Zohran Mamdani is now New York City’s first Democratic Socialist Mayor-elect, and with him comes a slew of initiatives marketed as making the Big Apple more affordable, safer, and more equitable. While this sounds good in theory (as political promises often do), Mamdani’s champagne socialism will only push rich New Yorkers away from the city, and leave the middle and working classes to foot the bill. Even if NY Governor Kathy Hochul weren’t already opposed to Mamdani’s “Tax-the-Rich” plans, and Mamdani somehow received the support of the more traditionally Democrat-run state legislature and various administrative agencies, his policies are not realistically sustainable for an almost-9-million-strong city, and will only leave New Yorkers in a worse place than where they were at before the barrage of TikTok edits and snappy Instagram ads of a socialist utopia.
Rent Freezes and Affordable Housing Will Force People Out of Their Homes
The Mayor-elect’s campaign promised 200,000 new affordable housing units over the next ten years. Mamdani’s solution is to establish community land trusts to buy up housing on the private markets and to convert them into “beautiful, high-quality social housing projects that offer good homes and strong communities to everyone.”
How can NYC create more “affordable housing” in an already crowded city landscape? We don’t need to guess. We only need to look at Europe, where in Berlin and Stockholm, rent controls led to housing availability quickly drying up—leaving people with no means to rent at all. Grey markets soon emerged where landlords started charging tenants for furniture or kitchen equipment as a condition of their leases. In Stockholm particularly, heavy rent regulation also created a black market for unregulated rental agreements, where one in five young tenants have admitted to paying for illegal rental contracts, just for a chance to live in the capital.
But certainly Mamdani’s affordable housing construction plans will fare better in NYC? The Big Apple is already one of the most regulated real estate markets in the world, with New York’s public housing program in charge of providing shelter to almost 530,000 residents across 335 sites. Meanwhile, these “affordable” housing units are falling apart. Currently, there is an approximate $78 billion backlog in city repairs to apartments suffering from “non-functioning smoke detectors, antiquated electrical components, damaged interiors, missing child guards, missing AC brackets, deteriorated windows, deteriorated roofs, deteriorated pumps, and leaking pipes.” To make matters worse, the average New York “affordable housing” building is roughly 60 years old, while 70% of the portfolio was built prior to 1970.
Considering the widespread corruption within NYC’s already bloated housing bureaucracy, how realistically can Mamdani provide ample and safe affordable housing to New York’s needy, without running up astronomical costs?
You know who won’t be too concerned about unrealistic expectations surrounding affordable housing? The approximate 765,000 people (that’s 9% of NYC’s population) packing their bags and moving out of New York for greener pastures. Meanwhile, less fortunate residents will have to stay put, and bear the brunt of Mamdani’s half-baked policy positions.
Mamdani’s Social Worker Scheme Leaves New Yorkers Less Safe
In addition to his housing goals and government supermarket plans, Mamdani has ideas about the criminal justice system. He wants to defund the police; close Rikers Island prison and release 8,000 inmates into the general populace; and end misdemeanor arrests while deprioritizing “unserious” crimes like forcible touching, third-degree assault, and sexual misconduct. Likewise, Mamdani’s proposed “Office of Community Safety” would replace NYPD officers with unarmed social workers when addressing “mental health” episodes, regardless of the level of danger or violence posed to innocent New Yorkers.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has led a progressive crusade to liberalize law and order since he was first elected in 2022. Despite being the city’s top prosecutor, Bragg’s soft-on-crime policies have seen a 52% reduction of all felony charges to mere misdemeanors—including violent assaults. This has led to a reported 13.2% increase in felony assaults, a 10.10% increase in rapes, and a 30% increase in robberies, all in the same year.
Despite claiming to want to reduce violent crime, Bragg has instead let violent repeat offenders free, and has actively ignored cases of clear violent assault, including the battery of a pro-life activist during a street interview back in April. The message is clear: the DA’s office is no longer interested in prosecuting misdemeanors, and will do whatever it can to downgrade violent assaults and other crimes, wherever it can.
Meanwhile, Mamdani himself has enjoyed the protection of private security while he campaigned this summer and fall, paying $8,000 in June alone to a private security firm. While politicians are afforded the luxury of 24/7 private security protection, average New Yorkers will be left exposed to double-digit increases in felony assaults on their subway commute to work. Where’s the equity in that?
Mamdani’s plans promise “fairness” but will make life harder for everyday residents of the city.
The post New York’s New Leadership Offers Champagne Socialism was first published by the Foundation for Economic Education, and is republished here with permission. Please support their efforts.
