A popular cyclist and socialist who has pledged to make transit fast and free is now mayor-elect of America’s largest and most influential city. He has ushered in a new era of American politics, and he could usher in a new era of urban transportation policy that influences streets nationwide.
Zohram Mamdani’s huge win last night is also a massive victory for people who care about urbanism and healthy cities. He’s an unabashed lover of buses and bikes who isn’t afraid of taking bold positions on transportation policy and was the first mayoral candidate to receive over one million votes since 1969. Mamdani embraced cycling on the campaign trail. In one of his many viral videos, a woman yelled “Communist!” as he unlocked a Citibike from a rack during an event and he calmly snapped back, “It’s pronounced ‘cyclist’!”. And on election day Mamdani released a video where he hops in the bucket of a cargo bike for a lift to the polls.
He’s by far the most talented politician since Obama — and the fact that he came from outside the Democratic establishment (and even made a lot of mainstream Dems so nervous they didn’t endorse him), makes his accomplishment that much more impressive.
His entire platform could be boiled down to making New York City more affordable. And one of the three main pillars of that platform was to make buses “fast and free.” The discussion around free transit has split the advocacy community for years. Many people support it, but some experts and advocates say it could only happen if service was cut — and would be a pyrrhic victory. But none of those discussions was based in a reality where an extremely popular mayor was elected with a mandate to restructure the tax code in a way that jettisons scarcity framing and creates the funding needed to make good on “fast and free.”
Cars are to transportation what billionaires are to American society: We’ve been convinced by the media that the negative externalities they create are normal; there’s way more of them than we need; and the forces that maintain their dominance make life worse for the rest of us. Mamdani understands that and he’s in a historic position to shift that dynamic.
I remember in the 2010s when New York City transformed its car-choked streets into carfree plazas, express bus lanes, and protected bike lanes under the leadership of former DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. The projects she pushed forward inspired cities across the country to see streets differently. If Mamdani finds the right DOT commissioner (some folks are dreaming of a JSK comeback), New York City could continue this exciting urban evolution.
I’ve always liked to say that it takes more than winning an election to make change. You must also be connected to community, because the people are where the power lies. Mamdani — and his million supporters — understand that.
Mamdani’s ride into City Hall has sparked joy and hope among transportation reformers far beyond the five boroughs. Welcome to the new era of American politics. It’s going to be a wild ride.
Thanks for reading.
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who will be the Zohram Mamdani of Portland ???
OMG. Please no.
Was talking about this at Bike Happy Hour tonight and someone said Angelita Morilllo.
We’ve got a few good candidates for that mantle: Morillo, Green, Koyama-Lane….
“We’ve got a few good candidates…”
The key to Momdani’s success has been charisma.
Pretty much all he had going for him. Just goes to show that politics is mostly personality driven. Like trump he someone got the voting audience to believe he was for the working class despite never having worked a day in his life. Life is good with a silver spoon in one’s mouth. It will be interesting to see how these very similar politicians (in background, not policy) interact with each other. Two rich elitists yelling that they are the champions of the working class. Sighhhhh.
Haha. Not even close. Mamdani is the smart, thoughtful version of Democratic Socialist who actually cares about government being efficient and effective. Morillo is a jumble of slogans and positions that are more about expanding her social media following than solving real problems.
What real problems has Mamdani solved so far? I am thankfully not conversant on NY politics so I don’t know what he accomplished there. Morillo is not my favorite counselor by any means, nor do I agree with her vision, but at least she is trying to help her city.
She is also disrespectful toward others, even her colleagues when on the dais. I guess she considers it edgy, or clickable. But I agree, we’ve got a pretty mediocre bunch of socialists in this town.
One thing that makes Mamdani so exceptional is how hard he is to criticize. I mean, beyond MAGA wingnut criticisms, Mamdani is pretty unassailable.
Mamdani has absolutely no record to assail — he’s great at talking, but we don’t know anything about his capabilities beyond that.
That’s going to change soon.
I’m glad someone else said the obvious! He’s a rich scion of leisure who has done nothing to judge and has made no hard decisions.
The proof will be in the pudding.
I’m a bit surprised at Jonathan’s MAGA slur to shut down any discussion of any potential negative views of Mamdani. I thought that I had misread the poster and it was actually one of BB’s posts.
Sorry but the facts are the facts. MAGA is a cult in my personal opinion.. Also, I’m not trying to shut down any discussion. That’s absurd.
