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IN THE HEART OF THE “COMMIE CORRIDOR” – MEET THE CITY’S MOST
PRO-ZOHRAN NEIGHBORHOOD.  
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Elsie Carson-Holt
August 11, 2025
The Indypendent
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_ Young people carried Zohran Mamdani in his victory in the mayoral
primary, stunning establishment Democrats and reshaping the
electorate. Nowhere was this more clear than the so-called “Commie
Corridor,” where young voters had extremely high turnout. _

Madi and Amina, two Zohran voters and Bushwick residents , Photo
credit: Elsie Carson-Holt / The Indypendent

 

Young people carried Zohran Mamdani in his victory in the Democratic
mayoral primary, stunning establishment Democrats and reshaping the
electorate. Nowhere was this more clear than the so-called “Commie
Corridor,” where young voters had extremely high turnout and
overwhelmingly supported Mamdani.

 The “Commie Corridor” is a swath of North Brooklyn and Western
Queens that New York City organizer and researcher Michael
Lange describes 
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young and hungry leftist base reshaping politics in New York
City….overwhelmingly renters with left-leaning politics.”

The Corridor is commonly understood to stretch along the East River
from Astoria to Sunset Park. However, as young, college-educated
people move deeper into Brooklyn and Queens into neighborhoods like
Kensington, Bushwick, Ridgewood, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights,
Bed-Stuy, and South Slope, the Corridor is expanding. 

Politicians besides Mamdani that have been elected in the Commie
Corridor include Jabari Brisport (in Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy, and Fort
Greene), Alexa Avilés (Red Hook and Sunset Park), Tiffany Cabán
(Astoria), and Kristen Gonzalez (Astoria to Williamsburg). 

When asked what caused the Commie Corridor, Lange explained “young
people have been very politicized, in the Obama, Trump, Sanders
era…and the housing crisis is basically just pushing them farther
and farther out. And so the Commie Corridor has definitely
expanded.” 

Lange traced the beginnings of a baby Commie Corridor in Green Point,
Williamsburg, Bushwick, and some of Astoria and Long Island City, to
2016, when Bernie Sanders ran for president. Cynthia Nixon’s run for
governor in 2018, and Maya Wiley’s 2021 mayoral campaign, expanded
and strengthened the Commie Corridor. 

“Rents go up every year. The cost of living is really bad. Young
people don’t have much protection from that, because they’re
rarely homeowners.”

“And then Zohran was someone who, very uniquely, was able to bring a
lot of voters out,” Lange said. “He had a very compelling
affordability focused message, which is the dominant issue for young
people in the city. Rents go up every year. The cost of living is
really bad. Young people don’t have much protection from that,
because they’re rarely homeowners.”

Nowhere is this more true than in Bushwick’s voting precinct 53/025,
where Mamdani won a stunning 90% of the vote. The precinct borders
Maria Hernandez Park, and saw roughly 500 voters turn out. Of
those 500
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so, Mamdani won 434 votes compared to Cuomo’s 18 (Brad Lander got
the second largest amount of first choice votes with 22). His sweep
probably makes it the most pro-Zohran block in the city. In
neighboring precincts in Bushwick and nearby Ridgewood, the pro-Zohran
pattern held up, where he led from 60 to over 80 points. 

_The Indy_ went to Maria Hernandez park on a sweltering July day to
ask people who lived in or near the neighborhood why they voted for
Mamdani, and why they thought their neighborhood swung so hard for
him.

Madi, a singer-songwriter and marketing manager, said she voted for
Mamdani because he was the most anti-corruption of all the candidates,
and was able to connect with her generation. She has lived in Bushwick
for a year and a half, and credited his win to “a large and growing
community of artists around here… a lot of political artists and
activist artists, and if there is a specific community that’s gonna
rep a guy like that really hard, it’s this kind of neighborhood.”

Maddie’s roommate, Amina, a 26-year old who has lived in Bushwick
for three and a half years and works in customer service also said
there was a lot of support for Mamdani’s campaign in the
neighborhood. “I first heard about him because one of our other
roommates was handed a flyer about him in the park…I think a lot of
people were just talking about him in this area, there’s posters of
him everywhere. People were in our building ,and  there were signs
up. I feel like he was very visible,” Amina said.

Meredith, a 24-year old elementary school teacher who has lived in
Bushwick for the past year, was also drawn to Mamdani for his social
media presence and values. 

“Every corner there were people trying to get his word out, which
was exciting…and everyone does seem to be on the same page about
him.”

