| New York City's 8th City Council district | |
| Leader Title: | Councilmember |
| Leader Name: | Diana Ayala (D—East Harlem) |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Population As Of: | 2010 |
| Population Total: | 162606 |
| Population Footnotes: | [1] |
| Footnotes: | Registered voters (2021) 117,149[2] |
| Demographics Type1: | Demographics |
| Demographics1 Info1: | 50% |
| Demographics1 Title1: | Hispanic |
| Demographics1 Info2: | 22% |
| Demographics1 Title2: | Black |
| Demographics1 Info3: | 20% |
| Demographics1 Title3: | White |
| Demographics1 Info4: | 6% |
| Demographics1 Title4: | Asian |
| Demographics1 Info5: | 2% |
| Demographics1 Title5: | Other |
| Demographics Type2: | Registration |
| Demographics2 Info1: | 76.8% |
| Demographics2 Title1: | Democratic |
| Demographics2 Info2: | 4.3% |
| Demographics2 Title2: | Republican |
| Demographics2 Info3: | 16.1% |
| Demographics2 Title3: | No party preference |
New York City's 8th City Council district is one of 51 districts in the New York City Council. It has been represented by Democrat Diana Ayala since 2018, succeeding fellow Democrat and former Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.[3]
District 8 covers several majority-Hispanic neighborhoods in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx, including Mott Haven, Port Morris, most of East Harlem, and parts of Highbridge, Concourse, and Longwood.[4] Randalls and Wards Islands are also a part of the district.
The district overlaps with Manhattan Community Board 11 and Bronx Community Boards 1, 2, and 4, and with New York's 12th, 13th, and 15th congressional districts. It also overlaps with the 29th, 30th, and 32nd districts of the New York State Senate, and with the 68th, 77th, 84th, and 85th districts of the New York State Assembly.[5]
The district is one of three in the City Council to span two different boroughs, the others being the 34th district in Brooklyn and Queens and the 50th district in Brooklyn and Staten Island. Although the 8th district's population is split evenly across Manhattan and the Bronx, its five most recent councilmembers have all hailed from Manhattan.
Due to redistricting and the 2020 changes to the New York City Charter, councilmembers elected during the 2021 and 2023 City Council elections will serve two-year terms, with full four-year terms resuming after the 2025 New York City Council elections.[6]
In 2019, voters in New York City approved Ballot Question 1, which implemented ranked-choice voting 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.[7]