Some nine million people live in New York City, where more than eight hundred languages are spoken. Wise people have said that governing the City is the second most challenging job in America.
Why has this for so long been such a difficult assignment? For starters, any NYC mayor needs to keep crime under control, get the public schools to effectively teach a million kids, and ensure that the subways are safe and work more or less on time. Once they’ve buttoned down those assignments---which few mayors have----there's another list, in fact many others, that will need to be addressed if they’re trying to do a good job.
Zohran Kwame Mamdani promises affordable housing, free buses and city-owned grocery stores, with no realistic plan to achieve any of those goals. He is a pure propagandist preaching his brand of magical thinking.
Government sponsored efforts to provide affordable housing to New Yorkers started more than seventy years ago. The management of many of those projects was given to the New York City Housing Authority. It has a terrible, long-term track record, plagued by both mismanagement of the ordinary variety, plus corruption. The housing stock managed by NYCHA is old and in need for some $80 billion in repairs. A sensible person would say the City should have no significant role in dealing with housing issues, as history shows this is not a task it is equipped to handle well.
The Rose family has long been invested in NYC real estate and Jonathan Rose has done some serious work in providing affordable housing in the City. You should read what he has to say about what’s required to provide affordable urban housing.
About half the apartments in NYC, nearly a million units, are rent-stabilized. The landlords of those apartments are limited in how much they can increase rents; must allow subletting; and need City approval before any major improvement costs can be passed on to tenants. Rents on these apartments went up 3% this year for a one-year lease, and 4.5% for a two-year term.
Mamdani wants to freeze rents on rent-stabilized apartments for at least the four-years of his term as Mayor. That action may be illegal, as a violation of the cons-titutional prohibition (the Fifth Amendment) against the taking of property without just compensation. Whether or not Mamdani's act would violate the Constitution, any rational landlord faced with that freeze would do whatever he could to reduce the costs of operating those buildings for the duration of the freeze. The tenants' rent may be frozen, but their living conditions will deteriorate. Mamdani's voters will feel this pain after they've elected him.
Around two and a half million people live in rent-stabilized apartments in the City. I've never been a landlord, but I can imagine some ways in which apartment owners could cut their operating costs. For instance, in 2026 the union contract with the residential property service workers in NYC (the doormen, supers, handymen) is up for re-negotiation. Dealing with a rent freeze, the building owners will dig in. They too will require a freeze of their labor costs. The union will balk and a long strike may ensue. Who knows how that will end? It wouldn't surprise me if the outcome is a noticeable diminution in services provided to those one million rent-stabilized apartments.
As mentioned, the existing housing stock managed by the NYCHA needs $80 billion in repairs, as many of those buildings are old and saddled with very large deferred maintenance costs. Mamdani wants to fund those repairs. Keep reading.
Mamdani's platform also advocates for the establishment of what he calls the Social Housing Development Authority, which he claims (with no evidence) will be able to borrow $100 billion dollars to fund construction of 200,000 apartments in the City over ten years. The SHDA is the NYCHA with the letters changed. Mamdani ignores the fact that this scheme was first tried in the City in the late 1950s, beginning with the Wagner Houses on 2nd Avenue and 123rd Street, a complex today of more than 2,000 units housing some 5,000 people.
Before getting into what life is like today in the Wagner Houses, a brief math summary. Mamdani needs to borrow or tax his way to $180 billion in money to deal with his housing plans. Keep in mind that NYC’s total debt load in 2024 was around $100 billion. So, of course, his plan to raise $180 billion for housing is nothing but pure propaganda.
This is what residents of the Wagner Houses have said about living there:
"Persistent rodents and trash: Residents report ongoing issues with rodents and improper garbage disposal, making them feel 'neglected and disrespected'.
Leaks and mold: Residents have reported serious and unaddressed leaks, which have led to mold growth and crumbling walls.
Unsecured and broken doors: The failure to promptly repair lobby doors in some buildings has made it easier for vandalism and drug use to occur in public areas.
Slow or unsatisfactory repairs: Many tenants express frustration over NYCHA's slow response time for repairs, with problems sometimes recurring even after a maintenance visit.
Lack of effective management: A recurring complaint is a general feeling of neglect, with residents frustrated that management fails to provide adequate and timely solutions "(emphasis supplied).
Mamdani is a MAGA politician in everything other than name. He espouses the same hot rhetoric about protecting the interests of the common man who's been whipsawed and abused for years by America's elites, and offers similarly vapid and non-sensical solutions to their problems. Populist pandering on the left is really no different from what Trump’s been doing.
Both MAGA and Mamdani are pure propagandists, spewing out campaign promises based on bullshit. MNYAA, 'make NY affordable again' has an extra letter, but it's otherwise a re-packaged take on MAGA. (I made that acronym up). Its goal of affordability is more specific than Trump's claim to know how greatness can be found, but those are minor stylistic details.
Mussolini's propaganda relied heavily on his claims that he would in modern Italy restore the glory of the Roman Empire. Both The Zohran and The Donald are also playing this restoration game and will end up as successful as Il Duce.
Politicians, unlike orchestra conductors, can wave their batons any way they wish, as their responsibilities are nowhere as demanding as those of a conductor. If and when chaos ensues, they'll just wave a different wand and utter another incantation. The public today, we've now seen at the ballot box, has taken this magical thinking as good news, whether coming from the left or the right.
I lived in the City for more than forty years. We raised our two children there, happily. We now live in Maine. If Mamdani is elected Mayor, the City will survive. It will certainly not thrive. Magical thinking never delivers good news.