“He just does seem like the person that is for all people. I really
liked his media tactics…. And I really appreciated his, his outward
takes on the Palestine-Israel genocide,” she said. “I just really
like his humanitarian ideas.”

Meredith  also said many people in her friend group were excited
about the Mamdani campaign, which further motivated her to vote for
him. “It was just nice that he is a candidate that is known in
closer settings too. I have some friends that worked with him or
played soccer with him. So he just felt more familiar of a person,”
she said.

Meredith also thought that the neighborhood was “very excited about
him. She said “wasn’t super surprised” to hear he won 90% of the
vote in the area surrounding Maria Hernandez. “Every corner there
were people trying to get his word out, which was exciting…and
everyone does seem to be on the same page [about Mamdani].” 

 
Jaime and Clara sit in Maria Hernandez Park.  (Photo credit: Elsie
Carson-Holt / The Indypendent)
Clara, a food server, and Jaime, an audio engineer, have lived in
Bushwick for three and five years. When asked why they voted for
Mamdani, Jaime said that “considering I don’t vote that often, I
only vote if it’s somebody that somebody’s on the ballot that I
really align with, and Zohran aligned with 98% of the issues that I
cared about. It was like, ‘yeah, I should vote for this guy. And I
hate Andrew Cuomo a lot. So it was, like, even more so a reason,’”
Jaime said.

Clara agreed that her dislike for Andrew Cuomo started her enthusiasm
for Mamdani, but felt like that was “selling his platform short…I
think it was refreshing to see someone who was actually sort of
aligned with a lot of my viewpoints and a lot of the viewpoints of
people that I am I’m friends with here, and not just Bushwick,
Brooklyn or New York in general.”

Both said they see Mamdani as breaking a trend within the Democratic
Party, of the “very status quo, centrist-left politicians that
don’t really align with the working class,” as Clara said. 

“He was promoting making things more affordable, which is something
that I feel every day, things are getting more expensive seemingly
every week,” Jamie said. “Basically it’s a bottom line and
that’s probably why there was a 90% swing, is because he was the
only one talking about a practical issue that could be addressed.”

Sitting on a bench nearby were Fay, a writer and lifelong New Yorker
who lives on the Lower East Side, and Josh, a chef who lives in nearby
Ridgewood. They were also Zohran-voters. Fay said she voted for
Mamdani because she has seen “a lot of politicians really fuck up
the city, specifically Eric Adams.”

“Most of my friends who are native New Yorkers have had to move to
New Jersey or far out in neighborhoods that they weren’t raised in
because they can no longer afford it. So having a politician who’s
young and cool and really seems to put his money where his mouth is
really exciting for me,” she shared. 

“He was a candidate that I resonated with in that he was young and
was speaking to a lot of the values that hat felt true and that felt
real,” Josh agrees. “Whereas, as opposed to the current mayor, I
just didn’t feel like his policies not aligned with my values, but
it just wasn’t a person that I felt like I was able to resonate
with.”

Josh said he certainly saw a push for Mamdani in his neighborhood, in
talking to his roommates, his close circle of friends, and people at
the restaurant he works at. Josh contrasted these conversations with
ones he had with his father and some of his friends, who he described
as “more conservative.”

“I feel like every reason that he [Josh’s father] gave me not vote
for Zohran had no sort of real implication…it was something related
to Israel or, ‘Oh, he’s a terrorist, he’s totally
irrational.’” Josh said. “So I think every reason that I was
getting from the conversations that my more conservative friends were
giving me not to vote for Zohran, really paled in comparison to the
people that I talked to that did vote for him.”

It’s largely “Commie Corridor” voters like the ones in Maria
Hernandez that gave Mamdani his decisive win.

“I think his margin of victory came from the Commie Corridor. If you
removed it from New York City, he probably would have lost,, but he
wouldn’t have lost by that much. We showed that he did very well
beyond the Common Corridor. But, if just removed those assembly
districts, he loses,” Lange said when asked what portion of
Mamdani’s votes came from the Commie Corridor. 

_[ELSIE CARSON-HOLT is a journalist based in Brooklyn. Her work has
appeared in The Boston Globe, FAIR, and LGBTQ Nation, among other
places.]_

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* Zohran Mamdani
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* New York City mayoral election
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* Democratic Party
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* young voters
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* new voters
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* Brooklyn
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* Queens
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* renters
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* Housing Crisis
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* New York City
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* Jabari Brisport
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* Alexa Aviles
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* Tiffany Caban
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* Kristen Gonzales
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* Left Politics
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* Working Families Party
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* WFP
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* DSA
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* Democratic Socialists of America
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