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New York City is too expensive to live in. That was the core message of Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for mayor. The question now is can the 34-year-old who was recently called up by Barack Obama, who upset all the odds on his rise to power, turn his electric campaign into a transformative agenda for New York city. His ambitions are sky high. Initially, it was Mr Mamdani’s staunchly pro-Palestinian views that set him apart from the other Democratic candidates for mayor, but New Yorkers have rewarded him because he promises, quite simply, to make life cheaper. If all goes to plan (and it is a supersized ‘if’), a New Yorker will be able to drop their child off at a free nursery (he has pledged universal childcare up to the age of five), take a free bus to work (fares are to be scrapped across the service), stop off for groceries at a shop which sells the essentials at wholesale prices (subsidised premises are to be built across the city), and return home to an apartment where the rent has not gone up for years (a freeze has been ordered on one million residential properties under local government control). From the couch, they can then order a takeaway without guilt over labour exploitation: Mr Mamdani promises to force delivery apps to treat their staff as employees rather than independent contractors, granting them rights to holiday and sick pay. “Deliveristas”, as the mayor-elect calls them, will meanwhile have access to a network of hubs across the city to ease them on their travels. They will also be protected from ICE raids, the mayor promises. Call 911 in Mr Mamdani’s New York and the police may not always respond. The new mayor has pledged to create an agency of mental health support teams, who will step in to relieve the pressure on the city’s 34,000 uniformed officers (all Mr Mamdani’s opponents pledged to raise that number.) In its scope, the socialist, mayor-elect’s vision for the city would make New York the international standard-bearer for Left-wing government at a local level. He has joked that voters should see him, essentially, as a Scandinavian politician, “only browner”. By 2030, he has promised a new law raising the minimum wage to $30 (£23). The highest as it stands is Washington, DC’s $17.50 (£13). All this, of course, requires somebody to pay for it. Much requires somebody other than the mayor to approve it. One Democratic strategist fondly recounts the time he was told by the state’s governor that “the mayor can’t flush the toilet unless I tell him.” Mr Mamdani has claimed he will raise $4bn (£3bn) through a 2 per cent rise in income tax for those who earn more than $1m (£768,000). Another $5bn (£3.8bn) could follow through raising corporate tax to 11.5 per cent, the same as neighbouring New Jersey. But Kathy Hochul, New York’s Democratic governor, has ruled out tax rises on the wealth, and she holds the ultimate authority. It remains to be seen how Mr Mamdani will find the minimum $6bn (£4.6bn) needed to implement universal free childcare. His team has said they will consider “alternative” funding routes. New York’s 385,000 millionaires may well consider “alternative” places to live. On a sliding scale, rent freezes are the simplest item on the mayor’s agenda: his office appoints all nine members of the Rent-Guidelines board. It should also be quite straightforward to set up subsidised grocery shops, with the city able to cover the cost of rent, utilities and property taxes. Free buses are a little trickier, as power is split outside City Hall. But the goal of universal free childcare stands out as by far the most ambitious (and expensive) item on Mr Mamdani’s platform. It would require thousands more childcare workers, to begin with, at a time when the average $38,000 salary means few can afford to live in New York. Donald Trump urged voters to choose Andrew Cuomo, the former Democratic governor of New York, over Mr Mamdani. He threatened to withhold federal funds from the city if it elected a “communist”. Congress holds the keys to the purse under the US Constitution. But Mr Trump could feasibly block funds for 45 days – New York is set to receive $7.6bn (£5.8bn) next year, mostly for housing and social services – then pressure the Republican-controlled body to follow his will in a vote. It is all building up to a box office clash in the city both men call home.
