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Thirty-three candidates have declared their intentions to run for Greensboro City Council seats this fall.

City voters will be asked to narrow the field with primaries Oct. 6 in the five council districts and the citywide at-large race. The election is Nov. 3.

All races except the mayor’s will have primaries.

An overview of the seven races:

Mayor

Greensboro’s incumbent Mayor Yvonne Johnson will face challenger Bill Knight.

Johnson, the city’s first black mayor, has led the City Council through an often tumultuous time.

Knight, a former accountant and treasurer for Howard Coble, has indicated he will stay away from personal attacks in his campaign.

At large

The field is crowded for the three at-large seats.

Voters will have a diversity of choices, such as seven-term City Council member Robbie Perkins and gang leader Jorge Cornell.

Greensboro voters will get to choose from Web-savvy political newbies — Ryan Shell and Max Benbassat — and campaign veterans such as incumbent Sandra Anderson Groat, former Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan and Marikay Abuzuaiter, who narrowly missed winning an at-large seat in 2007.

Rounding out the field are finance analyst Donnell “D.J.” Hardy; Julie Lapham, a nonprofit consultant; Danny Thompson, president of a senior home care company; and Gary Nixon, former owner of an engineering company.

District 1

Three-term incumbent T. Dianne Bellamy-Small will defend her seat against five candidates.

They include blogger Ben Holder; Luther T. Falls Jr., who came close to taking the incumbent’s seat in 2005; and Charles Coffey, another former challenger.

Newcomers Daron Sellars, an entrepreneur, and Jeramy Reid, a chef and McLeansville resident, join the mix.

District 2

Councilwoman Goldie Wells’ retirement leaves the District 2 seat open.

Long-time neighborhood advocates Nettie Coad and Jim Kee entered the race.

They will battle Dan Fischer, a retired Navy hospital corpsman, and Gordon Hester, who works with children.

District 3

One-term Councilman Zack Matheny will face two challengers — George Hartzman, a financial adviser who has been blogging his concerns about the city, and Jay Ovittore, a Human Relations Commission member and former congressional candidate.

District 4

One-term Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw has abandoned her at-large seat to run in District 4.

She will face Joel Landau, general manager of Deep Roots Market; William “Mike” Martin, a retired manager from Guilford Mills and Textiles; and retired Greensboro firefighter Joseph Rahenkamp.

District 5

Incumbent Trudy Wade will defend her seat against two challengers: retired college professor Arthur “Art” Boyett and David Crawford, who has lost recent bids for Guilford County school board and City Council.