(Bloomberg) -- As the sun set over Manhattan on Tuesday, the lights of the Empire State Building began to glow red, white and blue.
The iconic landmark is sparkling in five-minute increments, blue when Democratic nominee Kamala Harris wins a swing state and shining red for former president Donald Trump’s victories. It could be hours or perhaps days before all votes from closely watched states are tallied and the tower’s lights will flip solidly blue or red, telegraphing the results to New Yorkers across the city.
But for now, like the rest of this anxious nation, New York City — the metropolis that helped make Trump but in recent years has seemed more eager to trammel him — is waiting to learn who the next US president will be. While Harris won the state, even Blue New York was touched by hot-button issues like the migrant crisis and rising prices that animated Trump’s campaign.
Downtown by the New York Stock Exchange, Renee Prince Fillip, 56, said she was “just trying to decompress” while she walked her dog in Manhattan’s Financial District. The former fashion executive who voted for Harris isn’t sure of her plans tonight yet. “It’s one of those things like watching the Oscars, you want to do it yourself so no one bothers you.”
From Wall Street to the South Bronx, and Crown Heights to the co-ops high above Central Park, voters took to the polls to cast their ballots. As a polarized nation waits, Bloomberg reporters fanned out to capture the reactions from Trump’s hometown.
The Bronx
Near Yankee stadium in the Bronx, two key election issues — immigration and abortion — were on the minds of Anthony Thomas who said he voted for Harris after avoiding the polls since the days of the Obama administration. The health-care worker and father of four daughters said protecting women’s rights and immigration were his motivating factors Tuesday.
Nearby, Juan Santiago voted for Trump for his religious politics. The chaplain from Puerto Rico said he wasn’t offended by the controversial joke made about his homeland at Trump’s recent rally at Madison Square Garden, and is instead voting for the Republican because he doesn’t believe in abortion or gender-affirming surgery.
“First I voted for God, and then Trump,” he said.
The Bronx is reliably Blue, but Trump’s loss in the borough was by a narrower margin in 2020 than in 2016. To build on that momentum, Trump held a campaign rally at Crotona Park in May, an event which drew thousands to the heavily Black and Latino neighborhood.
Upper East Side
Outside the 92nd Street Y, a Jewish community center on the Upper East side, Lisa Grinberg — normally an Independent — said she voted down the Democrat-side of the ballot.
“No matter how I might want to prioritize what is important to me or to my family, I felt that we needed to vote first for our democracy,” she said in an interview on Tuesday.
Laurie Hallen was sporting pearls and an “I Voted” sticker as she walked up Madison Avenue, near the voting site at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She said she cast her ballot for Trump because of his stances on immigration, crime and inflation.
Upper West Side
Shawn Pride and her 10-year-old daughter Chloe lined up in New York’s Manhattan Valley neighborhood two hours before polls closed in the state. Pride said she was casting her vote for Harris primarily because of women’s rights, issues around race and gender and as a vote against Trump.
“There’s a lot on the line,” she said. “I still have trauma from 2016 and Hillary Clinton.”
Retired teacher and grandmother Sonia De Jesus, 68, said she is voting for the Republican ticket. A former Biden voter, she said most of her family is voting for Trump because of their concerns around immigration and the economy.
“We need a change, I hope we have a change soon,” she said. “The economy is not good. I’m here voting for my grandkids.”
At Amity Hall, an Upper West Side sports bar, a pair of Columbia University graduate students both nervously watched election results roll in. Shenova Davis, 22, and Noor Wahle, 23, both voted by mail for Kamala Harris. Davis, a California native, said she voted for Harris because of her concerns about women’s health care and gun control.
Trump Tower
At Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, a small crowd of his supporters donned in ‘Make America Great Again’ shirts and red caps waved flags. At one point, some of them spray-painted a gray Tesla Inc. Cybertruck in homage to billionaire Trump supporter and Tesla founder Elon Musk.
One person was dancing on the truck chanting “Trump baby” and “Trump 2024” as more and more supporters joined the group, before police dispersed the crowd.
Frederick Brown, a Democrat who got into a heated argument with a Trump voter on Fifth Avenue in Midtown, said Americans are “exhausted” by the former president.
“New York runs itself, it’s got its own life, its own energy and you’re never going to turn New York into a bastion of conservatism,” Brown said.
Financial District
As markets closed at the stock exchange, all seemed ordinary aside from the occasional ‘vote’ t-shirt and stickers. Tourists were taking photos of the iconic building as people in suits quickly walked out.
C.J. McCarthy, a 40-year-old from Boston who works in insurance said that he planned to stay up late to watch the results. A Trump voter, McCarthy said he thinks a decisive victory for either candidate is best for the country.
“I’m a little nervous that its going to drag it out over the next couple of days or weeks,” he said.
Staten Island
Throngs of locals gathered in MAGA hats and homemade shirts to watch the election results roll in at Grant City Tavern in Staten Island, where a portrait of Trump hangs on the wall underneath an American flag mural on the ceiling.
Colleen Owens, a 46-year-old nurse who lives in the neighborhood, voted for Trump because she feels like the country’s future is on the line. Initially she supported him because she liked his views on the economy, but this election she supported him because she feels the country “has pretty much gone down the tubes,” she said.
Crown Heights, Brooklyn
John Saltibus, who immigrated from St. Lucia, said he voted for Trump in the last two elections but has switched to support Harris this time around, saying, “We need a woman so something different can happen.”
But for Shmuel Eagle and his wife Rebecca — members of the neighborhood’s Orthodox Jewish community — Trump’s support of Israel and the US economy were paramount.
“It’s going to be tough, no matter who wins,” said Eagle, who also cited his concerns about the surge in antisemitism. “I voted for Donald Trump because we support Jewish life in the US and we support Jewish life in Israel, and only one party is not okay with antisemitism.”
Lateef Taylor, 32, and his friend Lorenzo Springer, 37, also said they voted for Trump. The pair said they both served time in prison, and sympathized with Trump for his own criminal convictions. They also cited the migrant crisis in New York. The city is currently caring for about 60,000 migrants, many of whom were bused from border towns.
“He wants the border to be up,” said Taylor. “We started laughing at him. Now we’re crying.”
Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Yet over in Sunset Park, six people interviewed by Bloomberg — all of whom are immigrants or children of immigrants — also said they’d cast their ballots for Trump. They said crime and the economy were decisive issues for them in the diverse Brooklyn neighborhood across the bay from New Jersey. There, restaurants, bodegas and variety shops with Chinese characters line 7th Avenue. At one bodega, a group of five Dominican-Americans shouted over each other about who hated the current administration more.
Betty Silva, a child of Puerto Rican parents, described Trump as a “moron”, but said “we already know what to expect with him.” She blamed Trump for not doing more to stop Covid-19, but is disenchanted by how expensive life has become.
“I could afford stuff,” she said. “My daughter was graduating from college. She had her financial aid, but now she has to do part time work.”
“It’s all bad apples, but you have to pick someone,” said Jason Cai, a Chinese-American store owner who moved to Staten Island from Brooklyn a few years ago. “You no longer feel safe here in Brooklyn. The whole atmosphere has changed.”
The sentiment was echoed by Victor Nunez, who works at a bodega in the neighborhood. “People can’t go on the train or to the park because it’s too unsafe,” he said. “I‘d never wanted to vote for Trump, but with the situation the way we are, what can I do?”
Further north, New York City’s beleaguered Mayor Eric Adams, who’s facing federal bribery charges, cast his ballot for Harris in the nearby neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. He told reporters he would watch the results roll in with his son and refused to answer any other questions.
--With assistance from Nic Querolo and Jessica Nix.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.