Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Norm Does the JULY WALKING TOUR OF MURRAY HILL’S 14 DESIGNATED LANDMARKS and TWO HISTORIC DISTRICTS 11 am to 1pm

Wednesday, July 23

I'm running this two-day weekend tour - from 11-1 - each day is different. I love Murray Hill as a neighborhood. Midtown with a touch of small town. And an amazing history. There are 14 landmarked buildings and we will visit them all - 7 on Saturday and 7 on Sunday and lots of stuff in between.... today I'm going to lunch with a former student and will subject her to a practice session. And if you want to draw any of the buildings there is a contest. There is charge - I'm a volunteer and money goes to the work of the preservation committee which works to help preserve special places that still exist - places that make this area so different from the way things are just a few blocks west. Walk from west to east on 38th St and see how things change when you cross Madison Ave.

Norm 

 

JULY WALKING TOURS OF MURRAY HILL’S 14 DESIGNATED LANDMARKS and TWO HISTORIC DISTRICTS 11 am to 1pm

July 26 @ 11:00 am - July 27 @ 1:00 pm

Timings: July 26 @11am – 1pm and July 27 @11:00 am – 1:00 pm

60th ANNIVERSARY OF NEW YORK CITY LANDMARKS LAW (1965-2025)
2025 WALKING TOURS OF MURRAY HILL (JULY)

A specially curated Walking Tour of Historic Murray Hill covering all 14 of Murray Hill’s designated landmarks and its two historic districts has been developed as part of the 60th Celebration of the NYC Landmarks Law. Tours will be conducted each month over two weekend days. The next tour weekend is Saturday, July 26th and Sunday, July 27th from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm each day. Total cost per weekend: $60 MHNA members, $70 non-members. Tours are limited to 10 Guests. (For continuity and completeness, we encourage full weekend participation but understand if this is not possible. Cost for one-day tour: $40 MHNA members and $45 non-members.)

In addition to a copy of the Historic Murray Hill Walking Tour brochure, participants will also receive a copy of Murray Hill’s special Landmarks60 Commemorative Booklet containing full-page color photos and histories of all 14 of Murray Hill’s designated landmarks. The booklet also includes the history of Murray Hill and the Murray Hill Neighborhood Association, and information about other preservation groups.

The total tour area will extend from 34th Street to 40th Street and Third Avenue to Madison Avenue covering both the four-block Murray Hill Historic District, the Sniffen Court Historic District (one of Manhattan’s few remaining mews), and all 14 designated landmarks.

The inception of NYC’s Landmarks Law, challenges to the law, and current landmarking efforts will be discussed. The tours will also focus on some of the architects who designed some of Murray Hill’s magnificent buildings, and some of the famous people who lived here.

For those considering entering the Artistic Competition, tours are an excellent opportunity to become acquainted with the area and to consider possible buildings for drawing or painting.

Guides are neighborhood residents and members of Murray Hill’s Preservation & Design Committee, passionate about the character and history of New York City, and well-versed in Murray Hill lore.

The Preservation & Design Committee’s mission is to preserve Murray Hill’s historic buildings and districts and to communicate to the public the history and beauty of the neighborhood. The walking tour fees provide funding towards the publication of walking tour maps, brochures and booklets, programming of lectures and educational programs, and special projects.

There will be a 20% discount for Walking Tour participants at Björk Cafe & Bistro – at 58 Park Avenue when they dine after 2:30 PM on Saturdays or Sundays. Please note that Björk’s last seating on Saturday and Sunday is at 3:45 PM.

CLICK HERE To reserve a place on the July tour, or for information on future weekend tours, group tours, and private, custom, or special occasion tours, contact preservation@murrayhillnyc.org.

