Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary has the Big Apple buzzing. The 33-year-old democratic socialist, swept in by young, college-educated voters, is pitching a bold overhaul. His campaign, centered around promises to make New York more affordable, showed he understood voters’ appetite for policies focused on kitchen-table issues. But his big plans — freezing rent control, launching city-run grocery stores and pulling NYPD out of subway stations — vibe with well-off progressives but will ultimately stick it to the working- and middle-class New Yorkers who keep this city humming. His divisive rhetoric only deepens the rift, especially for the city’s Jewish community.
Mamdani’s voting base is packed with white, Asian and younger hipster types in ritzy corners of Brooklyn and Manhattan, according to a 2024 Public Policy Polling survey. He enjoys some support among South Asian and Muslim voters in Queens, but he falls flat with older Black and Latino folks in the Bronx and Southeast Queens. The latte-drinking crowd loves his radical ideas, but they’re not the ones riding the 4 train at midnight or sweating rent hikes like the city’s deli clerks, nurses and plumbers.
His rent control freeze, locking rates for 2 million stabilized units, sounds like a win, right? Not exactly. A 2022 NYU Furman Center study found freezes often lead landlords to skimp on repairs. With a 400,000-unit housing shortage, a rent freeze could scare off developers, spiking costs for middle-class renters hunting market-rate apartments. Mamdani’s upscale voters, chilling in their stabilized lofts, cheer this on, but working folks get stuck with leaky pipes.
Then there’s his pitch for city-run grocery stores. Nice in theory, but the plan is based on a pilot in Chicago, which backed away from the idea without establishing a single grocery store. In NYC, where bodegas are lifelines for low-income workers, city stores could crush these small businesses. Mamdani’s crowd, ordering from Instacart or hitting Whole Foods, calls this equity; for working-class families, it’s a kick to local jobs and corner stores.
Most head-scratching is his plan to yank NYPD from subway stations, swapping them for outreach workers under a $1 billion Community Safety Department, per The New York Times. Felony assaults on the subway are up 54.8% since 2019, per NYPD stats. Here’s the kicker: We’re potentially going from Mayor Eric Adams, a former cop who patrolled these streets, to a guy who wants to defund the police. Adams pushed for more officers to keep trains safe; Mamdani’s betting on unproven ideas. A 2021 report from the Manhattan Institute study says similar community programs hamper crime-reduction efforts, leaving low-wage commuters high and dry. Middle-class straphangers, stuck on the A train at 2 a.m., want real protection, not feel-good promises.
And then there’s his campaign rally stunt, vowing to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits. This reckless flex should chill New York’s 1.6 million Jews, one of the largest Jewish populations anywhere, who make up nearly 20% of the city. For those who believe Israel has a right to exist, Mamdani’s pandering to his anti-Israel base isn’t leadership; it’s a slap in the face. New York City needs a mayor who gets the grind of its workers, families and diverse communities, not one chasing clout.
Thankfully for New Yorkers, the primary election is just that — a primary. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, despite his own troubles, is running as an Independent. Mamdani’s primary challenger, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will also be on the ballot. The race is far from over, but New Yorkers would be wise to choose a different path than Democrats did Tuesday night.
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