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I'm noticing that this election result has made a lot of people I know really hopeful. It's apparent that many people are fed up with the status quo so they're

I'm noticing that this election result has made a lot of people I know really hopeful. It's apparent that many people are fed up with the status quo so they're pushing towards more experimental candidates. If anyone here is well-read on his policies and they have specific opinions I'd love to hear what you think. Do you think Zohran will be successful with his agenda or will he get blocked by pushback from other political forces? I read some commentary that a few of his policy ideas are unfeasible without support from Albany, and I'm not sure how to evaluate that relationship. Many online figures have become heavily invested on this mayoral election despite living hundreds or thousands of miles away, and I think that speaks to a real hunger for greater political experimentation. As an aside, how do you evaluate the lessons that you learn or derive from what others are doing? Generalization sure is a tricky thing.

julianozen 1y ago
Hi I don’t think I like several of his ideas or think he will get most of them passed. In fact I think a few like “freezing the rent” are actively bad But I’m happy to finally have a politician who lives in and loves New York and is earnestly trying to my the city better. If he tries and fails, it will be better than our other politicians that have stopped trying
- nostrebored 1y ago
  Strong agree. I think his policies are absurd but hope that more invested young people who aren’t career politicians can start trying a platform that isn’t party line and resonates with residents.
- afavour 1y ago
  Particularly in comparison to Cuomo who by all accounts doesn’t even seem to like the city he campaigned to run. A tiny bit of joy goes a very long way.
- grvdrm 1y ago
  Exactly.
- r00fus 1y ago
  DeBlasio froze rent (for rent-stabilized apartments just like Zohran is proposing) for 3 straight years. Nothing new here. Combining it with streamlining city approval process and building more actual city development will actually stabilize the rent across the market.
voidhorse 1y ago
The biggest takeaway to me is how ridiculous it is that the US considers Mamdani somehow "experimental" or even radical. His campaign revolves around three policies: 1. Universal Child Care 2. Fast and Free Busses 3. Freezing Rent for certain Rent Controlled Units In any other context these would be policies that basically every citizen, except for a handful of people making buttloads of money off the privatization of childcare, housing, and transportation would support, yet somehow in the USA this is "radical". Somehow a candidate finally proposing positive policies that directly benefit citizens is a radical socialist who needs to be stopped and we all need to vote for the disgraced former governor who resigned after killing seniors during covid and groping his employees. Even here on HN where people are generally well educated you have people arguing. that Mamdani will somehow be the ruin of new york. Politics in america is like entering an inverted world in which some weird internal drive actively makes people vote against their own personal interests.
- sershe 1y ago
  Rent control in particular is an economic basket case policy, the fact that it's popular at election time should have about as much bearing on it making sense as the fact that another "experimental" candidate was considered by voters in 2024 to be "better on immigration" As for offering free stuff, the problem that - if you look at relative population numbers - NY, CA, etc are already facing is that on the margin people he hopes will pay for it will just move away.
  - voidhorse 1y ago
    Rent is a nonproductive component in the economy. It shouldn't even exist. If we want an economy that actually provides goods that people need we should focus on productive components like building more houses and actual shelter rather than using limited housing to extract profit, often without even improving the housing itself. > are already facing is that on the margin people he hopes will pay for it will just move away. This myth is promulgated constantly with no evidence to back it up. The tax increases he has proposed are a drop in the pond to the bracket he aims to tax. If those people care so little for the city, so be it, they can leave. I don't need to share communal space with people who want to live as atoms and don't actually care about the place they live beyond how it affects their bottom line. If they actually love NYC for the city it is, they will stay. The increases are not going to be untenable for those people, it all comes down to their priorities, and if they don't want to prioritize NYC, then yes, they should gtfo because they are characterless, tasteless people who only care about themselves and their money.
lisbbb 1y ago
[flagged]
- nobody9999 1y ago
  If you actually think Mamdani is a communist, then you don't understand what communism is. Please point to even one policy (not the stuff that his opponents disingenuously claim his policies are) that even approaches communism. Here's a link to help you out with that: https://www.zohranfornyc.com/platform https://www.zohranfornyc.com/platform
  - miley_cyrus 1y ago
    Way too many examples to list all of them, but here is the easiest: Mamdani used the phrase "seizing the means of production" during a live streamed conference of the Young Democratic Socialists of America in February 2021. https://www.aol.com/news/zohran-mamdani-chilling-call-seizing-002317368.html https://www.aol.com/news/zohran-mamdani-chilling-call-seizin...
    - anon7000 1y ago
      Firstly, that’s not a policy, and secondly, if seizing the means of production just means supporting labor-owned businesses, it’s not communism. The version of communism that people point at is government-controlled means of production topped with authoritarian policies. Mamdami is not even close to that. The fact that people aren’t considering economic ideas outside of capitalism is fucking absurd. Capitalism is not fundamentally capable of incentivizing humans over money. We have some massive problems that aren’t going to get better by bowing to monopolies and cutting taxes for the wealthy. If you’re a capitalist upset by seeing slightly socialist preferences in voters, feel free to make capitalism work better. Which typically includes borrowing socialist policies. It’s not rocket science, if a pretty sizable chunk of the population is getting absolutely screwed by our economic system, expect them to vote for people who want to make it better.
android521 1y ago
Experiments have already been done. You just need to look at history. Or you can just look at north korea and Kabul .
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- afavour 1y ago
  Or, you know, current day European social democracies. You can’t help but laugh at the amount of hysteria about Mamdani. No cost childcare? Free buses? Using existing rent control regulations to keep rent affordable? Oh no
  - YZF 1y ago
    There are fundamental differences between Europe and the US. The US is not magically going to become Europe by electing a "left" mayor. Also this is a city- since when does a mayor set economic policies. Last I checked free busses, and no cost childcare, still need someone to pay for them. Rent control, if the rent is low, there won't be any rental property. What's the next step, forcing people to build? The city will build? I guess we shall see. The sad thing is that people didn't vote because they considered all the ideas and the implications. The other sad thing is that maybe Mamdani was the best candidate.
    - nikanj 1y ago
      The people who lucked into rent-controlled suites will sublet them for a much higher rent https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20160517-this-is-one-city-where-youll-never-find-a-home https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20160517-this-is-one-ci...
    - afavour 1y ago
      > since when does a mayor set economic policies. Childcare, buses and rent control are all under the control of the NYC mayor. > Last I checked free busses, and no cost childcare, still need someone to pay for them. Most places have “free” roads and public schools and survive just fine. The point in invoking Europe is to say that having a higher tax burden and getting more public services in return is not some crazy North Korean dystopia. It’s pretty common. If it’s not for you that’s absolutely fine, just don’t move to NYC.
dyauspitr 1y ago
I think I like the universal childcare and free buses. Don’t like the rent control but places like Hong Kong have been very successful doing it.
EasyMark 1y ago
I think it’s likely around 75% of his agenda will be blocked. NYC is a big ship to turn. However it will still be better than what Cuomo would have done
AbstractH24 1y ago
> I'm noticing that this election result has made a lot of people I know really hopeful. Since the 2008, the day after every election of a new president, the coalition that elected them had this sense of hope for a brighter tomorrow. One which disappeared within months. Except maybe 2016, but the bubble I was in was so preoccupied by shock that maybe I missed it (also, I was deeply engrossed in the work I was doing that fall)

