Left-leaning candidate Zohran Mamdani is poised to take over the mayoral reins of New York City following his recent triumph in the city’s primary. His firebrand socialist nature aims to instigate a massive overhaul in the city’s policy framework. Mamdani is peddling his narrative of implementing heavy taxes on the rich, doling out free childcare, and proposing to shell out a whopping $65 million on transgender healthcare. Furthermore, he is promoting populist ideologies like free public buses, rent freezes for rent-stabilized apartments, and envisioning city-owned grocery stores.
His policies even extend to radically diminishing the budget of the New York City Police Department, expressing support for pro-Palestine movements, and vowing to take legal actions against the Israeli Prime Minister. His victory speech on Tuesday night alluded to a city ridiculously affordable for the ordinary citizen.
In a city fraught with divisions amidst Israel’s campaign against Hamas, following the October 7 attacks, Mamdani’s startlingly pro-Palestinian stance has ignited fury among New York’s Jewish communities. Mamdani unabashedly endorses the term ‘genocide’ to describe Israeli military actions, all while pledging to ‘protect Jewish New Yorkers’. His extensive 17-page public safety plan cunningly talks about combatting antisemitism and advocating for a New York City ‘free from hate violence’.
During an appearance alongside fellow Democratic candidate Brad Lander on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’, he was pressed on his position on Israel. He reiterated his belief that Israel has a right to exist, alongside a responsibility to uphold international law, while emphasizing his pledge to uphold Palestinian human rights. This surely casts doubts on the selective application of international laws.
Mamdani’s radical proposals of spending a massive $65 million of taxpayer money on building a transgender treatment facility, including treatment for minors, raises eyebrows about economic feasibility. He further shocks the public by stating he’d target private hospitals that deny transgender youth care. Should he be elected, his slogans assert that he’d hold such institutions accountable by initiating investigations and public hearings through New York state Attorney General Letitia James and local DA’s. His campaign to fund his proposed LGBTQIA+ Office with a further $87 million also seems rather extravagant.
In past instances, Mamdani has advocated for defunding the New York City Police Department, sometimes referring to the organization as a ‘rogue agency’. His claims of not hiring additional police forces but rather establishing a Department of Community Safety, bring up concerns about adequate law enforcement.
In a recent debate, he was heard stating, ‘I will not defund the police. I will work with the police because I believe the police have a critical role to play in creating public safety.’ Yet, he insists on slashing their overtime budget and the department’s $80 million communications budget. Moreover, his misplaced call to stop crimes before they occur and address the root causes of crime only seem to mask his true intentions against law enforcement.
His campaign is deeply rooted in the narrative that the cost of living in New York City is obscenely high. To win votes, Mamdani promises free buses, city-run grocery stores and no-cost, child care. In his vision, these radical plans would be funded through an unrealistically large $10 billion in new revenue, sourced exclusively from high taxes on businesses and the most prosperous New Yorkers.
He adds to this economic mess by proposing a colossal $70 billion investment in publicly subsidized housing and promoting more public land for housing development. His website asserts his commitment to provide more affordable housing, pledging to triple the city’s production of publicly subsidized, permanent, union-built, rent-stabilized homes, building 200,000 new units over the next decade.
Mamdani strays from fiscal responsibility, as he fails to consider a simple reality of living in NYC where an average three-bedroom apartment can easily cost $6,000 a month. A review by Politico, however, exposed the immense underestimation in the actual costs tied to housing construction and school renovation plans amounting to tens of billions of dollars.
His win has guaranteed his participation against a broad field of contenders in the November general election. Nevertheless, his severe underestimation of economic reality, questionable viewpoints on international affairs, and radical socio-political proposals call into question his suitability to lead a city as diverse and bustling as New York.