Mamdani’s Mandate: Make NYC Bankrupt Again

Letter to Ephesians: In the coming days you’ll see NYC Mayoral candidate & Marxist Mamdani crow about his brilliant ideas to make the Sanctuary City livable & “Trump proof.” YET just as fast you’ll see rational folks debunk them as unworkable if not crazy. Take his rent freeze idea, PLEASE!

WSJ columnist Greg IP explained how past rent control or “rent stabilization” have never failed to hurt rather than help solve any city’s housing shortage. But, it’s especially true in New York, he suggests where “supply has been stubbornly unresponsive to steadily rising prices & rents.” Wonder why? Much of the city is already subject to various rent controls, toxic building codes and stifling insurance costs. Manhattan Institute’s Eric Kober also explained how rent control or rent “stabilization” schemes now covering about half the city’s units already “discourages tenants from moving & landlords from upgrading” let alone building new ones. He says Mamdani’s “rent freeze” would make that worse” as demonstrated by a 2019 state law that tightened conditions for rent increases only to cause vacancy rates to plummet. Since then, total housing units has edged up a measly 3%.

Nor will Mamdani’s idea of subsidizing 200K more “affordable” units help since such government led initiatives invariably “cost far more than their purely private equivalents because of all the attached conditions, such as using unionized labor.” Mamdani insists he alone has the secret to paying this housing bill he’s tee-ing up no matter how much it skyrockets: Raise taxes on the rich & corporations no matter where they live or relocate to. Ip agrees that that might “at least ease the NYC housing shortage” by driving people & jobs to other states. But, then, city tax revenues would plummet proportionately so the rich & corporations would have to be taxed more.

Davd Soul