New York City on Edge.
Lately many in have noticed a shift in NYC. Is this just a phase or is this a sea change? This is New York City on edge.
Not for the faint of heart.
New York is almost mythological in scale. Standing among its towers, a person can feel both energized and small: one life inside a vast machinery of concrete, steel, noise, and organized chaos. There is a price to live in this incredible hub of intellectual exchange and culture.
“New Yorkers temperamentally do not crave comfort and convenience—if they did they would live elsewhere.” E.B. White said in his 1948 essay Here is New York.
That observation still captures something essential about the city. People are willing to take a risk and be a little uncomfortable for the chance at success.
Opportunity—and the cost of pursuing it.
New York City on edge is its natural state. My concern is not that New York is expensive or demanding. It is that its government may increasingly treat the people who build, invest, and take risks as obstacles rather than participants in the city’s future.
A city needs functioning public services and consequences for abusive behavior. It also needs a credible answer to a basic question: who will pay to maintain and expand the systems on which those promises depend?
Compassion and economic realism are not opposites. Effective government requires both.
New York City on Edge.
As stated previously, many Brooklynites have felt a shift in NYC for a while. Perhaps it was the increasing homelessness. Or maybe it was all of the traffic and dysfunction just to drive within a mile of your own home. It could be the crumbling roads and infrastructure or lackluster public schools.
The pandemic was the most recent shock in collective memory. It. brought disagreements into sharp contrast over what government can reasonably demand in an emergency.
The study cited found that children faced an exceptionally low risk of death from COVID-19. It also found that the risk rose steeply with age and warned that infections among younger people could reach vulnerable adults.[nih]
Those findings do not settle whether vaccine mandates or closing schools for two years were necessary. But they do rule out an easy argument: that low mortality among children meant the disease posed little danger overall. The government’s reaction to COVID was not in holding with the constitution. This was one of many things that’s put New York City on edge.
Mamdani’s promises—and their price
As stated earlier, New York has always been a city on edge. Brooklynites want a mayor who eases tensions. Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned on affordability. His administration must now show that relief can be delivered without creating new financial problems elsewhere.
For residents already struggling with housing costs, the question is straightforward: will the administration make the city more affordable overall, or redistribute costs in ways that leave other households under greater pressure?
Mamdani’s preliminary fiscal year 2027 budget assumed a 9.5% property-tax-rate increase if the city did not obtain new revenue authority. That conditional proposal was citywide, not directed only at Brooklyn.
Mamdani’s Crusade against the rich.
The pied-à-terre tax illustrates both the appeal and the difficulty of Mamdani’s approach.
Supporters can reasonably argue that owners of expensive second homes should contribute more. Critics can reasonably ask whether additional taxes will discourage investment and whether taxation is even justified or moral.
The rollout has already produced a concrete dispute. The Department of Finance published a list containing names and addresses of more than 900,000 homeowners, including people whose properties were not subject to the surcharge. A judge ordered the city to narrow the roll and redo notices; the city appealed.
The strongest criticism is that a tax aimed at a particular category of property was implemented through an overbroad process that imposed confusion and costs on others.
Accuracy is not a minor administrative detail. It is part of fair government.
According to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, New York State’s share of nationwide filers reporting more than $1 million in adjusted gross income fell from 12% in 2013 to 8.7% in 2022. Yet the number of such filers in the state increased over that period. This means people are retaining New York City residency for access to services, but likely live in a place with lower taxes.
“The implications for other New Yorkers are clear. Currently, a single millionaire in New York pays the same amount of tax as about 39 average New Yorkers.” according to the National Tax Payers Union Foundation.
While it does not, by itself, prove a tax-driven exodus, it does raise legitimate questions about New York’s competitiveness.
The Cold Facts.
For a tenant facing another increase, a rent freeze is meaningful. The policy affects roughly one million rent-stabilized apartments.
But there’s more than mere affordability to consider. Immediate relief and dynamism are different objectives.
A freeze limits qualifying rent increases. It does not, on its own, add more affordable housing. Its long-term success should be judged alongside building conditions, maintenance spending, and investment—not simply the size of the increase avoided this year.
Humans have three basic needs: water, food, and shelter. One could make the case that a rundown apartment is better than being homeless.
The goal is make landlords’s jobs easier so they can deliver better quality for less. Allow the people to determine if a landlord thrives or not.
Enforcement—and the limits of government power.
Mamdani’s July Rental Ripoff Report proposed 23 policy actions, including stronger tenant organization, improved owner-registration systems, and enforcement against repeat-offender landlords.
