Wall Street reckons with life under Zohran Mamdani

"New York City's CEOs and other billionaire business leaders spent more than $40 million trying to stop Mamdani from becoming the city's next mayor. Now they have to live with him and their reactions range from threatening to leave the city to pragmatic acceptance. "I think it's the stages of grief," says Kathryn Wylde, who runs the Partnership for New York City, an influential business group that represents more than 300 large employers. Wylde has been brokering meetings between her members and Mamdani in the past several months."

""The Partnership works with whoever wins," she says. "Zohran has won resoundingly, and so we will seek to be his partner in dealing with the challenges facing the city, which are considerable right now." Those issues include the ongoing affordability crisis that Mamdani made a central message of his campaign. But he has proposed addressing it with some policies that businesses and the wealthy people who run them widely dislike, including a rent freeze and higher taxes."

"Speaking to WNYC on Wednesday, Mamdani promised to spend his first 100 days "taking concrete and substantive actions to deliver on the cost of living crisis that is pushing so many New Yorkers out of the city." He also promised to take on "corporate greed." Practically speaking, Mamdani will be unable to raise taxes without help from New York State's government."

New York City CEOs and billionaire business leaders spent more than $40 million trying to prevent Zohran Mamdani from becoming mayor. Mamdani won decisively, prompting reactions that range from threats to leave the city to pragmatic engagement with his administration. Kathryn Wylde has brokered and will continue to arrange meetings between business leaders and Mamdani, saying the Partnership will work with whoever wins. Mamdani centered affordability in his campaign and proposed measures such as a rent freeze and higher taxes, and he vowed to take concrete actions in his first 100 days to address the cost-of-living crisis and confront corporate greed. State approval would be required for significant tax changes.

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