New York City's 2nd City Council district is one of 51 districts in the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs. The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...

. It has been represented by

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

Carlina Rivera Carlina Rivera (born January 3, 1984) is an American politician who represents the 2nd district of the New York City Council since 2018. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes portions of the East Village, Gramercy Park, ...

since 2018, succeeding term-limited fellow Democrat

Rosie Méndez Rosie Méndez (born February 28, 1963) is an American politician who served in the New York City Council from the 2nd district from 2006 to 2017. She is a Democrat. The district includes all or parts of Chelsea, the East Village, the Flatiron ...

Geography

District 2 is based in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

and East Village, also covering the neighborhoods of Alphabet City,

Gramercy Park Gramercy ParkSometimes misspelled as Grammercy () is the name of both a small, fenced-in private park and the surrounding neighborhood that is referred to also as Gramercy, in the New York City borough of Manhattan in New York, United States. T ...

, Kips Bay,

Loisaida Alphabet City is a neighborhood located within the East Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its name comes from Avenues A, B, C, and D, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter names. It is bounded by Houston St ...

, Murray Hill, and Rose Hill. The district overlaps with Manhattan Community Boards 2, 3, 5, and 6, and with New York's

7th 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

and 12th congressional districts. It also overlaps with the 26th, 27th, and 28th districts of the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan com ...

, and with the 65th, 66th, 73rd, 74th, and 75th districts of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assem ...

. Although it is majority-white, the district has a large Hispanic population concentrated in the

neighborhood. Since 1991, the district has been represented by four consecutive Hispanic councilmembers, three of whom have also been gay.

Recent election results

2021

In 2019, voters in New York City approved Ballot Question 1, which implemented

ranked-choice voting Ranked-choice voting may be used as a synonym for: * Ranked voting, a term used for any voting system in which voters are asked to rank candidates in order of preference * Instant-runoff voting (IRV), a specific ranked voting system with single-w ...

in all local elections. Under the new system, voters have the option to rank up to five candidates for every local office. Voters whose first-choice candidates fare poorly will have their votes redistributed to other candidates in their ranking until one candidate surpasses the 50 percent threshold. If one candidate surpasses 50 percent in first-choice votes, then ranked-choice tabulations will not occur.

2017

2013

Previous councilmembers

The district is a safe Democratic district. Between 1974 and 1991, it was represented by

Miriam Friedlander Miriam Friedlander (April 8, 1914, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – October 4, 2009, Manhattan) was an American politician from the Bronx who represented New York City's Lower East Side and Chinatown in the New York City Council from 1974 to 1991. ...

, who was narrowly defeated in the 1991 Democratic Party primary by

Antonio Pagán Antonio Pagán (August 22, 1958 – January 25, 2009) was an American politician, who held roles in the municipal government of New York City. He represented the 2nd district of the New York City Council for six years, and was subsequently appo ...

, the first openly gay politician to represent the district. Pagán's conservative stances and support for Mayor

Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 198 ...

alienated large segments of his liberal-leaning constituency. In 1997, Pagán launched an unsuccessful campaign for Manhattan Borough President; he was succeeded on the council by

Margarita López Margarita López is a former member of the New York City Council who represented New York City's 2nd City Council district from 1998 to 2005. The 2nd district comprises the Lower East Side, Alphabet City, and the East Village. López was elect ...

. In 2005,

succeeded López, and was re-elected in 2009.

succeeded Méndez in 2017, becoming the district's first straight councilmember in well over two decades.

References

{{New York City Council New York City Council districts