$40.00 – $70.00

 

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

The Friday Night Unity Purge/Massacre: Rally for Leah and Ashley @Queens UFT HQ at 6PM Today


Tuesday, July 22, 2025 - Queens UFT - 118-35 Queens Boulevard 7th Floor Forest Hills, NY 11375

I'm heading out soon to the Queens UFT office for the 6 PM rally - they say get there at 5:30  to defend fired District rep Ashley Rzonca, sponsored by the District 30 Community Education Council, a parent group, not an insignificant factor. And as I pointed out in my post yesterday _ UFT DA Tidbits - Endorsing Mamdani, ABC and ARISE/...  she is also getting support from a number of D. 30 CL and UFT members. Firing her over perceived disloyalty and friendship with the fired Amy Arundell, her former boss at the Queens office.

- I'm taking a new route as I hate to drive more and more despite my new car. I will drive to Howard Beach station to get the Airtrain to JFK and then transfer to the one to Jamaica where I will pick up the E to the UFT. 

Click on the link to Talk out of School to hear interviews.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talk-out-of-school/id1490313171?i=1000718209710  

The D. 30 CL and Delegate protest at the July 9th DA Mamdani endorsement was not insignificant.  

Ashley Rzonca speech at CEC 30 meeting.  

Everyone knows Amy revitalized that office when Mulgrew moved her out of 52 almost 10 years ago. At that time I saw that as indicating some differences between them - even though it came with a big raise, getting her out of the center of action. She built a loyal following until she was removed in late 2023, but those relationships came home to roost in helping build the A Better Contract (ABC) and its subsequent relative election success. 

I had heard from a Unity source months before the firing that Ashley was in trouble due to connections to some of the CLs in D 30 who ran with or supported ABC, which was due to the Amy connection. 

Yet Ashley was appointed to the recent UFT election committee as one of the "thousands" of Unity reps on that committee, ran, and was elected, on the Unity slate for the UFT Exec Bd and as an AFT/NYSUT delegate for the next 3 years. 

It will certainly be interesting to see what Ashley does - will she take on the role of the missing opposition, along with fired para Hector Ruiz, Jr. who was also elected to the Exec Bd and AFT/NYSUT? A third fired official (who has asked to remain nameless) was also elected to AFT/NYSUT. (Para Migda Rodriguez, who ran with ABC and is an elected Para officer, was also fired -- I will address the fired paras in a separate post.) 

What does it mean that 3 of the 6 fired were chosen to run with Unity back in February yet fired in June? Did they not hand out Unity flyers with enough vigor? Or did vote totals in District 30 have anything to do with it? The big jump in elementary school votes for ABC might have been a factor since many probably came from D. 30. I asked for school vote totals when I was on the election committee but Unity rejected that request, opting for district reports. The president of GES told me he had that data -- did Unity get that data but deny the rest of us - and examined it and found something in the D. 30 results?  

Even though I was on the election committee with Ashley, I had my first conversation with her on July 9th after the DA and was impressed by her passion and smarts. I have to be honest - I used to view District reps, and indeed, the general Unity crowd as being sycophants and some real slugs. Having contact with a bunch of Unity disaffected has opened my eyes to see Unity people in a new light. I bet there are plenty more of them - some have even been in contact sub rosa. (Let Mulgrew start looking under the hood with a flashlight.)

There's a petition campaign: http/bit.ly/reinstateashleyrzonca 

I'd call for them to have an election. 

There are DR slugs of course, but Rzonca has an impeccable reputation and if an election were held would win hands down. I don't envy her successor. In fact, if she goes over to ABC, I'd bet a bunch of CLs and members in Dist. 30 would come along with her. I know of some who did not run with ABC but were a big help with petitioning - dynamos that will be a force if active in ABC.

Amongst Amy's and Ashley's admirers is CL Leah Linn, who Amy had hired as a PM staffer. Leah ran with ABC as an officer and was fired soon after the election was over. Leah has helped lead the resistance. I never met Leah until this past February and became increasingly impressed with her leadership skills and her smarts. 

