The Mamdani Era

Danny Goldberg ScheerPost

There’s a store that I walk by every day on my way to work in midtown Manhattan that caters to tourists. They sell keychains, toys and hoodies with images of the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State building and New York sports teams. A tee shirt in the window features the phrase, “I survived my trip to NYC.” Others display logos of the local police and fire departments, but only two of the shirts in the window have human faces. One is of Donald Trump with his fist raised, accompanied by the phrase “Legends Never Die.” The other shirt has a photo of our mayor and the words   “Zohran for New York City.” 

As Zohran Mamdani begins his eighth month in office, he is inspiring unprecedented levels of both love and hate that are palpable in the city on a daily basis. The speed of the mayor’s ascension to the kind of political celebrity status usually reserved for presidents gives him more political power than City Hall usually confers, but it also has a downside. 

Because Mamdani’s facility for social media and personal charisma were so instrumental in placing him under such a glaring spotlight, and because he was blessed with a very damaged Andrew Cuomo as his principal opponent in the mayoral election, there were doubts when he first took office about whether he actually had the skill and discipline to deal with the day-to-day issues of being mayor. 

A few weeks ago, Jon Stewart asked him “What’s the reality of governing as mayor?”  Stewart’s tone suggested that Mamdani might want to manage expectations by echoing Mario Cuomo’s dour formulation, “you campaign in poetry but govern in prose,” but Mamdani wasn’t going there. This is a guy who likes to boast about how many potholes have been filled since he took office (175,000 as of mid-July).

The mayor answered, “Governing comes with the opportunity to deliver. When you’re campaigning, you’re asking people to put their trust into a politics that’s often disappointed them. It’s much easier to have this conversation when you’ve put the city on a path to universal childcare and won more than $60 million to tenants from landlords who made negligence into a business model.” 

Unlike legislators like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, the mayor of New York City can take a wide range of actions on his own and, as is the case with his ideological nemesis Donald Trump, one of Mamdani’s superpowers is a lack of inhibition about using executive power.  

One of the concerns that local pundits and officials expressed about his “affordability” rhetoric was that his campaign promises were pie in the sky fantasies that were not attainable in real life. It is indeed true that free buses, city owned grocery stores, and universal childcare could take years to manifest. But it turns out that in addition to having a gift for articulating aspirations, Mamdani is a master of actualizing tangible incremental progress. 

Mamdani’s remarks at two recent press conferences exemplify the style and the content of his administration so far.  On July 10 the mayor began his remarks: “In Adam Sandler’s criminally underrated 2006 film Click, Christopher Walken, in his role as Morty, the angel of death, asks us to consider the leprechaun—he’s always chasing the pot of gold but when he gets there it’s just cornflakes. Whether it’s an internet provider or a commercial gym, too many in our city have developed the bad habit of disguising cornflakes as gold. “

Then he got to the point: “New Yorkers reckon with it as almost every part of the customer’s experience. They are not told how much something truly costs and get hidden fees that they never signed up for, cannot cancel and cannot afford. The last thing they need are airlines or credit card companies making life even harder by trapping them in a web of hidden costs. Those costs are concealed when you book a hotel, when you buy concert tickets or when you finally cave and get that free trial to watch the World Cup. It might be a $5 surcharge, or it might be an added $20 at the end of every month.” He estimated that the average family of four loses more than $3,200 per year on junk fees and hidden costs.

Mamdani then announced two new city regulations that take effect on Oct. 1. One will be a “click to cancel” rule because “if you can sign up with one click, you should be able to cancel with one click.” The other rule, designed at eliminating hidden “junk fees,” will require  transparency in pricing. Each violation will result in a $525 fine. Mamdani said that the reforms will save New Yorkers over $162 million per year. 

In addition to being consumer friendly, the mayor has a strong affinity for the labor movement. In July he announced the results of the first six months of a policy designed to maximize tip income for 70,000 fast food delivery workers in the city.  Mamdani again began his remarks with references to popular culture “Every romcom lover knows that after the heart is broken and all seems lost,  there’s oftentimes only one thing left to do—order delivery.” He elaborated, “From How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days to You Got Mail, our heroine or hero is brought back to life by meals brought to their door. As proof of their gratitude, they tip the delivery worker in cash.”

