Mayor Zohran Mamdani, joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders, touted his socialist philosophy of what he called “pothole politics” \u2014 taking care of New Yorkers’ fundamental needs \u2014 in a speech marking the first 100 days of his administration at a Queens concert hall on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was elected as a Democratic socialist,\u201d he said to a packed and cheering crowd at the 3,000-plus seat Knockdown Center in Maspeth. \u201cAnd I will govern as a Democratic socialist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani said he drew inspiration from \u00a0Daniel Webste\u00a0r Hoan, who served as Milwaukee\u2019s mayor\u00a0from 1916 to 1940, and was known as a \u201cSewer Socialist\u201d for developing the midwestern city\u2019s waste disposal system and developing public housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe believed, just as we do, that, to deliver this great society, we should tax the rich,\u201d he said to roars of approval from the audience, which broke out into a chant of \u201cTax the rich.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi, whose district includes parts of Queens, told Newsday\u00a0in September that Mamdani’s tax plan would drive crucial taxpayers out of the city.<\/p>\n
“His solutions, socialism, raising taxes in New York City, to force more people to leave New York City, more people to leave New York State, providing everything from the government, is not the right answer,” he said.<\/p>\n
The mayor said Sunday that he has tackled the big issues, like providing universal child care to parents across the five boroughs, but also, the smaller municipal issues, like filling in 102,000 potholes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncluding 22,800 in just three days alone, from Pelham to Tompkinsville Bay Ridge to Inwood,\u201d Mamdani told the crowd. \u201cCity workers have fixed roads at a rate not seen in more than a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n
Referring back to his campaign promise to make the city more affordable to working-class New Yorkers, he promised to open city-owned grocery stores in each of the five boroughs before the end of his first term.<\/p>\n
He said that he would open the first store under the elevated Metro North train tracks in East Harlem, which The New York Times reported would cost an estimated $30 million to renovate.<\/p>\n
Halfway into Mamdani\u2019s speech, Sanders made a surprise appearance on the stage, lauding the new mayor for his work so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you guys are doing here is telling the world that we can have a government that works for all of us, not just the oligarchs,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n
Mamdani promised to work with Gov. Kathy Hochul to improve bus and train service and hinted that his appointed representatives on the Rent Guidelines Board would not vote for a rent increase. He also said he would improve worker protection.<\/p>\n
A recent\u00a0Emerson College Polling\/PIX11 poll of New Yorkers showed that 43% of voters\u00a0approve of the direction\u00a0Mamdani is going in, while 23%\u00a0disapprove.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani, joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders, touted his socialist philosophy of what he called “pothole politics”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4275,1445,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-194825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-local-politics","9":"tag-mamdani","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-city-news","14":"tag-ny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}