At Sliwa election night watch party, hope for a win
Supporters of Curtis Sliwa, Republican nominee for New York City mayor and founder of the Guardian Angels, congregate at the Arte Cafe in Manhattan's Upper West Side ahead of election returns. Credit: Newsday/Joshua Solomon
Red berets, suits and the occasional Donald Trump paraphernalia are in the crowd at Arte Cafe on the Upper West Side, where New York City’s Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, is hosting his watch party.
“Can you imagine if Curtis Sliwa was the mayor of New York?” said Alan Gotlied, of the Bronx.
Gotlied was wearing a Trump shirt. He and his friend Matt Solomon are part of a group who rallied against vaccine mandates. They hold ill will toward former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the independent mayoral candidate who lost the Democratic nomination.
“They’re trying to say Curtis’ people are the spoilers,” Solomon said. “I’m saying [Cuomo's] the real spoiler.”
Master Tsang said he joined the Guardian Angels five years ago, when his Flushing business closed down amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans.
“To me, he already lost to [Zohran] Mamdani in the primary so he should be the one that drops out,” Tsang said about Cuomo while referring to the Democratic nominee.
Plates of meatballs, calamari and garlic bread were handed out.
Others held disdain for Mamdani. One man wore a blue blazer, jeans and a T-shirt that said, “Commies aren’t cool,” with a strike-through sign over Che Guevara’s face. A woman wore an “anti mamdani social club” T-shirt, a riff on a popular shirt brand.
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