The New Kingmaker
#95 And his potential Achille's Heel
Real quick commentary on Mamdani’s primary win: As I said earlier, the old Democrat machine here is on its death bed. Will it become a Lazarus and rise? Perhaps. But as the headlines this morning show, Mamdani is now a “Kingmaker” -- an old Democrat machine term for a power player who can make or break your political future.
Despite the long winded analysis popping off this morning, I think it really boils down to people being sick and tired of the machine. That’s it. The Democrats, their machine, their media, have failed the People, and the People responded by voting them out of office (or out of their feeds--as Ted Rall writes, just 25% of people trust the news).
One point on Mamdani that is his Achille’s Heel and may hurt him in the years to come as the slow dawn rises on the City: The rent freeze drums he is famous for hurt small family landlords and old New York communities who have made this City what it is, for 2-3 generations. The Italian, Spanish, Greek, Arab, Russian, African American, and more families who invested in the City in the 1960s and 70s, when no one else would. The families who bought small buildings and built small legacies for their communities and their families, for generations to come. Most of these families value preserving their communities. Many rent apartments at (well) below market rates to keep the community together, to keep aging women in place, to keep families with children, single moms and older men—the fabric of the community—safe and housed, because they understand the responsibility of owning a building in NYC is not just to make money; it’s to the people and to the place that make NYC, well, New York City. And they live by that, and have passed it on to their children and grandchildren.
Mamdani’s plan is one that will transfer those small buildings to the larger development companies, management companies, and more—whom, it is said, you cannot win NYC with out. I have not spoken to a single small landlord--whom I know and respect because they do take care of their communities, their people--who has told me otherwise.
I’m no housing activist, but even the housing reporters I know who try to dampen the blow say “it only affects buildings with 5 or more units”--well, a lot of those are small, family-owned buildings of 6-8-12 units. And they are here, in the outer boroughs, where real New Yorkers live, and where community preservation is prized more than the hyper gentrified mess that has besieged and made parts of Brooklyn—once thriving communities—unrecognizeable and filled with Middle Americans who eschew New York City culture and, consciously or not, strive to bring the cold, quiet segregation of the suburbs to the City.
By the time the people realize what has happened, what they’ve lost, how they lost it, it will be gone.
They say the only thing you can count on in New York City is change. It’s happening now, and you won’t believe what happens next.
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Watching
Johnny Carson on Prime, where in 1984, he can be seen joking about Prince Andrew’s proclivities for underage girls.
Listening
Lovin’ Omah Lay’s new album
Reading
One of my favorite environmental substacks, from the good folks at CELDF.
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