Two influential New York City labor unions that backed Mayor Eric Adams in 2021 switched their support on Monday to former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, reflecting his growing dominance as the race for mayor accelerates.

The coveted endorsements came from the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, which represents building workers. Together, the unions have more than 125,000 members, and they typically spend millions of dollars supporting their chosen candidates.

Both unions have a contentious history with Mr. Cuomo. They worked with him to pass a statewide increase to the minimum wage and other policies as governor, but later called for his resignation in 2021 amid mounting sexual harassment accusations. (Mr. Cuomo, who resigned, denies any wrongdoing.)

Now, they have concluded that Mr. Adams is fading politically and Mr. Cuomo is on an increasingly direct path to City Hall. And like much of the city’s Democratic establishment, the unions appear more interested in making amends than antagonizing a famously sharp-elbowed leader who could soon have influence over city contracts and other union priorities.

In a joint endorsement on Monday, the union leaders praised Mr. Cuomo as a steady supporter of working New Yorkers and the kind of leader who could stand up to President Trump as he threatens to withhold federal funding from cities like New York and undermine labor rights.

“As Andrew Cuomo said when he recently addressed our members, when we need him in a fight, he will be in the foxhole with us until the end,” said Rich Maroko, the head of the hotel and casino union.

Mr. Maroko did not address his change of heart since four years ago, when he said that Mr. Cuomo was not fit to be governor. He did, however, acknowledge that Mr. Cuomo could be an important ally as the union negotiates a new citywide hotel contract.

The endorsement was as much a boon to Mr. Cuomo, 67, as it was a blow to his rivals. With just over two months to the primary, they urgently need fresh momentum to chip away at his steady lead in public opinion polling and had hoped the unions might help.

As Mr. Cuomo rolled out his newest supporters, his rivals were lampooning a rare blunder by his campaign, which posted a housing plan that included garbled passages and appeared to draw, at least in part, on material collected by ChatGPT, news that was first reported by Hell Gate, a local news site.

“I did the hard work to pass city laws that will create 120,000 new housing units,” Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker and another candidate in the Democratic primary for mayor, wrote on X. “Andrew Cuomo asked ChatGPT what his housing policy should be. Guess someone does need on-the-job training.”

The campaign made more sloppy mistakes on Monday when it announced the union endorsements. Its news release misspelled the names of Mr. Maroko and Manny Pastreich, the president of 32BJ, in bold-faced type summarizing the news.

Still, it was hard for other candidates to entirely sidestep the sting of losing out on the support of two unions known in New York City for their political influence.

In 2021, the hotel and building workers’ unions were at the heart of a working-class coalition that helped propel Mr. Adams to victory, and they have worked closely with his administration.

This time, though, both unions concluded that Mr. Adams had no path to re-election. After courting Mr. Trump’s help to shake federal corruption charges, Mr. Adams decided to skip the Democratic primary and run as a political independent this fall.

The unions considered other Democrats, including Ms. Adams and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist running a distant second behind Mr. Cuomo. But the candidates evidently failed to convince the labor leaders they could win.

Other unions have reached different decisions. The union representing public defenders, museum staff members and academics endorsed Mr. Mamdani, State Senator Jessica Ramos and Brad Lander, the city comptroller, in a joint endorsement. Ms. Ramos, the chairwoman of the State Senate’s Labor Committee, also has the support of some teamster groups.

Other large unions remain undecided and could still shake up the race, including District Council 37, the city’s largest public employees union, and Local 1199 of the S.E.I.U, which represents health care workers. The longtime leader of the latter group, George Gresham, is said to personally support endorsing Mr. Cuomo but is facing a broader revolt within his union.

So far, Mr. Cuomo has consolidated the largest bloc of union support. He won earlier endorsements from unions representing New York City’s carpenters, electrical workers, painters and operating engineers.

The groups typically point to Mr. Cuomo’s long track record and moderate, pro-labor and pro-immigrant stances as governor to explain their support.

Mr. Cuomo thanked the unions that backed him on Monday, saying they had been “failed by their government for too long.”

“Without a strong middle and working class, no city can survive — let alone thrive — and right now, we are dangerously close to losing them,” he said.

Brandon Kazen-Maddox has always felt an affinity with mermaids.

“We both straddle two worlds,” said Mx. Kazen-Maddox, 36, an American Sign Language dancer, choreographer and filmmaker who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.

Mx. Kazen-Maddox, like both their parents, is hearing. But they grew up living with their mother at her parents’ home in Washington State, where their maternal grandparents, both of whom are deaf, spoke with their hands.

Soon, Mx. Kazen-Maddox learned to do the same. “I like to say my words are just along for the ride,” they said.

Mx. Kazen-Maddox has been interpreting professionally since 2012 and has worked on the Broadway production of “Aladdin” and for former President Joe Biden, the composer Lin-Manuel Miranda and the actress Marlee Matlin.

