Roundtable conversations about policy and current events with candidates in the races for New York City Mayor, Comptroller, and Manhattan Borough President – moderated by political journalists from City & State NY and WPIX-TV (PIX11). Candidates share their vision for NYC and their plan for public health, economic recovery, housing, racial justice, education, arts and culture, and more.

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  Tom Allon (City & State)

  

  Tom Allon (City & State)

  Tom Allon, a native of the upper West Side of Manhattan, is the president and publisher of City & State, a company he founded a decade ago.

  Tom has over three decades of experience in New York’s media world, both on the publishing and editorial side of the business. He started his career in 1986 as the editor-in-chief of a weekly newspaper, The West Side Spirit, which won a number of awards for investigative reporting during his tenure. He then became the publisher and vice president of a public media company, News Communications, which owned 23 publications in the metropolitan area and Washington, D.C. He was involved in the creation of the daily Capitol Hill newspaper, The Hill, which became the inspiration for City & State. He also spent a decade building a private media company, Manhattan Media, which owned AVENUE magazine, Dan’s Papers, New York Family, five weekly newspapers in Manhattan and City & State.

  In 2013, after a brief foray into politics, he privatized City & State with partner Steve Farbman and has now led the company’s expansion around the state and into Pennsylvania. Tom has also been an educator, first as an English and journalism teacher at his alma mater, Stuyvesant High School, in the mid-1980s and then more recently as an adjunct professor of journalism at Hunter College.

  Tom, a graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, lives in Brooklyn Heights and is the proud father of three millennial children.

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  Seth Pinsky (92Y)

  

  Seth Pinsky (92Y)

  Seth Pinsky is CEO of the 92nd St. Y. At 92Y, Pinsky is developing an action plan for 92Y heading into its 150th anniversary, which will include a comprehensive upgrade of its Manhattan home. Previously, Pinsky was an EVP at RXR Realty, where he led RXR’s efforts to invest in “emerging opportunities” in the New York region. Earlier, Pinsky oversaw the development of Mayor Bloomberg’s $20 billion plan to protect New York from climate change impacts and, from 2008 to 2013, was President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Pinsky started his career as an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and analyst at James D. Wolfensohn Inc. He graduated from Columbia College and Harvard Law.

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  Ben Adler

  

  Ben Adler

  Ben Adler is senior editor at City & State NY. He assigns and edits news, feature and opinion articles. Prior to joining City & State, Ben covered national and international politics and policy with specialties in the environment, cities, transportation, civil rights and housing. He was a reporter for Politico, The Nation, and Grist and an editor at Newsweek and Reuters. He also has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The American Prospect, Columbia Journalism Review, Architectural Record, City Limits and Next City. He holds a bachelor’s degree in American government and public policy from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. A native Brooklynite, Ben is excited to focus full-time on covering New York.

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  Jeff Coltin

  

  Jeff Coltin

  As a senior reporter, Jeff writes stories and develops other content for the magazine, with a particular focus on New York City. He often represents City & State in public, emceeing events, speaking on panels and appearing on TV and radio. Jeff previously worked at NY1 and at Bronx-based public radio station WFUV, where he won awards for collegiate newscasting from The Associated Press and Public Radio News Directors Inc. Jeff graduated in 2015 from Fordham University, where he studied political science, theology and Italian food. Born and raised in Phoenix, Jeff now lives in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

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  Ayana Harry

  

  Ayana Harry

  Emmy® Award-winning journalist Ayana Harry joined the WPIX News team in 2014. She reports weekdays at 5 pmand 6 pm.

  While at WPIX, Ayana was the first television journalist to cover Eric Garner’s police-involved death. In 2015 Ayana traveled to Haiti to report on recovery efforts, five years after the country’s devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake. In 2017, Ayana was one of the first reporters on the ground as a terror attack unfolded along Manhattan’s West Side Highway.

  Ayana joined WPIX after working for three years at WTIC-TV, the Fox station in Hartford, Connecticut. While at WTIC, Ayana covered the Sandy Hook School shooting, providing live reports from Newtown as events unfolded. She was nominated twice for an Emmy® Award for her work on special projects for the station.

  Before joining WTIC, Ayana was a digital reporter and field producer for ABC News in New York where she covered major stories including; the Bernie Madoff case, Captain Sullenberger’s Miracle on the Hudson and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

  Born and raised in Brooklyn, Ayana holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics from Princeton University and is a graduate from the Chapin School in Manhattan.

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  James Ford

  

  James Ford

  James Ford is a general assignment reporter for PIX11 News.

  James joined WPIX in 2007, serving as the lead live reporter for the PIX11 Morning News, covering breaking news and feature stories.

  Prior to his position at WPIX, James was a reporter for six years at WNYW Fox 5 in New York, where his reporting on September 11 was the subject of the documentary Dreams Without Sleep, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002.

  James, an Emmy Award-winning reporter, began his television career at WTOC-TV in Savannah, Ga., where he was a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor. He later moved to WFTV in Orlando, Fla. He was the station’s Space Coast bureau chief, responsible for reporting all types of news in Brevard County, which is called Florida’s Space Coast.

  In that position, he also field-anchored coverage of 41 space shuttle launches at the Kennedy Space Center. James’ next move was to WRTV in Indianapolis, where he anchored the morning news and was a consumer investigative reporter.

  James is proud to have grown up in an Air Force family, having lived in six states and Great Britain. He and his family live in Manhattan.

  James is a graduate of Yale University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He also studied Arabic at the International Language Institute of Cairo.

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  Rebecca Lewis

  

  Rebecca Lewis

  Rebecca C. Lewis is deputy state politics reporter at City & State, where she has been for over three years. She has covered a variety of issues, from the legalization of recreational marijuana to New York City’s most recent Charter Revision Commissions. Rebecca also puts together the First Read newsletter every morning. Before coming to City & State, Rebecca worked at the public radio station WFUV while attending Fordham University.