Astoria, Queens, was once the home of Archie Bunker, the fictional 1970s archetype of a bigoted, blue-collar white man angry about the change happening around him.<\/p>\n
Those days are long gone. Astoria now marks the northern border of the \u201cCommie Corridor\u201d that stretches down into Brooklyn. The stronghold of young, leftist and college-educated voters<\/a> fueled the rise of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America and one of its most-famous members, Mayor Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n \u201cThese areas are getting younger. Younger people are becoming even more politicized and that\u2019s driving the change,\u201d said Michael Lange, a political analyst, DSA member and author. He said he coined the term \u201cCommie Corridor\u201d to help people understand the movement, \u201chow Mamdani won, and particularly the places he did so well.\u201d<\/p>\n By Lange\u2019s definition, the Commie Corridor stretches from Western Queens through North Brooklyn and down into Bedford-Stuyvesant. The highest concentration of card-carrying democratic socialists lives in these neighborhoods, where the winning candidates appealed to voters struggling to keep up with rising rents and angry at politicians in both parties who are sending their taxpayer money to conflicts abroad.<\/p>\n Gothamist toured the neighborhoods with Lange, visiting a handful of sites he and others said are linked to the politics of the Commie Corridor. Together, the spots captured a scene that is trendy, queer, accepting and radical \u2014 hinting at the broad appeal of the democratic socialist movement that is growing across the country.<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s old rent-stabilized apartment<\/p>\n Before moving to Gracie Mansion, Mamdani lived in an apartment<\/a> in the Princess Martha, a six-story building on a residential block of 35th Street near Broadway. A Greek flag hangs above a stoop a couple doors down.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aFor a long time it was kind of a bastion of white ethnic homeowners, Greeks, Italians. Archie Bunker is, of course, fictional, but he lives in Astoria,\u201d Lange said.<\/p>\n Mamdani’s old apartment building in Astoria.<\/p>\n Brigid Bergin<\/p>\n Lange said the neighborhood is now a prime example of a powerful political constituency: the renter class.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aAs affordability has really become such a salient talking point and narrative in the Democratic Party, a renter is now a political identity of sorts, and this class has cohered into a real political bloc,\u201d Lange said.<\/p>\n In New York City, renters tend to be younger residents. \u201cThey’re really feeling the burden of this affordability crisis,\u201d Lange said.<\/p>\n More than 80% of households in the neighborhood are renters, according to census data<\/a>. Mamdani reportedly moved to the one-bedroom apartment<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n The neighborhood was in the midst of an acute increase in the cost of living. Research by NYU\u2019s Furman Center<\/a> found real median rents in Astoria rose 35% between 2006 and 2024, more than the increase boroughwide or citywide.<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s political identity reflects the leftist tilt of the area.<\/p>\n By 2016, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont beat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary in Astoria. In 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ousted longtime Rep. Joseph Crowley for a congressional seat that at the time included only the Steinway Street portion of Astoria, known as Little Egypt. In 2020, voters elected Mamdani to the state Assembly.<\/p>\n King of Falafel & Shawarma<\/p>\n Just a few blocks from Mamdani\u2019s apartment, King of Falafel and Shawarma sells falafel sandwiches for $11.<\/p>\n The owner of the Palestinian restaurant, Fares \u201cFreddy\u201d Zeideia, 60, catered Mamdani\u2019s first campaign meeting. Mamdani told a small group of people that he was running for mayor.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t many people. It was 50, maybe,\u201d Zeideia said.<\/p>\n The entrance to King of Falafel & Shawarma is covered in anti-Israel and anti-Trump posters.<\/p>\n Brigid Bergin<\/p>\n The restaurant windows are plastered with political signs, including one for the NYC-DSA. Zeideia said he hung it because the DSA has stood against AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, and stood up for Palestinians.<\/p>\n Zeideia wants to encourage younger generations to keep fighting.<\/p>\n \u201cGaza actually woke up everybody and I want to be part of that movement,\u201d Zeideia said.<\/p>\n Plus BKLYN<\/p>\n Lange said Greenpoint \u2014 which was once a predominantly Polish enclave \u2014 has become one of the youngest and most left-leaning neighborhoods in the city.<\/p>\n In 2020, the neighborhood elected 36-year-old environmental and housing activist Emily Gallagher to the state Assembly, ousting nearly five-decade incumbent Assemblymember Joe Lentol, whose father and grandfather held the seat before him. Gallagher joined NYC-DSA after her election.<\/p>\n She\u2019s cultivated a relationship with Alexis Krase, the politically active owner of Plus BKLYN, a vintage and consignment shop for people size 12 and up. The store is also a queer space that caters to nonbinary people.<\/p>\n Assemblymember Emily Gallagher and Plus BKLYN founder Alexis Krase.<\/p>\n Brigid Bergin<\/p>\n \u201cFat people, frankly, have been marginalized in many senses of the word, but specifically in fashion,\u201d Krase said, sitting on a plush velvet couch outside the store\u2019s fitting rooms.<\/p>\n At Gallagher\u2019s suggestion, Krase hosted \u201cKnow Your Rights\u201d trainings on what to do if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe needed safe spaces for people to go and I would say that Alexis has created probably the safest space in all of New York City for a lot of folks who don’t always have a place to go,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aIt did feel really empowering and natural, too,\u201d Krase said, \u201cbecause that’s kind of what we had been doing all along, creating space for people to meet and congregate.\u201d<\/p>\n Boyfriend Co-op<\/p>\n On Primary Night last year, Boyfriend Co-op in Bushwick was over capacity for a watch party hosted by the DSA\u2019s local chapter. The worker-owned queer coffee shop and cocktail bar is a common site for fundraisers and other events. Several employees are DSA members.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first event I came here for was a trans rights campaign fundraiser,\u201d said NYC-DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo, recalling the gathering shortly after President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning gender-affirming care to minors early in his second term. \u201cZohran back then was a very active supporter of the cause. This is a queer bar, so it was a natural fit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe really value the places that have welcomed us when we fit easily into their walls,\u201d added Grace Mausser, the other NYC-DSA co-chair.<\/p>\n Since the start of Mamdani\u2019s campaign, DSA\u2019s ranks have grown by more than two-and-a-half times, according to the organization.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re drawing a much more normie cross-section of the city. It\u2019s a more multiracial cohort of new members. It\u2019s a broader sector of the working class<\/a>,\u201d Gordillo said.<\/p>\n