{"id":37710,"date":"2025-11-12T22:44:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T22:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/37710\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T22:44:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T22:44:06","slug":"zohran-mamdani-must-embrace-eric-adams-spirit-of-build-baby-build","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/37710\/","title":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani must embrace Eric Adams’ spirit of ‘Build, baby, build’"},"content":{"rendered":"

If he wants to actually deliver on his \u201caffordability\u201d agenda when it comes to housing, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will need to embrace Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 \u201cCity of Yes\u201d legacy \u2014 which centers on unleashing the private sector to build on a scale the public sector can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

One good sign: On Election Day, Mamdani publicly announced he was voting for the pro-development ballot propositions that Adams promoted<\/a>, infuriating the City Council.<\/p>\n

They passed (with The Post\u2019s vigorous support<\/a>), killing the council\u2019s power to veto projects that individual members oppose and otherwise fast-tracking affordable-housing development across the city.<\/p>\n

But the new mayor\u2019s team will need to use the revised process to foster private construction; his campaign plans for new housing won\u2019t work, even though affordable rents matter a lot more to making the city more livable than free buses or even free day care.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the mayor-elect\u2019s rent-freeze vow won\u2019t help most of his voters, who don\u2019t live in rent-stabilized units; what they need is a big increase in housing supply to bring down market rents.<\/p>\n

Mamdani ran on a scheme<\/a> where the city borrows $100 billion to build 200,000 new rent-stabilized, means-tested housing units.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n

In other words, he wants to more than double the size of NYCHA, which is failing<\/a> just as public-housing projects across the country have failed: All hope to save NYCHA\u2019s existing housing stock turns on bringing in private management, under programs initiated under President Barack Obama. <\/p>\n

In reality, the city won\u2019t win the right to blow so far past its debt limits, and has zero institutional competence to build on this scale; just look at the haplessly pricey building done by the School Construction Authority.<\/p>\n

Anyway, most Zoh fans won\u2019t want to live in public projects, no matter how new and shiny.<\/p>\n

So delivering affordability comes down to following on Adams\u2019 gains by further reducing or eliminating barriers to building<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Rezone big-time in the city; speed up the glacial permitting process.<\/p>\n

Talk to state lawmakers and regulators about ending or at least easing labor mandates that push up costs; look at making lawsuits less of a drain.<\/p>\n

And if the mayor\u2019s serious about revising the property-tax code, he needs to look at the punitive rates on new housing construction: They\u2019re a key reason no developer will build anything except high-end \u201cluxury\u201d housing unless bribed with serious tax forgiveness.<\/p>\n

Open the doors to construction for middle-income people, not just the poor: Studies have proven that increasing housing inventory at any price point opens up units for lower-income households as people \u201cmove on up\u201d and out.<\/p>\n

To make New York more affordable, Mamdani will have to put results ahead of his Democratic Socialist preconceptions: He needs to grow if his city\u2019s to grow.<\/p>\n

Channel your inner classic New Yorker, sir: Let\u2019s everyone spit on our hands and get to work building a better future for the whole city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If he wants to actually deliver on his \u201caffordability\u201d agenda when it comes to housing, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2184,304,2907,75,84,83,9,24,63,305,299,307,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-37710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-development","9":"tag-editorial","10":"tag-housing","11":"tag-manhattan","12":"tag-manhattan-headlines","13":"tag-manhattan-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-nycha","18":"tag-opinion","19":"tag-public-housing","20":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37710","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=37710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}