Mamdani then lamented that since the advent of apps like Door Dash and Uber Eats, “moments of connection between delivery workers and hopeless romantics have withered.” He explained that in recent years “mega corporations engineered and designed tricks on their interfaces to make it harder for workers to tip delivery workers, tricks like setting the default tip amount to below 10% and moving tipping prompts to hidden post-delivery screens.” Those pre-Mamdani ploys had their intended effect. By the end of last year, the average tip at Uber Eats and Door Dash in New York City had decreased from $3.56 to just 93 cents, a 75% drop per delivery. 

Mamdani praised the fast-food workers for fighting back. “I have had the privilege of breaking fast, cheering on The Knicks, standing shoulder to shoulder with many of these workers as they demand what they are owed. Since day one of our administration, City Hall has worked to ensure that dignity is accorded to every New Yorker, not just those who can afford it.” 

Shortly after he took office, Mamdani issued an order that required Door Dash et al — to make tipping easier and more transparent. The new policy has been successful. Based on results of the first six months of the year, fast food deliverers are on track to have an average annual increase in personal income of $2,287.00 per worker.

As Katrina vanden Heuval recently wrote in The Nation,  Mamdani is into the politics of joy. For example, he made a deal with FIFA to provide 1,000 tickets to the World Cup matches at Met-Life Stadium that were made available to New York citizens via a lottery for  $50 apiece, a fraction of what the other tickets cost. My favorite instance of this side of mayor’s persona was after the New York Knicks made the NBA finals, when he did a press event surrounded by schoolchildren in which he solemnly announced that he was signing a proclamation that bedtime was suspended in New York for the duration of the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the angry forces arrayed against the mayor are breaking new ground in terms of crude and dishonest political discourse, quite an accomplishment in a city where the New York Post is published. (The tabloid, like Fox News, is controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan.)

The day after Mamdani’s election, the entire front page of The Post was a photo-shopped picture of Mamdani depicting him dressed in red, holding a giant red hammer and sickle over his head with the caption “The Red Apple.” There is rarely a day on which The Post does not have a negative story about him. As I was writing this piece, the front page of the Post featured the headline (again in red) “WATCH WHAT HAPPENED” above separate photos of conservative billionaire Bill Ackman and the mayor above another headline that read “Bill Ackman warns of disaster if Mamdani’s far left agenda succeeds.”

The New York Times uses more genteel language but a lot of their coverage of Mamdani is almost as contemptuous. On July 29, The Times published a fawning profile of Reihan Salam, the president of the conservative think tank, The Manhattan Institute. The Times wrote that Salam “loves New York. He loves the free market. And he’s very worried,” about the mayor’s agenda. 

The authors of the piece, Eliza Shapiro and Nicholas Fandos,  made no attempt to disguise their bias, asking the rhetorical questions, “Do people making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year really need free childcare? Could rent freezes cause even fewer people to leave their apartments, driving vacancy rates so low that they could destabilize the housing market? Could free buses turn M4 into a shelter for homeless people?” Salam is quoted, “You have a couple of decades of prosperity that are slipping away.” 

The Times did not go into the question of who had enjoyed that “prosperity,” (and who had not) but it did helpfully inform their readers that “Mr. Salam’s warnings about the  mayor and his agenda … have an audience with New York’s moneyed elite.”

The Times  acknowledged that a lot of the funding for The Manhattan Institute comes from the “same conservative megadonors who support President Trump.” During the heatwave in early July, Mamdani urged New Yorkers to set their thermostats at 78 degrees to conserve energy during a recent heatwave. This was the exact temperature that Rudy Giuliani, the patron saint of the Manhattan Institute had recommended during a heatwave when he was mayor, but Daniel DiMartino, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, posted a video  of  himself setting his  thermostat to 67 degrees with the defiant caption “this is for you Zohran Mamdani.”

No Mamdani proposal has freaked out oligarchs more than his recently announced “pied-a-terre tax” of 4% on second homes — townhouses or apartments valued above $5 million that are not the owners’ primary residence.  The New York Post wrote, “ Buyers with big budgets are bewildered. Brokers, builders and building boards are apoplectic.” Real estate broker Douglas Wagner whined,” We had a buyer from Madrid who also has a home in Miami. She was very attracted to the Giorgio Armani Residences at 760 Madison Avenue,” but after she was informed of the impending pied-a-terre tax  “she let us know that she was suspending her search because of the extra expense.” 

Mamdani is also subjected on a daily basis to hostility from the so-called Jewish leaders because of his fierce criticism of the Israeli government and its leader Benjamin Netanyahu. I say “so-called” leaders because the people that the media often refers to that way do not represent most Jews. 

