an activist who was also the first woman to accuse former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of sexual harassment.
Mr. Mamdani’s endorsement has injected questions of ideology and identity into a contest that previously attracted little attention and raised questions about how important it is to the voters in the Council’s Third District, and to the city at large, to elect an L.G.B.T.Q. person to the seat.
It has also drawn the race into a broader conflict between Mr. Mamdani and Julie Menin, the Council speaker and a more moderate Democrat. Ms. Menin has endorsed Carl Wilson, a community activist and legislative aide who is gay.
Mr. Mamdani’s endorsement came just before the start of early voting and quickly elevated Ms. Boylan, a democratic socialist, in a contest that had previously been dominated by Mr. Wilson, who had secured a wide range of endorsements and said he planned to join the Council’s progressive caucus if elected.
The mayor’s decision to wade into the race has upset some gay activists, including Allen Roskoff, 76, who successfully pushed to create what he called a “gay winnable” Council seat in 1991.
“We want to continue honoring the people before us who did give their blood, sweat and tears to acquire this seat,” said Mr. Roskoff, whose late partner, Jim Owles, was a prominent activist who ran unsuccessfully for City Council in the area in 1973.
Mr. Roskoff has endorsed Mr. Wilson, but says he would not have done so if he did not believe him to be the best candidate.
“In this district we have someone eminently qualified, and our history needs to be respected,” Mr. Roskoff said. He added: “I don’t think a straight person can say, ‘I would represent you just as well.’ No. That’s not what representation is.”
Others, including Mr. Wilson himself, have pushed back, saying the focus should be on the candidates’ proposals and experience and not their sexual orientation.
“There have been wonderful queer people elected from the district over the last 30-some years,” said Cynthia Nixon, the actress and activist, who supports Ms. Boylan. “But I feel now and have always felt we should be voting for people not based on their identity, but based on who they are.”
Some have called the idea of a “gay seat” on the City Council reductive and patronizing to voters, especially in a city that now has many L.G.B.T.Q. elected officials.
“Hell’s Kitchen is an inclusive neighborhood of everybody — every race, every sexuality, every religion,” said Marisa Redanty, a community activist in that neighborhood.
Mr. Wilson and Ms. Boylan are competing to finish Erik Bottcher’s term, which lasts through December. Mr. Bottcher vacated his seat earlier this year when he was elected to the State Senate. The winner is expected to compete in the Democratic primary in June and the general election in November to serve a full term on the Council.
Two other heterosexual candidates, Leslie Boghosian Murphy and Layla Law-Gisiko, are also running but are considered long shots.
In an interview, Mr. Wilson said that while he thought it was “not a requirement” that the district be represented by an L.G.B.T.Q. person, “it’s an important perspective.”
“I am way more than just a gay candidate — way more,” said Mr. Wilson, who has deep relationships in the district and has worked as Mr. Bottcher’s chief of staff. “I’m also the candidate with the longest track record of on-the-ground service in this district and the experience to deliver from Day 1.”
Mr. Wilson and his supporters marked the first day of early voting last weekend with a “drag out the vote” event on Ninth Avenue, where local drag queens urged people to vote. Days later, he and Ms. Boylan both appeared in the West Village to commemorate the 60th anniversary of an important protest held at Julius’, a historic gay bar.
Ms. Boylan has responded to the debate over L.G.B.T.Q. representation delicately. In an interview, she said she would never “take away or diminish how anyone feels” about the prospect of replacing a gay council member with a straight one.
She has also pointed out that many issues, including affordability, affect people of all sexual orientations, especially in a district that includes some of the most expensive neighborhoods in the United States.
“About half of our residents are severely rent-burdened,” said Ms. Boylan. “It’s a real challenge to stay here.”
Ms. Nixon echoed that point, saying the Third District used to be “a much scrappier part of the city.”
“And a lot of those queer people have been priced out,” she added.
The mayor’s endorsement of Ms. Boylan came at a time when he needs allies on the Council. Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Menin have been engaged in a feud over a range of issues, including taxation and the budget.
When he endorsed Ms. Boylan, Mr. Mamdani praised her as a leader who shared his vision of New York’s future, and noted her courage in speaking out against the former governor.
“As we work to usher in a new era in our city’s politics and advance our affordability agenda,” Mr. Mamdani said, “I need partners in the work like Lindsey.”
A spokesman for the mayor, responding to controversy over the endorsement, said in a statement on Thursday that Mr. Mamdani’s “commitment to the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community is clear, as is his record on the issue: establishing the first Mayor’s Office of L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ Affairs, naming director Taylor Brown as the first and highest-ranking transgender leader in the history of the city’s government and supporting numerous queer candidates over the years.”
