To the Editor:
Re “Six Ways Mayor Mamdani Can Improve New York” (editorial, Nov. 9):
I am a 19-year-old college student born and raised in New York City, one of the many young people excited for the Zohran Mamdani administration and confused by the reluctance of so many to accept Mr. Mamdani’s plans for the city.
The fact that your editorial enumerates the struggles most New Yorkers are facing, yet declines to acknowledge the merit of asking a little bit more from billionaires, is astonishing to me. An individual with a billion dollars does not have to worry about the cost of groceries, housing or bus fares. Yet a modest increase in that person’s tax rate can help so many people who are struggling with those costs right now.
I was too young to follow the hope inspired by Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign. Mr. Mamdani is the first politician who has inspired hope in me, and I know he will move this city forward.
Santiago Vira
New York
To the Editor:
Zohran Mamdani’s vision of New York — reduced public transportation costs, universal child care, housing for all — echoes a noble faith in planned justice. It imagines a city that is less a marketplace than a community.
But history whispers a warning. The early kibbutzim of Israel once achieved a similar ideal: collective labor, shared property, equality at human scale. Yet as generations prospered, the dream unraveled under its own arithmetic. Individual ambition and economic gravity reclaimed the experiment.
Mr. Mamdani’s New York risks the same fate, only faster. Compassion can be institutionalized only until the costs exceed belief. What begins as utopia may end in fatigue — not with revolution, but with resignation.
Hanna Hermetz
Tel Aviv
To the Editor:
As a New York City resident who has directly engaged with elected officials on issues ranging from unfair housing practices and landlord abuse to noise pollution, street safety and educational access, I remain deeply concerned that Zohran Mamdani — despite his honorable intent — will be stymied by a bureaucracy and a private sector too invested in preserving their own turf.
Part of our crisis in New York is systemic: City government suffers from chronic under-qualification in key roles; the private sector is often driven by extracting profit rather than shared value; philanthropy is poorly targeted; and voters frequently disengage once the ballot is cast. We need a cultural and civic reset that demands more from government, from business and from ourselves.
If I were Mr. Mamdani, I would begin by tackling education — especially early childhood development, primary education and trade education — as well as public safety, including a serious effort to reduce chronic noise pollution across the city. These are foundational to restoring a basic sense of well-being and possibility for New Yorkers.
On housing, I would work with the state and the courts to identify the extent of warehoused units, regulate corporate ownership of housing stock, clear the backlog of delinquent cases and violations, modernize and streamline the voucher system, and create a dedicated city team tasked with collaborating with developers on a unified, citywide vision for new affordable housing development.
Hicham Oumlil
Brooklyn
To the Editor:
By any account Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City was impressive. Watching the political pundits trying to make sense of his victory suggested that they don’t really understand him. Republicans predictably spun the victory as an invasion of communism. Democrats attributed it to his relentless focus on the high cost of living — especially housing, child care and transportation — which is true but not that simple.
Mr. Mamdani also consistently called out the fundamental cruelty of an unfair system, an unbridled capitalist economy run amok and its political handmaidens, who have made it so difficult for so many New Yorkers and other Americans to thrive or even survive.
Working people have been taking it on the chin for decades. Inequality is at an all-time high, and Americans can no longer count on doing better than their parents, or their children doing better than they have.
Mr. Mamdani clearly understands and speaks to both voters’ frustrations and the structural causes: corporate greed, unfair taxation and dismantled social safety nets, to name just a few. Too many Democrats don’t.
Jerry Rubin
Jamaica Plain, Mass.
Exercise? Just Wait.
To the Editor:
Re “Exercising Is the Worst,” by Rachel Feintzeig (Opinion guest essay, Nov. 9):
Note to Ms. Feintzeig: Hey, cool it, OK? I’m pushing 90. Forty is child’s play, I promise you. PS: Try chair yoga.
Peter Clothier
Los Angeles
To the Editor:
Rachel Feintzeig is wrong. Dieting is the worst.
David Tulanian
Henderson, Nev.
The post Zohran Mamdani and the Future of New York appeared first on New York Times.
