Soon after the first mayoral general election debate last week, Epicenter NYC spoke with neighbors from across Queens and Brooklyn about their checklists, concerns and uncertainties for the city’s next leader. The chants from the No Kings Rally in Forest Hills had barely faded when residents voiced their hopes for a mayor who would stand up to President Trump’s militarization of cities, immigration crackdowns and attacks on free speech — and who would also take on the everyday struggles of affordability, from housing to child care.
Many of those concerns resurfaced on the second debate stage Wednesday night. Here’s how the candidates addressed — or failed to address — New Yorkers’ questions about experience, housing and who can be trusted not to side with Trump.
Can the next mayor protect New Yorkers from ICE?
The concern: Protesters last weekend were furious about many issues, but immigration policy was often the one that spilled out first. They wanted more protections at 26 Federal Plaza immigration court, where immigration enforcement agents have been making most arrests in the Trump administration crackdown. There were also complaints about the way ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was moving the New Yorkers they arrested between detention centers around the country in a way that can mean their lawyers can’t track them.
“People should be able to get processed without that concern,” said Jonathan Bergman, a Sunnyside resident.
He and his partner, Verity Cheslo, have spotted warnings on their Facebook neighborhood group to stay away from the local 7 train stop or grocery store to avoid getting snatched by ICE.
“I don’t want to see that in my community,” Cheslo said. “It’s very Nazi.”
And this was before the ICE raid on Canal Street in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday signaled the crumbling of a “relative stalemate” between Trump and the city, as our civics contributor Felipe De La Hoz has reported.
“We need a mayor who ensures people can’t get taken by ICE” and dragged out of the system, Bergman said.
How do the candidates stack up?
All three mayoral candidates — Democrat Zohran Mamdani, Republican Curtis Sliwa and Andrew Cuomo, the former governor running as an independent after losing the primary to Mamdani — condemned the ICE raid in Chinatown both before and during the debate.
But Cuomo’s repeated description of himself as someone who will “both confront and work with the president,” as he said during Wednesday’s debate, has left some New Yorkers doubting whether he would resist pressure from Trump on the issue.
“I’d be afraid Cuomo would agree with the whole ICE thing — come up with some, ‘Oh, we’re gonna work with them,’” said Theresa Clarkson-Farrell, a Forest Hills resident. Several other protestors we spoke with agreed, including former self-described “Cuomo’s girl” Yvette Benn of Ozone Park.
When asked whether she thought the next mayor could help protect against her concerns around ICE “harassing people” on Trump’s orders, Benn said she knew Cuomo wasn’t the one.
“I’m sure that he would talk with Trump,” Benn said, adding that Cuomo must have had a phone call with the president during his campaign, a claim he has denied. She questioned why else Trump would appear to support his bid for mayor.
Despite Sliwa’s reference in the second debate to his skills in “the art of the deal” with the president, Benn similarly dismissed him as someone who would follow Trump’s lead on immigration policy:
“He’s a Republican,” Benn said, “and eventually he’s gonna have to listen to Trump, no matter what he’s saying now.”
Another former Cuomo supporter agreed, saying in Spanish that she became skeptical of the independent candidate when she heard comments from Cuomo agreeing with some of Trump’s opinions. The woman, who requested that her name be withheld to protect her privacy, now thinks that “if Cuomo gets elected, he’ll let Trump do whatever he wants here; he won’t stop him.”
From the debate:
Asked how they would have addressed the ICE raids on Canal Street:
Cuomo: “I would’ve called the president and said, ‘Look, you’re way out of bounds, they’re way out of bounds. Call them back or I’m gonna have the NYPD step in and stop them, because this is not their jurisdiction. You’re in the city of New York.”
Mamdani: “What we need to be doing here in our city is to end the chapter of collaboration between City Hall and the federal government, which we’ve seen under Mayor Adams.
“What we need to do is actually pass the street vending reform bills that have been in City Council, some of which this mayor has actually overridden. That’s an example of how we can both protect street vendors, ensure quality of life and leave no stone unturned in delivering for the people of this city, as opposed to working with the President, who is looking to declare war on those same people.”
Sliwa: “The feds should not have stepped into this situation. There is not communication between the local authorities and the feds. This is a matter that should have been left up to the NYPD. But we can’t tolerate citizens attacking our federal law enforcement forces in the street, because then that will just lead to anarchy.”