Leah as a CL in Ashley's D. 30 and her defection to ABC is probably one reason Rzonca was fired. Did she fail to use the Unity Caucus whip and threaten Leah for running?
 
Summary:
 
The Friday June 27th purge was a cleansing by Unity Caucus of its perceived dis-loyalists. Mulgrew and crew, when faced with waning popularity, instead of trying to fix it, they resorted to fear tactics to try to cow potential internal opposition into silence and obedience, but has resulted in lots of loathing. 
 
Fear tactics might work for some but over time these tactics alienate people in the club, even if they remain on the job. From all reports, Mulgrew has created a toxic environment inside the union and this only exasperates that toxicity. The attacks on Amy, going back years, brought enough people into ABC to make it a viable opposition. 
 
If anyone in Unity didn't notice the drop to 53% and the energized ABC campaign infused with Unity refugees, that are fooling themselves. Repression and fear-mongering engenders resistance or a cleansing-- I won't use a banned word for cleansing in Arabic.
 
While in the long run, union staffers having a union and due process rights seems like a good idea, there are also complications in that idea. Shouldn't the party in power be able to hire the people they want? That was the argument made by Unity when they killed district rep elections in 2002. But that's the argument principals make, so no dice. District reps are a special kettle of fish. They used to be elected by chapter leaders for decades before the change and the union was better off for it. If ABC had won we would have moved immediately to hold DR elections. 
 
So the firing of district 30 rep Ashley Rzonca, who ran and won election to the Exec Bd and AFT/NYSUT rep on the Unity slate, is  unfair - based on "perceived" disloyalty and not cancelling Amy, her former mentor and boss -- this is where Unity crossed the line. Did Rzonca fail to stuff enough mailboxes with Unity glossy election leaflets? Were the vote totals for D. 30 too low? Were the ABC elementary totals too high? 
 
====
Comment from a D 30 CL 
Being a union member, and in my case a Chapter Leader, we are taught how to navigate the inner workings of toxic administration. We are told to document, to stand our ground and when the time comes, we are taught to come together and make our voices heard. We are told to have union representation when we are called into meetings with administration in order to protect ourselves. Our District 30 Representative, Ashley Rzonca helped us to build these tools to ensure that we maintain a safe work environment where we are free of bullying and harassment. 
 
We’ve trusted our union to stand by the values that give our collective its strength and purpose, but it’s become painfully clear that the UFT has abandoned those values.
Ashley Rzonca was called into a meeting where she was told she would meet with UFT leadership. Instead, she was met by Human Resources. She was lied to. 
 
Ashley Rzonca asked if she needed to bring anything or anyone to the meeting with her and she was told it wasn’t necessary. She was deceived. 
 
Ashley Rzonca was asked not to return to her position at the UFT. When she asked why this was happening or if it had to do with her job performance, she was told they were “unprepared” to answer those questions. This is unacceptable.
 
Ashley Rzonca reached out to report harassment in her workplace and instead of being supported, she was terminated. This is retaliation. 
 
If this exact scenario were happening in a school building with a UFT member and a principal, we would immediately call it what it is: retaliation and an abuse of power. If a member met with administration to ask why they were being discontinued and the answer was “we are unprepared”, we would be up in arms about ineffective administration. We would be advocating for this member to remain in their role and demand accountability. Why should this be any different? 
 
The UFT can not give us the tools to push back against ineffective leadership and expect us to stay silent as it unjustly terminates a dedicated unionist who has served with integrity and excellence in her leadership role. Ashley Rzonca’s termination is not only unwarranted, it is a betrayal of the values we hold dear in our union. 
 
I am demanding that Ashley Rzonca be reinstated to her position as District 30 Representative. 
 
