Autumn, suddenly, in New York and a sharp breeze whips along West 30th where tourists in scarves and hats pose for photos beside the 4.8m pigeon sculpture on the raised High-Line walk that cuts through 10th, while underneath early voters make their way to The Shed on 11th Avenue.
It’s a week out from the election and the front page of the New York Post laid out the stark task facing the residents of Gotham: “One Week To Save New York”.
It might have been a prop from one of those periodic disaster movies featuring tsunami waves or alien monsters rampaging through the avenues.
But the tabloid was on a full-court press to dissuade the boroughs from electing 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani as the city’s 112th mayor. “Every vote counts to stop socialist takeover,” it warned, adding the ominous rider: “Zohran lies about 9/11 aunt”.
RM Block
But Mamdani’s ascent towards Tuesday night’s election count, from an obscure state assemblyman who was polling at 1 per cent when he started to campaign in January, seems unassailable. A combination of loquaciousness, photogenic charm, evident sincerity and a manifesto based on universal fairness – a rent freeze; free bus transport; higher taxes for the mega-wealthy – caught the imagination of the majority in a city where just living has become a fiendishly expensive proposition.
He is a Muslim, a democratic socialist and a one-time aspiring rapper who crafted an ingenious campaign based on small donations and volunteers.
To critics, he is a disaster in waiting: a privileged champagne socialist who, as one Post columnist put it is “an inexperienced neophyte who couldn’t even run a Halal cart”.
“Precisely why I voted for him,” laughs Paul, shortly after exiting a nearby polling station at the Fashion Institute.
“I want something different. Let’s see what happens to him.”
Paul and his partner Franny are “born and raised New Yorkers” and have lived through several decades of mayoral highs and lows.
“Everyone who ever runs for mayor of New York always promises new housing, new police,” Paul says.
“And it doesn’t make any difference. I think this is a very difficult city to run. It’s a harder job than being the governor of the state.”
“Except for [Mike] Bloomberg. He was great,” Franny says and winces at the mention of Rudy Giuliani, the 1990s mayor.
“Well. He cleaned up 42nd Street. He did that.”
But Franny is dubious about Mamdani’s capacity to make good on the promises that have caught the eye of voters. For her, the issue of homelessness, heavily evident in the avenues and streets that intersect the landmark dome of Madison Square Garden, is a pre-eminent.
“It doesn’t bother me that he’s a socialist,” she says of the favourite.
“Because he has a lot of ideas that really can’t get done. You can’t have free buses. It’s not going to happen. Because in order to have free buses, you need a lot more buses to come on. Where is that money going to come from? The MTA [Metropolitan Transport Authority] needs the money of ridership. I think it’s a good idea if you have a particular income and you fall below that income, you get a reduced rate, which is what they have now already.”
Although Franny – the couple withhold their surnames – is a sceptic, she can see Mamdani’s popular appeal.
“Did you watch the debates? He speaks ... wonderfully. But he doesn’t have the knowledge or the experience to run a city this large.”
The series of televised debates between Mamdani, the independent (and former Democratic mayor) Andrew Cuomo and the beret-wearing Republican Curtis Sliwa were deliciously poisonous.
Mamdani is a master at the social media clip, based around ingeniously simple stunts like his Friday evening June walk of the entire length of the island of Manhattan. It was sweltering but he still looked fresh as a daisy 13 miles later.
His stark criticisms of Israel, and outspoken pro-Palestinian views, have alarmed Jewish leaders in the city, with more than 1,000 rabbis nationally signing a letter warning that the “safety and dignity of Jews in every city” is contingent on electing public officials who respect the statehood of Israel. Mamdani has worked hard to win over the Jewish enclaves of the city and, in the tougher theatre of live television, he demonstrated equipoise.
“Andrew Cuomo will spend much of tonight attacking me,” he told viewers.
“He’s a desperate man, lashing out because the one thing he has always cared about – power – is slipping away from him.”