julianozen 1y ago

Hi I don’t think I like several of his ideas or think he will get most of them passed. In fact I think a few like “freezing the rent” are actively bad But I’m happy to finally have a politician who lives in and loves New York and is earnestly trying to my the city better. If he tries and fails, it will be better than our other politicians that have stopped trying

nostrebored 1y ago
Strong agree. I think his policies are absurd but hope that more invested young people who aren’t career politicians can start trying a platform that isn’t party line and resonates with residents.
afavour 1y ago
Particularly in comparison to Cuomo who by all accounts doesn’t even seem to like the city he campaigned to run. A tiny bit of joy goes a very long way.
grvdrm 1y ago
Exactly.
r00fus 1y ago
DeBlasio froze rent (for rent-stabilized apartments just like Zohran is proposing) for 3 straight years. Nothing new here. Combining it with streamlining city approval process and building more actual city development will actually stabilize the rent across the market.

voidhorse 1y ago

The biggest takeaway to me is how ridiculous it is that the US considers Mamdani somehow "experimental" or even radical. His campaign revolves around three policies: 1. Universal Child Care 2. Fast and Free Busses 3. Freezing Rent for certain Rent Controlled Units In any other context these would be policies that basically every citizen, except for a handful of people making buttloads of money off the privatization of childcare, housing, and transportation would support, yet somehow in the USA this is "radical". Somehow a candidate finally proposing positive policies that directly benefit citizens is a radical socialist who needs to be stopped and we all need to vote for the disgraced former governor who resigned after killing seniors during covid and groping his employees. Even here on HN where people are generally well educated you have people arguing. that Mamdani will somehow be the ruin of new york. Politics in america is like entering an inverted world in which some weird internal drive actively makes people vote against their own personal interests.

