Zohran Mamdani won't make NYC into east coast Chicago

As much as NYC voters might want a political conflagration, NYC's mayor can't burn it all down

UPDATE: Of course, Mamdani won.

I’m presuming that Zohran Mamdani will be the next mayor of New York City. I may be wrong, because I’m frequently wrong, and the political action of SchmuckPAC, consisting of President Donald Trump and former Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo might just push enough Republican voters to switch from Curtis Sliwa to Cuomo. I think that’s a giant longshot, and even if all the Republicans got behind Cuomo, I don’t think it would stop Mamdani’s election, though it would still be a plurality of less than 50 percent plus one.

Zohran Mamdani at the Resist Fascism Rally in Bryant Park on Oct 27th 2024. Bingjiefu He, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

So let’s assume, for the sake of things that are yet to be fait accompli but are also not in the category of Hillary Clinton winning the presidency in 2016, that Zohran Mamdani is going to win tonight.

Many pundits are lamenting Mamdani’s ascendancy, and comparing it to what Brandon Johnson has done to Chicago. I want to dig into that comparison. First, let’s look at Chicago’s form of grift versus New York. Chicago is right out there in the open, no holds barred, in the grift and crime department. It’s almost a requirement for being elected to have some kind of slushy, crime-y, payoff. Johnson even has a room for it called the “gift room” (they missed the “r”).

New York City has no room like this. In the Big Apple, they prefer potato chip bags filled with cash handed to reporters in return for the kind of treatment Tucker Carlson gives to the ghost of Joseph Goebbels. Or special treatment for certain developers who happen to win a $5 million toilet contract, for five toilets located in public parks. In Chicago, they let the aldermen freely grift for business licenses and other dainties, a system that dates back to Mr. Capone’s days. But that’s how crime and politics works in the First and Second Cities.

As for real policies, Brandon Johnson has a whole lot more latitude to do things to torture Chicagoans than Zohran Mamdani will have in New York. For example:

• Chicago City Council passed a 5-year phase-out of tipped minimum wage (“One Fair Wage”) through 2028. In NYC, these wages are set in Albany by state law. Mamdani can’t do it, and nobody in NYC can.

• Chicago enacted a 10-day universal leave as a local ordinance. New York state law already mandates paid leave. While the city can expand on the state’s guidelines, it can’t fundamentally change them.

• Chicago tried to get a referendum past its voters to hike the real estate transfer tax (RETT) on deals more than $1 million. That got voted down. NYC doesn’t have local authority to set the RETT, that comes from Albany.

• Chicago’s mayor has a lot of authority over the CTA fares. In NYC, the mayor gets to recommend 4 of 23 MTA board members. The MTA sets the fares.

• Chicago has local referendum authority to set its own housing/rent control/tax initiatives. New York City has a Rent Guidelines Board, which is subject to laws passed in Albany. Zohran can fire and replace the board members, but they can’t unilaterally change the rent stabilization factors.

As much as the polity in New York City might want to burn things down, Mayor Zohran (or Mayor de Blasio, or Mayor Adams, etc.) can’t fulfill the promises of a conflagration.

• NYC’s mayor has no authority to set a 2 percent income surcharge on those who earn more than $1 million. The city can’t impose income tax surcharges or tax corporations in the city. That’s done in Albany.

• NYC’s mayor can play “pilot project” games with free bus fares, but his authority is limited and the money has to be there. The money is controlled by the MTA, which the mayor doesn’t control.

• The mayor can’t freeze rents. That has to come from Albany.

As a state assemblyman, Zohran Mamdani knows he can’t fulfill his promises. In fact, the promises make more of a case for Andrew Cuomo, who might have more influence with the Albany lawmakers. But Cuomo is a schmuck with a very bad name in politics. Mamdani has the golden touch of the rebel with a cause.

It won’t matter that Mamdani wins, because he won’t be able to do the stuff he promised. He’ll be mired down in the grift and the commitments of the job. Or maybe he’ll just make speeches, appearances, and travel like de Blasio did while the city resolves its own crises.

At least New Yorkers won’t have to worry about being like Chicago. That’s got to be every Gothamist’s nightmare. But first, let’s see if he gets elected.

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