In a stunning result, 33-year old Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist in his third term in the New York State assembly, defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor. He won with a progressive platform that energized voters, but which many observers think is impractical or actually dangerous for the city. Can he deliver?
Can Mamdani Deliver Practical Solutions?
In an interview with journalist Derek Thompson, who has criticized Mamdani’s policy ideas, Mamdani directly addressed the problem of how he would govern. He said “leadership can…be someone who recognizes what they know and what they don’t know and surrounds themselves with people who challenge them.” And he said “the way I would approach running the city is to be wedded to outcomes, not wedded to the means by which we get to those outcomes.”
That’s the core challenge if Mamdani becomes mayor of New York City, as now seems likely. His recent statements suggest he’s well aware of the operational challenges of actually trying to run New York City. But he faces a lot of skepticism, rooted not only in opposition to some of his policies, but also his lack of experience.
Mamdani’s Critics: “Terror is the Feeling”
Mamdani energized voters by advocating a wide range of progressive policies, including building affordable housing, freezing rents on over 900,000 apartments, free buses with no fare, building and operating city-owned grocery stores, and universal free child care. These would be paid for by raising the corporate income tax and the personal income tax on people earning over $1 million annually, along with a $70 billion increase in the city’s borrowing.
When reviewing Mamdani’s program, economist Noah Smith spoke for many observers when he said “some of these ideas are just bad.” Commentator Josh Barro went further, saying Mamdani’s ideas “are just bad, bad, bad” across the board.
The concerns are deeply felt. Kathryn Wylde, chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, perhaps New York’ leading private sector business leadership organization, with a long history of working with city government, was asked to describe how business leaders felt about a Mamdani mayoralty. Her response? “Terror is the feeling.”
Does Mamdani “Ignore” The Realities Of Governance?
Aside from straight disagreements over taxation and private investment, a core question for Mamdani is how to reconcile his aspirational policies with the political and operational realities of governing.
New York City has an annual budget of over $110 billion. It has over 300,000 employees, in over 40 separate agencies. And it allocates over $16 billion annually to non-profits that provide a wide range of services, including homeless shelters, child care, elder services, food banks, and workforce development.
It is a vast and hard-to-run government. And Mamdani has virtually no relevant experience in government, private sector, or non-profit operations. The New York Times editorial board, which no longer endorses candidates, called out Mamdani’s “thin” experience, and said “we do not believe Mr. Mamdani deserves a spot on New Yorkers’ ballots.” They argued he “too often ignores the unavoidable trade-offs of governance.”
Mamdani Says He’s Learning
Mamdani is bright and charismatic, and he’s heard these critiques. He recently engaged with Derek Thompson, a co-author of the best-selling book Abundance, which argues that progressive Democrats have enacted administrative and regulatory policies that block policies for the goals they espouse.
In that conversation, Mamdani says “we on the left have to be equally passionate about public excellence” as the left is about expanding “public goods.” He recognizes (at least verbally) that “any example of public inefficiency is an opportunity for the argument to be made against the very existence of the public sector.”
On a centrally-important issue—housing affordability—Mamdani has softened some of his positions. The New York Times asked all mayoral candidates “what’s one issue in politics that you’ve changed your mind about?” Mamdani’s response-“the role of the private market in housing construction…I clearly recognize now that there is a very important role” for private investment in solving housing affordability.
This would be a significant change. In 2022, Mamdani protested a $ 2 billion private housing development in Queens, saying the proposal for 25% of the units to be affordable was inadequate and would cause displacement and gentrification. He also opposed the extensive of a major tax exemption incentive for private developers, again arguing it produced inadequate affordable housing.
These earlier positions are what some would call classic left-NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) arguments. As I’ve argued before, some on the left embrace myths about housing that prevent solutions to our affordability crisis, and Mamdani’s earlier positions fall squarely into those myths.
There has been significant movement by many progressives towards recognizing the private sector role in addressing housing affordability. All of the city’s progressive mayoral candidates accept that, a position you wouldn’t have seen even five years ago. But it remains to be seen how Mamdani’s rhetorical stance about a private sector role in housing construction can be squared with his earlier positions in actual practice.
Mamdani’s Challenge: Campaign In Poetry, Govern In Prose
Similar challenges face many of Mamdani’s ideas. Can or should New York City effectively run low-income neighborhood grocery stores, which would compete with small bodegas? Can the city absorb an additional $70 billion in debt? If rents are frozen, what happens to small landlords’ ability to renovate and maintain their units? (NYU economist Mark Willis says hundreds of thousands of affordable units are at risk with continuing low rents.) If bus fares go to zero, where will the revenue for more frequent and reliable service come from?
Many other questions will face a Mayor Mamdani, including housing the homeless, mental illness and drug use, policing and jails, and New York’s sorry public education. In all of these areas, Mamdani has staked out progressive positions criticized by some as impractical or counterproductive.
Of course, he won’t (and shouldn’t) abandon his values and vision. That’s what’s energized voters, especially young people, and is giving them hope that government can actually accomplish something positive. Mamdani’s challenge—as it would be for any mayor—is how to get results in a tough political world, made even harder by the assaults on cities and equity coming from the Trump Administration.
Regarding the challenge of how to get things done in government, New York Governor Mario Cuomo (Andrew’s father) famously said, “you campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose.”
Mamdani’s got the poetry, and it has inspired a movement in New York for real change and effective government that serves the public interest. If he becomes mayor, which looks very likely, we’ll see if he can learn the prose. Let’s hope so.
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