I will not stand by. I will not be silent. I will speak out and demand immediate action. Our union is only as strong as our willingness to defend what’s right.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

UFT DA Tidbits - Endorsing Mamdani, ABC and ARISE/Unity Reactions Differ, District 30 CLs Protest Firings

Sunday, July 20, 2025 

I started writing this on July 9th, the day after the special endorsement delegate assembly and nice weather and wasting lots of time watching TV at night led to avoidance. Plus others kept writing on the issue and I kept adding links to the point this has become a mess. I will not be deterred. For those intrepid souls willing to wade through this, I offer, up front, a few key takeaways while I put most of what I've been writing on hold for a follow-up. 

I am struck, though not surprised, at the very different reactions of the ABC crew compared to the effusive praise coming from both the Unity and the ARISE coalition members (MORE, Retiree Advocate Organizers, New Action). 

Unity people fall in line. If Mulgrew had endorsed Cuomo you would see the same level of effusivity. If he endorsed Adams, the same. Nosferatu? Hell Yes.

ARISE coalition members adhere to ideology over process (and democracy). People from the ARISE coalition groups supported Mamdani all the way and are extremely excited to see their fave endorsed by the UFT. Let's point out that Unity, MORE, New Action and Retiree Advocate are all legacy caucuses and if you don't support the basic ideology of the caucus (as I often have not) you are made to feel extremely uncomfortable - as I have been made to feel within the dozen member RA Organizing committee, which has operated on consensus, except when it doesn't.

The 3 oppo legacy caucuses echoed their UFT election misjudgements and jumped to support a bad process because of their caucus' support for a particular candidate who comes close to their groups' ideological favorite. 

A MORE tweet bragged: This is what a real Delegate Assembly looks like -- and posted this graphic  

The delegate red area included almost every officer in the room getting to speak plus assorted other Unity stalwarts. But the first speaker on the phone just happened to be a prominent MORE and ARISE and Mulgrew made sure to call on the co-chairman of New Action -- shades of bipartisanship.

The entire charade was "caucus member driven", not rank and file member driven.  

I'm sure MORE and New Action did not have time to take a vote of their members. MORE didn't have to.  It would be very unlikely to be in MORE and not be for Mamdani. No zionists left there. What about New Action? Their co-chair spoke for Mamdani at the DA but not for the caucus. As far as I know NAC did not formally endorse. But when it comes to RA, which is almost half made up of NAC, it did endorse. That is problematical since there were 300 people elected with RA and were not consulted. Only the 12 member RA Organizers (a steering committee of sorts) endorsed. I was the lone voice of opposition and while I personally support Mamdani, I objected to branding RA in this manner by ignoring voice of RA supporters, many of whom are concerned about confusion around Mamdani's support for the retiree struggle.

ABC does not view itself as a caucus with a firm set of beliefs one has to adhere to in order to "join." Actually there is no "joining". Anyone, no matter where they stand - within reason of course, is welcome under the idea of "leave your personal politics at the door", which came under much criticism from ARISEers. So while many ABCer affiliated support Mamdani, some do not. ABC believes in a big tent, which seems to enrage some ARISEers who turn up their noses at mingling with what they consider "deplorables". Imagine if ABC tried to engage in an endorsement process --- oy! 

So that is how ABC looked at the UFT endorsement process on such quick notice without internal discussion -- 

At the July 8 emergency DA I handed out this leaflet from ABC, making the point that I personally supported Mamdani:
  • The UFT’s Endorsement Process Is Broken:  We need a member-led process with transparency, healthy debate, and accountability. We stand on our platform position that members should vote for major political endorsements. Creating a transparent, member-led endorsement process

 ABC made this prediction and it came true:
There may be some scripted debate. A rushed vote. But the outcome is already decided. And this outcome has the potential to damage our solidarity. This is not a democratic process. It’s a performance. And it’s insulting.

 One ABCer, a Mamdani supporter, did get a comment in at the DA and pointed out he would like time to get input from the staff at his school that elected him - and urged a delay until September to try to engage people and build support -- give some scrutiny to the awful alternatives and time to counter some of the ridiculous attacks like free buses (but not free Staten Island ferry) is socialistic.