Could the new mayor shield New Yorkers from Trump’s troops?
The concern: After reports of federal agents being deployed to several U.S. cities under President Trump’s direction, some New Yorkers said they fear that similar shows of force could reach the five boroughs.
“You have them sending troops into different cities to intimidate everyday people,” said Hannah Weinstock, a Forest Hills mother of a 6-month-old.
How do the candidates stack up?
“I’m sure [Trump] will say he’s sending troops because Mamdani is bad, but he probably would have done it anyway,” Weinstock said.
Jane Rogers, a retired social researcher from Forest Hills, echoed others’ fear of Cuomo and Sliwa being too amenable to Trump on military deployment as well as on immigration policy.
“I don’t want somebody in the mayor’s office to help Trump get troops in here or help ICE treat people in the immoral fashion that they’ve been treating people,” she said.
Bergman, of Sunnyside, said the next mayor’s power may be limited if the president deploys the National Guard. However, “the most we could ask for” is “to be heard and not have someone capitulate or negotiate with that administration, because there’s no negotiating with fascism,” he said.
From the debate:
Mamdani: “You could turn on the TV any day of the week, and you will hear Donald Trump share that his pick for mayor is Andrew Cuomo, and he wants Andrew Cuomo to be the mayor, not because it will be good for New Yorkers, but because it will be good for him.”
Cuomo: “[Trump] has said he’ll take over New York if Mamdani wins, and he will, because he has no respect for him. He thinks he’s a kid, and he’s going to knock [Mamdani] on his tuchus.”
Sliwa: “My adversaries have decided to bump chests with President Trump to prove who is more macho. You can’t beat Trump. He holds most of the cards.”
Could a rent freeze work?
The concern: Rents remain near record highs, and the New Yorkers we spoke with were unsure whether City Hall can meaningfully ease the burden. Cheslo, the Sunnyside renter, noted the limited choices for tenants facing low vacancy rates: “If you have to leave your apartment, do you even have another option?” she said. “That speaks to everyone.”
How do the candidates stack up?
“We heard Mamdani talk about this a lot, push to build more truly affordable housing in New York City,” Bergman said. “And then you have people like Cuomo saying that the people that are in stabilized units are rich folks and need to get kicked out of that. He’s so out of touch.”
Addie Weis and Joann Neuhaus, sisters from Queens, stressed the real-world impact of living in a rent-stabilized apartment — and the difference a rent freeze expansion could make. “It helps people like us — parents with kids in college, families just trying to afford basics like food and laundry,” said Neuhaus.
Evelyn Ramirez, a renter from Cypress Hills, said she is intrigued by Mamdani’s rent-freeze proposal but uncertain about the details: “I’m a little afraid though, because I don’t know how that affects lower-income people who rent out.” Ramirez wondered whether the proposal would apply to bigger buildings and wealthier landlords or commercial owners.
So did Clarkson-Farrell: “The rent freeze is a start,” she said. “We have to look at the whole thing. There are big landlords, and smaller ones who get hurt.”
Residents also reflected on the broader challenge of funding affordability measures. Vicky Barrios, a South Ozone Park resident, praised Mamdani’s willingness to experiment: “We have a failure of imagination and Mamdani actually doesn’t,” she said. “We have to figure out ways to pay [for these things], and we will.”
“We may not get everything, but other states and cities have done some of these things,” she said. “I saw that on the news and thought, ‘Wait a minute, we can do that too.’ ”
From the debate:
Mamdani: “I’m going to deep freeze the rent. People think it applies to all of them. No, just the 25% of the units that are really stabilized.
I believe the tenants across our city deserve relief, and I also believe that city government can work to alleviate the pressures for landlords of those units without having to put that burden on those same tenants.”
Cuomo: “It doesn’t work. It’s a canard and just a great three-word slogan for TikTok.”
“The mayor doesn’t have the power to do it anyway. The Rent Guidelines Board does, and he doesn’t control the Rent Guidelines Board, so nothing is going to happen.”
More questions?
Nov. 4 is Election Day, but early voting kicks off Saturday, Oct. 25.
Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025 | 6:00–7:30 p.m. | In person
Have lingering questions about the debate? Want to break it down with neighbors? Come to the Forest Hills library and meet local expert Ben Yee, who will walk through key ballot items and explain what’s at stake. This is your chance to get informed before heading to the polls. Learn more.
