It is election season in New York City.  Flyers litter the ground.  Favorite TV shows are broken up by ads for candidates.  Men and women in red T-shirts jostle each other at every street corner on the Upper West Side: “vote de Blasio!” “Vote no on casinos!” “Anybody but Quinn!”

It may be election season in New York, but life at Rose Hill is carrying on as usual.

Fordham is far removed from the Vietnam era when the university was a hub of the counterculture and students took over the administration building in political protest.

But, the elections this year could be bringing some serious changes to the five boroughs.

Bill de Blasio did manage to ride his wave of support from New York’s Democrats into city hall.  De Blasio is the first Democratic mayor in this liberal city since 1993, and he plans to bring some changes to the city — even to the borough Rose Hill calls home.

To find out what issues Rose Hill students should look at during and after the elections, Fordham in the Bronx spoke to Dr. Bruce Berg of Fordham’s political science department.

Berg came to New York in 1977 and has been absorbing the city’s politics ever since.

He has taught classes like New York City Politics and Urban Health and the Environment.  Here’s what he had to say:

On what de Blasio could mean for the City and the Bronx:

For the first time in 20 years you’re going to have a left-leaning City Council and a left-leaning Mayor. So, a lot of issues that are near and dear to the Bronx you would think are going to be addressed — healthcare issues, housing issues, income issues, hunger issues.

What’s this new configuration in Manhattan in the city government going to do for the Bronx?

On the one hand, ideologically, you’d think it’d be a plus, but the Bronx hasn’t played a major role in terms of leadership in quite some time. Will de Blasio appoint some Bronx city council members to his cabinet? No idea there.

What the Mayor could do for crime:

Either the level of crime reporting and transparency has increased, or the level of crime has increased. And the mayor, through the appointment of the police commissioner, is going to have a significant impact on what the police are up to. Obviously stop-and-frisk is certainly one of those issues. But, [also] who’s patrolling what? What’s the emphasis gonna be?

On the Mayor’s potential influence on the university:

The city government has little to no impact on private higher education. It’s a state/federal issue, it’s not a city issue.

So in terms of Fordham’s existence, [there will be no impact] unless de Blasio tries to raise taxes on non-profit institutions or raise their fees — and that’s been tried in the past.

On issues affecting the Bronx:

Housing’s an issue.  If real estate [prices] continue to increase… There are footholds — teachers, artists — in the South Bronx.  We’re getting to see gentrification take place.

The Grand Concourse corridor — little bit of activity taking place. Obviously slowed down a lot by the recession, but assuming we get out of the recession…

On other issues affecting Rose Hill students in the city elections:

Is the city going to invest in this area of the Bronx? Is outer borough economic development going to be a priority? You would think it would be in a de Blasio administration, but he may have other things in mind.

If and when the Bronx emerges — development will come from the south moving north, but there will also be pockets that will develop before that. This is clearly going to be one of those pockets because you’ve got the Botanical Garden, you’ve got the zoo, you’ve got Fordham, you’ve got Arthur Avenue.

So you’ve already got an anchor for development. Arthur Avenue is not yet a place where people who are moving into the city are saying ‘I want to live there!’ But a few more amenities, and it may very well be one of those places.

One of those gentrification outposts that emerges. That would be something that future Fordham students would want to watch. I think the current crop are probably safe.

(This interview has been rearranged and condensed.)