All of this handwringing over the idea of New York City becoming a socialist enclave is, in reality, a lot of smoke with little fire. It’s useful for the political attack, but there are serious political and legal obstacles to New York City going 100% socialist. Not only that, but the pushback from propertied interests and the sacrosanct nature of property rights would lead to a fierce resistance that would place serious restrictions on what a socialist mayor could do
However, that doesn’t mean that Zohran Mamdani, the socialist candidate and probable next mayor of the city, can’t inflict extraordinary damage.
One area where Mamdani has a lot of control and where his proposed policies would do the most injury is his housing plan and his idea to “freeze” rents for more than a million public housing units.
Earlier in the campaign, Mamdani made a TikTok video of himself standing on a New York beach in the middle of January, wearing a suit and telling viewers, “I’m freezing… your rent.” He then turned around and jumped into the frigid water, fully clothed.
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Mamdani is acting as if the New York City housing market is something akin to the Wild, Wild West. But in fact, there is no more-regulated sector of New York’s economy, with the government already “setting rents, subsidizing construction, and serving as landlord for the roughly half a million New Yorkers who live in public housing,” according to Reason’s Howard Husock.
“New York housing is more socialist than not, which is why the sector has all the familiar characteristics of collectivism and central planning: rampant mismanagement, decay of public assets, misuse of scarce resources, and privilege for the select few,” writes Husock.
New York’s rent control has led to some astonishing outcomes for the rental housing industry.
When public housing was created, it was assumed that the residents would be two-income, working families whose rents would cover upkeep. That plan failed as stable families opted for home-ownership. Today, only 2 percent of New York public housing households include two adults with children, and just a third of households report income from wages.
The perverse incentives of public housing help explain why the city is perennially plagued by shortages. According to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), fully 30 percent of the city’s public housing residents are “overhoused,” meaning single adults are living in 3- or 4-bedroom apartments. About 10 percent of residents have lived in their units for more than 40 years.
Mamdani’s plans would only exacerbate this crisis. He plans to build 200,000 new units in large apartment buildings for $100 billion, to be lifted from “the rich.” This would be a real opportunity for socialist architects to improve upon the ugliest structures ever constructed to hold human beings: Soviet prefabriacted buildings known as Khrushchevkas.
Socialism demands conformity. Expect Mamdani’s apartment buildings to have all the character of a wet rag.
This problem also applies to rent-regulated units: Artificially cheap rents mean tenants don’t vacate after their kids grow up and move out, leading to inefficient use of a limited stock.
When faced with high property taxes and underutilized space, on the other hand, the older owners of private homes often sell and downsize, making way for newcomers. This cycle, driven by market incentives, creates healthy and dynamic communities.
The “affordable housing” program championed by Mamdani will likely take the form of new private apartment buildings setting aside units for lower-income families, whose rents are subsidized by the federal government. These programs require developers to navigate extensive red tape, which adds cost and slows housing production. The system allocates units via lottery, so it’s based on luck.
Freezing rents would drive thousands of small landlords out of business. Unless Mamdani mandated that owners of larger buildings purchase them, there are going to be tens of thousands of empty apartment buildings in the city. At least the homeless will have a better choice of domiciles.
How far will Zohran Mamdani get in destroying New York City’s economy before a combination of the courts, the state government, or the voters stops him?
Since every socialist “experiment” has led to chaos and poverty, the people of New York City had better hope that Mamdani fails sooner rather than later.
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