Cheering the 63% vote at the DA is a false flag as to where the members stand. For all we know a majority may be against and how does that play out in the context of the UFT endorsement - often a kiss of death to a candidate? Some have been pulling COPE in response. Double OY!!

Revolt in District 30 (Astoria and Jackson Hts): 

Oh, and don't forget the not insignificant revolt from District 30 over the firing of their district rep. 

While attention was focused on the Mamdani endorsement, another significant event occurred at the July 8th DA when CL and Del from District 30 (Astoria and Jackson Hts) protested the firing of Ashley Rzonca, their District Rep.  Was she viewed as too friendly with Amy? Others were fired for what looks like similar reasons. Mulgrew's crackdown is in line with other dictators who instead of reading the tea leaves  - 54% Unity vote - Unity defectors being a significant factor-  and redressing the issues, Mulgrew has doubled down, using fear which leads to loathing. Consider the District 30 firing a major unforced error. I pity the district rep they put in her place.

If you are free Tuesday, come on down: 
 
 
 
See a video of protest.
 
 
 
District 30 Delegates Protest Firing of Dist Rep
 
CL Leah Lin Raises Point of Personal Privilege over firing of D. Rep Ashley Rzonca
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mulgrew had her mic turned off. 
 
Leah Lin video. I have to talk some more about the growth of Leah as a leader over the past 6 months - but not today.
 
Friendship with Amy led to Firings.  Coming soon to Unity Caucus?  Polygraphs to test loyalty.

More Leah Lin:
 









Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Today's DA and Yesterday Town Hall -- Ode to Hot Air Mike: President of Piffle, Sultan of Spin, Lord of the Loophole

Tuesday, July 8 -- a day I have to leave the beach and shlep into Manhattan for the DA.

Today is an emergency Del Ass to endorse a mayoral candidate and there is some speculation of some kind of deal between Mulgrew and Mamdani. Remember the Unity attack on DSA? I posted about this possible endorsement last week and speculated about how the UFT kiss of death may cause Mamdani to lose. 
The orthodox Jewish group, which boycotted voting for ABC or ARISE because of Amy and MORE sympathy for Palestinians and chose Unity, is certainly not happy. They put out a statement somewhere but I can't find it.
 
ABetterContract.org put this out yesterday: 
Jul 07, 2025

We need a member-led process with transparency, healthy debate, and accountability. We stand on our platform position that members should vote for major political endorsements.This is not a democratic process. It’s a performance. And it’s insulting.... 

The UFT’s Endorsement Process Is Broken: 

 
ABC who show up are going out after so why not jump on the ferry? 
 
I missed most of the retiree town hall yesterday because I didn't get the time right and logged on around 3:25 and by 3:35, it clearly ran out of steam. Some focus on the stuck para bill. I give Unity credit -- pushing a campaign for 10k para bonus worked to drain potential para votes from ABC -- our chance to win would have required a big para turnout for ABC. But that gambit won't work again. I compare the success of the Mamdani campaign to pull out new voters. And that was the same idea of the ABC campaign - not to rely on the usual suspects from legacy caucuses, which have shown no real growth over decades of so-called organizing. Their 14% was even worse than the Cuomo campaign. We can all learn from Mamdani -- and a key is people in the schools. ABC ran 520 out of the 560 who ran with us in schools while ARISE ran around 350 in school people plus 140 retirees. My advice to ABC is to start asap to build an even firmer base, not just for elections but to become a constant force in the UFT. Recent firings by Unity will help in that effort, as I will point out in an upcoming post on the Unity purges.
 
Some comments on the town hall related to the stalled para bill.
He’s right this had to do with politics. Him wanting to get re-elected and him willing lie to get votes.
 
Everyone else’s fault.
 
Politics got involved in a bill??? Dumb. 
 
