Photo by: Maria Villasenor

Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio shakes hands with supporter Gail Badger, assistant general manager of Co-op City’s management company, Marion Scott Real Estate.

Bill de Blasio stopped by a Co-op City shopping center in the Bronx to greet residents at the third stop of his Election Day stump shortly before noon.

“Wherever we go, people are talking about the issues that matter,” said the Democratic frontrunner.

Like more services for senior citizens and after-school programs for children, said Dorothy Ransom, 88.

“The teenagers, they need things to do,” said Ransom, who sat in the Bartow Mall courtyard chatting with other residents before de Blasio arrived. The registered Democrat hadn’t yet picked her favorite candidate, but planned to decide before her daughter took her to vote this evening.

When Leslie Sullivan saw de Blasio campaigning at the shopping center, she brought her fellow school bus drivers to greet the candidate. She said de Blasio would get her vote after her shift ended. Sullivan was critical of Mayor Bloomberg’s treatment of her union and his policy on pay protections for union workers. Sullivan’s union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181, led a weeks-long school bus strike earlier this year.

“I travel from Staten Island, I work here all day. I need more than $10 an hour,” Sullivan said.

De Blasio said his voters are looking for a new, progressive vision out of Gracie Manor.

“That’s why we’re getting such extraordinary support because I think most people in the city realize the end of the Bloomberg years were not where we need to be,” he told reporters.

Dissatisfaction with the city’s stop-and-frisk policy led Vonte Nelson to a West Farms voting booth earlier this morning. Nelson, 22, voted for de Blasio because of the candidate’s opposition to the Bloomberg measure.

“I can’t walk down the street without getting stopped,” Nelson said. “I just want to be able to live in my community without getting stopped.”