It\u2019s rare to have star power so potent that you can turn even a municipal budget process into a hero\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n
Yet, when Mayor Zohran Mamdani presented New York City\u2019s executive budget last week \u2014 typically a dry and routine municipal process \u2014 denizens of the internet seemed to determine that New York City\u2019s mayor walked on water.<\/p>\n
Kareem Elrefai, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America\u2019s national political committee, watched bemused as his group chats with friends in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Los Angeles filled with memes<\/a> about the budget.<\/p>\n \u201cMy phone feels like it never ends with buzzing about Zohran,\u201d Mr. Elrefai, 29, said.<\/p>\n There was a dramatic portrait of Mr. Mamdani in a suit, over the words: \u201cAre you enjoying the show? Refill your popcorn.\u201d There was a video of the parenting influencer Ms. Rachel sitting next to to Mr. Mamdani<\/a>, both pretending to cry \u2014 acting out the universal \u201cboo hoo\u201d gesture \u2014 which was posted in response to people complaining about the pied-\u00e0-terre tax on multimillion-dollar second homes. There was a photo of Mr. Mamdani staring ahead over the caption<\/a>: \u201cThat deficit is now zero.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe stereotype that I think is incorrectly placed on the left, particularly the more progressive side of the left, is that there\u2019s ideas and people power and momentum, but then they cannot govern,\u201d said Annie Wu Henry, 30, a social media guru for Democratic candidates. \u201cMamdani has really shown that stereotype to be wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n But for those deeper in the trenches of New York City\u2019s budget making process, there was something a little head-spinning about how a nitty-gritty, wonky city policymaking issue was becoming a national spectacle. To some, the viral version felt like it had a fairy tale gloss, warping some of the complex and challenging realities of the city\u2019s financial crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cFor budget monitors, it\u2019s never surprising when the budget is balanced,\u201d said Ana Champeny, the vice president for research of the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission. \u201cThat is what has to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Champeny said that for Mr. Mamdani, balancing the $125 billion budget required relying on a series of suboptimal tools to address what the mayor called a crisis of generational proportions. For example, $2.3 billion will come from delaying some pension payments, which still requires buy-in from unions and state approval.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a Band-Aid budget that solves the problem for today, but it will hurt when the city pulls that Band-Aid off,\u201d Ms. Champeny said. \u201cThe city\u2019s budget is complicated, and there is a lot of nuance and history. Sometimes when these things get simplified or spread in channels like social media, you lose some of those details.\u201d<\/p>\n In harnessing the power of memes and narrative, Mr. Mamdani is relying on a well-worn playbook \u2014 one used by the MAGA world in its over-the-top portrayals of President Trump and by the left in how it uses Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in its messaging.<\/p>\n But for some of Mr. Mamdani\u2019s skeptics, the meme-ification of the city budget distilled a bigger frustration with the mayor\u2019s persistent attempts to both govern the city and constantly broadcast<\/a> his governing. Shoveling snow<\/a>, filling potholes<\/a> and signing executive orders have all become fodder for vertical videos.<\/p>\n This combination of broadcasting and governing means that the mayor\u2019s version of reality goes viral, even when others \u2014 especially members of the City Council \u2014 have their quibbles with it.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m happy that there\u2019s transparency,\u201d said Kevin Riley, a city councilman from Brooklyn. \u201cBut when the right information doesn\u2019t get out there, it doesn\u2019t help us negotiate in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n Take the mayor\u2019s sparring with the City Council speaker, Julie Menin, over the Council\u2019s proposed budget.<\/p>\n On April 1, Ms. Menin released a video highlighting the Council\u2019s version of the budget, which got just shy of 100,000 views. Then Mr. Mamdani rebutted her, and criticized the speaker by name, in a video<\/a> that got nearly three million views on X. Members of the City Council took notice and mounted their own social media attack. One city official expressed skepticism that the mayor had found the time to read the Council\u2019s 64-page report before posting his video response.<\/p>\n