sershe 1y ago
Rent control in particular is an economic basket case policy, the fact that it's popular at election time should have about as much bearing on it making sense as the fact that another "experimental" candidate was considered by voters in 2024 to be "better on immigration" As for offering free stuff, the problem that - if you look at relative population numbers - NY, CA, etc are already facing is that on the margin people he hopes will pay for it will just move away.
- voidhorse 1y ago
  Rent is a nonproductive component in the economy. It shouldn't even exist. If we want an economy that actually provides goods that people need we should focus on productive components like building more houses and actual shelter rather than using limited housing to extract profit, often without even improving the housing itself. > are already facing is that on the margin people he hopes will pay for it will just move away. This myth is promulgated constantly with no evidence to back it up. The tax increases he has proposed are a drop in the pond to the bracket he aims to tax. If those people care so little for the city, so be it, they can leave. I don't need to share communal space with people who want to live as atoms and don't actually care about the place they live beyond how it affects their bottom line. If they actually love NYC for the city it is, they will stay. The increases are not going to be untenable for those people, it all comes down to their priorities, and if they don't want to prioritize NYC, then yes, they should gtfo because they are characterless, tasteless people who only care about themselves and their money.

lisbbb 1y ago

[flagged]

nobody9999 1y ago
If you actually think Mamdani is a communist, then you don't understand what communism is. Please point to even one policy (not the stuff that his opponents disingenuously claim his policies are) that even approaches communism. Here's a link to help you out with that: https://www.zohranfornyc.com/platform https://www.zohranfornyc.com/platform
- miley_cyrus 1y ago
  Way too many examples to list all of them, but here is the easiest: Mamdani used the phrase "seizing the means of production" during a live streamed conference of the Young Democratic Socialists of America in February 2021. https://www.aol.com/news/zohran-mamdani-chilling-call-seizing-002317368.html https://www.aol.com/news/zohran-mamdani-chilling-call-seizin...
  - anon7000 1y ago
    Firstly, that’s not a policy, and secondly, if seizing the means of production just means supporting labor-owned businesses, it’s not communism. The version of communism that people point at is government-controlled means of production topped with authoritarian policies. Mamdami is not even close to that. The fact that people aren’t considering economic ideas outside of capitalism is fucking absurd. Capitalism is not fundamentally capable of incentivizing humans over money. We have some massive problems that aren’t going to get better by bowing to monopolies and cutting taxes for the wealthy. If you’re a capitalist upset by seeing slightly socialist preferences in voters, feel free to make capitalism work better. Which typically includes borrowing socialist policies. It’s not rocket science, if a pretty sizable chunk of the population is getting absolutely screwed by our economic system, expect them to vote for people who want to make it better.

android521 1y ago

Experiments have already been done. You just need to look at history. Or you can just look at north korea and Kabul .

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
afavour 1y ago
Or, you know, current day European social democracies. You can’t help but laugh at the amount of hysteria about Mamdani. No cost childcare? Free buses? Using existing rent control regulations to keep rent affordable? Oh no
- YZF 1y ago
  There are fundamental differences between Europe and the US. The US is not magically going to become Europe by electing a "left" mayor. Also this is a city- since when does a mayor set economic policies. Last I checked free busses, and no cost childcare, still need someone to pay for them. Rent control, if the rent is low, there won't be any rental property. What's the next step, forcing people to build? The city will build? I guess we shall see. The sad thing is that people didn't vote because they considered all the ideas and the implications. The other sad thing is that maybe Mamdani was the best candidate.
  - nikanj 1y ago
    The people who lucked into rent-controlled suites will sublet them for a much higher rent https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20160517-this-is-one-city-where-youll-never-find-a-home https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20160517-this-is-one-ci...
  - afavour 1y ago
    > since when does a mayor set economic policies. Childcare, buses and rent control are all under the control of the NYC mayor. > Last I checked free busses, and no cost childcare, still need someone to pay for them. Most places have “free” roads and public schools and survive just fine. The point in invoking Europe is to say that having a higher tax burden and getting more public services in return is not some crazy North Korean dystopia. It’s pretty common. If it’s not for you that’s absolutely fine, just don’t move to NYC.

dyauspitr 1y ago

I think I like the universal childcare and free buses. Don’t like the rent control but places like Hong Kong have been very successful doing it.

EasyMark 1y ago

I think it’s likely around 75% of his agenda will be blocked. NYC is a big ship to turn. However it will still be better than what Cuomo would have done

AbstractH24 1y ago

> I'm noticing that this election result has made a lot of people I know really hopeful. Since the 2008, the day after every election of a new president, the coalition that elected them had this sense of hope for a brighter tomorrow. One which disappeared within months. Except maybe 2016, but the bubble I was in was so preoccupied by shock that maybe I missed it (also, I was deeply engrossed in the work I was doing that fall)