His honesty could have cost him his life

Curtis Sliwa, a cat-loving Republican who wants to be New York's mayor

• Sliwa petting his cats inside his apartment.

  From the source

• Curtis Sliwa talking to people on the street while campaigning.

  From the source

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Republican Curtis Sliwa is preparing to run for mayor of New York.

He is a gentleman with a long history of hosting talk radio shows.

Sliwa walks the streets near his apartment, wearing his distinctive red hat. Every few steps, people stop him, greeting or talking to him.

He hands out business cards to everyone, and directs them to his website.

He doesn't tell them he wants them to vote for him, but many promise him that.

“I appreciate your work, I hope you succeed,” says a man to Sliwa, a woman promises to vote for him, and another man asks him to adopt one of his cats.

Distinguished from the other candidates is that he loves cats, he has 16 cats that he and his wife share in their apartment in Manhattan.

Some of these cats lie in the hall, others choose windows to sleep on, some lie on the bed, and others hide in a corner.

As Sliwa discusses his long campaign for mayor of New York, a white cat jumps into the filing cabinet, before climbing onto the top of the refrigerator to rest there.

There is not much space to accommodate cats in the apartment, some of these cats are temporarily cared for by Sliwa and his wife, and the area of ​​​​the apartment is 328 square feet (30.66 square meters), and the size of the apartment is approximately equal to the space of two parking spaces.

(The minimum legal size for a new apartment in New York is 400 square feet, but apartments built before 1987 can be much smaller.)

Sliwa is a bold man who does not hesitate to speak the truth even if his life is in danger. He founded the "Shepherding Angels in Red Hats", a group concerned with protecting the suburbs. He received six bullets in the stomach during one incident in the nineties, after speaking boldly against a powerful criminal family in New York.

drive in the metro

"I campaign often on the subway and on the streets," he says, in a Brooklyn accent. "My campaign isn't like traditional campaigns, but it has a lot of one-on-one interaction with people."

The reason for this is that Sliwa finds it difficult to raise money and attract people's attention.

He defeated the better-financed businessman and political activist, Fernando Mateo, in the Republican primaries for mayor, which mostly went unnoticed.

In the November elections, Sliwa will face former police officer and former New York state senator Eric Adams, who won that primary.

Fame

Sliwa, 67, benefits from unparalleled fame in New York City, where he has drawn aggressively, and sometimes dishonestly, press attention since the 1970s, hosting a radio talk show for three decades.

But with the majority of New Yorkers leaning towards Democrats, the city's politics seem to be against him.

His other problem is the former president, Donald Trump.

Sliwa did not vote for Trump, who did not officially influence the mayoral race, but the lies of the former president's election caused him problems.

"Since I'm a Republican, my biggest problem is that they will never help me win," he says. "My biggest obstacle during the Republican primaries was getting people to vote for me, they think their votes are meaningless."

frankly

It was Sliwa's frankness that got him shot in June 1992. Sliwa kept criticizing the head of the Gambino crime family, John Gotti, who was on trial at the time, and one day Sliwa got into a taxi to find two mafiosi members inside, one of whom fired six bullets into his belly.

Sliwa escaped by jumping over the gunman and exiting through the side window of the car.

He still suffers from bullet fragments in his body.

Matthew may have been Trump's favorite in the Republican primary, but Sliwa won the endorsement of Trump's former attorney and two-term New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, whose legal licenses in New York and Washington were recently suspended.

Sliwa has known Giuliani for a long time, and he praises Giuliani's zero-tolerance crime policy in New York in the 1990s.

"Now I'm dealing with neighborhoods where there's chaos like I've never seen before," he says. "It's a learned behavior, and you know, it's like people realize they can get away with it, and there are no consequences for their actions."

Sliwa criticizes young people who play loud music in the streets, describing this as an example of unacceptable behaviour. “Everyone feels that they can do what they want, when they want, the way they want, and they are not afraid of the consequences of their actions, and I kept seeing that in all the different neighbourhoods.” "Behavioural modification will help teach young people that they have to respect the rights of others, because this behavior is not learned at home," he says.

Younger voters, in particular, are likely to shy away from a candidate whose promises of "behavior modification" seem dated.

That would be disappointing for Sliwa, who sees millennials in good faith, has a growing presence on TikTok, and is a passionate fan of electronic dance music.

His main efforts focus on recovering post-Covid-19 New York City, and getting the city's bars, restaurants and nightlife back in business.

"Let's face it," he says, "the way people travel has to be safe, especially women. Women are terrified of being assaulted on the subway, of violence, of emotionally disturbed and homeless."

talk effortlessly

As would be expected from a talk show host, Sliwa can effortlessly speak at length, is undeniably charismatic, and is a voice over.

He talks about his campaign strategy of showing up anywhere and talking to people "I go to neighborhoods where there's not a single Republican, the only Republican people see there is Abraham Lincoln on the five dollar bill."

If Sliwa can defy the odds, overcome the fundraising gap, and triumph over statistics that show New York is an overwhelmingly Democratic city, he might win the mayoral election and probably won't need electronic dance music to lift his mood.

• Curtis Sliwa is distinguished from other candidates by the fact that he and his wife share 16 cats in their Manhattan apartment.

• Sliwa defeated businessman and political activist, Fernando Mateo, who has better finances, in the Republican primary for mayor.

• Sliwa criticizes young people who play loud music in the streets, describing it as an example of unacceptable behaviour.

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