The New York City mayoral election occurred on November 4th of this year. The candidates consisted of democratic Zohran Mamdani, Independent Andrew Cuomo, and the Republican Curtis Sliwa. Zohran Mamdani won the election with 50.78% of the popular vote.
Zohran Mamdani has a policy focused on affordability and social programs. This includes free healthcare, a rent freeze, building 200,000 affordable housing units, and many more things to help make life more affordable for the average person living in an already expensive city.
His main focus for his term is to help make things much cheaper for those living in the city. New York City has been known for its high prices, which has been a struggle for those living there. This contributes to the large amount of homelessness in the city. He also plans to raise taxes by two percent for those who make over 1,000,000 and 11.5% for corporations. He says that these tax hikes will help pay for free public transit and other free city services.
There are many people that don’t agree with his views. One of the big criticisms is his raising of taxing corporate businesses. Many people believe this will cause companies to move out of New York City and find other cities to set themselves up at. Another thing is his past rhetoric, which he did say He has in the past said he find NYPD “Racist” and a “Threat”. He has said in recent times that they will not be defunding the police. Another criticism is that his free government ran buses will cause significant revenue loss (est 600m/year), potential safety concerns and without a fare collection busses can get bogged down and cause slower bus times.
Zohran Mamdani has been a very polarizing figure for New York City. Both sides make good points on potential goods and bads with his policies. Everything from safety concerns to cheaper bus fares. Another point of controversy is his religious beliefs. He is outspoken as a Shia Muslim. With the recent conflict ongoing in Israel and Palestine, the entire Muslim religion has been seen in a poor light with a large number of Muslim immigrants coming into the USA. This has caused many people to say that this is just another part of the “Muslim take over”. Like him or not, he has many big ideas that have potential to be good things for a very large city.
