Incumbent mayor Robert A. Van Wyck was not a candidate for re-election to a second term in office. Former mayor of Brooklyn Seth Low, running on a reformist platform, defeated by Democratic U.S. representative George B. McClellan Jr.
The Van Wyck administration was brought down in 1900 following a proposed doubling in the price of ice by the American Ice Company from 30 cents per hundred pounds to 60 cents. Before the invention of commercial refrigeration, ice was the only preservative available for food, milk, and necessary medicines; therefore, the proposed increase had potentially fatal implications.
In response to public outcry, a public investigation revealed that American Ice had secured a monopoly over the product through Tammany Hall maneuvering and that Van Wyck had been gifted over $680,000 ($20,478,719 in 2023) in company stock. The scandal destroyed Van Wyck's reputation and dramatically worsened the public standing of Tammany Hall, although a state investigation initiated by Governor Theodore Roosevelt later absolved Van Wyck of personal wrongdoing.
Carmer, Carl (1948). "From Van Wyck to O'Dwyer". In Nevins, Allan; Krout, John A. (eds.). The Greater City: New York, 1898-1948. New York: Columbia University Press. LCCN48008678.
