Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently made an observation that ought to command widespread agreement.
asserted
that → make → agreement
“Quality of life has come to be seen as somehow a right-wing concern,” he said.
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he → come → concern
The same goes for efficiency and rooting out waste.
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same → go → waste
His point was that the left shouldn’t surrender these concerns to its opponents.
“If politics cannot deliver on the block where you live,” asks Mamdani, “why would you trust it to deliver anywhere in your city?
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you → surrender → city
It’s a good question — and a fair standard by which to judge his administration.
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It → ’ → administration
He has his work cut out for him.
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work → have → him
Rents keep setting records.
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Rents → set → records
Child care runs tens of thousands of dollars a year.
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care → run → dollars
The schools spend more than $42,000 per pupil, yet about a third of students are chronically absent.
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third → spend → students
Murders and shootings have fallen to record lows, but felony assaults remain roughly 44% above 2019 levels.
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assaults → fall → levels
Mamdani didn’t create these problems.
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Mamdani → create → problems
They built up over years, across administrations, through decisions made in both City Hall and Albany.
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They → build → Hall
But if quality of life transcends ideology, so should the fixes.
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fixes → transcend → ideology
In a new Manhattan Institute paper, we offer 50 practical ones.
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we → offer → ones
An estimated 57,000 rent-regulated apartments sit vacant, many because state law prevents rents from rising enough to cover the cost of renovating them.
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law → estimate → them
The city should work with Albany to let rents on those units rise enough to make rehabilitation feasible, returning roughly two years’ worth of new construction to the market without requiring public subsidies.
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rehabilitation → work → subsidies
On schools, the Department of Education should hold principals accountable for chronic absenteeism.
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principals → hold → absenteeism
DOE should require school staff to intervene as soon as a child falls behind, before small learning gaps become permanent ones.
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gaps → require → staff
Watchdogs also shouldn’t have to wait a year for chronic-absenteeism figures.
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Watchdogs → have → figures
Connecticut and Rhode Island update their absenteeism data at least every month — New York should, too.
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York → update → data
A regulatory thicket makes child-care facilities hard to open.
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facilities → make → ?
The Mamdani administration’s child-care plan should modernize building requirements and give qualified home-based providers a clear path to approval, with appropriate oversight.
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plan → modernize → oversight
And rather than make buses free, adding service on crowded routes and speeding up trips would do more for riders than giving up fare revenue.
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adding → make → revenue
To lower grocery prices, Mamdani should move to lift zoning limits that keep supermarkets out of suitable manufacturing districts, so more grocers can compete.
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grocers → lower → districts
City services should leverage the latest technology to resolve residents’ complaints.
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services → leverage → complaints
The Office of Technology and Innovation, for example, could combine 311 noise complaints, sanitation reports, police incidents, EMS calls and late-night transit ridership to flag the blocks most likely to see spikes in disorder — and send police and other responders before the nuisance starts.
uncertain
nuisance → combine → police
On the streets and subways, the certainty of a penalty, more so than its severity, is what deters crime and antisocial behavior.
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what → deter → crime
Consistent enforcement, starting with fare evasion, would restore that certainty.
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enforcement → start → certainty
AI paired with human review could also separate urgent 311 complaints from low-priority or fraudulent ones.
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AI → pair → ones
Mamdani should work with the City Council to scrap Local Law 97, the city’s carbon-reduction law for large buildings.
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Mamdani → work → buildings
It drives up housing costs — cutting directly against the mayor’s affordability agenda — for a negligible reduction in global emissions, in the city that already has the lowest per-capita carbon emissions among large US cities.
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that → drive → cities
Meanwhile, New Yorkers pay the highest combined top income- and corporate-tax rates in the country.
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Yorkers → pay → country
Yet to close a projected budget gap of at least $6.4 billion in fiscal 2028, Mamdani will likely seek even higher taxes.
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Mamdani → close → taxes
Instead, he should cut the least important spending and impose a temporary hiring freeze for non-uniformed workers.
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he → cut → workers
None of these moves requires New Yorkers to agree on every political question.
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None → require → question
Getting results, though, sometimes means disappointing a political leader’s base.
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Getting → get → base
The mayor has already shown he’ll do that — up to a point, at least — on policing by resisting pressure from his left flank to fire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
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he → show → Tisch
He’ll need the same independence on housing, schools and the budget to improve residents’ quality of life.
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He → need → life
Mamdani owes less than most mayors to the interests that usually block change.
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that → owe → change
By and large, the city’s public-employee unions didn’t back him in last year’s primary, which leaves him freer to pursue ambitious reforms.
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which → back → reforms
…and 3 more, not listed.
The Aporia
