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Sunday in NYC Mayor’s Race: Candidates talk economy, free buses, housing and Holocaust education during visits

Photos of the four NYC mayoral candidates Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa
The 2025 NYC Mayoral Candidates (clockwise, from top left): Mayor Eric Adams, Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, Guardian Angels Founder Curtis Sliwa and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Photos by Lloyd Mitchell, Dean Moses and Ramy Mahmoud

The four leading candidates in the 2025 NYC mayor’s race spent Sunday greeting constituents, visiting businesses and churches, and discussing local issues that are important to New Yorkers. 

Adams goes block by block in the outer boroughs

Mayor Eric Adams visited with small business owners, voters, and community members in Queens and Brooklyn during a day-long tour of the two boroughs. He walked through neighborhoods including Brighton Beach, Williamsburg, Jackson Heights, and Jamaica to champion his policies aimed at supporting local businesses and community strength. 

On Facebook, the independent incumbent mayor zeroed in on his visit to Brighton Beach.

“We’re going block by block today, visiting small businesses in Brighton Beach,” Hizzoner said. “Small businesses are the heartbeat of New York City. They create jobs, build community, and keep our neighborhoods alive. When we support them, we’re not just helping one store or one family; we’re lifting up the entire city.

He also stopped by the Gujarati Samaj of New York in Fresh Meadows, where the community center held a health and wellness awareness expo that focused on medical issues important to the South Asian community, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes. 

Cuomo visits church to speak to hundreds of congregants in Queens

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke to more than 400 congregants at the historic Greater Allen AME Church in St. Albans, Queens.

Cuomo, whose family roots run three generations deep in Queens, laid out his vision to restore safety, affordability and opportunity to New York City as he seeks election as mayor as an independent candidate.

He started by noting a list of problems in NYC, including the mass exodus of residents to other states. Then, he laid out his solutions for making the city better, zeroing in on jobs, education, public safety, and housing.

“There is no way to reduce rents without building more housing — and that is a responsibility of city government,” he said at the church. “But it hasn’t been happening. In New York City, it’s hard to get anything done.”

He spotlighted the Big Apple’s 1% vacancy rate in housing.

“That’s why landlords can charge whatever they want,” he said. “My plan is to build 50,000 new units a year — starting in the first 100 days.”

He also touted his accomplishments as governor, including the extension of the Second Avenue Subway and the remodeled Kosciuszko Bridge between Queens and Brooklyn.

Mamdani visits cultural center; talks free buses in interview

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and Assembly Member representing parts of Queens, visited the Christian Cultural Center in East New York, Brooklyn, on Sunday afternoon. Congregants gave him a warm welcome.

“I come here today with appreciation, and I come here with a commitment that it will take all of us to transform the city that we love to embrace a vision of a place that all of us can afford, raise a family, and grow old,” he said at the speaking engagement.

He also posted on social media on Sunday his NBC New York interview about making NYC buses faster and free. His interview came out following a new report showing toll and fare evasion cost the MTA an estimated $1 billion in 2024. 

During the interview, he explained how paying – or not paying – fares can slow down bus speeds.  

“Unlike on the subway, when you pay your fare, you’re doing so on the bus,” he said. “The act of doing so or not doing so, it impedes and impacts the ability of the bus to actually operate.” 

The free bus platform is not new for Mamdani. In 2023, the assembly member spearheaded a year-long bus pilot program that temporarily offered free bus service on some lines throughout the city. Funding for the pilot, which had mixed results, came from the NYS 2024 budget. 

Sliwa attends the Holocaust Memorial Remembrance Day Ceremony in Brooklyn

Meanwhile, Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee candidate in the race who campaigns daily in the subway system, attended the Holocaust Memorial Remembrance Day Ceremony in Brooklyn.

The heavily attended event was held at Holocaust Memorial Park at Shore Boulevard and Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay. Sliwa discussed the horrific event that resulted in the slaughter of six million Jewish people,  and others, from 1933 to 1945.

At the Holocaust Memorial Park’s Annual Remembrance in Sheepshead Bay, we honor survivors and vow never to forget,” he said.

He also said his children were never given lessons about the Holocaust in school.

“As mayor, I will mandate Holocaust education in the NYC public school curriculum so every student learns what happened,” he said. “It is disgraceful that my three children went through school without ever being taught. That ends when I am mayor.”

The candidate also celebrated the opening of his new Brooklyn campaign office on Flatbush Avenue. On Sunday evening, Sliwa was due to visit the San Gennaro Festival in Manhattan.