Ms. Menin is very invested in the outcome of the race and has begun soliciting funds for Mr. Wilson’s campaign, according to someone familiar with the outreach.
Before Mr. Mamdani made his endorsement, Mr. Wilson had secured the backing of influential local political clubs and labor unions, as well as elected officials including Representative Jerrold Nadler, whose district overlaps with the Council district, and the city comptroller, Mark Levine.
He has also received the backing of outside groups headed by influential Democrats, including Greg Goldner, the campaign manager for Mr. Cuomo’s mayoral bid.
Representative Nydia Velázquez, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens and has been in her own conflict with Mr. Mamdani over who should succeed her when she retires at the end of her term, has backed Mr. Wilson.
A former actor who lives in a walk-up rental on 10th Avenue, Mr. Wilson helped start a political club in the district, the Hell’s Kitchen Democrats, and served on the local community board before going to work for Mr. Bottcher.
Ms. Boylan rose to prominence as the first of a number of women to accuse Mr. Cuomo of sexual harassment, allegations he has denied but that nevertheless led to his resignation in 2021.
Since then, she has run unsuccessfully for Congress in 2020 and Manhattan borough president in 2021. She campaigned for Mr. Mamdani last year and joined the Democratic Socialists of America after he won the Democratic mayoral primary.
Mr. Mamdani defeated Mr. Cuomo in both that race and the general election last November. The mayor’s decision to endorse Ms. Boylan is widely seen as suggesting some lingering animosity toward Mr. Cuomo.
The debate over the district has highlighted the vast changes in New York and across the country since the election in 1991, when the place of L.G.B.T.Q. people in society was different.
Outspoken homophobia was widespread, there was little public understanding that transgender people existed, and the AIDS crisis was at its peak, with more than 30,000 New Yorkers dying of the disease in 1991 alone.
Today, there are many elected L.G.B.T.Q. officials in New York, including Representative Ritchie Torres, who represents parts of the Bronx in Congress, and Brad Hoylman-Sigal, the Manhattan borough president.
The City Council has several L.G.B.T.Q. members, including one gay Republican and gay Democrats from districts once seen as unwinnable for gay candidates.
Chi Ossé, 28, the co-chairman of the Council’s L.G.B.T.Q. caucus and ally of Mr. Mamdani’s, said he thought the debate over gay and transgender representation extended far beyond the Third District now.
For example, he said, he did not think a gay candidate could have won in his Brooklyn district 40 years ago.
“Decades ago, this was one of the only seats, if not the only seat, where a gay candidate could run and win,” he said. “But that has certainly changed.”
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, the rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, an L.G.B.T.Q. synagogue in Chelsea, has worked closely with each of the district’s council members since the early 1990s.
She said it was “really thrilling” when Tom Duane became the first gay candidate elected to represent the area in 1991. A vocal supporter of both Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Menin, she has endorsed Mr. Wilson.
“I think now it is less important whether or not Carl is gay than the values and perspectives he has,” Rabbi Kleinbaum said. “I think it’s great that he’s gay. I think we need to have that as part of the mix, but it’s not the only issue.”
Sally Goldenberg contributed reporting.
new video loaded: Spurs Beat Knicks, Quieting New York City Crowds
By Shawn Paik
June 9, 2026
Good morning. It’s Monday. Today we’ll look at raccoons carrying rabies in the city.
New Yorkers don’t usually spend much time thinking about raccoons. Rats and roaches are far more visible. But even if you don’t always see them, raccoons are everywhere.
In September, the Metropolitan Museum of Art asked raccoon experts for guidance in gently redirecting a juvenile raccoon who was drawn to the exterior of their building on Fifth Avenue.
Back in 2021, Laura Dudley Plimpton, a researcher who tracked city raccoons with GPS collars when she was a Ph.D. student, found one living above a bar in Brooklyn near Green-Wood Cemetery.
At the Delacorte Theater, where Shakespeare in the Park is performed, raccoons who live near the stage often make cameos.
“I have particular memories of one raccoon running off with Teagle Bougere’s flip-flops during ‘The Tempest,’” a stage manager once told The New York Times, referring to one of the show’s actors.
And in 2022, a college student filmed a raccoon trying to claw its way out of a light fixture in her Brooklyn apartment.
“They are experts at utilizing whatever is available to them and using it well,” Plimpton said.
While many of the city’s raccoons are healthy, some are infected with rabies, a deadly virus that attacks the central nervous system and is transmitted via saliva. Other animals, such as skunks, bats and rodents, also carry the virus, but raccoons are the most commonly reported rabid animal in New York City.
