It will come as no surprise that in the recent presidential election, the Democratic ticket of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine won by comfortable margins throughout Lower Manhattan. In this regard, Battery Park City is representative of much of Downtown. In the neighborhoods six election districts (or “precincts”) that lie south of Vesey Street, a total of 3797 voters turned out on election day. Of these, 2,963 voters (78.06 percent) cast their ballots for the Clinton-Kaine ticket, while 644 (or 16.96 percent) gave their support to Republicans Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
The Democrats were victorious in each of the 94 precincts that comprise the 65th Assembly District (which covers Lower Manhattan up to Vesey Street on the West Side, and Houston Street on the East Side), according to a breakdown of voting results recently released by the City’s Board of Elections. Most of these precincts mirrored Battery Park City, with the Republican ticket rarely breaking the 20 percent threshold. But this was not true everywhere in Lower Manhattan. In four precincts, the Republican ticket garnered more than 30 percent of the vote, narrowing the local lead for the Clinton-Kaine ticket to a margin of two-to-one, or less.
In Two Bridges neighborhood’s 25th precinct (bounded by Catherine Slip, Monroe Street, and Cherry Street), which is home to the southern third of the Knickerbocker Village middle income housing project, the Trump-Pence ticket captured 93 of the 257 votes cast (or 35.90 percent). In the nearby 27th precinct (bounded by Cherry, Monroe, and Market Streets), which encloses the northern third of Knickerbocker Village, the Republican slate 157 of 506 votes cast (or 31.02 percent). Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who lived in Knickerbocker Village until they were executed in 1953 for spying on behalf of the Soviet Union, must be rolling over in their graves.
The Trump-Pence ticket also did anomalously well in another middle-income housing development. The Seventh and Eight precincts together form a trapezoid that is bounded (roughly) by Pearl Street on the east, the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, William Street on the west, and Fulton Street on the south. This catchment encloses most of the Southbridge Towers complex. In the Seventh precinct, the Republican slate won 169 of 540 votes cast (or 31.29 percent), while in the Eighth, it took 213 of 681 votes (or 31.27 percent).