Black Star News Editorial
Photos: Madison Stewart\YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
This Tuesday, New Yorkers will vote in the Democratic Primary, as New York City moves closer to deciding who should be our next mayor.
New York City desperately needs a mayor who will do what is best for all its residents, not just the wealthy and politically powerful. The current occupant of Gracie Mansion has abandoned the most vulnerable of the city, the “least of these.”
Black and Latino New Yorkers, who played a large role in electing Eric Adams, have been played like pawns by this embarrassment of a mayor.
In this time of austerity, ushered in by the Adams Administration, the economic problems of our Black and Latino communities are compounded by decades of malicious neglect. The devastation left in the wake of the once-in-a-lifetime COVID-19 pandemic has made that situation worse.
Our communities desperately need principled leadership that can deliver economic investment to breathe life into strangled neighborhoods, not austerity. Sadly, most of our political leaders are beholden to the wealthy elite, not the masses of the working people. Their only loyalty is to big money.
These times require a bold progressive visionary candidate to tackle the serious issues faced by our people, in the areas of healthcare, housing, education, economic affordability, labor rights and employment, policing, protection from ICE agents stalking immigrants, and so forth. Among the current political aspirants, seeking to be New York City’s next mayor, one candidate stands head and shoulders over the others: New York Assemblyman Zohran Kwame Mamdani.
Assemblyman Mamdani has ignited a spiritual renaissance by proving that Good is still Good—in an era where it appears that evil is being rewarded, domestically and internationally. Mamdani started as an unknown but changed this by hitting the streets of New York City, going door-to-door to introduce himself to the people. In doing this, he has connected with hard-working New Yorkers, showing that people power can challenge the corrupt political establishment.
Mamdani is following a playbook like that of Bernie Sanders and AOC, both of whom have endorsed his candidacy.
Here are a few important noteworthy policy positions from Mamdani:
On housing, Mamdani said he “will put our public dollars to work and triple the City’s production of permanently affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized homes – constructing 200,000 new units over the next 10 years.” He also pledged to “address the legacy of racially discriminatory zoning.”
Mamdani has promised that, as mayor, he “will immediately freeze the rent for all stabilized tenants and use every available resource to build the housing New Yorkers need and bring down the rent.” He has vowed to crackdown on city slumlords.
One particularly interesting proposal of Mamdani would create “city-owned groceries” to address the high cost of food.
Mamdani said he would “create a network of city-owned grocery stores focused on keeping prices low, not making a profit. Without having to pay rent or property taxes, they will reduce overhead and pass on savings to shoppers. They will buy and sell at wholesale prices, centralize warehousing and distribution, and partner with local neighborhoods on products and sourcing.”
On the issue of city transportation, Mamdani has vowed that, as Mayor, he’ll “permanently eliminate the fare on every city bus – and make them faster by rapidly building priority lanes, expanding bus queue jump signals” and “improve safety for riders and operators – creating the world-class service New Yorkers deserve.”
Mamdani has also promised to progressively tax “big corporations and the wealthiest New Yorkers.” Mamdani says his “revenue plan will raise the corporate tax rate to match New Jersey’s 11.5%, bringing in $5 billion. And he will tax the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers—those earning above $1 million annually—a flat 2% tax.”
These are the kinds of initiatives we should’ve seen from Eric Adams.
The current Adams Administration has been a disaster for the Black and Latino New Yorkers who voted for Adams. Forget about the serial scandals that Eric Adams has visited on Gracie Mansion.
Ask yourself this: has Eric Adams done much of anything for Black and Latino voters—particularly as the Mayor of New York City in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis?
Given the years of economic inequity, that Black and Latino communities faced, Adams should have pushed more initiatives to invest in our people. Instead, he championed budget cuts that have further disinvested in our people.
Cynically, Adams, like most of the current mayoral candidates, push the false notion that crime can only be reduced by increasing police in our economically depressed neighborhoods. Somehow, the lack of employment and commercial and economic opportunities are hardly ever discussed as the main creators of crime.
There is one ugly New York scandal that amounts to economic apartheid that Mayor Adams did nothing about.
A report by Comptroller Brad Lander showed that in Fiscal 2023, of the $40 billion that the City spends annually with vendors, only 5% went to businesses owned by people of color and women.
A powerful Black middle class was created in Washington D.C., and Atlanta, by their late mayors, Marion Barry and Maynard Jackson, respectively. Both refused to sign contracts unless Black-owned firms participated at levels ranging from 25% to 30%.
Mamdani could do for New York what Barry (below top) and Jackson (below bottom) did for their cities when elected.
Mamdani is correct when he says this: “Police have a critical role to play. But right now, we’re relying on them to deal with our frayed social safety net — which prevents them from doing their actual jobs. It’s one of the reasons only 39 percent of crimes are solved and police response times are over 20 percent longer than they were in 2022.” In this regard, Mamdani wants to create a Department of Community Safety saying, “Every New Yorker deserves to be safe. For the City to deliver this, we need a long view to improving the quality of people’s lives: creating economic stability, dignified work, and well-resourced neighborhoods.”
New York City needs a mayor with a progressive forward-thinking vision, who will fight for the betterment of all New Yorkers.
The Black Star News enthusiastically endorses Assemblyman Zohran Kwame Mamdani as the person best suited to be the next Mayor of New York City.