“I mean, beyond MAGA wingnut criticisms, Mamdani is pretty unassailable.“
Your post said that unless I found Mamdani exceptional and all his views unassailable that I am a maga wing nut. If that’s not an attempt to shut down criticism I don’t know what is.
Maybe you didn’t mean it that way, maybe I don’t really know what an attempt to shut down criticism is, but when people think a leader is unassailable, bad things are sure to happen. Look at our dear leader in the White House now. 50% of NYC voted for Mamdani, just about the same amount who voted for Trump nationally. His faithful think he’s unassailable as well and their misplaced faith in his actions are scary.
We’ll all see what NYC becomes with a cult of personality leading it soon enough.
The irony’s almost poetic Jonathan. Condemning the MAGA cult while faithfully serving one’s own far-left congregation/cult. Different hymns but similar intolerance and extremism. Blind faith comes in all political colours.
Umm yeah I’m in the Mamdani cult! You guys are hilarious!
He was a member of the state assembly prior to this so it’s not like he’s a newbie. He didn’t pass a ton of stuff apparently, but he did win debt relief for taxi drivers.
I agree that he hasn’t passed a bunch of stuff but he’s young and just won over a million votes and i have a hunch he’s more than talk. But yes we shall see.
How many times has some new politician captured the progressive imagination? Seems to happen every couple of years. Every once in a while they turn out to be a Barak Obama, but usually not.
I can’t see Mamdani having much appeal outside wealthy coastal cities.
We do know he’s capable of going on a 14-day hunger strike to help NYC taxi drivers win debt relief (they were successful, and he continued to do his assemblyman work from the strike site.) So while he doesn’t yet have a long list of legislative accomplishments, he’s obviously capable of backing up his talk.
I haven’t been following the NYC race closely, but hubby is totally excited by Mamdami, and I would have voted for him (our old apt bldg in Manhattan voted for him hard). It’s been a quarter-century since I’ve lived there, but the party machines were awful. Try sitting around a board table with Democratic Party of Western Queens stalwarts, the place was run like a mafia . . . so yeah, AOC and Mamdami are a real breath of fresh air.
Unassailable? Really Jonathan. That’s exactly what the MAGA extremists say about Trump. You seem to be drifting farther left every day.
Not drifting. I’ve been further left than most people realize for a long time. Also further right in some ways. It’s almost as if it’s impossible to understand some peoples’ politics by a few words typed in a random internet comment!
Inspired by your civility-policing:
Given the history of NYC mayors going on to bigger and better things, I expect the world to be a brighter place from here on out.
My personal hope is that Trump will have a new fixation and might forget about Portland.
We’ll see how city run grocery stores turns out I guess. I’m guessing we’ll se a lot of nonsense like we do in Portland from the DSA and DSA adjacent. Better bike paths would be great but seeing how our similarly minded leaders have failed us I don’t have much optimism for NYC.
The biggest potential difference between socialism in NYC vs PDX is tax base.
We will? AFAICT, he can’t unilaterally decree the stores’ existence. Does this proposal have support from others in the NYC government?
“Cars are to transportation what billionaires are to American society: We’ve been convinced by the media that the negative externalities they create are normal; there’s way more of them than we need; and the forces that maintain their dominance make life worse for the rest of us.”
If I did graffiti, this is what I would spray paint. Very well said!
Agreed. That was the standout part of the article to me, and I wish everyone around the globe would read it.
FIFY:
Mamdani election a massive win for
urbanismsocialism …ok soren.
Market-urbanists have a tendency to describe authentic left-wing urban movements (e.g. Colau’s left-municipalist/socialist coalition and Hidalgo’s socialist/communist/green coalition) as “urbanist” or “urbanism” while de-emphasizing or ignoring the anti-capitalist motivations of these movements. It’s kind of life wanting good urban things whole being unwilling to acknowledge that the only path towards universal urban good is taxing millionaires/billionaires/corporations (some of whom fund market urbanist think-tanks/nonprofits….oh wait).
From Mamdani’s platform:
https://www.zohranfornyc.com/platform
Soren. Your eagerness to criticize me I think makes you blind to what I actually write (and believe, but I’ll excuse that because we don’t talk face to face so you can’t understand what I actually believe beyond what I type here).
I literally put “socialist” in the first sentence and I refer to his platform of taxing billionaires to pay for this stuff… so I’m not sure why you feel the need to comment in a way that makes it appear like I don’t understand his platform and/or I’m trying to hide it or am afraid to actually name it.
