10 thoughts on the NYC Mayoral Election

And how Zohran can succeed as mayor

Wow. I was expecting a close mayoral election but the Zohran landslide caught me (and Zohran’s parents) off-guard. New Yorkers can breathe a sigh of relief that Cuomo’s comeback bid was derailed, and by such a significant margin that it looks like he might not even bother running in the general. I am cautiously optimistic about Zohran as our (hopeful) next mayor, and I have a bunch of thoughts on what happened and what’s next:

1. The Lander/Zohran partnership was inspirational. It was heartening to see the two candidates come together with a positive message and thoroughly reject the cynical, negative campaign led by Andrew Cuomo. While I ranked Lander ahead of Zohran, Lander’s full-fledged endorsement made me much more comfortable ranking Zohran and gave me confidence that Zohran would govern as a bridge-builder rather than an ideologue.

2. Zohran should start to fill out his future cabinet. Even though Zohran is the Democratic nominee, it looks like some anti-Zohran billionaires are going for a last-ditch effort to stop him in the general election in November. To settle fears from some Democrats still on the fence and establish himself as a serious leader, Zohran should begin filling out his cabinet. Specifically, he should select a progressive technocrat as his First Deputy Mayor (the mayoral equivalent of VP) and campaign with them as a ticket. Some potential options here are Brad Lander, Maria Torres-Springer (who was Adams’ extremely adept First deputy mayor, and resigned once he was indicted) Meera Joshi (Adams’ Deputy Mayor of New York City for Operations who was also extremely competent and resigned in wake of Adams’ scandals), or Dan Garodnick (the current head of NYC City Planning who spearheaded the City of Yes upzoning). Additionally, identifying someone to run DOT like Polly Trottenberg (who led NYC DOT under De Blasio and was Deputy Transportation Secretary under Biden) or Ryan Russo (director of NACTO and former Deputy NYC Transportation Commissioner) would be a smart move to show he is ready to hit the ground running on these key issues.

3. Democrats should get behind Zohran. Zohran won the Democratic nomination fair and square by a significant margin and it has been great seeing many prominent Democrats support him. However, seeing some Cuomo supporters try to scramble for a last ditch candidate is frankly pathetic, and reflects a doubling-down on a failed strategy and fundamental disconnect from what voters are looking for. This was clearly a “change” election, and polling continues to suggest that Democratic leaders are out of touch with the base, which wants fighters who will stand up to Trump and stand up for inclusive, liberal values. While Mamdani embraced more radical positions early in his career, he moderated for his campaign and Democrats should do everything possible to ensure he is elected and succeeds as Mayor.

4. Eric Adams is not the answer. I have seen lots of semi-ironic praise for Eric Adams based on some of his (legitimately great) initiatives as mayor, specifically his pro-housing stances and trash containerization. However, a closer examination of the trajectory of Eric Adams’ mayoralty suggests that the way Adams governed in 2023 is very different than how he is governing now. Specifically, competent administration officials who resigned in the wake of his indictment have been replaced by Randy Mastro, the new First Deputy Mayor. Mastro is a NIMBY who killed an affordable housing development for seniors that had been planned for over a decade. Additionally, Mastro’s job before this was representing New Jersey in their lawsuit against congestion pricing. The last public-sector job Mastro had before that? Chief of Staff and Deputy Mayor for none other than Rudy Giuliani. Mastro is truly awful and basically has taken the reins of the city under Eric Adams. Moreover, Eric Adams’ recent indictment and collaboration with the Trump Administration and ICE should be disqualifying in its own right. For anyone out of the loop, the Trump administration dropped the indictment of Eric Adams for leverage over him, a quid pro quo so that Adams would let ICE operate freely in the city.

5. But there are lessons from the Adams Administration. One of the most frequent criticisms of Zohran is that he lacks management experience. This is a fair criticism (and part of the reason I ranked Lander ahead of Zohran), however, I think the Adams administration can be instructive here. Eric Adams was not a policy or management expert either. Adams’ most recent experience before mayor was as Borough President, a largely ceremonial role. However, he achieved a lot of successes in office (again, before he was indicted) as he coasted on his talented appointees. If the Mayor hires talented experts and bureaucrats to run the day-to-day and delegates effectively, they can serve as a more public-facing figurehead and let their appointees do good work, largely behind the scenes. I hope Zohran takes this approach to governing and appoints talented experts to keep the nuts and bolts of the city running smoothly.

6. Zohran has great opportunities on transit policy. He should be ready to hit the ground running on things in his control (bus lanes, bike lanes, daylighting, etc.), and be ready to compromise and negotiate on things largely outside of his control (free buses). A few additional quick-hit thoughts:

   1. Zohran should sit down with MTA leadership and figure out how the city and state can work together to build transit faster. Utility relocation and coordination between city agencies and the MTA can be a major source of delay and costs for MTA capital construction projects. Zohran should establish a small MTA coordination office in city government to work hand-in-hand with the MTA to expedite permitting and construction, which is frequently identified by experts as a way to bring down costs and speed up transit construction. This aligns with a bill that he introduced in the Assembly to streamline permitting for MTA projects.