The numbers fluctuate each year, but recent city data shows that rabid raccoons have most often appeared on Staten Island and in Queens. This year, however, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has already logged two rabid raccoons in areas of Brooklyn where it has never seen them before: Midwood and Sheepshead Bay. In addition, a third and “unusually aggressive” raccoon in West Midwood was presumed to be rabid but was not tested, the Health Department said in a public health advisory issued in April.
To date this year, nine raccoons and one skunk have tested positive for rabies in New York City. It may not sound like a lot, said Dr. Andie Newman, a public health veterinarian in New York State, “but there’s potentially more lurking behind the numbers that we actually see.”
In May, to prevent further spread of the virus, the city placed fish-scented bait packets in the parks and wooded sections of Brooklyn and Queens, including Prospect Park, Forest Park and Marine Park.
“When they bite into it with their little sharp teeth, there is a liquid vaccine that gets into the mouth,” Newman said.
In the fall, the city is planning to place the bait in other areas as well. It’s important that people and dogs avoid touching the packets. They’re not considered harmful, but dogs may vomit if they were to eat many of them. And if the pink vaccine liquid gets on human hands, there is a small risk of becoming infected with the vaccinia virus, which is used to make the wildlife rabies vaccine.
Rabid animals are often assumed to be aggressive. But that’s not always the case. They may instead appear to have a wobbly gait, act confused or stagger and fall down, said Sarah Bookbinder, the executive director of the Charles N. Gordon Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Earlville, N.Y., who advised the Met about the loitering raccoon.
According to the Health Department, other signs that an animal may be rabid include low energy; paralysis; chewing unusual objects like wood, soil or plants; having a vacant stare; and drooling or foaming at the mouth.
Given that raccoons are most active during dawn and dusk, people sometimes assume that raccoons are rabid if they’re out during the day, said Bookbinder, who specializes in the treatment of raccoons.
But in the spring, she added, it’s common for mother raccoons to forage for food to avoid leaving their kits alone in their den at night.
To protect your dog or cat (and yourself) from rabies, make sure that your pets are vaccinated. New York State requires that all domesticated dogs and cats be vaccinated for rabies, but some owners skip the vaccine, often out of concerns that the vaccines could be harmful to pets or unnecessary or could lead to illness. A 2024 survey estimated that about 22 percent of dog owners and 26 percent of cat owners could be classified as vaccine hesitant.
Even indoor cats need to be vaccinated, experts say, in part because of bats, which can enter homes. In 2025, two people in New York City received rabies antibodies and a vaccine series for exposure to a rabid bat.
If your pet has been in contact with an animal that may be rabid, report it to the Health Department and contact your veterinarian, Newman said. Dogs and cats who have already had the rabies vaccine will require a booster.
And when you’re outside, avoid contact with wild or stray animals.
“Enjoy nature from a distance,” Newman said.
Weather
It will be a sunny day today with a high near 78. The sky will remain clear tonight as temperatures drop near 61.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until June 19 (Juneteenth).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“When I look at the state of housing, I feel a lot of anger.” — Emely Rodriguez, 24, who grew up in Williamsburg and began engaging in housing advocacy at a young age.
METROPOLITAN diary
The Glow
Dear Diary:
On an unseasonably warm Brooklyn night, I was on my way to meet friends when I stumbled upon a glowing, heavy, orb-like glass sculpture on the sidewalk.
Something about it pulled at me. I scooped it up and carried it onto the train.
It moved with me through bars and parks and city blocks, unveiling itself as an invitation for connection. It passed tenderly from hand to hand, stranger to stranger, each of us sharing the weight and the moment.
On the way home that evening, I stood on the subway platform buzzing from the interactions the sculpture had touched off and with a renewed love for the city.
A handsome man gesturing toward the unusual item I was holding motivated me to remove my earbuds and fall into an easy, flirty rhythm as we fell onto the G train together, until his stop pulled him away.
Arriving home, I chastised myself for letting the moment close. With the residue of the evening’s magic still on my skin and feeling a swaggering confidence, I posted a missed connection on Craigslist.
The next morning, there it was: a note from orb man.
“I think it’s more of a nest shape, but we can argue about it when we see each other,” he wrote, the words levitating up and out of my phone.
We met again two days later. I left the orb at home.
— Billie Hirsch
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
How can people possibly afford to live in one of the most expensive cities on the planet? It’s a question New Yorkers hear a lot, often delivered with a mix of awe, pity and confusion.
