{"id":25236,"date":"2025-11-01T16:05:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T16:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/25236\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T16:05:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T16:05:15","slug":"mamdani-shifts-campaign-focus-to-citys-night-shift-workers-at-jackson-heights-diversity-plaza-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/25236\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani shifts campaign focus to city\u2019s night shift workers at Jackson Heights\u2019 Diversity Plaza \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Democratic\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani speaks at a press conference at Jackson Heights\u2019 Diversity Plaza. Photo by Shane O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n

At Jackson Heights<\/a>\u2018 Diversity Plaza late Thursday night, Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani shifted his tactics in reaching out to the city\u2019s working-class voters, this time focusing on the night shift workers who keep the \u201cCity That Never Sleeps\u201d moving.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, the frontrunner in the ongoing mayoral election despite some narrowing polls<\/a> in recent days, brought his campaign to many of the workers who work the night shift, including healthcare workers and taxi drivers at LaGuardia Airport. The Queens Assembly Member spoke of how it is \u201cnearly impossible\u201d for such workers to participate in the political life of New York City.<\/p>\n

Standing alongside healthcare workers and members of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA)<\/a> at Diversity Plaza at midnight, Mamdani pledged that his administration would \u201credefine what it means to be a nightlife mayor,\u201d in an apparent broadside at Mayor Eric Adams \u2014 who previously referred to himself as a \u201cnightlife mayor\u201d for embracing after-hours life.<\/p>\n

\u201cLess Bond Zero,\u201d Mamdani said in a reference to a private nightclub frequented by the mayor, \u201cmore (of) a mayor who visits nurses and hospitals after the sun is set.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Mamdani pledged that he would not only visit nightshift workers in hospitals and taxi ranks but that he would \u201cfight for them in the morning at City Hall.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The Democratic nominee has had a close relationship with the NYTWA after taking part in a 15-day hunger strike in 2021, calling on the city to introduce relief for drivers crippled by debt brought about by predatory taxi medallion loans. The hunger strike helped pressure city officials and lenders into an agreement that erased $450 million worth of debt.<\/p>\n

At Diversity Plaza on Oct. 30, Mamdani was joined by NYTWA member Richard Chow, who joined the 2021 hunger strike after his brother committed suicide when faced with overwhelming debt. Chow continues to work seven days a week to support his family even after securing debt relief, the candidate noted.<\/p>\n

Mamdani touted his economic platform<\/a> \u2014 a rent freeze for 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, free universal childcare, and city-run grocery stores selling cheaper groceries \u2014 as a tonic to help cure the affordability crisis facing nightshift workers. His platform, however, has been met with criticism and questions over whether Mamdani, if elected, can finance it without increasing taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers<\/a> \u2014 an idea which requires state approval and has already been ruled out by Gov. Kathy Hochul.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can make groceries cheaper and public transit more affordable, and most of all, we can stand in solidarity with every New Yorker who works while we sleep,\u201d Mamdani said early Friday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani speaks at a press conference at Jackson Heights\u2019 Diversity Plaza. Photo by Shane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[314,1914,310,1087,1445,16151,7976,9,24,16152,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-25236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-assembly-member-zohran-mamdani","tag-cuomo","tag-daily-newsletter","tag-laguardia-airport","tag-mamdani","tag-mamdani-hunger-strike","tag-mayoral-election","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-taxi-workers-alliance","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25236","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=25236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}