Let’s try the inexperienced socialist!
Life in the Big Apple is getting rougher. Extreme violence is on the rise. Homelessness rates are exploding. With increasing rents, utilities, and food prices, yet stagnant income growth, New York City civilians are at their wits ends. But New York City voters announced clearly: let’s try the inexperienced socialist!
New York City has always been a center of dynamism.
From the Dutch settlement of Manhattan and Brooklyn and up to the present, New York City has been an ever-burgeoning venture. This is a city of constant growth and regeneration. It is a city bursting with opportunity. People have arrived penniless from all over the world, who rose victorious, the captains of their destiny.
Indeed, the list of luminaries who built this place is extensive. From the Rockefellers, the Astors, the Vanderbilts, Frederick Law Olmsted, John A. Roebling, and Robert Moses. There are many more who aren’t mentioned. We owe New York City’s distinct flavor and skyline to them all.
Commerce and competition is what drove the transformation of New York City from a piece of humble earth to today’s glittering skyscrapers. Pure grit and determination were the fuel.
Who is the inexperienced socialist?
Zohran Mamdani was born October 18, 1991 to Mira Nair and Mahmud Mamdani in Kampala, Uganda. Mira Nair is a film director and Mahmud Mamdani is a post-colonialist historian at Columbia University. The Mamdanis lived in Uganda until Zohran was five, after which they moved to Cape Town, South Africa. While living in South Africa, Mahmud worked at the University of Cape Town. Zohran Mamdani attended St. George’s Grammar School.
Eventually the Mamdani’s moved to Morning Side Heights. Zohran Mamdani’s childhood was more privileged than most. He often accompanied his mother to the film sets she was working on, where he was adored by film crew and actors. Mamdani stated himself “I never had to want for something, and yet I knew that was not in any way the reality for most New Yorkers.”
What are Zohran Mamdani’s qualifications?
Before he ran as for mayor, Mamdani was a housing director and had a brief stint as a rapper. He first entered politics as campaign manager. In June of 2020 Mamdani was elected to represent New York City’s 36th district, and was re-elected in 2022 and 2024. Prior to his political career, Mamdani was a rapper who went by the pseudonym “Young Cardamom”.
Why do people want to take a chance on the inexperienced socialist?
As stated previously, New Yorkers truly have been feeling the impact of ever growing grocery and utilities prices, yet sluggish wage increases. Mamdani’s platform focuses on easing various burdens on New Yorkers. Therefore, it makes sense that many New Yorkers say “let’s try the inexperienced socialist.”
There are four main points of interest in Mamdani’s platform. First is Housing, in which he proposes freezing rent and drastically increasing affordable housing. Next is Safety, which addresses growing homelessness, the result of a lack of access to mental health services. Then Affordability proposes city-owned grocery stores and free bus fares. Finally is Early Childhood & Education, which proposes free childcare and baby baskets for newborns.
What could possibly go wrong with the inexperienced socialist?
A word that occurs with great frequency in Mamdani’s platform proposals is “free”. There is a great emphasis on making things entirely free and reducing or capping people’s personal living expenses. Everyone likes to spend less money, but cheaper can have consequences. Nothing is truly free.
A rent freeze might offer immediate relief, but it could potentially lead to poor outcomes for renters eventually. Properly maintaining a property is costly. What would happen if Mamdani’s proposal were enacted? The prices of goods and services would keep going up, but the rent wouldn’t keep up. Eventually less scrupulous landlords might decide to stop maintaining properties altogether, leading to all kinds of quality issues for renters.
This is only one example. Everything Mamdani is insisting on requires an incredible amount of money. While campaigning, Zohran promised to eliminate bus fares, while increasing bus speed and efficiency. Zohran has already admitted that taxes would need to increase to provide for his “free bus rides” before he has even entered office. None of this will be free because taxes will be increased if any of this is enacted, which brings us to the next problem.
Chasing the rich out.
As mentioned earlier, New York City has always been about growth, economic and vertical. It was New York City’s economic growth that enabled the skyline to explode. New York City has historically been a financial powerhouse. What attracted the great thinkers, planners, and architects of this city were the immense opportunities. They weren’t punished for ideas that flourished and that were lucrative. People loved them for being so innovative because it meant the city would thrive even more.
Elites, financial or intellectual, not being as drawn to New York City has a negative impact. Their tax dollars is what fuels much of our infrastructure, from garbage collection, the MTA, bridges and roads, to so many of the institutions that have dubbed New York City “the best city in the world.”
New York City has already lost a considerable percentage of the nation’s millionaires. According to cbcnyc.org “In 2010, New York had 12.7 percent of the nation’s millionaires—resident household tax filers with more than $1 million in federal adjusted gross income (AGI). By 2022, the most recent data available, New York’s share had shrunk 4 percentage points to 8.7 percent.”
The top bracket of New York City’s elite already pay 14% taxes on their income, for anyone who makes one million dollars or more. Mamdani plans on adding an additional flat rate of 2% to their taxes. The rich don’t have to relocate to a new city or state for New York City to feel the brunt of this. The rich can simply live in Long Island, upstate, or New Jersey, and commute to the city for work.
What will become of New York City under Mamdani as mayor?
No one can say for sure what Mamdani will be like for the city, despite the potential pitfalls of his stated propositions. New York City has always thrived on competition, and now Mamdani is saying what it needs is the exact opposite. Though there is reason for great concern, we here at Brooklynites will continue to wish Mamdani a successful mayoral run, for the well-being of our citizens and our beloved city. We will remain critical however.
As always, I and the team at Brooklynites, thank you for your attention and time.
Read about the incredible history of Brooklyn (also Brooklynites’ very first article!):
https://brooklynites.nyc/could-the-universe-have-ever-existed-without-a-brooklyn-ny/
Read about the history of the Brooklyn Bridge:
https://brooklynites.nyc/the-brooklyn-bridge-made-new-york-city/
The Case for the Sexual Cosmos:
https://brooklynites.nyc/the-case-for-the-sexual-cosmos/
Resources:
https://www.osc.ny.gov/press/releases/2025/01/dinapoli-numbers-homeless-population-doubled-new-york
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/escape-from-new-york-2025-millionaire-edition/
https://cbcny.org/research/hidden-cost-new-yorks-shrinking-millionaire-share
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