Who is Zohran Mamdani?
Zohran Kwame Mamdani was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda. When he was seven years old, he and his family moved to New York City. Mamdani attended the Bronx High School of Science, where he founded the school’s first cricket team. After graduating from high school, he went on to study at Bowdoin College, receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in African Studies. During his time at Bowdoin, he co-founded the college’s first Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.
Around 2018, Mamdani took the role of foreclosure prevention housing counselor, where he supported low-income homeowners of color to fight eviction all across Queens. It was also in 2018 that Mamdani became a naturalized American citizen. These events, coupled together, caused a major spark in Mamdani’s life, leading him to want to run for office.
A couple of years later, Mamdani became an Assembly member for the 36th Assembly District, including neighborhoods like Astoria, Ditmars-Steinway, and Astoria Heights. He became the first South Asian man to serve in the New York State assembly, and the third Muslim to be a member of the body. Through this role, he was able to voice these unrepresented communities.
What are his policies?
Mamdani has a variety of policies ranging from housing to childhood and education in order to make a better New York City.
Housing
As mayor, Mamdani’s outline for housing revolves around justice for the tenants of the city. Mandani plans to freeze rent immediately for stabilized tenants and bring the rent down. Given the fact that 1 in 10 households of renters revealed that they did not receive ample heat last winter, and 1 in 4 reported rats or mice in their homes, Zohran intends to hold these owners responsible for their building’s environment. Tenants will have the right to track and schedule inspections. If the landlord resists making repairs, the city will do it and send the owner the bill. If an extreme situation arises where there is constant neglect of their tenants, the city will be able to step in and take control of the property. He plans to triple the production of permanently affordable housing in the city, planning to construct 200,000 units within the next 10 years by fully staffing the city’s housing agencies. Mamdani will also establish a new Office of Deed Theft Prevention to defend homeowners from fraud.
Safety
Mamdani will create the Department of Community Safety to prevent violence before it happens, prioritizing solutions that have already shown safety improvements consistently. This department will invest in citywide health programs and crisis response, expand evidence-based gun violence prevention initiatives, and increase funding for hate violence prevention programs by 800%.
Affordability
Mamdani will create several city-owned grocery stores to keep prices low without worrying about a profit. These stores will not have to pay rent or property taxes, so their savings will pass on to the shoppers. The stores will buy and sell at wholesale prices while collaborating with local neighborhoods for product sourcing. Another proposition to aid affordability in the city is fare-free buses. Mamdani plans to permanently eliminate the cost to ride on every city bus. This is in hopes of making them faster and aims to improve the safety of its riders and operators.
Early Childhood and Education
Mamdani plans to implement free childcare for every 6-week-old to 5-year-old New Yorker. This will start by bringing childcare worker wages up, considering that 1 out of 4 live in poverty. Another initiative is to provide complimentary baby baskets for newborns, which include goods such as diapers, baby wipes, books, and more. Additionally, Mamdani will make sure public schools receive full funding with well-distributed resources, strong after-school programs, and access to mental health counselors and nurses. He plans to launch a “Community to Classroom” strategy to train, certify, and hire new teachers. Mamdani envisions a system where parents, students, educators, and administrators collaborate to create a school environment where families and students can thrive.
Labor
Mamdani will advocate for a new law to bring the NYC minimum wage up to $30 an hour by 2030.
While these are not all of Mamdani’s policies, they are certainly very important ones. In order to fund all of these plans, he proposes to increase the taxation of corporations and the 1%.
Mamdani’s remarkable win marks the beginning of a new era for New York City.