I did not intend this at all. I simply object to the framing of your title and to the framing of parts of your piece. Considering that you described his victory as “a massive win for urbanism”, I thought this would be obvious.
What I am trying to figure out is whether this framing is intended to troll or whether you really do believe that socialism is entirely or extremely compatible with urbanism. If it’s the latter, may I introduce you to the idea that many socialists are sharply critical of market urbanist politics/economics.
A few examples:
https://jacobin.com/2024/02/housing-policy-urban-renewal-deregulation
https://jacobin.com/2023/09/yimby-housing-supply-land-monopoly-rent-prices
https://jacobin.com/2024/08/urban-planning-jane-jacobs-yimbys
https://jacobin.com/2024/12/an-urban-legend/ (on Moses, LOL)
You are making a huge assumption that I am a “market urbanist” or that I believe in “market urbanism.” I’m using “urbanism” here as a general way to describe life in cities. Or in this basic definition: “the way of life characteristic of cities and towns.” And I believe that Mamdani, a socialist in charge of the most urban city in America, could make that city better and that his impact will influence other cities – and urbanism writ large – far beyond NYC.
Suburban living is urbanism!
I made no assumptions about you in my comments and was focused on the intentional/unintentional framing. As you know “urbanism” has become essentially synonymous with the YIMBY/market-urbanist movement. This association is so strong that left-leaning people who study/care about the geopolitics of cities have had to invent new terms so as not to be associated with “urbanism” (e.g. critical urbanist/critical geographer).
I’m going to sign off on this topic because I did not really want it to become so argumentative — sorry about that. Ultimately, I think it’s great that you, like me, are excited about the latent potential of this new administration.
Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland all have strong Socialist-Democracy leanings in their government structures. They’re also prosperous, have significantly higher standards of living, better health and healthcare, and higher levels of general happiness than the US.
I’m personally sick of people using “Socialism” like it’s a swear word (you bolded it because…?) or venerating capitalism like it’s endowed with holiness.
Let’s focus on taking care of people. It seems to me Socialism is working better than capitalism in that regard.
Scandinavia is not socialist. They do have strong social programs, but that is a different thing altogether.
We too could have stronger social programs if we wanted to pay for them, without becoming any less capitalist. That is a policy choice, nothing more.
Sure but it’s a policy continuum that, in the context of American politics, is commonly described as running from ‘capitalism’ to ‘socialism’ (or, even more reactionary, ‘communism’). So it’s technically correct that neither end of this spectrum is correctly described, but the political shorthand is widely used and broadly understood. Including, one would suspect given the sophistication and nuance of your posts, by you.
I would think it would be beneficial for social democrats to distinguish themselves from socialists to avoid the strong negative reaction that socialism gets from most Americans.
The fact that there is frequent confusion between people who brand themselves as “socialists” as an edgy way to say they support policies like government funded preschool, and people who claim to be genuine socialists (like Soren) only demonstrates the problem.
We don’t lack for good terms: Social Democrat or Progressive are perfectly well understood and not hard to say.
Or even better would be to avoid the labels all together and talk about policies.
Now hold your horses there Michael. Those Nordic countries aren’t socialist; they’re capitalist with a heart. Folks still run businesses, make profits, and compete just like we do. They just decided not to let people go broke if they get sick or want to go to college.
But here’s the kicker: you can’t just slap their model onto the U.S. like a bumper sticker. They’ve got five or ten million people, strong trust in government, and a culture that actually believes in paying taxes for the common good. Plus they have programs that actually work…unlike our Preschool for “All”, Failed Homeless Tax and the PCEF slush fund. Here in the USA, we’ve got three hundred and fifty million folks, a history of fighting over every nickel, and a political system that can barely fix a pothole or clean our bike lanes (think Portland).
So sure, we can learn a thing or two from Scandinavia about taking care of people, but calling it socialism or pretending it would just work the same here is like trying to run a combine in downtown Chicago. Wrong tool for the job.
Maybe because when they pay taxes they actually get something in return. Unlike Portland,Oregon.
I didn’t say they were Socialist, I said they have strong Socialist-Democratic leanings in their government structures and I stand by that. Jonathan’s article is about Mamdani, who proudly identifies as a Social Democrat, as does Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and as do about half of our current city council. Their political leanings and ideas look a lot like what exists in Scandinavia. Anyone who thinks Mamdani wants to eliminate capitalism obviously hasn’t been listening. But Social Democrats borrow from Socialism what does benefit society (and raises the ire of pure capitalists), namely, more equitable income distribution, and regulation of industry.
