Mamdani Plans To Make NYC A More Affordable City To Live In. Here's How

captured the nation's attention in July of 2025 when he won New York City's Democratic mayoral primary. The 33-year-old assemblyman's upset victory led one opponent, disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, to register as an independent and challenge him in the general election. , saddled by Republican opponent Curtis Sliwa. Mamdani's other general election challenger, incumbent mayor Eric Adams, dropped out in late-September amid dismal polling. .

Commentators have socialist's unprecedented success over party insiders to his social media outreach and his base's aggressive canvassing efforts, but what truly Mamdani are his overwhelmingly popular policy initiatives. This message clearly resonated with New Yorkers, considering that Mamdani won the democratic nomination with more than any candidate in the city's history.

Mamdani says his initiatives will help all renters and also fix the problem of , which  doubled over the course of Adams' term as mayor. "Too often we think of homelessness as if it is natural, as if it is innate. It's a political choice," Mamdani said in a campaign video released this month (via YouTube). "We need to build more housing, and we also need to make sure that for the public sector, the housing we are building is immediately affordable."

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New York City has struggled to build low-income housing for decades, which has resulted in extremely competitive lotteries for often rundown units. But Mamdani plans to shift the status quo through a restructuring of the city's housing policy.

The campaign also says it will provide universal childcare, free buses, and at least one public grocery store for each borough. To fund these programs, t. Some critics argue that this tax rate will push out wealthy New Yorkers, but Mamdani is confident they will stay. "The reason I believe they will keep doing business here is that this is one of the largest economies in the world," Mamdani told the panel of "The View" (via YouTube) at the beginning of October. "Everyone wants to be here."

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, and  he ran without opposition. 

The assemblyman's stated goal has always been to prevent working-class New Yorkers from being pushed out to less expensive cities. Since taking office, he has led a successful 15-day hunger strike to achieve $450 million in debt relief for taxi drivers and also secured $100 million in the state budget for a fare-free bus pilot and increased subway service, according to his campaign page.