Zohran Mamdani's Next Act

"The secret fear of the loudest die-hard critics of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is not that he will fail as the city's leader but that he has a very good chance of succeeding. If the new administration demonstrates it can deliver on its promise to lower the cost of living while managing our city efficiently and keeping the streets safe, it will become clear that the fearmongers who have been screaming warnings about a coming municipal apocalypse were peddling nonsense all along."

"We had nearly a year of discussion and debate before voters gave the go-head to Mamdani's core four promises: freeze the rent, expand early education, make buses fast and free, and open one government-owned grocery store in each borough to help ease New York's endemic hunger problem. "The residents of the city have spoken, and it's been very clear, and they've done it in amazing numbers, and their response to the Mamdani campaign is that this has to happen," Dean Fuleihan, a veteran government manager who will be Mamdani's first deputy mayor, told me."

""You and I have actually witnessed many times when someone said or commented, 'Can't be done,' and then three months later, it gets done," he said. "I was part of [creating] universal pre-K with Mayor de Blasio, and everybody said it could not happen. Could not happen in the education department; it would take five years. The then-governor of New York said, 'Impossible. Start with a pilot.' And it happened in two years.""

The loudest die-hard critics fear that Zohran Mamdani has a very good chance of succeeding rather than failing. The new administration's core promises are to freeze rent, expand early education, make buses fast and free, and open one government-owned grocery store in each borough to ease endemic hunger. Voters approved these priorities after nearly a year of discussion and debate. Dean Fuleihan, named as the first deputy mayor, says residents have spoken in large numbers and that implementation is not optional. Fuleihan cites the creation of universal pre-K in two years as proof skeptics can be wrong. His decades of government experience underpin his confidence, which contrasts with alarmist warnings and business threats such as John Catsimatidis saying he would close or sell Gristedes locations if the city goes socialist.

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