We surveyed hundreds of New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save. We found that many people — rich, poor or somewhere in between — live life as a series of small calculations that add up to one big question: What makes living in New York worth it?
Ernest Suarez loves everything about his job. He loves working with children with disabilities, scanning a room during a lesson to pick out which students may need to take a walk in the hallway or get some extra help later in the day. He loves the joyful chaos of recess.
He even loves his commute, especially on nice days, when he bikes from his home in the Norwood section of the Bronx over the Willis Avenue Bridge into Manhattan — which ends up saving him $6 a day in transit card swipes.
But his salary, $40,000, has made it difficult to support his three sons as the city he grew up in gets more and more expensive. Mr. Suarez’s wife, Michelle Suarez, 36, works at a nonprofit and made $45,000 last year.
Earlier this year, Mr. Suarez, 43, had a major surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his spine. It took him months to get his disability payments, and his wife cut her hours to help take care of her bedridden husband. Mr. Suarez had never felt so financially squeezed and so grateful for his biweekly paycheck of $1,000 to kick back in after his medical leave.
Room and Board Times Two
The couple’s oldest son, John, who is 19 and preparing to enter the military, lives with them, as does their youngest, Jaxson, who recently turned 2.
They rent a two-bedroom apartment for $1,700 a month, and it’s tight with a toddler and a teenager. John has one bedroom, and the couple has the other.
When Jaxson was born, Mr. Suarez converted part of the living room into a nursery, wrapping it in a safari-themed wallpaper.
The couple’s middle son, Heaven, 18, is in his first year at a university upstate, near the Canadian border. Mr. Suarez and Ms. Suarez put aside a major chunk of their income, about $500 a month, to support Heaven, who is on a full scholarship and has an on-campus job, but still needs help with the cost of room and board.
The cost of keeping Heaven in college leaves very little left over after paying for rent and other necessities, including box after box of diapers for Jaxson.
“It’s a sacrifice,” Mr. Suarez said. “Money is on my mind a lot.”
Every Little Bit Counts
The couple were shocked when they toured nearby day cares and found that the prices had skyrocketed since their older sons needed child care. Mr. Suarez’s union, the United Federation of Teachers, offers a child care navigator that helps its members find which subsidies they are eligible for and which day cares have availability nearby. The couple qualified for a child care voucher, which allows them to pay $11 a week at day care that would otherwise cost $600.
The family spends between $100 and $150 a week on groceries from BJ’s or Stop & Shop, which they get through Instacart to save time.
They rarely eat out, but when they do splurge, they often go to Carmine’s in Times Square, where a plate of rigatoni with sausage and broccoli runs $39.95. The family also loves a day at their nearest movie theater, Regal Concourse, but tickets and snacks for everyone can cost $100 or more.
For truly special occasions, Mr. Suarez treats himself to a wrestling match at Madison Square Garden or the Barclays Center, but he almost never pays full price. Instead, he waits until the day before the event and then scrolls StubHub for cheaper tickets, which still means about $100 a head.
He usually takes one of his sons. “My wife doesn’t like it,” he said.
Keeping the Lights On
Mr. Suarez is one of the lowest paid members of his union, which is currently pushing the city to raise wages for paraprofessionals. But being a member of one of the city’s most powerful unions has major benefits.
When Mr. Suarez’s doctors found the tumor on his spine, the first estimate he received for a surgery to remove it was $177,000. After he applied his union insurance, the bill came down to about $100 total.
But the physical, mental and financial recovery from the procedure left Mr. Suarez reeling. The couple relied on his wife’s paychecks to keep the lights on as their electricity bill climbed to $140 a month following the coldest weeks of winter.
Mr. Suarez told his landlord he would have to be a month or two late on rent, and the landlord waived the usual late fee. He tried to apply for food stamp benefits, but found that his family didn’t qualify because their income last year was too high. He visited a few nearby food pantries to make sure his sons had enough to eat.
His first delayed disability check was so low that it only helped him get his bank account out of overdraft, and up to $5.
One of the toughest sacrifices was that the family could not afford to pay for Heaven to come home from college during spring break, because the round-trip bus ticket would have been close to $300.
By the spring, when Mr. Suarez was able to return to work, he knew his family needed something to lift their spirits after a brutal winter.
They surprised Jaxson, who is obsessed with animals, with a French bulldog puppy that a friend gave them.
Now the puppy, Oreo, sleeps right next to Jaxson’s crib every night. And when Jaxson wakes up in the morning, he tells Oreo he loves him and gives the dog a big hug. Mr. Suarez choked up as he described the new morning routine.
“That’s the end of the rainbow,” he said.
We are talking to New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save.
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