{"id":50131,"date":"2025-11-24T11:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T11:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/50131\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T11:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T11:18:07","slug":"yonkers-woos-businesses-to-cross-nyc-border-after-zohran-mamdani-win-i-like-billionaires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/50131\/","title":{"rendered":"Yonkers woos businesses to cross NYC border after Zohran Mamdani win: ‘I like billionaires’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yonkers\u2019 mayor is pitching businesses fearing apocalypse-level conditions under a Zohran Mamdani mayoralty<\/a> \u2013 saying they should consider crossing the border from the boroughs into the burbs before leaving the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be the last one at the train stop sitting saying \u2018hey, why did you pass us up? You could\u2019ve come here.’\u201d Mayor Mike Spano told The Post. \u201cSo I\u2019m going to be upfront and open, and basically send the message to New York that I like billionaires.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like billionaires, I like the average Joe, and I\u2019d like you to come to and try Yonkers. If you\u2019re going to leave, come here,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano is calling on Big Apple businesses to consider moving upstate before calling New York quits. YouTube\/Mayor Mike Spano<\/p>\n

Spano, a former state lawmaker and ex-Republican, calls himself a \u201cradical moderate\u201d Democrat and said that \u201cwhen New York City sneezes, we get the cold.\u201d He\u2019s now making his pitch in a splashy \u201cThink Yonkers\u201d video ad.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in Yonkers, we built a city that delivers for businesses, for developments and for the people that matter most,\u201d Spano says in the clip. \u201cSo if you\u2019re looking to take your business someplace else, think Yonkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spano didn\u2019t direct any specific ire towards Mamdani and said he looks forward to meeting with him and working with the administration at some point, but claimed he just wants to get in front of people\u2019s anxieties about New York\u2019s business climate.<\/p>\n

Mamdani has said he wants the state to OK a tax increase on the wealthy and hike the corporate tax to generate funds for his democratic socialist agenda<\/a>, which critics fear could drive away businesses for greener \u2014 and cheaper pastures.<\/p>\n

Yonkers\u2019 may provide an option just out of reach of the city subway \u2014 with its downtown growing in recent years. Spano touts a focus on housing development while boasting diverse local employers like rail car manufacturer Kawasaki as well as Lionsgate film and television studio.<\/p>\n

Local businesses in Yonkers tell The Post they\u2019ve sheen waves of ex-pats before, but they\u2019re not sure if Mamdani\u2019s win will bode the same. Aristide Economopoulos<\/p>\n

He said the Westchester County city \u2014 the third-largest in the state \u2014 offers \u201cmicrocosm of New York City\u201d with other built-in perks such as avoiding Big Apple local corporate taxes and other fees on businesses all while remaining 15 miles from midtown Manhattan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw the future potential even before the situation that just happened,\u201d Hershey Friedman, chair of the board of Azorim, a major real estate developer that\u2019s been building in the city, told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe taxes are low. They\u2019ve got everything that a person is looking for. Yonkers is the place, as far as we\u2019re concerned,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Yonkers denizens say they\u2019ve heard the cries of New York\u2019s collapse before.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t be much different than the mass exodus that happened during COVID,\u201d Amanda Breen, one of the owners of Irish Coffee Shop on McLean Avenue said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople bought houses wherever they would find along here and anywhere in Westchester,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rory Dolan\u2019s restaurant has operated in Yonkers for 32 years. Aristide Economopoulos<\/p>\n

Rory Dolan, owner of his namesake Irish Pub & Restaurant in the Yonkers for 32 years as well as other restaurants in New York, told The Post said he\u2019s seen people flee the city before.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople left town after 9\/11 and then maybe after a year go back again. After Covid too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But he thinks the tales of the city\u2019s deaths are greatly exaggerated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came here in 1986. I\u2019ve been around for Koch, Dinkins, Giuliani, Bloomberg, de Blasio, and Adams. It didn\u2019t happen then,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yonkers\u2019 mayor is pitching businesses fearing apocalypse-level conditions under a Zohran Mamdani mayoralty \u2013 saying they should consider…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[433,2907,57,9,56,63,65,64,58,3048,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-50131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-affordable-housing","9":"tag-housing","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-us-news","17":"tag-yonkers","18":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50131","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=50131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}