Jessica Mendoza and her husband always knew they wanted to start a family in Brooklyn, where they were each born and raised.
But once they started researching what it would cost to have a young child in New York City, they began to worry.
Even with her salary as a city employee and her husband’s as an accountant, “we realized we might not be able to afford that baby. But we really wanted a baby,” said Ms. Mendoza, 37.
After their daughter was born, the couple concluded that the only way they could afford to stay in New York was to move in with Ms. Mendoza’s parents in Bushwick — and pay her mother to watch the baby while they worked.
Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor, has aimed his campaign squarely at voters like Ms. Mendoza, pledging to enact a system of free child care for all New York families, regardless of income. Doing so would involve navigating a logistical and financial maze to harness an unwieldy system of public and private providers, create new day care space, hire scores of new teachers and retool the city’s roughly $116 billion budget. If he is elected in November, Mr. Mamdani will face enormous pressure to deliver.
Mr. Mamdani won the nomination in June by upending conventional wisdom about which New Yorkers make up the base of the local Democratic Party and can sway elections.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The post Mamdani’s Voters Want Free Child Care. Here’s How He Could Do It. appeared first on New York Times.
