If centrist Democrats in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island do not flock to the polls and vote on Primary Day, June 24, 2025, the next mayor of New York City will be Zohran Mamdani, a radical socialist.
If that happens, it will be 1975 redux.
Half a century ago this summer, the cumulative effect of Mayor John Lindsay left wing policies caught up. The city was in shambles fiscally, economically, and socially.
And if Mamdani becomes the city’s chief executive, his similar “pie in the sky” policies will bring the Big Apple to its knees once again.
Why?
At the top of Mamdani’s costly list of reckless promises is his proposal to “freeze rents” on rent-stabilized apartments, about 50% of the housing stock.
If implemented, it will significantly increase the number of apartments presently off the market (about 60,000) because rent receipts do not cover the skyrocketing costs of heating fuel, maintenance, and needed capital improvements.
In other words: a freeze on rents will only escalate the housing crisis.
To add insult to injury, Mamdani has called for an additional $70 billion to be spent on public housing.
Apparently, Mamdani doesn’t know that the City’s corrupt and mismanaged Housing Authority (NYCHA), which runs the apartment projects, is the poster child for why government should stay out of the residential real estate business.
A scathing Citizens Budget Commission report, released in 2023, noted that “Decades of deferred maintenance, insufficient capital investment, and inadequate management have allowed the New York City Housing Authority’s buildings to deteriorate, diminishing the quality of life for its more than 400,000 residents.”
Public housing has been an unending nightmare for struggling working-class tenants forced to live in uninhabitable apartments.
As for Mamdani’s proposal — it’s even too much for his fellow left-adherent, Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate.
He said NYCHA is “the worst landlord for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers.”
Then there’s Mamdani’s laundry list of free stuff he will hand out that has a price tag of $10 billion annually.
Mamdani promises to eliminate fares on buses, eliminate tuition at City University (CUNY), and to provide free childcare for children up to the age of five.
How will he pay for these handouts?
He will hike corporate taxes from 7.25% to 11.5% and slap an additional 2% income tax on top earners who already pay the highest combined state and city income taxes in the nation!
What Mamdani fails to grasp is that, at the present time, 1% of the City’s top-earning households — 33,000 families — pay 50% of total income tax revenues collected.
If only 10% of those families decide to flee to the less costly surrounding suburbs, the City’s tax base will collapse.
Likewise, if corporations (i.e., Wall Street firms) pull up stakes and move to low-tax states, the revenue from city’s corporate and commercial real estate tax collections will take a nosedive.
Mamdani also supports raising the minimum wage to $30 an hour—a measure that would force merchants to cut staff, raise prices, or to close.
The mayoral wannabe, who supported the “Defund the Police” movement, has pledged not to hire more police officers, to end overtime, and to eliminate the Strategic Response Police Group that manages riots.
But there’s more than just Mamdani’s delusional proposals.
Assemblyman Mamdani refused to co-sponsor a legislative resolution acknowledging the Holocaust. He has denounced the war on Hamas and the Israeli page operation that targeted Hezbollah members.
In a recent mayoral debate, he would not acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.
To top things off, Mamdani told The New York Times that the best mayor in his lifetime was the hapless and incompetent Bill de Blasio.
He’s happily accepted the endorsement of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Back in the 1970s, two centrist Democrats, Governor Hugh Carey and Mayor Ed Koch, were credited with restoring the city to sound financial and economic footing.
To stop Mamdani, a 21st century John Lindsay, from wrecking the city, sane Democrats should consider supporting another pragmatic Democrat.
They might follow the lead of the three-term centrist mayor, Michael Bloomberg.
On June 10 he stated, “There is one candidate whose management experience and government know-how stands above the others: Andrew Cuomo. Alluding to Mamdani he added, “Cuomo focused on solving problems rather than engaging in ideological or partisan warfare.”
Centrist Democrats, if you think Bloomberg is right, you better get out to vote on June 24.
George J. Marlin, a former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is the author of “The American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years of Political Impact,” and “Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy.” Read George J. Marlin’s Reports — More Here.
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