In a half-hour PBS special scheduled for Tuesday, “SOUL(SIGNS): Making Music Visible,” Mx. Kazen-Maddox documented the process of choreographing, filming and performing an A.S.L. music video for Morgan James’s “Drown,” shedding light on their own relationship with music and sign language.

“I see a lot of A.S.L. as an afterthought or interpretation just thrown in,” they said, “and it ends up not doing service to the Deaf community.”

In 2020, Mx. Kazen-Maddox started the Up Until Now Collective with Kevin Newbury, a director and Mx. Kazen-Maddox’s partner of five years, and Jecca Barry, a producer. The collective, whose projects include “SOUL (SIGNS),” has a multidisciplinary focus on inclusive storytelling.

As a person who yo-yos between various projects, Mx. Kazen-Maddox loves having a home base in a cozy duplex on the Upper West Side of Manhattan along the Hudson River, where they live with Mr. Newbury, 47, and more than a dozen plants.

“My Sunday is essentially five lives in a day,” they said.

SUN, SUN, SUN HERE IT COMES I wake up at 8 a.m. I try my hardest not to use an alarm. I just think it’s healthier. Sometimes I’ll go to sleep with the windows open so I wake up to the sun.

SOUL SESSION I like to put on Spotify and play healing, meditative sound bowls when I’m in the shower. It’s a nice way to get in tune with my own spirituality and be grounded. Then I’ll turn on something like “The Telepathy Tapes” by Ky Dickens — information that feeds my soul and my curiosity for the universe.

GOING GREEN I’ll drink a smoothie or eat a pitaya bowl from Cool Fresh Juice Bar on the Upper West Side. Then I water my plants with my partner, Kevin — we’re plant daddies — and that reminds me to be grounded and care for the earth. We have 16, so it takes about half an hour.

MEDITATION AND MUD Around 9:30 a.m., I’ll either take the train or jump in the car down the F.D.R. to the Russian & Turkish Baths in the East Village, where I spend a good four hours, at least, working on my body, mind and spirit. The baths are so special because they’re my Danger Room, in X-Men parlance — they help me practice the extremes.

I’ll go in the Russian room, which is like 160 degrees — it’s intense. And the hammam, the steam room, is this place where there’s humidity. I bring my oils; I’ll put lavender in the air and peppermint and will breathe them together. It’s so nice for your skin, your lungs and any opening to your body.

When I can afford it, I get a series of treatments: a mud massage with mud from Israel, a salt scrub and a soap wash. When they apply the mud, they let it dry for 15 to 20 minutes, during which time I meditate.

STRETCH IT OUT Then I do the dry sauna, where I’ll stretch my splits, my back and my shoulders. That keeps my dance alive, and it’s meditative. And it’s a little bit of a display of, like, take care of your body, everybody. I also love the cold plunge because, when I go in, I think about what it feels like to be in outer space, and what it feels like to be at the bottom of the ocean.

A SHOP THAT ROCKS I pop into one of my favorite stores, Crystals Garden, which is across the street from the baths. They have dream catchers, incense, plants and a whole slew of crystals and rocks and handmade things. It’s a good place to find gifts to send to family or friends.

FOOD MODE I go to Joe & Pat’s, which is just around the corner, and order a cauliflower crust pizza. They have this amazing broccoli rabe, and I put that on the pizza, which is red sauce and pepperoni. And then I put their cheesy Alfredo sauce on top of it all. I can eat the entire thing after a morning at the baths, and it makes me feel really great because it’s cauliflower crust and wheat free.

Or I might go to this Japanese place called Ramen Takumi, which is at the northeast corner of Washington Square Park. The Steinhardt roll is my favorite. I love that area, which is very much a home base for me — when I was at school at N.Y.U., I would always be around Washington Square Park and walking through the Village. They also have cool comic book stuff on the walls.

Often, Kevin and Jecca will come and meet me, and we’ll talk about something we’re doing with Up Until Now Collective.

SIGN CHECK At 2 p.m., I head to Club Cumming for a rehearsal for a performance we’re doing on April 15, the day my PBS special airs. We’re going to have a public screening of “SOUL(SIGNS).” Then we’re creating a show called “SOUL(SIGNS): 3X3X3” which is all about Nina Simone’s music. I’m asking three Black soul jazz singers to each pick a Nina Simone song to sing, and then I will be signing, and the jazz pianist Lance Horne will be playing on keys. And I’m going to work with a deaf director of artistic sign language, Patrice Creamer, to translate all three of these songs from my perspective and with her guidance. I’m so excited.

AERIAL ARTS It’s on to another rehearsal at 4 p.m., this one at One Day One in Dumbo with my aerial hoop coach, New York Cat. I started writing a theatrical production of American Sign Language dance theater called (FREEDOM), which is basically my story: It’s about a Black queer child raised in a white deaf family. I wanted to add an element that would keep my body really strong, which is an aerial hoop, and I had never seen anyone do American Sign Language in an aerial hoop before. So I was like, well, let’s do that!

