Voters in the west side of Manhattan's 3rd Council District are fortunate to have a high-quality field of candidates to consider for the April 28th special election to replace former City Council Member Erik Bottcher, who resigned his position in February after winning a special election of his own to fill a vacant seat in the State Senate. And we were fortunate to have all of the candidates on the ballot participate in our endorsement process.

Each of the four candidates – Lindsey Boylan, Leslie Boghosian Murphy, Layla Law-Gisiko, and Carl Wilson – possesses an impressive résumé that involves extensive public service or community involvement, or a combination of the two. Each has garnered a number of meaningful endorsements. And each demonstrated a good amount of fluency around transportation and street-safety policies.

But as we went through our process, which involved a detailed questionnaire that probed positions on topics ranging from the NYC Streets Plan to micro-mobility policies to outdoor dining, as well as a personal interview with our board, two candidates separated themselves from the group – but not from each other. While we don't often make a co-endorsement, we are doing so in this case. You can read more about our co-endorsees below, but first, a little special-election housekeeping.

Early voting for the special election begins this Saturday, April 18th, and continues through the following Sunday, April 26th, with varying hours, while the main event takes place on Tuesday, April 28th, when the polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Registered voters in Manhattan's 3rd Council District can find their early-voting and election-day polling sites and see a sample ballot here. The special election is a non-partisan, ranked-choice contest, and yes, there will likely be a primary in June.

Now, here are our endorsees for the 3rd Council District seat!

Lindsey Boylan and Carl Wilson (Co-Endorsement), Council District 3, Manhattan (Open Seat) – The race to succeed Erik Bottcher came down to a coin toss for us, and given that this is a ranked-choice election, we thought it best to leave the coin toss to the voters. We found almost nothing to nitpick in the questionnaire responses that Lindsey Boylan and Carl Wilson submitted, and their interviews revealed that they share a commitment to making streets safer and the transit system more robust and reliable.

Lindsey Boylan came to prominence in 2021 when she became the first person to document harassment by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo. She has a background in urban planning, and managed some of the city's most noteworthy public spaces before joining the state's Economic Development Corporation. Ms. Boylan, a regular cyclist, supports pedestrianizing more of Broadway, expanding School Streets, and implementing universal daylighting. She's opposed to efforts to require licensing and registration for low-speed Class I and II e-bikes, while she acknowledges the importance of better regulating delivery apps and keeping illegal e-moto devices off city streets. She's a strong advocate for universal daylighting, and is determined to play a significant role in shaping the future of the soon-to-be redeveloped Port Authority Bus Terminal. Ms. Boylan has earned the endorsement of the Working Families Party, along with the support of several progressive current and former elected officials including Mayor Mamdani, Julia Salazar, Tiffany Cabán, and Brad Lander. You can sign up here to help Lindsey Boylan get out the vote.

Carl Wilson has spent most of the last decade working in the City Council, first managing constituent services for then-Council Speaker Corey Johnson, and more recently as Chief of Staff to the Council Member he is running to succeed, Erik Bottcher. He moved to New York City to pursue an acting career, but gravitated to activism after the 2016 presidential election, co-founding the progressive Hell's Kitchen Democrats. Mr. Wilson is committed to fighting to fully fund the Department of Transportation's staffing and capital needs to help it better meet Streets Plan benchmarks, and supports reallocating curb space to daylight intersections and to add features like bike parking and loading zones, as well as to improve accessibility. He too opposes the licensing and registration of Class I and II e-bikes, believing that the city should focus on better street design and infrastructure and app accountability, along with enforcement that's fair and targeted to truly unsafe behavior. Mr. Wilson has won the endorsements of a significant number of elected officials whose districts overlap the 3rd Council District, including Manhattan BP Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Tony Simone, and is supported by the three most recent holders of the seat, former City Council Speakers Chris Quinn and Corey Johnson and the newly minted State Senator, Mr. Bottcher. You can volunteer to help Carl Wilson get out the vote here.

We urge you to assign Lindsey Boylan and Carl Wilson the top two rankings on your ballot, in whichever order you see fit.