ON AUGUST 18th thousands thronged a street festival called Harlem Day. Tyrese, a popular R&B singer, got the teens screaming, a gospel choir got the crowd clapping and Bill Thompson, who is running for mayor of New York, got them all singing. Flanked by two Harlem stalwarts, Charles Rangel, congressman for the 13th district, and Hazel Dukes, head of the New York chapter of the NAACP, a civil-rights lobby, Mr Thompson walked along 135th Street shaking hands and posing for photographs. A music vendor began to play the old Motown song “Don’t Mess with Bill”. It seemed as if all 135th Street sang along, except for another Bill, a Harlem resident. “I don’t know who I’m going to vote for,” he said. “It’s going to be tight.”

With less than three weeks to go until the Democratic primary, the race is indeed tight. Christine Quinn, the council Speaker, is neck-and-neck with Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, a sort of city ombudsman. Mr Thompson is not far behind. Even the unions are divided. The teachers back Mr Thompson, a careful pragmatist. Health-care workers support Mr de Blasio, a down-the-line liberal who was recently arrested while protesting a hospital closure. Ms Quinn, a savvy moderate, has the support of the doormen’s union. District Council 37, a large municipal union, backs John Liu, the comptroller, the city’s financial watchdog, who says his support is healthier than it looks: Asians like him.

It has been a strange race and a crowded one. As well as all of the above, it still includes Anthony Weiner, who resigned as a congressman after tweeting obscene pictures of himself, and whose polling numbers are now minute. Mr Weiner’s oversized ego might have been a good fit for the city. New Yorkers like their mayors to be characters. Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani both were. Even Michael Bloomberg, the outgoing mayor, has a certain charisma. Today’s candidates are less exciting.

Mr Thompson, who narrowly lost to Mr Bloomberg in 2009, is an even-keel, sensible sort. He thinks, for instance, that stop ’n’ frisk, a controversial police tactic, can be useful occasionally. Ms Quinn used to be closely aligned with Mr Bloomberg—too closely, say critics—and as Speaker has been friendly to business. She worked closely with Andrew Cuomo, the governor, to legalise gay marriage in the state. Her big competition is Mr de Blasio, who makes much of his progressive beliefs. He blames Mr Bloomberg for the city’s growing income disparities, hoping to win votes not only among white liberals but also among blacks. He is married to a black woman, and his teenage son Dante, who sports a huge afro, is the star of his TV ads.

But will New York go for a Democrat at all? Democrats outnumber Republicans there, yet New Yorkers have voted for a Republican or an independent in the past five mayoral elections. Steve Malanga of the Manhattan Institute, a New York think-tank, points out that in both 1993, when Mr Giuliani won, and 2001, when Mr Bloomberg first won, people were afraid. New York two decades ago was a place where crime was rampant. In 2001 the city had just been attacked by terrorists. Today’s voters, especially the young, do not feel they are in any particular danger.

This lack of fear may hurt the Republicans who are running. Joe Lhota, who headed the region’s transport authority when Hurricane Sandy struck last year, has proved he is good in a crisis; but there is no crisis.

Financial trouble looms, however. Municipal employees have been working without contracts, some for four years or more, and are demanding retroactive pay rises. The city, with pension obligations of $8 billion, could do without this added burden. The next mayor, opines John Calascione, a Brooklyn man sitting on his front step, will have to be able to say no.