NEIGHBORHOOD NOSH I get home around 6:30 and cook dinner with food that Kevin picked up from Westside Market, our favorite market. Their Portuguese kale soup is phenomenal.

MOVIE NIGHT Kevin and I wind down by watching a movie recommended by “The Queer Film Guide” by Kyle Turner. It’s this cool book that goes through all these movies that you may or may not have thought have anything to do with queerness — like “The Fly,” for example. Who knew? If it’s nice, we’ll bring our projector up and watch it upstairs on the roof.

CUDDLE TIME After the movie, Kevin and I will cuddle up next to each other and read our books. Right now, I’m reading “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros, and it is so good. Those are the kinds of books that I love, fantasy with blends of strong reality. I’m a big believer that what makes it into our subconscious sets our mood. So I try to make sure that whatever I’m listening to before bed is positive and joyful, or interesting and fantastical, so that it affects my dreams.

Just Lovely

Dear Diary:

Walking into a coffee shop on Second Avenue and 63rd Street, I was having trouble opening the heavy door. A woman behind me grabbed it and held it open.

“Thank you,” I said. “Are you coming in or are you just lovely?”

“Both,” she said.

Eventually, we headed down Second Avenue together. She said she lived in Las Vegas now but loved New York. She said I looked like a New Yorker.

I said I was.

“Do you know someplace around here where I can get pound cake?” she asked.

I recommended a place three blocks away.

She frowned. I suggested a cafe that was closer.

“Oh forget it,” she said. “My husband doesn’t need it anyway.”

— Marion Barak

Loose Vegetables

Dear Diary:

I was in New York City for a summer program at NewYork-Presbyterian. I would often go downtown after classes ended for a late lunch in Chinatown and to buy some groceries before taking the Q and the 1 back to my Upper West Side apartment.

One sweltering July day when I had been extra ambitious in my grocery shopping, I waited 45 minutes for a 1 train and then had to squeeze into a completely packed car.

As the train left Times Square, I struggled to balance myself while unsuccessfully corralling my grocery bags around my feet.

By the time we left Columbus Circle, my tomatoes had rolled over several pairs of feet, my lettuce was under someone’s seat and I was more frustrated than I had been in a long time.

A gentle tap on my arm pulled me out of my self-pity. It was a young mother sitting nearby. She called her toddler onto her lap and then nodded at the newly empty stroller in front of her.

From there, we traveled uptown in companionable silence as her stroller overflowed with a watermelon, two cantaloupes and three bags of vegetables.

— Amelia Ng

Grand Time

Dear Diary:

I was on a downtown A in November 2023 when I noticed a happy family sitting across from me. Mom, dad and the children all appeared to be having a grand time.

It was relatively warm for the season, and dad was wearing shorts. He obviously did not care if anybody noticed that he was also wearing an ankle monitor on his left ankle.

As a criminal defense lawyer, I certainly noticed. When I got off the train, I smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. He smiled back at me.

— Robert Beecher

Wild and Free

Dear Diary:

We had been married a year and were living in Kew Gardens Hills when we decided to make a Target run at 9 p.m. with our 3-month-old. We could still live wild and free, right?

We picked out two bright-green lawn chairs that would fill our porch (really just a tiny slab of cement off the kitchen). We were not sure they would fit in our compact car, but we bought them anyway. Somehow, stuff always fits, we figured.

When we got to the parking lot, our baby ran out of his patience, and we realized the chairs would not fit after all.

A man approached us to help. The woman he was with called out to him.

“Stop chatting,” she said. “It’s after 10 o’clock.”

“They have a baby!” he yelled back.

He reached down, took the laces out of both of his sneakers and tied down our trunk.

I tried to pay him for the laces.

“Nah,” he said. “Just drive slow and take Jewel. You’ll make it.”

We did and we did.

— Avi Friedman

Summer Clearance

Dear Diary:

This occurred years ago, when I was a newly married New York City public-school teacher furnishing the new apartment my husband and I had moved into.

One late-August afternoon, I met two friends for lunch at a restaurant on the Upper East Side. Afterward, I walked to Bloomingdale’s to see if they had any items I could use in the apartment.

As I entered the store, I saw a sign hanging above the lower level: “Big Summer Clearance Sale.”

I went downstairs. To my amazement and delight, I saw tables overflowing with kitchen items like dishes and small electrical appliances; bathroom towels; and blankets, comforters, sheets and pillows for the bedroom. Everything I needed.

A young saleswoman offered to help me. I soon realized that I could not carry all of my purchases home on the subway.

The saleswoman said that Bloomingdale’s would deliver everything to my home at no charge and within a week.

I gave her my address: 495 East 55th Street.

She looked overjoyed.

“Sutton Place?” she asked.

I smiled.

“No,” I said. “Brooklyn.”

Her smile vanished. But my purchases were delivered within a week, as promised.

— Evelyn Oberstein