This might have been true in the 1920s but social democrat these days means something very different from democratic socialist. Allies on many issues…sure…but also ideological differences.
How has that approach worked in Portland?
I’d say very poorly.
Did Zohran say he was going to seize the means of production? No he said a few fare-free bus lines and 5 city owned grocery stores. And nobody thinks it’s actually going to happen. Like when Trump said he was going to build a wall funded by Mexico.
“But then there are also other issues that we firmly believe in, whether it’s BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel), right, or whether it’s the end goal of seizing the means of production, where we do not have the same level of support at this very moment. “
He did in fact say it at least once. Whether or not he believes in it as much as BDS remains to be seen. Just fyi, It takes politifact a loooong time to get to the relevant part. Not really well written.
https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/jul/03/seizing-means-production-Zohran-Mamdani/
that’s why the promise of prefiguration and a bit of dirty incrementalism, in NYC, is seeming so hopeful right now
Sigh…I bolded socialism because the fact that Mamdani is a socialist is important to me as a life-long landlord/developer/rentier-hating anti-capitalist. Once more for good luck: SOCIALISM (or something like it) is the only possible path to a better world.
I think it’s kind of hilarious that you apparently did not even entertain the idea that my comment might come from a socialists perspective that is hostile to market urbanism. After all, who could have known that some socialists are hostile to landlords, developers, real-estate gazillionaires, and rentiers in general.
Even better.
Praising Mamdani for what he claims his transportation goals are is akin to praising Mussolini because the trains ran on time.
At least a fresh generation will be able to see the actual outcome of some of these socialist ideas that come from the minds of the idle rich.
The trains did not in fact run on time under Mussolini. They were a mess. Many freight trains ran empty and passenger trains were wildly out of schedule, if one could even get approval to ride a passenger train. To the point that people would stow away on empty freight trains. A protracted stall in a tunnel caused 500+ people to be killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from a steam train. Balvano train disaster.
Comparing Mamdani to a brutal fascist dictator because you’re afraid of the word “socialism” is dumb.
Someone fell for the scare tactics.
The odd thing is that he doesn’t actually have to do too much at the start. The council has been sitting on the streetsplan waiting for Adams to permit the construction of legally-binding miles of separated bike and bus lanes (i.e., 50 and 30 per year respectively). Without Adams actively preventing those projects, Mamdani just needs to let the DOT run without undue interference/bribes from people with money.
Pretending it matters what his political ideology is called while ignoring what he actually does is a silly problem of understanding one’s own biases, not what exists in reality.
I think his political ideology matters because it should decide what he will try to do. I certainly hope that his track record when it comes to sustainable transportation or social housing is as successful as Hidalgo’s. And, BTW, some Parisian “YIMBYs” appear to really hate Hidalgo :
https://pedestrianobservations.com/2023/02/08/anne-hidalgo-hates-paris/ [LOL]
I mean yes sure. My point is politicians might have a stamp that says X or a stated belief system, or a voting record even better. You can infer behavior from that, but once someone sits in the mayor’s office, everyone hates them. It’s just kind of an unstated rule in NYC. They have to make terrible decisions, because political decisions are really messy there (everywhere?). Words are imprecise and people can mistakenly think they believe the same thing by just using the same silly slogan or abstract jargon without any deeper understanding. Ideologies are where thoughts go to die.
What will Mamdani try to do? I hope he will try to not take bribes, and still go to the bagel shop and ride the subway. I hope he will not allow his friends’ cars to fill Borough Park (a pedestrian zone/farmers market) with a hundred cars every day (Adams). I hope he will not drive an SUV convoy 11 mi. one way to Park Slope every morning to go to his favorite gym (DeBlasio). And if dreams come alive, I hope he knocks off the F*&^n BQE currently on palliative care.
Adams was never popular other than a bit during his Borough presidency in BK. People already held their nose when voting for Adams in ’21 (who got 67% of the vote against Sliwa). But that was just a process of the peculiar Democratic machine in NY, which makes Mamdani’s win feel kind of like DeBlasio’s (at the start) except even more so. Lots of hedged hope. “How much will we hate the guy in 4 years?” is my best way to evaluate the guy.
YIMBY hates socialism and poor people
And describing the election of a democratic socialist as a win for urbanism is an oxymoron.
