Free childcare, free bus services, rent freezes on stabilised apartments and city-owned grocery stores – these are Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani’s signature proposals in the 4 November mayoral election. To anyone living in a Western European state, the self-professed democratic-socalist’s ideas probably sound entirely reasonable. But to many Americans, they’re wildly ambitious – radical, even. It’s easy to forget when you’re outside the country that in the US, the welfare state barely exists, and anything “free” is seen as borderline communist.

Still, wouldn’t it be nice if it wasn’t? New York is arguably the most expensive city in the country. Groceries are exorbitant (tariffs have certainly not helped) and rents are spiralling. The median rent in Manhattan hit $4,700 (€4,084) in July – up 9.3 per cent from last year. Apartment hunting has become warfare. Lines for places that are even remotely affordable snake around the block and bidding wars have become the norm. Without getting into the nitty gritty of how Mamdani plans to pay for it all, you can’t deny how refreshing it is to hear someone rally for an improved quality of life. 

It’s hard to picture a New York where everything isn’t outrageously priced. But imagine a city where people can actually afford to stay in their homes, where groceries don’t cost as much as eating out and where schools have more green spaces. Somewhere that daily life is less defined by economic anxiety.

Love him or loathe him, Mamdani is proposing some of the most progressive ideas the city’s seen in decades, in a country that appears to be moving in the opposite direction. Many New Yorkers find his campaign energising; others, understandably, are skeptical (not least because it sounds very expensive). The idea of a democratic socialist leading the financial capital of the US is, to some, terrifying. Critics worry that aggressive rent freezes will discourage new housing supply and that tax hikes will chase away businesses or high-earning residents. But the reality is also that inequality in the city is deepening and working-class families are being squeezed out. Something has to shift. 

Mamdani isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel: former mayors Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio pushed for free bus routes and more affordable housing. As for the idea of city-owned grocery stores (which would mean one subsidised shop in each of New York’s five boroughs), it hardly amounts to replacing Whole Foods. Europe shows that welfare programmes don’t turn a place communist. If Mamdani manages to pull even part of his agenda off, it would be transformative; not just for his city, but the entire US. He might be tackling uniquely New York problems, but if a metropolis of over eight million people proves that free buses, stabilised rent and subsidised childcare can work in an American context, it could provide a template for the rest of the nation, while reviving the Democratic Party.