The Sea of Cuomo & Other Institutional Failures

The ranked choice ballots have been counted and Zohran Mamdani’s win is even more decisive. Now that we’ve entered the valley between the primary and general elections, what is the landscape looking like? The team digests the state and country’s (mostly racist) immediate reactions to Mamdani’s primary win, and considers who in the field is worth really paying attention to. Meanwhile Adlan gets a mysterious email tip to come down to a supermarket street corner, and Trump continues his fascist escalation in NYC. Happy 4th, Hell Gate readers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The editors gather in the early morning to commiserate and lick their wounds over Cuomo’s tragic loss… How did we get here? How could a democratic socialist run a campaign in this city and win? We’re kidding, the Mamdani campaign threw a perfect game, and rewrote the electorate. Last night the team was running around the city covering the election—at watch parties for Adams, Lander, Cuomo, and Mamdani—all with radically different vibes. A bit groggy but with spirits high, we speculate on what Mamdani’s win could mean for the general election come November, for politics moving forward in this city, and (highly speculatively) for the country. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The election is underway and the team is tossing and turning. Pre-debate polls still show Zohran Mamdani losing, and meanwhile Cuomo is on TV, his Dodge Charger is blocking NYC traffic, and his super PAC is flexing anti-Zohran ads into every gym and sports bar and laundromat in the city. Meanwhile Brad Lander got arrested by federal agents —and was given critical support by the coalition of candidates that, in this election cycle, seem to finally be coming together against Cuomo (sorta). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the editors can’t help but hash out the state of the race—early voting opens up this Saturday, June 14th. Cuomo may have taken a beating this week from Brad Lander at the second mayoral debate, but the poll margins are extremely tight. Still, Cuomo is characteristically absent from spin rooms, spaghetti dinners, and our good graces. It’s hard to divine what might happen now. Are TV ads better than grassroots campaigns? Do protests even do anything? Will the NYC elite cabal band together against change? (Almost certainly.) Maybe we’re lost in the sauce, but please come simmer alongside us for a while. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we unpack the latest craven twist in the mayoral dogfight—the first cross endorsement of the race… for Andrew Cuomo… from Jessica Ramos. Yes, Ramos who questioned Cuomo’s “mental acuity” and referred to him as “the Democratic Party's Trump.” A few blocks away from the endorsement, ICE agents clad in masks and hoods continue to lead asylum seekers into vans, and transport them to this administration’s immigration-gulag-archipelago. Max breaks down the mechanics and the consequences of ICE’s movement in Downtown Manhattan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the editors discuss Mamdani’s new poll numbers, and whether ranked-choice voting will really coax rival candidates to finally team up. Will the underdogs manage to band together against asteroid-like candidate Cuomo? (Yes, we discuss the 1998 film Deep Impact.) Also, what the hell is going on with Eric Adam’s crypto-lifestyle? Why is he in Vegas? And what does this have to do with the SoHo kidnapping? Then, Chris Robbins brings us to the scene of this past Wednesday’s ICE raid at an immigration court on Varick St., where asylum seekers were kidnapped and taken out of state. Thank you to The CITY’s Gwynne Hogan for the audio featured in today's episode. Full clips can be found on bluesky here, and here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week the team talks over some of the business you’d rather not have to wade through: Andrew Cuomo’s appearance on the Bari Weiss podcast, which, for better or worse, is probably the longest we’ve heard Cuomo speak since the pandemic. And the latest in the long line of indignities that the tiny institutional body of the CCRB has weathered trying to hold cops accountable in NYC. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the Public Theater, the Hell Gate team somehow wrangled three politicians onto bar stools to get: blasted with an air horn, roasted for not knowing any Knicks players (other than Jalen Brunson), and scrutinized for how they’d deal with NYC not-so-hypotheticals as mayor. Scott Stringer, Brad Lander, and Zohran Mamdani shared the stage with some real camaraderie, and the team mulls over what went right, wrong, weird, and whether any of it even matters with Cuomo being Cuomo. Then, Jessy tells us about her brunch date with a Cameo star. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What a week—for one, it seems like some cosmological force (new pope included) is on the Knicks's side. And how do we feel about a pope from Chicago? Hot or not? We also chat about mayoral candidate Brad Lander's bid for nuance, in an empty synagogue. Finally, we give a shoutout to our very own Jessy Edwards, who was announced as a finalist this week for a little thing known as a Pulitzer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hell Gate's Nick Pinto discusses a new civil rights lawsuit that reveals the disturbing details of the NYPD's gang database, and what's behind the recent uptick in bogus arrests. And remember three years ago when Mayor Adams asked for photos of cops on their phones? Thanks to contributor Erin Durkin's FOIL request, we finally know what New Yorkers sent in. We also check in on the mayoral race and do a close read of some candidates' new ads. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.