What if Fareless Square was a whole city? At the very least, TriMet should give free bus service a trial run. Perhaps make it a holiday service from December 1st to January 1st.
They do usually do free rides on New Years and St. Patrick’s day. Last year on New Years, they were running trains pretty late, like until 3am I think.
People tend to not value things that are free. If people aren’t using transit, it’s usually not because of the cost, but rather because they perceive it as unsafe, or inconvenient, or it doesn’t provide the kind of door-to-door service they want and can get from easily-obtained existing alternatives. If transit was faster and more convenient than driving, they are more likely to use it no matter how much it costs, so the solution is to make Portland as dense and congested as Manhattan and build subways.
“it’s usually not because of the cost”
It’s easily both, and I’m sure I can’t be the only one.
I often choose to drive downtown, or to the east side when getting on the max costs $6.00 return, PLUS the $3.00 surcharge because you can no longer purchase a single fare at the point of delivery without purchasing (yet another) card (I’m not carrying another card in my wallet).
Now; to your point, add that to the convenience factor; and it makes it not worth it. Folks are willing to put up with all kinds of bs for a deal; but they won’t for something with a lot of downsides for the same money.
I worked downtown for 20 years and hardly ever drove for this reason. Saving $8 a trip is worthwhile, $2 isn’t.
Also, stopping the 4 (which picked up next to my home in NP), from crossing the river also pretty much killed me riding the bus to or from the east side to go out.
The 4 doesn’t cross the river? Pretty sure you can ride it (across the Steel Bridge) to Pioneer Square…. Agree that cost does deter some trips.
Cost savings tip, use a tap-n-pay method, credit card, or I use my phone. No extra surcharge for their dumb cards.
The fact that you aren’t willing to carry a HOP card in your wallet tells us that you don’t really have any motivation to ride public transit anyway.
Or really, the other way around – build subways and then make it dense, but that’s not politically feasible. You can’t build transit because there isn’t enough density to support it; then after the density is there it’s too complex, disruptive, and expensive to build transit.
I pay more to ride the bus than my co-workers pay for the parking at my workplace in downtown.
It sure isn’t time savings as it can take me an hour to get home by bus, when I drive, even during rush hour, I can get home in 20 minutes.
My co-workers think I’m crazy for continuing to ride the bus . . .
I do it because back in the 70s and 80s I was programmed that taking transit “was the right thing for the environment.” It has stuck with me since.
I’ve come close many times to give up on TriMet, oh they’ve failed in so many ways, but I’m still doing it.
Maybe you haven’t ridden a bus lately, but I do, and there are numerous people who get on and don’t pay. So, due to TriMet’s lack of enforcement the system is already an unofficial fareless square.
As someone who does pay it is quite frustrating to see the free-loaders and the driver doing nothing about it.
I don’t think one needs to ride the bus to advocate for free bus service. But, as it turns out, I do and my experience is that folks pay.
Or they’re just surreptitious scofflaws who are exceedingly good at making that ping sound when they wave their imitation Hop card over the reader.
And you can’t sway me with that “freeloader” talk. I am literally saying that for a month TriMet should make us all freeloaders when we board the bus.
The most articulate politician in my lifetime – even more so than Obama.
I don’t think he’s going to stop at mayor of NYC.
Will he be able to get stuff done? That will be the real test.
I know this was a long time ago, but another NYC mayor everyone thought was the future was Eric Adams. Mamdani has made some promises he probably can’t keep; we’ll see what he can get done in the face of a lot of people who stand in his way. That, as you say, is the real test, and it is yet to come; it will be much harder than beating Cuomo and Silwa (which he did handily).
https://www.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/1fps4ry/remember_when_eric_adams_was_touted_as_the_future/
You are quoting a Bret Stephens piece posted to /r/neoliberal. Try again, Watts.
You’ve already forgotten the general buzz following Adams’s election?
Americans have a habit of overeading New York City mayoral elections. It’s an important post (to New Yorkers) but it rarely leads to a national movement.
Mamdani could be different, or he could get ground down by New York politics as many before him have. But I don’t see him leading states like North Carolina or Florida back into the Democratic fold.
I think it’s hard to judge “accomplishments” of politicians. What I hope is that folks feel like he understands and cares about their interests and tries to make policy that helps people. I think people will give leaders a lot of leeway if they think they are making a good faith effort to do the best by their constituents. I’m very impressed by Mamdani and hope more politicians run campaigns like his.