He comes up with the hair brained idea. Tells the paras it is as good as done, so the paras can have a vacation on the money coming their way, tries to sell it to the City Council with a massive $ tab and gets 47 to agree to it theoretically in the middle of an election but their bluff isn’t called because they only needed the election to be over, and then blames them for not doing as he said (forgetting that the City Council isn’t the Unity caucus). Did I miss anything??
 
Mulgrew has found a way to piss off the billionaire oligarchs and lowest paid rank and file unionists in the City with one bill. Truly remarkable.
 
 And a poem:
Ode to Hot Air Mike
President of Piffle, Sultan of Spin, Lord of the Loophole


Oh Hot Air Mike, thou mighty breeze,
Who fills the halls with empty pleas,
Your town halls soar with pomp and flair—
Yet leave us gasping for real air.

Great Chancellor of Chatter Vague,
Your titles mount like anti-union plague:
“Commander of Circular Replies,”
“Baron of Bureaucratic Lies.”

At 52 Broadway you reign,
With crafted scripts and well-worn strain.
We ask for truth—you dodge and dance,
A master of the vacant stance.

You float above with bloated grace,
Your words: a cloud, your tie: a face.
Beneath, the Unity crew looks glum—
Each nodding head, profoundly dumb.

So here’s to you, oh winded knight,
Who turns each grievance into light.
Our questions burn, our hearts are sore—
You answer us with metaphor.

Long may you drift, ballooned and bold,
Your speeches tepid, stale, and cold.
But know this well, dear Mike of Mist:
The rank and file are getting pissed.
 

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Will UFT Endorse Mamdani after their attacks on DSA? Will that be his kiss of death? Would Cuomo/Adams Odds Rise?

Recent post from David Sirota
My two thoughts on this are: 1) If every Dem would talk like this, the party might be a real opposition 2) It's shameful that some Dems have been more focused on using their platforms to demonize/undermine this guy than on fighting Trump pic.x.com/QqhPxnaZuU
 
Recent post from Ryan Grim
Stepping back, it's really wild that Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, Dan Goldman, Kirsten Gillibrand, etc., still won't endorse the landslide winner of the Democratic nomination for NYC mayor. It's not unbelievable, exactly, but it's legit crazy. And then they wonder why

UPDATE: Arthur covers the issue too: 

Unity Patronage Cult Plans Major Endorsement Without Consulting Membership: If you don't like it, you don't matter. Arthur Goldstein, Jul 05, 2025

Mulgrew has done here, which surprises me not at all, is he completely sidestepped elected Retired Teacher Chapter Leader Bennett Fischer. After all, Bennett isn’t Unity, so Mulgrew has no respect for him (let alone anyone who voted for him). Of course if he were Unity, that would mean he’d have taken and oath to support whatever, so he’d still merit no consideration. Then, on Tuesday, there’s a Delegate Assembly so Mulgrew can get his rubber stamp. ... 

This is gonna be a hard sell for Michael Mulgrew and Unity. They know it, too, which is why they’re doing the Town Hall. After all, they were at least tacitly approving all the crap about Amy being antisemitic. Some of them had no qualms about saying it out loud. or even writing about it. It was curious because those very same people never noticed it when Amy was part of the cult. Go figure.

Doubtless Mulgrew and his Very Smart People have worked out some elaborate explanation to show they are Not Guilty of antisemitism 2.0. The thing is, though, like True Believers in Unity, True Believers in antisemitism 2.0 have their minds made up and will not be persuaded otherwise.

Thursday, July 3, 2025 

 
This news is more than shocking. After engaging in a massive attack on DSA, claiming they had a plan to infiltrate the union and tying in the heavily DSA MORE, to endorse a DSA member for mayor might make you blink in disbelief. 
 
There's more than a little irony if the UFT endorses Mamdani, who has faced some of the  same attacks over his position on Palestine and fake charges of antisemitism that ABC Pres Candidate Amy Arundell faced with many of these attacks coming from union officials and Unity Caucus hacks. Oooh the eggs on the faces of the main attackers. But don't expect them to be fired, as Amy was. 
 
