When THE CITY launched Meet Your Mayor in March, our quiz-driven interactive tool that shows you how the candidates’ stands fit with your take on key issues, nearly 50 hopefuls had filed papers to run.
Now that the ballots are final for the June 22 primary, 13 Democrats and two Republicans remain.
So we’ve updated Meet Your Mayor, adding four of the five Democrats who hadn’t previously appeared. (Isaac Wright Jr., a lawyer who spent seven years in prison after a New Jersey jury wrongfully convicted him of being a drug kingpin, hasn’t yet responded to our open invitation to answer our Meet Your Mayor questionnaire.)
Because they did not meet minimum campaign fundraising thresholds, none will participate in the official Democratic debate on Thursday, May 13, co-sponsored by NY1, WNYC/Gothamist, THE CITY, Social Work Votes/Latino Leadership Institute, Citizens Union and John Jay College.
The debate lineup includes: Eric Adams, Shaun Donovan, Kathryn Garcia, Ray McGuire, Dianne Morales, Scott Stringer, Maya Wiley and Andrew Yang.
Here’s your chance to meet Art Chang, Aaron Foldenauer, Paperboy Prince and Joycelyn Taylor — and see where they stand on the same questions already posed to the other candidates.
Art Chang
“I’m delighted to finally be asked,” Chang, 58, told THE CITY. “I have felt a bit like the wallflower at the party.”
Chang is a small business owner who has served in city and state agencies, including the city Law Department and Empire State Development.
He describes himself as “pro-business progressive.” He supports immigrant New Yorkers’ right to vote in local elections and says that any relief efforts targeting undocumented workers should focus on distributing help, rather than verifying qualifications.
Chang suggested private citizens or “a super network of mutual-aid societies” may be more effective than government agencies in giving out assistance.
“There are going to be legal constraints on what the government can do. But there are many fewer private individuals,” said Chang, who lives in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
Aaron Foldenauer
Foldenauer, 45, an attorney, has taken positions few of his party’s candidates agree on. For instance, Foldenauer would not expand Open Streets programs and would limit middle-school admissions to students already attending school or residing in the district.
“Sending kids to schools in the neighborhoods in which they live is important. That creates a sense of community” said Foldnauer, who lives in a rent-stabilized apartment in the Financial District.
Paperboy Prince
Prince, an activist and artist in their late twenties, is the youngest candidate to appear on the ballot. Prince, who lives in Bushwick, Brooklyn, is also the lone non-binary candidate. They advocate for “mentors and love agents that work to help folks deal with the issues that led them to committing a crime,” in dealing with people who are arrested.
Joycelyn Taylor
Taylor, 55, is a businessperson who grew up in public housing in East New York, Brooklyn, and has advocated for more women and people of color to receive government contracts. She is calling for greater investment in NYCHA and an end to “broken windows” policing focused on small infractions.
Asked by THE CITY last year about her view on the conversion of public housing to private management under the Rental Assistance Demonstration program, Taylor said: “I don’t just see RAD as just private management, I see RAD as private ownership to developers.”
She wants to see some NYCHA residents ultimately own their apartments.
“We need to create opportunities for those NYCHA residents that may have the ability to own something, to give them ownership, to give them control of their own developments and create better for themselves,” said Taylor, who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.