In Harlem and beyond, city elections signal a power shift of generations

Walking down 125th Street the day after taking the lead in the race for a seat on the Central Harlem City Council, Yusef Salaam couldn’t make it half the block without someone congratulating him on his likely victory.

Voter after voter who greeted Salaam on Wednesday said they recognized him as one of five black and Latino men acquitted of the 1989 rape of a female jogger in Central Park in 2002. They were eager to touch him, shake his hand, snap photos, and imagine what his journey—from convicted rapist to exonerated young man to criminal justice reform advocate to elected official—might also mean for Harlem’s future.

“I think this election is largely about change,” Salaam, 49, said.

Mr Salaam won twice as many votes as his nearest competitor, Inez Dickens, 73, a sitting councilor who used to hold the council seat for 12 years and was supported by the United Federation of Teachers and Mayor Eric Adams. The other candidate in the race was Al Taylor, 65, also a deputy serving his sixth year in the state legislature.

The likely victory of Mr Salaam and the likely defeat in Brooklyn of Charles Barron, 72, a self-described black radical socialist who, with his wife Inez Barron, has held elected office by the city or state for most of the past two decades in Eastern New York, seemed to signal a shift in the political leadership of the black generation. In both Harlem and East New York, voters went from supporting self-declared socialists to supporting moderate Democrats.

“This was a chance for voters to say, look, we have to move forward,” said Basil Smikle, director of the Public Policy Program at Hunter College. “We can’t continue musical chairs.”

With 99 percent of the vote counted, the Harlem race is still too close to decide, though Ms. Dickens has conceded. Under the city’s electoral system, because there were more than two candidates in the contest, a table will be drawn on July 5 before the official winners are declared, the election commission said.

In Brooklyn, 39-year-old Christopher Banks, the founder of an anti-poverty nonprofit, led Mr. Barron by just over 400 votes. mr. Barron has also conceded, but the winner will only be announced after the ranking-choice table.

East New York faces many of the same problems as Harlem, Mr. Banks said in an interview. The saturation of social service providers, access to affordable housing, and the balance between protecting public safety and preserving people’s civil rights were issues in both council races.

Kristin Richardson Jordan, the incumbent in the Harlem seat who decided not to seek re-election, considered herself, like Mr. Barron, a radical socialist. She wanted to abolish the police and redistribute wealth. The three candidates who ran to replace her were all black moderates who distanced themselves from her politics.

In Brooklyn, Mr. Banks described Mr. Barron as out of touch with the district. “The feeling we got from voters was that they wanted change,” he said. “They were frustrated with the state of the district.”

On Wednesday, enjoying voters’ well wishes, Mr. Salaam said that Harlem residents see his story as theirs. Standing at 125th Street and Lenox Avenue, T’Pring Scott shouted her support for him, saying she supported him because she wanted someone with a new perspective.

“Inez has been here long enough. I didn’t vote for her just because her name was known,” said Ms. Scott, a government employee. “I knew his story because I was in high school when that happened to him, and I felt that if someone deserves a chance, they should..”

She asked Mr. Salaam not to support an affordable housing development on West 145th Street, which became a problem in the election. Ms. Scott said she thought the building would be too tall. If it had to be built, she wanted the height to be limited. Mr Salaam, who said he supports housing development on the site, promised that she and other members of the community would have a say in the process.

“I hate when I come to a meeting and they’ve already decided what’s going on,’ said Mr. Salaam.

In Marcus Garvey Park, a few blocks away, Mr. Salaam encountered a group of men who were angry that the park bathrooms were closed. Stephen McKoy, 35, a mover, said it was unsanitary and that he had seen adults and children defecating in the undergrowth.

“We have to fix that. There are people who pee on trees,” Mr. McKoy said. “You go to Westchester and you never see anything like it.”

Mr Salaam agreed: “Only in our community do we see that,” he said.

Michael A. Walrond Jr., the senior pastor of First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem, said Mr. Salaam’s apparent victory was a sign that the community was open to new leadership.

“Inez was endorsed by the institutions, the names, and it didn’t help,” Mr Walrond said. “It’s definitely a signal that in Harlem, at least right now, politics are a little bit more open than they were 10 or 15 years ago.”

Mr. Salaam was recruited as a candidate by Manhattan Democratic leader Keith LT Wright. But he ran without the support of most of the city’s political establishment, including Mayor Adams. He received support from national progressives such as the professor and presidential candidate Cornel West and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Mr. Salaam was featured on national television at least seven times, unusual in a local race. Filmmaker Ken Burns, who directed the documentary “The Central Park Five,” sent out a statement on Wednesday congratulating his co-directors Mr. Salaam, who was on his way to Houston to celebrate the youth novel he co-wrote about a 16-year-old wrongly convicted of a crime.

“He’s the only one that no one had ever voted for,” said Mr. Wright. “His authenticity came through.”

In Brooklyn, Mr. Banks strong support from Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the House Democrats. He appeared on a flyer with Mr. Banks and said in a church appearance that Mr. Banks had a “head for the business and a heart for the people.”