Opinion: A daring new chapter in New York City history

He came out of nowhere after a brief stint in the U.S. Senate and before that the Illinois legislature. He had that unusual name – even before his detractors inserted his rarely used middle name, Hussein, to scare Americans about his foreign roots.

But on Nov. 4, 2008 – exactly 17 years ago – Barack Obama was elected president of the United States at the tender age of 47. He had little management experience, but he had a preternatural skill to inspire and communicate hope and optimism to a country that desperately needed that in the midst of an economic meltdown.

Last night, Obama’s political heir, Zohran Mamdani (get used to pronouncing his name correctly because he will lead Gotham until at least 2030) pulled off an equally paradigm-shifting victory in his improbable race for mayor of the largest city in America – the second-hardest job in the land, as it’s often called.

Even early into the 21st century, it was unimaginable that America would ever elect as president a Black man with little political experience whose foreign sounding name elicited xenophobic reactions (including claims that he wasn’t born in the United States). But yes, he could, and yes, we did.

Last night, the city that houses the top stock exchange and has the second-largest Jewish population in the world, did something else unimaginable: it elected to its highest office a proud democratic socialist, a Muslim man who spent his early childhood in Uganda and became a U.S. citizen only eight years ago.

What a city and country and era we live in!

A slight plurality of American voters welcomed back to office Donald Trump merely a year ago, just four years after rejecting him and watching him stare at a TV set while the Capitol was attacked by some of his misguided and destructive supporters.

But (whiplash alert!) Trump’s native city just elected the president’s antithesis – a democratic socialist, Muslim, foreign-born crusader for social justice whose set of beliefs is diametrically opposed to our country’s leaders in D.C.

How to explain last night’s result? Well, just like Obama was swept into office by a young, new generation of voters disgusted with the status quo in America, Mamdani rode a wave of support from Millennial (and Gen Z and Gen X) voters sick and tired of old-school politicians and their inability to make New York affordable for their generation.

Boomers like me in New York City had it much easier in the 1990s and 2000s: rents were not sky-high in every neighborhood of the city, and if you had steady work and could save up some money for a down payment, you could aspire to buy your first apartment by your early 30s.

That New York City no longer exists.

If you wanted to raise children in the city in the 1990s like I did, child care wasn’t cheap, but you could figure out a way to do it because housing and daily expenses like food, transportation and utilities weren’t budget busting.

That New York City no longer exists.

If name recognition, wealthy donors and years of experience in government were the major factors in how we elect our leaders…

That New York City no longer exists.

We are entering a whole new era in New York, and depending on your age and socioeconomic class, you’re either elated today or you’re terrified and checking real estate listings in other states.

Zohran Mamdani has an unenviable task ahead: uniting a city where Wall Street reigns, Main Street is hurting, AI is threatening to eliminate millions of white-collar jobs, and America’s leader and his party is eager to defund New York City and watch it burn so that they can profit from its demise in next year’s pivotal congressional midterm elections.

So what should Mamdani do? He needs to hire extremely competent managers for his administration without any ideological litmus tests. Keeping Jessica Tisch as police commissioner, as he’s already vowed to do, is a great first step in calming down the city’s elite who could otherwise be plotting their escape to Palm Beach, Florida, or Greenwich, Connecticut.

In addition to NYPD Commissioner Tisch, Mamdani should quickly announce his choice for first deputy mayor and make sure that his or her résumé lives up to that huge role: someone like experienced former Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer or the uber-talented City Planning Commissioner Dan Garodnick would do the trick.

He also needs to score a quick victory in early 2026 to put the lie to those who say his campaign promises – free buses, free child care, a rent freeze on rent-stabilized units and subsidized groceries – were just empty campaign promises.

On universal child care, the new mayor will have a kindred spirit in Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is up for reelection next November and could also benefit from a big affordability win.

Why not announce together that, over the next four years, free universal child care will be phased into the city (and state) and start immediately with a pilot program in 2026 in one borough and one upstate county?

Surely, the higher-than-expected tax receipts of 2025 can fund a limited pilot program while the mayor and governor hash out new funding streams to scale it out citywide ($5 billion annually) and statewide ($15 billion).

Universal free day care needs to be a public/private partnership. Many corporations are already investing in child care as a recruitment and retention tool for employees, so there’s no need for the public sector to pick up the entire $15 billion bill. That’ll make this four-year implementation faster and more equitable.

On free buses – which would cost the MTA about $700 million in much-needed funding – Mamdani and the governor can get that revenue from another source: phase in a paid residential parking permit program (which has been very successful in D.C. and Boston) and eliminate free street parking in parts of the city to monetize those parking spots.

Sure, some car owners might be ticked off initially, but imagine if you could make buses fast and free – perhaps many of those car owners will abandon their vehicles for mass transit. Eventually, monetize all free parking spots in the city and you could make the subways free, too.

As for bringing city-run grocery stores to each borough, Mamdani could modify that plan and think even bigger – subsidize large food co-ops in every neighborhood and make sure that all New Yorkers have access to healthy, affordable food. Emulate the popular Park Slope food co-op that has successfully operated for decades – where members run it and trade volunteer hours for access to cheaper produce, meats, dairy and fruits.

As for freezing stabilized rents, that will require the Rent Guidelines Board to go along with Mamdani’s plan. Already, outgoing Mayor Eric Adams is trying to thwart this idea by replacing board members with new ones opposed to a freeze before he leaves office.

But perhaps there’s a third way: freeze rent increases for all tenants whose income is below $80,000 a year and allow modest hikes on those who are wealthier and perhaps shouldn’t be in rent-stabilized housing in the first place.

City government should help compensate those small landlords hurt by a freeze (or smaller-than-expected increases) with tax credits if they can prove real hardship. Isn’t that what Mamdani did for taxi medallion owners a few years ago from his perch in the Assembly?

Mayor Mamdani has to prove in his first year that he will be a mayor for all – the poor, the middle class and the wealthy. We need a healthy socioeconomic mix to allow government to pay for all the initiatives the new mayor wants to accomplish.

But for the next two months, until Mamdani is sworn in at City Hall on New Year’s morning, all New Yorkers must remember that we should all be on “Team Pilot.” Our new mayor, who will be guiding our journey as a thriving metropolis the next four years, needs to be successful for all of us to flourish.

Let’s try to help him land the plane safely.