Editor’s note: City & State to co-host mayoral forum

It’s primary season and City & State, with co-hosts Community Service Society of New York, FPWA and BronxNet, is presenting a mayoral forum on Monday, April 21, at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. City & State Senior City Hall Reporter Annie McDonough and New York Times Metro Politics Reporter Jeffery C. Mays will moderate from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. before a sold-out crowd at the college’s Gerald W. Lynch Theater. Online viewers can also register to watch the event on a livestream presented by BronxNet, City & State and its parent company GovExec.

The forum titled, “Affordable New York: A Mayoral Forum on Economic Security,” will focus on policies that matter most to everyday New Yorkers, including housing solutions, financial security, health care equity, transit and infrastructure. Democratic Party primary candidates Adrienne Adams, Michael Blake, Brad Lander, Zellnor Myrie, Jessica Ramos, Whitney Tilson and Scott Stringer have confirmed their participation. Andrew Cuomo, considered the front-runner, and Zohran Mamdani, seen as being the greatest challenger to the former governor’s bid in the mayoral race, both opted out of the forum (however, the door remains open for both to join this important discussion). The event is the third mayoral forum for CSS. “In 2013, we focused on disconnected youth and high unemployment among young people. Then in 2021, it was affordable housing. Today, we still have a housing crisis, especially for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers,” said CSS President and CEO David R. Jones. “But the main question for the candidates is: ‘What concrete policies will you pursue to ensure working-class New Yorkers have the resources to achieve economic mobility?’” We invite you to tune in and find out.