Personally, I'm for Mamdani - no matter what his stand on the Medicare issue, his fundamental philosophy is pro-labor and anti-privatization - and he's one impressive political talent. I will go into some details of his campaign which is fundamentally non-ideological and more bread and butter, no matter how people try to distort - like free buses, where half the people don't pay anyway and better childcare is so radical. Even his response on intifada is interesting, as Ryan Grim explains when he compares the calls to denounce him as equivalent to cancel culture from the left:
"At the very end of this rant, Gillibrand argues that it doesn’t matter what the term intifada actually means, what matters is how people receive it, and she says that black, Hispanic, and LGBTQ people have similarly offensive words that must never be said and the same standard applies here. So if you’re on the right and spent a decade denouncing this sort of thing, how is it that you are now embracing it and on Team Gillibrand?" .... 
But my sense of democracy is challenged by a top-down endorsement process. If the DA was really open and not rushed we would get a snapshot of where membership stands - but I would go further.
 
I have reservations about a UFT endorsement without checking the pulse of the membership. Coming from the top as it usually does actually is harmful as proven in previous elections where the massive UFT membership does not seem to go along - witness the constant failures if mayoral endorsements. My sense is this is a move to jump on the bandwagon of the leading candidate, which actually may doom Mamdani, given the UFT track record. A UFT endorsement will automatically elevate the chances of Adams and or Cuomo.
 
 
There is a big push, naturally, coming from the left in the UFT, with a petition going around. So why am I bothered by that? It amounts to the same push from the top concept when the UFT leadership pushes its own interests over where the members might stand. I've been annoyed even when I agree with my left comrades on the way they push their agenda on members. Sure push your personal ideas - you have a right. But if you are trying to organize people, well how about seeing where they are at? That is precisely what Mamdani has done, as he went to Trump supporters. One surprising result in the election was how many Trump voters went for him -- the sort of Bernie/Trump concept we saw --- see NYT today:  
Shocking that he actually talked to Trump voters -- something the ARISE crowd attacked ABC for. In fact I see a lot of similarities between the two campaigns - except we didn't win, of course. He reached out to new voters and so did ABC - he was more successful. He had 40k volunteers and I saw ABC with more volunteers in this campaign than I'd seen in the past - and the vote totals indicated that. Both campaigns get credit for their social media. But more on this comparison in the future.
 
Member driven means member driven even if the members on the whole don't agree with you. So though I would hope a clear majority of UFT members would support Mamdani, especially given the Adams/Cuomo/Sliwa alternatives, I would like to see where the actual pulse of the membership lies at this point. 
 
The problem with pushing endorsements down the throat of members is that they alienate people unless there is a clear mandate. I think there is a strong case to be made for Mamdani but only if people get a chance to debate. Let's air the claims of anti-semitism and respond. Invite him to a meeting - invite them all.
 
If you really want to mobilize the membership in a campaign, win the bulk over and that takes work beyond calling an emergency summer meeting of the DA where a small minority of members will decide. 

But one interesting story will emerge. The so-called left of the UFT, the ARISE crowd, will be overwhelmingly in favor and with UFT leadership backing Mamdani, we could expect overwhelming support at the DA. As for the 200k UFT membership? I'm not so sure. It weakens the union of there is a wide gap.
 
Thus, while I'm not speaking for ABC, and I think many ABCers do support Mamdani, I think there might be a sentiment to go through a more serious process in the UFT as a way to build support. At least a serious poll or a referendum -- like how about using electronic voting to do one? Oh, the Unity gang is allergic. 
 
 UPDATE - 
Political Currents by Ross Barkan
They're Losing
Zohran and the decline of the pro-Israel voter
Jul 03, 2025

https://substack.com/inbox/post/167483841