There is a truth in that. Cuomo has vowed to flee New York if his opponent wins, to which Mamdani found a slick, memorable retort in television interviews.
“I’m staying right where I am because I’m a New Yorker. It’s not contingent on winning or losing an election.”
Mamdani’s rise coincided with an acute crisis of identity and purpose for the Democratic Party in the wake of its catastrophic presidential election switch from Joe Biden to Kamala Harris.
Chuck Schumer, the New Yorker and party elder has not endorsed Mamdani as of yet, but he has been embraced by fellow New Yorker and flag bearer of the left, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The congresswoman joined Bernie Sanders and New York governor Kathy Hochul in front of a full house of 13,000 at a Forest Hills stadium rally last Sunday. Even against their considerable dazzle, he stood out.
Mamdani’s startling rise has led to speculation that he could become a breakout star for the Democrats, much as Barack Obama’s life was transformed by his charismatic turn at the 2004 party convention.
Certainly, his rise has both alarmed and angered the Republican Party, with president Donald Trump repeatedly referring to the candidate as a “communist” and making heavy threats to withhold federal funding and deploy troops to “clean the city up” if he wins.
“We’re gonna end up with a communist mayor,” Trump commented recently.
“It’s not even believable. My beautiful New York.”
Cuomo’s manifesto revolves around the argument that he has the political heft and experience to stand up to Trump. Donations from Bloomberg ($8.3 million) and Bill Ackman ($1.75 million) are reflective of the billionaire-class suspicion of what a Mamdani mayorship would mean for them.
“These are all the same billionaires who funded Donald Trump’s second term,” Mamdani says.
“And they are seeing just as good an investment here in New York City in electing Donald Trump’s puppet Andrew Cuomo. And they want to ensure that the narrow path he has is paved with the same money that gave us this authoritarian administration.
“They are spending more money than I would even tax them. There’s a restlessness amongst those like Bill Ackman that there could be a movement that repudiates the very kind of politics that is funded.”
Mamdani’s contention is that his inexperience simply means he will appoint seasoned officials to his office. For instance, he has vowed to retain Jessica Tisch, the New York City police commissioner and heiress of the billionaire Loews corporation, whom he has credited with “changing a police force that [outgoing mayor] Eric Adams had stacked with corruption and incompetence, and started to root that out.”
He has been equally forthright and even taunting in his remarks towards Trump.
“We have to show we will stand up for New Yorkers,” he said of the president’s vows to take control of the city via federal troops.
“This has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with intimidation. What this is about is trying to terrorise people across this country into understanding that authoritarianism is the only way forward.”
A series of polls released on Thursday show Mamdani holding a 10-16 point lead over Cuomo: narrowing but still commanding. He has warned supporters that they need to show up at the ballot: that this is not a shoo-in.
If he closes out what would be a remarkable political campaign, Mamdani seems likely to become central to the rolling conversation about the future of the Democratic Party – and yet another enemy for Trump to add to his gargantuan black book.
But winning the keys to Gracie Mansion – the mayoral residence since Fiorello La Guardia, who is still the most revered New York mayor in living memory, moved in there with his family in 1942 – comes with a flashing warning sign.
Loving New York and being loved by New Yorkers as a mayor is a nigh impossible task. Far from a springboard to national success, joining the long, carnivalesque line of mayors can prove the graveyard of ambition. For all of Mamdani’s glittering potential, he is entering a cut-throat office.
Former mayors John Lindsay, Guiliani, Bloomberg and de Blasio all ran, with varying degrees of conviction, for president of the United States. All flamed out. And the city has a long, unforgiving memory when it comes to mayors. La Guardia had North Beach airport renamed in his honour.
But Abe Beame, whose mayorship is remembered for the crisis period from 1974-77 when the city teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, has so far been honoured with nothing but a small plaque on a tree at Third and 34th. Beame reputedly planted the tree himself.
