{"id":314909,"date":"2026-08-06T03:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T03:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/314909\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T03:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T03:30:19","slug":"bill-ackman-warns-of-nyc-disaster-if-zohran-mamdanis-agenda-succeeds-watch-what-happens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/314909\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Ackman warns of NYC ‘disaster’ if Zohran Mamdani’s agenda succeeds: ‘Watch what happens’"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani will bring \u201cdisaster\u201d to the Big Apple<\/a> if he succeeds in implementing his far-left economic agenda, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman warned in a new interview.<\/p>\n

Ackman, whose outspoken criticism of progressive politics has made him one of Wall Street\u2019s most prominent conservative voices, argued that New York\u2019s affordability crisis stems from years of bad public policy \u2014 not capitalism \u2014 and warned that \u201csocialism is a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWatch what happens to New York City if Mamdani succeeds in implementing these plans,\u201d Ackman told Fortune on Wednesday.<\/a><\/p>\n

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman warned that Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s economic agenda would be a \u201cdisaster\u201d for New York City. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The warning comes tensions between Mamdani and New York\u2019s business establishment have intensified.<\/p>\n

Hizzoner this week dismissed the entire advisory board<\/a> of the Mayor\u2019s Fund to Advance New York City, removing executives tied to Blackstone, Citigroup, the Real Estate Board of New York and several major real estate firms.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit has long relied on private-sector relationships to raise money for city programs, including more than $100 million for families of rescue workers killed or injured in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and $54.5 million during the COVID pandemic.<\/p>\n

City Hall said Mamdani plans to install a new board that will put people \u201cdirectly impacted\u201d by city policies in the rooms where decisions are made.<\/p>\n

Ackman on Wednesday singled out Mamdani\u2019s proposal to freeze rents on nearly 1 million stabilized apartments, arguing the policy would discourage investment and worsen the city\u2019s housing shortage.<\/p>\n

He also ridiculed the mayor\u2019s plan to roll out city-owned grocery stores, saying government intervention isn\u2019t the answer to soaring food costs.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has proposed freezing rents, opening city-backed grocery stores and expanding other government programs. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201c[Housing costs are] so high because left-wing mayors have made it very difficult for developers to build here, and Mamdani, by freezing rents, is just going to make the problem worse,\u201d Ackman told Fortune.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you make it hard to build where people want to live, and you don\u2019t let landlords recover renovation costs, they\u2019ll pull units off the market,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what happened in New York \u2014 about 60,000 units are off the market because renovation costs can\u2019t be recovered under rent regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ackman castigated Mamdani for targeting wealthy captains of industry and finance titans such as Ken Griffin, the Citadel boss who publicly clashed with the mayor over his newly enacted pied-\u00e0-terre tax.<\/p>\n

Ackman argued that freezing rents would discourage investment in housing and worsen New York City\u2019s housing shortage. Christopher Sadowski for NY Post<\/p>\n

Griffin threatened to reduce investment in New York <\/a>after Mamdani filmed a social media video touting the levy in front of the hedge fund manager\u2019s Central Park South penthouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want people like Ken Griffin locating Citadel here \u2014 spending $250 million on an apartment, because that purchase makes a building economically viable, which creates construction jobs and brings in wealthy residents who pay taxes,\u201d Ackman told Fortune.<\/p>\n

Despite Griffin leaving open the possibility of cutting down his footprint in the Big Apple, the CEO of Vornado Realty Trust announced earlier this week that it will continue<\/a> with plans to build a $4.5 billion skyscraper at 350 Park Ave. that will house Citadel\u2019s local offices.<\/p>\n

Ackman said New York should attract business leaders such as Citadel founder Ken Griffin \u2014 not adopt policies that drive away wealthy taxpayers and employers. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Ackman says that Mamdani would do well to embrace pro-market policies to encourage growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe system can work well,\u201d he told Fortune.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want the top earners \u2014 who are a small share of the population\u2014paying a large share of taxes \u2026 But you don\u2019t want to discourage people like Elon Musk from locating their businesses here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Post has sought comment from Mamdani.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani will bring \u201cdisaster\u201d to the Big Apple if he succeeds in implementing his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6718,288,9,24,56,63,65,64,82],"class_list":["post-314909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-bill-ackman","tag-business","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314909","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=314909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}