New York’s mayoral candidates differ drastically on improving the city’s quality of life
Quality of life – but what kind of quality? And what kind of life? These are the questions now facing New Yorkers as they embark on the first steps in choosing their city’s next mayor. Early voting is well underway for the 24 June Democratic Primary, which sees former New York state governor Andrew Cuomo essentially tied with 33-year-old state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. The winner will then face off against current mayor Eric Adams, once a Democrat and now a Republican, who’s opted to sit out the highly contested primary and prepare for the general election in November.
Mamdani makes for an improbable frontrunner. Beyond his age, Mamdani – son of noted filmmaker Mira Nair – is also a registered socialist whose platform is laden with policies such as free childcare and public transport, a freeze on rents and reducing president Trump’s ability to arrest illegal migrants. But crucially, Mamdani wants to invest in a new, unproven Department of Community Safety rather than increase funding for the NYPD. The department, according to his plans, would have a $1.1bn budget to provide services such as mental health response teams instead of police in certain scenarios. Mamdani’s policies would drastically change New Yorkers’ quality of life – but for better or worse they represent a starkly different approach to his competitor.
Cuomo, by contrast, is a seasoned political pro and scion of New York’s most prominent political family. His campaign, at least on the surface, echoes Mamdani’s call for a more liveable, affordable, Trump-free New York. But Cuomo wants to expand, rather than downsize, the police.
Five years after the pandemic, New York – or at least New Yorkers – must figure out what kind of city it wants to be. Is Mamdani’s vision of a more radical, yet more equitable, urban landscape actually viable? Can a city contending with double-digit increases in violent crime numbers rely on citizens rather than cops to maintain an already fragile public order?
Meanwhile, the city is swimming in venture capital. According to a May report from the Center for an Urban Future, a think-tank, New York finds itself in the swell of a tech wave that is adding more jobs to the city than any other sector. This shift is luring the exact type of ‘elite’ young professionals that Mamdani is counting on: highly educated, suspicious of authority, well-paid and open to risk. And Mamdani is certainly a risky choice, as evidenced in a recent New York Times comment piece declaring his agenda “uniquely unsuited to the city’s challenges.”
Considering the outsized power wielded by New York’s City Council, much of Mamdani’s agenda would likely be constrained if he were to become mayor. But his win would send a strong message to other big Democratic-run cities – most notably Chicago and Los Angeles, both of which are also experiencing crime spikes, migrant crises and White House ire – that progressive policy can still cut through with the electorate.
Cuomo is a vote for the status quo: hard on crime, soft on investment – a nod to a middle-class New York somehow managing to survive. While a win for Mamdani – young, Muslim, an immigrant and with relatively radical policies – would be a win for uncertainty, and a shift toward the policies found in progressive cities across Western Europe that are largely unknown here in the US. Both men have a strong chance at winning. But can the same can be said for New York (and its precarious quality of life)? The jury is still out.
Kaufman is an editor and columnist for the ‘New York Post’. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today. And if you’re also struggling to make a decision about how to get the best out of New York, why not check out our City Guide?
