[NYPOST] No mayor is an island. Gotham’s next leader — likely Eric Adams — must deal with a brand-new City Council in pursuing recovery, with most incumbents term-limited out of office. Lawmakers will have a say in everything from hiring more cops to which livability laws the city enforces. Will the new council help — or hurt? The good news: Last week’s Democratic primary wasn’t a far-left triumph. Trying (still) to capitalize on the AOC win three years ago, the Democratic Socialists of America endorsed six candidates. Only two — public defender Tiffany Cabán of Jackson Heights and Alexa Avilés of Sunset Park — are leading.
These are hardly flipped seats; there is no red wave changing New York politics.
In several neighborhoods, voters chose not a radically different future, but the past: The Upper West Side renominated Gale Brewer, who held the same seat before becoming borough president eight years ago.
East New York will likely re-re-elect Charles Barron, the career speechifyer who vacated the seat for his wife, Inez, in 2013. In both cases, the ideology stays the same.
Corey Johnson’s likely successor in Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea is Erik Bottcher . . . a longtime Corey Johnson aide. Julie Menin of the Upper East Side is slightly to the right of the incumbent, Ben Kallos.
Maybe voters had too many choices, whether for mayor or comptroller, forcing them to seek out the name they already knew further down the ballot. Or maybe it’s by design: The voters just didn’t give the council much direction.