The mayor retained Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is a member of one of the city’s high profile Jewish families. They have different views about Israel but have been working very effectively together for the city. (Murders and other major crimes have all fallen to their lowest levels in 20 years declining 6.6% year-to-date and an even sharper 12.7% drop in July.) Mamdani has met with several rabbis, and he was enthusiastically welcomed when he attended the annual high profile seder at the City Winery.  

But none of this matters to the self-described “Jewish establishment,” to whom all issues, spiritual or political, are subordinate to supporting the current government of Israel. That establishment lives in a bubble where most American Jews do not reside.  A recent AP/NORC Center poll indicated that Jewish Americans view Mamdani much more favorably than they do the Israeli prime minister. According to the poll, 44% of Jewish Americans have a favorable view of Mamdani while 39% view him unfavorably compared to Netanyahu, who is viewed unfavorably by 59% of Jewish respondents with only 32% viewing him favorably. 

The biggest flashpoint at the moment is Mamdani’s oft stated intention to have Netanyahu arrested if he sets foot in New York during the upcoming session of the U.N. General Assembly. The rationale is a 2024 indictment of Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity related to Israel’s military actions in Gaza. 

Mamdani included the demand for the arrest during his campaign, and he must have known that it was always a legal non-starter, He is not the first politician to float an inactionable proposal in order to make a political point. Although the ICC’s warrants are recognized by 124 countries, the United States is not among them. 

Mamdani recently acknowledged that the New York Police Department can’t arrest a foreign head of state but that New Yorkers do have the right to protest. “Jewish leaders” insist the mere idea of arresting the man responsible for genocide in Gaza is “antisemitic” even though the idea is pretty popular. A recent Economist/YouGov poll shows that 49% of Americans said Netanyahu should be arrested if he visited the U.S.,  and only 27% of respondents said he should not be.

Nevertheless, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that Mamdani was “ spreading blasphemy, hate, antisemitic rhetoric. He should understand that he’s risking his own citizens, he’s risking their safety, well-being and life,” and by contrast Donald Trump “speaks from the heart when he speaks about his love and respect of Israel and his support of Israel.” 

The formulation that Jews have to choose between Trump and Mamdani is being echoed on social media.  On a Facebook page called “Never Forget. Jewish Lives Matter,” a recent post read, “I may not like a lot of things Trump does, but he doesn’t want dead Jews. Mamdani and his supporters want us dead.  . . . We are talking about our survival. I don’t have the luxury to cry over people getting deported… I only care about the survival and safety of Jews.”

Although there is no evidence that criticism of Netanyahu has any relationship whatsoever to hate crimes against Jewish New Yorkers, the recent stabbing of an orthodox Jew and an Asian on the Upper West Side of Manhattan triggered another torrent of venom aimed at Mamdani from Jewish leaders. Ignoring the mayor’s immediate condemnation of the stabbings and his many statements opposing antisemitism in the past, UJA-Federation of New York CEO Eric Goldstein said “Mayor Mamdani, stop fanning the flames of hatred and division. “

The impending 25^th anniversary of 9/11 has given the haters another opportunity to demonize the mayor. Some relatives of people killed on that day have circulated a petition which they claim has 65,000 signatures urging Mamdani not to come to any of the memorial services at ground zero. (Mamdani has said that he will definitely appear at the 9/11 memorials just as his predecessors did.) Of course no one speaks for all of the thousands of relatives of 9/11 victims and several other relatives of victims have publicized their opposition to the petition.

The reasons given in the petition are mostly guilt by association. There is a list of  complaints about the mayor’s refusal to condemn what other people said on other occasions. Mamdani’s real crimes are that he is a Muslim and that he opposes the genocide in Gaza. 

Despite their ugliness and intensity, the incessant attacks have not had their desired effect. Mamdani has been able to deflect his adversaries with a virtuosity that reminds me of a much loved and much hated Muslim of another generation — the young Muhammad Ali, who gracefully avoided getting hit by fighters who had pulverized previous opponents.   A Siena University poll in June showed that 56% of New Yorkers approved of the job Mamdani is doing and only 28% disapproved. 

Many members of the punditocracy have insisted that Mamdani is unique to New York city and that any success he has here is of limited relevance to the rest of the country, Maybe so. But a lot of those pundits are living in the past as much as Chuck Schumer is. Another reference from the late 1960s may apply: Bob Dylan’s lyric,  “Something is happening here — but you don’t know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?”  

Danny Goldberg is the author of six books, most recently “Liberals With Attitude: The Rodney King Beating and the Fight for the Soul of Los Angeles” 

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