CNN
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New York City is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in, a fact that guided many New Yorkers’ votes in Tuesday’s mayoral primary election.
Like his fellow candidates, Zohran Mamdani has put affordability at the forefront of his campaign. But his ideas, which include rent freezes for households living in rent-stabilized units, free buses and city-run subsidized grocery stores, have made him stand out.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old three-term state assemblyman, is inching closer to seeing his vision come to fruition after he and fellow front-runner former Gov. Andrew Cuomo conceded the race to him late Tuesday. Still, Cuomo left the door open to running as an independent in November, which incumbent Mayor Eric Adams is also doing.
If Mamdani ultimately wins, some businesses and labor groups will be celebrating while others are bracing for potential economic consequences.
Critics say his proposals could backfire. One group, the Partnership for New York City, which represents a group of nearly 300 CEOs, said many of Mamdani’s proposals are pipe dreams. (The group does not endorse mayoral candidates.)
The group’s CEO, Kathryn Wylde, said Mamdani’s proposals to freeze rent for four years for over a million people in affordable housing and raise the corporate tax rate to 11.5% would hurt New Yorkers.
“When he says, ‘I am going to tax the rich and tax corporations,’ that appeals to young people who say, ‘Oh good, that’s not me.’ But overall, ultimately, they are stuck with rising costs if businesses have to raise their prices because of rising costs,” Wylde told CNN.
Kenny Burgos, president of the New York Apartment Association, a group that primarily represents rent-regulated property owners, said Mamdani’s proposed rent freeze could make it harder for landlords to maintain their properties, which are often older.
For existing tenants, their buildings “could completely deteriorate to a point that no one can live in them.” Or they could be forced to allow the city to manage their properties, which Burgos argued could not be done effectively.
The New York Apartment Association, which has backed Cuomo, supports increasing housing vouchers and targeted rent freezes for some households. “But blanket rent freezes are dangerous,” Burgos said.
Mamdani also proposed building 200,000 new affordable housing units funded by the city.
Burgos raised concerns there, too. “I don’t know who invests in a property or invests in an area where the administration is proposing to cap your revenue, freeze your investments. I mean, where does this work?”
Mamdani is quick to brush off such critiques.
“It’s not complicated: landlords know they can make a lot more money if Andrew Cuomo is in City Hall,” Mamdani said in a post on X this month. “That’s why they’re going all in.”
Earlier this month, the United Auto Workers union said it endorsed Mamdani because of his working-class agenda. The UAW represents 20,000 members in New York City.
“He’s been to countless UAW picket lines. He’s fought for better wages, for our livelihoods, and for a livable city for UAW members,” said UAW president Shawn Fain, who announced the endorsement in a statement.
Mamdani’s labor platform calls for additional collective bargaining laws with better wages and working conditions across industries, like the current New York City fast food wage law that sets a minimum wage at $16.50 an hour, higher than the state’s minimum of $15.50. Mamdani also said he supports a new local law that would bring New York City’s minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030.
The repercussions of that kind of wage hike could be hard to predict. For example, a California law last year raised the state minimum wage for fast-food workers by $4 an hour to $20 an hour. Some research estimates that businesses reduced their payrolls by thousands, turned more to automation and raised prices to afford the wage increase. However, other research did not reach those conclusions, finding only anecdotal evidence of those effects.
Perhaps Mamdani’s most well-known proposal calls for building a network of city-run subsidized grocery stores that would be exempt from paying rent or property taxes. He claimed this would increase food availability, especially in neighborhoods where food stores have closed, at manageable prices.
Billionaire John Catsimatidis, whose business, Red Apple Group, owns the grocery store chains Gristedes and D’Agostino, said if Mamdani wins, come November, “I do not want to continue to do business.” This would mean shutting down nearly 30 New York City-based grocery stores and relocating his companies’ headquarters to New Jersey, he told CNN.
“We don’t want to do business with socialists,” said Catsimatidis, a frequent Republican donor who, along with his wife, contributed over $500,000 to President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign. The two also donated a combined $36,000 to New York’s Democratic Attorney General Letitia James.
“Tell our manufacturers to lower prices. If they lower prices, we’ll lower prices,” he said, in response to CNN’s inquiry regarding how he aims to make food more affordable.
Mamdani’s other proposal to potentially bring food costs down goes to the heart of some of New Yorkers’ most beloved street grub.
“New York City has a crisis, and it’s called halal-flation,” Mamdani said in a campaign video filmed in December with street food vendors, including those selling halal food. The vendors claimed long wait times and caps on the $200 city-issued permits to sell food forced them to rent permits for nearly $20,000 from existing holders.
@zohran_k_mamdani
Chicken over rice now costs $10 or more. It’s time to make halal eight bucks again. #halal #halalfood #foodcart #nyc #nycfood #nycfoodie #Brooklyn #manhattan #ericadams #queens #bronx #statenisland #Brooklyn #zohranmamdani
♬ original sound – Zohran Mamdani
Vendors featured in the video said they would lower food prices if they didn’t have to pay so much for permits.
The Street Vendor Project, a New York nonprofit advocacy group that’s part of the Urban Justice Center, helped facilitate the video with Mamdani. The group does not endorse mayoral candidates.
“A lot of (the vendors) were like, ‘It’s the first time a mayoral candidate jumped in my halal food cart and asked questions like: What are your problems? How can I help if I become mayor?’ And it was a really inspiring moment for them,” said Mohamed Attia, managing director of the Street Vendor Project.
In the video, Mamdani said he would support the Street Vendor Reform Package, a set of bills the Street Vendor Project is hoping to pass in the city council that would ensure more city licenses for vendors and give them support from the city’s Department of Small Business Services.
Mamdani is the only candidate to announce support for the entire package, according to Attia.
