Primary Election Day at Mother Hale Academy in the South Bronx got off to a slow start Tuesday, with just 104 ballots cast as of 10 a.m. But poll workers said they expect a bigger turnout during the evening rush, between 5 and 6 p.m.
Despite the slow morning, workers said the day was “going good,” and the air conditioning was keeping them comfortable.
One poll coordinator, who staffed all nine days of early voting at a separate site, said most voters know who they are supporting before they walk in the door.
“They know who they want,” she told the Bronx Times, adding that the early voting site was “super busy, like a revolving door.”
Across the street from the polling site, some of the dialogue among voters was as hot as the 100-degree weather.
A canvasser for Council District 8 candidate Clarisa Alayeto engaged in a tense exchange with Arline Parks, CEO of the Diego Beekman nonprofit housing corporation and former chair of Community Board 1—the same board that elected Alayeto to replace her in December 2023.
Parks, who lives and works in the district, told the Bronx Times that her opposition to her community board successor wasn’t personal. “If [Alayeto] was on the right side of things, I’d say so,” she said.
For Parks, her main issue in this election is public safety. “It affects the whole livelihood of everything,” she said, pointing to vacant storefronts lining Cypress Ave.
Parks said she believes that current term-limited council member Diana Ayala, her chief of staff, Elsie Encarnación, who is also running, and Alayeto have all failed to support the neighborhood. “They have been absent.”
Although Alayeto has never held elected office, Parks at least partially blamed her for the East 141st St. migrant shelter, which she said has caused people to fear walking around the neighborhood. Parks also said that Alayeto supports the planned borough-based jail, which she believes will bring more crime to the district.
Parks said that current Council Member Ayala “wasn’t a good representative for the district” and that an Alayeto or Encarnación victory would bring more of the same.
“If you can’t run a good community board, how are you gonna run a whole district?” she said.
Thornton, the canvasser, told the Bronx Times he’s been politically active on certain issues in the past but never for a specific candidate. But supporting Alayeto, whom he has known since their days growing up in Patterson Houses, was important enough to stand outside on the sweltering heat.
Thornton said he hopes the next council member will offer “not just representation but implementation” of community members’ ideas.
He wants to create what he called “positive infrastructure” to support young people’s goals. For instance, a lot of kids aspire to be rappers, so the district should fund music studios to foster entrepreneurship and creativity, he said.
“We gotta make [people] more believers as to why City Council is important,” said Thornton.
Alayeto could bring those kinds of results for the community, he said. Seeing her active in the South Bronx community, “She inspired me.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
