This year’s mayoral election shook many New Yorkers’ beliefs to the core and reminded us of how divided and diverse our city truly is.

Although Mayor Michael Bloomberg won re-election, he only beat Comptroller William Thompson by five points. The close results were unexpected; Bloomberg entered Election Day with a double-digit lead in the polls.

Thompson’s strong showing suggests voters held him in high esteem after all, though it also points to Bloomberg’s unpopularity. Across New York, were turned off by his record-breaking campaign spending, or else by his arrogant governing style. Many people felt the city’s richest resident bought the election,

“I know Bloomberg is a billionaire,” said Juana, a Bushwick resident who voted for Thompson and only gave her first name. “He’s with rich people. He thinks the world is rich. Thompson is with us, the poor people.”

Voting patterns in a three-block radius of Juana’s working class Bushwick neighborhood are instructive. There, Bloomberg is generally unpopular, but it appears voters voted for him anyway.

The cross section of Bushwick is bounded roughly by Myrtle and Wilson Avenues to the north and south, and Grove and Linden Streets to the west and east.

The area includes apartments buildings, the Hope Gardens public housing complex, and P.S. 116. According to a New York Times election results map, the patch of Bushwick voted overwhelmingly for Bloomberg, while the surrounding neighborhood voted almost exclusively for Thompson. (Thompson carried Brooklyn by several points).

What explains this discrepancy? Several factors.

The diverse neighborhood is comprised of working-class immigrants, families, and elderly residents (many of whom live in Hope Gardens), who have different priorities and political perspectives. Bloomberg’s mega campaign resonated with some voters, and didn’t with others.

Edward Salas, a Bushwick resident for over 30 years, said Bloomberg manipulated Spanish-language advertising to court the Latino vote. “He [Bloomberg] doesn’t care about this neighborhood.”

According to Salas, rent in his neighborhood has been skyrocketing out of control. “Ten years ago, apartments went for $800, $900 a month. Now, new residents have driven rents up to $1,400, $1,500 a month.”

Salas said he has friends who voted for Bloomberg anyway. He thinks they bought into the mayor’s message that he was the right candidate to fix the economy. If Bloomberg won, Salas said his friends reasoned, finding jobs could be easier.

Another Bloomberg skeptic named Francisco spends his days on Grove Street selling fish out of cooler. The Bushwick resident, who proudly voted for Thompson, said Bloomberg “does not work well with poor people.”

Though some Bushwick residents were clearly fraught with concern for a third Bloomberg term, the results show most people around Hope Gardens voted for him anyway.

Finding ones like Anna Portillo who would admit they did wasn’t easy.

Portillo said despite identifying with Thompson as a person of color, she felt that Bloomberg has helped Latinos in the city. “I [wanted to] vote for Thompson,” Portillo said, “but in the end I felt more comfortable going with the current mayor.”

Hector Sanchez, a volunteer for the community organization Make the Road New York was not surprised to hear that his section of Bushwick went for Bloomberg. Sanchez attributed the results to the “gullible” nature of many Hope Gardens residents, who he believes were uninformed on the issues and susceptible to Bloomberg’s campaign advertising blitz.

“It’s not so much surprising as expected. Hope Gardens is a community of predominantly older people,” he said. “Most of them, in my opinion, may not have a grasp on the issues.”

Sanchez used his 77-year-old father, who voted for Bloomberg, as an example.

“His political views are much more conservative than that of younger people in the neighborhood,” Sanchez said. “Younger people in Bushwick are more involved, progressive, not as easily fooled as the older generation. The older generation believes that you should always go with the man who holds the power. Better the devil you know.”

While many had their minds made up regarding the election, several residents found themselves torn. Of those people who had a hard time deciding, some took their confusion to the polls, while others decided to stay home.

Lisa Lewison, a Hope Gardens resident who did not vote, said she did not feel compelled to help decide the city’s future mayor. Although she hopes for a minimum wage increase, she said, “neither Bloomberg or Thompson seemed to care about that.”

“I just wasn’t interested” in voting, she added.