His statements about transferring chronically neglected buildings to “responsible stewards” deserve particular scrutiny. In his May 26 remarks, he said the city would take legal action against negligent owners and seek transfers to entities that could include community land trusts, nonprofits, or tenants themselves.
The issue is not whether bad landlords are bad or not. They are. The issue is that Mamdani and Weaver want us to believe that government will be a miracle salve. Maybe initially the government could pour a lot of resources into renovating buildings. But afterwards, where will the momentum come from?
Without money the buildings would eventually fall into the same state of disrepair unless the will and material is there. These problems will not disappear just because government owns property.
Cea Weaver’s previous remarks.
Cea Weaver’s appointment to lead the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. It has brought renewed attention to past statements about private property, race, and homeownership and put New York City on edge. Some of those statements were inflammatory and merit scrutiny. Weaver has also said that some were regrettable and things she would not say today.
It would be remiss to disqualify Weaver of being capable of change. We’ve all said something regrettable at least once in our lives. It doesn’t seem that she has put much distance between her former self and who she is now though.
An official should be judged neither by old posts alone nor solely by a later expression of regret. The relevant test is whether her decisions demonstrate fairness, competence, and respect for New Yorkers. She has not shown that to be the case to some. Her policies will put the city more on edge.
The same standard should guide scrutiny of the mayor’s actions and associations.
The 9/11 Commemoration.
Mamdani commemorated 9/11 as a Day of Remembrance and Service on September 4th of this year. Unfortunately, like many things his administration has done, it’s been tinged with awkwardness and has put this New York City on edge.
It started when he weaved a story of an aunt of his. She wasn’t his aunt, but his father’s cousin who he called his aunt. He stated “I want to speak to the memory of my aunt who stopped taking the subway after September 11 because she did not feel safe in her hijab.” It was revealed this aunt never lived in New York City. Mamdani denies any wrongdoing.
Then there was the 9/11 commemoration itself. It was designated as a Day of Remembrance and Service. Mamdani signed two executive orders, the first commemorating 9/11, and the second ensuring civilians can access city services during emergencies.
That is good, but many were disturbed by who he chose to sign the first executive order. During the ceremony, Mamdani ceremonially handed the pen to Ramzi Kassem. He is a lawyer who represented an Al-Qaeda terrorist named Ahmed Al-Dharbi. Ahmed Al-Dharbi happened to be the brother-in-law of one of the 9/11 hijackers, Khalid al-Mihdhar.
This doesn’t make Kassem guilty by association. Why though is someone with such close proximity to a 9/11 hijacker at a ceremony for 9/11 victims?
Strange bedfellows.
Mamdani’s countless, strange bedfellows put New York City on edge. Many have noticed Mamdani routinely platforming people which leave an odd impression to put it mildly.
Reporting about Siraj Wahhaj’s statements on religious law and democracy raises legitimate questions about Mamdani’s choice to campaign with him. He has said “Islam is better than democracy. Allah will cause his deen [Islam as a complete way of life], Islam to prevail over every kind of system, and you know what? It will happen.”
In another statement Wahhaj said “If Allah says 100 strikes, 100 strikes it is. If Allah says cut off their hand, you cut off their hand. If Allah says stone them to death, through the Prophet Muhammad, then you stone them to death, because it’s the obedience of Allah and his messenger—nothing personal.”
How reassuring that it isn’t personal. Why is the mayor of, arguably, the greatest city on Earth giving time to a man whose values are medieval and completely opposed to our modern, diplomatic ones?
You don’t have to go any farther than Mamdani’s own wife, Rama Duwaji. She was exposed as having liked numerous posts on instagram celebrating the vile, barbaric attacks that Hamas and Gazans perpetrated against Israeli civilians on October 7th, 2023.
Recently it was revealed that Duwaji made illustrations for Olive Odyssey, which is an Arab olive oil company. It endorses “freedom fighters”. Hamas are heralded as freedom fighters. Freedom, as scholars understand it, does not include subjugation and indiscriminate violence.
City on edge.
New York will probably never be comfortable in the conventional sense. Its energy comes partly from friction: between ambitions, neighborhoods, interests, and ideas. But it also comes from a unifying belief in the power to impact real change in the world for the better. New York wouldn’t exist otherwise.
Mamdani should be judged by whether his administration expands opportunity, improves public services, maintains housing, and exercises power fairly. He has failed all of these so far.
New Yorkers do not need a city without tension. They need one in which the tension is meaningful.
Read our recent posts:
https://brooklynites.nyc/bridging-the-gap/
https://brooklynites.nyc/what-does-free-mean-a-question-for-americas-250th/
Sources:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7721859/
https://www.cato.org/commentary/build-homes-dont-seize-them-mayor-mamdani
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