   2. While raising taxes requires city council and state approval, Zohran would have significant leverage to raise revenue through a gold mine that is hidden in plain sight - street parking. There are approximately 3 million street parking spaces in NYC, and over 95% of those are free. Zohran should embrace dynamic demand-based metered pricing, which is gaining popularity in cities across the globe. Prices would fluctuate based on demand, ensuring ~15% of spots are always open, reducing traffic from cruising for spots/double parking, and raising a significant sum for the city. Using some back-of-the-envelope math, even if the average metered price is $0.50/hour and each spot is occupied 75% of the time, that could raise almost $10 billion in annual revenue, which is more than 10x the cost of Zohran’s free bus proposal (~$700M).

   3. On free buses, I am skeptical that Zohran will be able to impose the policy without identifying a revenue stream without tax increases that would likely be blocked by the city council or state (see: metered parking). However, he should be thinking about potential compromises on free buses. Some compromises could include free rides for seniors, expanding the fair fares program, launching an expanded fare free bus pilot (e.g., making all buses in The Bronx free), and implementing all-door boarding to speed up buses.

   4. Zohran ran on “Free, Fast Buses”. He should prioritize the “fast” element of that slogan and build bus lanes and transit signal prioritization all over the city. Faster buses are also cheaper to run due to lower operating expenses from more efficient service, savings that can be used to expand service more broadly. Additionally, Zohran should start exploring opportunities to expand congestion pricing (some more thoughts on that here) given how successful it has already been.

7. Zohran also has interesting options on housing policy. Similar to the free bus pilot, I doubt that Zohran will be able to raise the $70 billion he is seeking to fund NYCHA repairs. However, there is an alternative solution here: public-private partnerships to rebuild crumbling NYCHA housing with denser mixed-income housing that ensures each current NYCHA resident gets a brand new, high-quality home. This is already happening in my neighborhood of Chelsea, where NYCHA is partnering with private homebuilders to tear down crumbling, asbestos-filled public housing and replace it with brand new mixed-income housing. While many are understandably concerned about the risk of displacement, this plan has been crafted in a way that increases the number of subsidized homes, provides brand-new, upgraded homes to everyone currently living in existing public housing, and increases the overall supply of housing in the neighborhood. It’s a true win-win-win, and best of all, a private developer is footing the bill, rather than the city. It accomplishes Zohran’s goal of fixing up and increasing affordable housing in a fiscally sustainable way. Moreover, Zohran should view upzoning as an opportunity to raise revenue and create value out of thin air. A good example of this is the recent Atlantic Avenue upzoning which is being used to fund broader streetscape improvements. Another major housing opportunity is to develop a comprehensive rezoning around the IBX rail line that Hochul recently greenlit. This presents a massive opportunity to build tens of thousands of dense, sustainable, transit-oriented homes.

8. Zohran should build a positive relationship with Governor Hochul. The city suffered from the feud between Governor Cuomo and Mayor DeBlasio, and even though Hochul is far more moderate than Zohran, I hope that they develop a positive, constructive working relationship. If I’m on Zohran’s team, I would be meeting with Hochul’s office and start understanding what the opportunities are to make progress on key campaign promises. And if I’m in Hochul’s office, I would acknowledge that Zohran tapped into something real in the electorate and figure out how we can accomplish as many of his goals as possible, as efficiently as possible, while retaining reasonable fiscal guardrails to ensure the city finances stay strong. My hope is that we get the best of both worlds: accomplishing Zohran’s goal of making a more affordable and sustainable city, while ensuring Hochul’s goal of fiscal responsibility is maintained with a focus on efficiency in government spending.

9. There is a wide range of outcomes for the Zohran mayoralty. While I have seen many derisively compare him to Brandon Johnson, the unpopular mayor of Chicago, I think there are other mayors that can be instructive here. The first one that comes to mind is Michelle Wu, the Mayor of Boston who ran on bold policies (including free buses and rent control) requiring state approval. She eventually ended up compromising, resulting in a few free bus routes and working with the Governor to eliminate mandatory broker fees. Meanwhile, she has focused on being an effective, stable mayor, resulting in an extremely high approval rating allowing her to likely cruise to re-election. Additionally, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, is a good comparison - he ran on a progressive, pro-transit platform and despite outcry from conservatives, he has been laser focused on building more transit and has been re-elected twice. Same goes for Anne Hidalgo, the transit-obsessed Mayor of Paris who won re-election on a platform of making the city more sustainable and taking back space from cars.

10. This was a failure of the Democratic establishment. Prominent Democrats should have done much more to stop Cuomo and coalesce around a different candidate early on. Brad Lander, Zellnor Myrie, and Adrienne Adams were all solid, qualified candidates, and if Democrats united around one of them, Zohran may have never picked up steam. However, the one universal sentiment was fear - Cuomo governed in a Nixonian fashion in Albany, keeping track of anyone who ever crossed him and making their lives miserable. As a result, many prominent officials endorsed Cuomo, or refused to endorse against him - most notably Kirsten Gillibrand who bravely built her public image on opposing sexual harassment. Despite calling for Cuomo’s resignation when the dozen allegations came out against him in 2021, she refused to oppose his candidacy for mayor, saying “this is a country that believes in second chances.” Unifying around a toxic, unpopular candidate like Cuomo opened the door for an insurgent candidate like Zohran. It’s hilariously depressing to see some Democrats that seem to be making the exact same mistake, trying to build support for Eric Adams to stop Zohran in the general election. They clearly learned nothing.