Mamdani votes in favor of ballot proposals 1-5

Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani voted in favor of a series of contentious housing-related ballot measures, at last taking an 11th hour position on the politically-fraught issue. 

“We urgently need more housing to be built across the five boroughs, and we also need to ensure that that housing is high quality, creating high quality union jobs,” Mamdani told reporters Tuesday morning outside his poll site at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria. “And I also understand that there are council members in opposition to these measures, and their opposition is driven by commitment to their communities and a deep concern about investment in those communities and I share the commitment to that investment. I look forward to working with them and delivering.” 

For weeks, Mamdani has been evasive about where he stands on the questions, which are aimed at making it easier to build more housing amid the city’s dire shortage, but would weaken the City Council’s power over some projects. With allies on both sides of the debate, the calculus of whether to support or oppose them – and when – has been complex. But with Election Day underway, the decision could wait no longer. Mamdani said he voted in favor of ballot proposals one through five. The lone proposal he voted against was No. 6, which would move city elections from odd-numbered years to even-numbered years, bringing them in alignment with higher-profile federal elections.

Mamdani has spoken at length throughout his campaign about affordability, housing being a key component as the city faces skyrocketing rents and a dire shortage of vacant units. Several of the ballot measures could go a long way in helping the next mayor ramp up the city’s production of housing, reshaping the lengthy and unpredictable approval process for development projects. 

Two of them, Nos. 2 and 3, would create a shorter process for some moderate land use changes and some projects that include affordable housing, shifting the City Council’s power over the approval process to mayoral appointees. No. 4 – arguably the most controversial of the bunch – would create a three-person appeals board consisting of the mayor, the City Council speaker and the local borough president with the power to reverse or modify City Council decisions on proposals that include affordable housing. Two votes would be needed to reverse a decision.

Mamdani also voted to approve the far less contentious No. 5, which would consolidate the many city maps into a single, unified map, and No. 1 a state measure that has little to do with New York City. 

Mamdani’s decision to support the housing-related proposals was quickly lauded by supporters. “Zohran Mamdani has already proven that nothing changes unless we change it. Today, by electing Zohran our next mayor and passing Proposals 2 through 5, New Yorkers are wielding the power of our votes to change the course of our city’s future,” said Amit Singh Bagga, campaign director for YES on Affordable Housing

The three housing-related questions have been at the heart of a fierce public education battle that’s widened the divide between the Adams administration and City Council leadership. They’d been put on the ballot with public input by a Charter Revision Commission convened by Mayor Eric Adams last year and are likely the reason Mamdani took so long to take a position on any of the ballot proposals. 

Allies like Gov. Kathy Hochul, city Comptroller Brad Lander, and the Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens borough presidents back the proposals, touting them as essential tools to combat the city’s housing crisis. Many City Council members, the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and building workers union 32BJ SEIU – powerful labor unions that endorsed Mamdani in the general election – oppose them, arguing that the questions themselves are misleading and that they would favor developers in negotiations, thus diluting their ability to fight for greater affordability and unionized jobs. The City Council speaker race is among the factors that have made the issue tricky for Mamdani as pissing off members could hurt his ability to have influence over the outcome.  

Up until casting his own ballot, Mamdani has been firm in not publicly taking a position. That cut across debates, forums and many interviews. Pointing to the potential ramifications on labor, he’s repeatedly said he’s having conversations with supporters and opponents.

And while independent candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa have attacked Mamdani for not taking a position (the former governor supports them and Sliwa opposes them), many of his supporters have been publicly sympathetic to his plight. “I think he's focusing on his campaign, which is his top priority," Jasmine Gripper, co-director of the Working Families Party, told City & State last month. “Not on something that's quite divisive amongst the ecosystem.” 

“There’s going to be a thousand issues that come up and I think you ought to ask the candidates how they feel about them,” Hochul said Monday morning while canvassing in support of the proposals on the Upper East Side. She declined to say whether she thought Mamdani should or shouldn’t do the same.