Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media.
Speaker 2: On Sunday, April twelfth, I went to the Basement nightclub
Speaker 2: in Queens. Like usual, someone scanned my ticket at the
Speaker 2: Big Gate off Flushing Avenue. I had to wait in
Speaker 2: a winding line outside the door, went through security, and
Speaker 2: finally reached the DJ and bar. But instead of the
Speaker 2: regular collection of twinks, dolls and bisexuals, the room was
Speaker 2: full of city workers, politicians, journalists, and DSA members, a
Speaker 2: decent number of which probably were bisexual. I suppose technically
Speaker 2: we were directly above the Basement nightclub in the Knockdown
Speaker 2: Center event venue. Gathered this Sunday afternoon to attend Mayor
Speaker 2: Zoron Mamdani's one hundred day address. I'm Garrison Davis. This
Speaker 2: is it could happen here. I showed about things falling
Speaker 2: apart and sometimes putting stuff back together. This one is
Speaker 2: one of those rare episodes focused on the latter. Earlier
Speaker 2: this April marked Mayor Mamdani's first one hundred days in office.
Speaker 2: This episode, I'll discuss what Zoron has done these first
Speaker 2: one hundred days, some of the challenges he's faced, if
Speaker 2: he's been able to deliver on the promises of his campaign,
Speaker 2: and how he's adapted to the power and constraints of
Speaker 2: running the biggest city in the country, and finally, what
Speaker 2: all this could mean for the future of working class
Speaker 2: and left wing politics in the United States. Let's first
Speaker 2: return to the one hundred day address above the Basement Nightclub.
Speaker 2: Upon entering the venue, you found yourself in a museum
Speaker 2: of the administration's first one hundred days. This little installation
Speaker 2: displayed the mayor's snowshovel from the historic blizzard during Zoron's
Speaker 2: first few weeks in office, a tenant organizing suggestion board
Speaker 2: from the rental ripoff hearings, and a child sized mayoral
Speaker 2: podium used to announce a new free childcare program for
Speaker 2: two year olds. Museum plaques detailed victories for labor and
Speaker 2: tenants rights, as well as infrastructure accomplishments like scaffolding reform
Speaker 2: and a pothole blitz that filled over twenty thousand potholes
Speaker 2: in just three days. Before the mayor's speech, a Bronx parent,
Speaker 2: two tenant organizers, and a city worker from the Department
Speaker 2: of Transportation spoke to the crowd about how life is
Speaker 2: different under the new administration. Mamdani's speech was effectively a
Speaker 2: state of the Union for New York City. The mayor
Speaker 2: outlined the campaign promises the administration has fulfilled so far
Speaker 2: in their short time in office, and connected his style
Speaker 2: of governing to the Sewer socialists of Milwaukee from the
Speaker 2: first half of the twentieth century, who focused on strengthening
Speaker 2: public services.
Speaker 3: Because for too long, City Hall had not just failed
Speaker 3: to meet expectations, it had lowered them. After years of
Speaker 3: broken promises, no one in this city could be blamed
Speaker 3: for doubting that government held either the ability or the
Speaker 3: ambition to upend the status quo.
Speaker 4: It.
Speaker 3: As I said on that freezing January afternoon to more
Speaker 3: than eight and a half million New Yorkers, we will
Speaker 3: make no apology for what we believe. I was elected
Speaker 3: as a democratic socialist, and I will govern as a
Speaker 3: democratic socialist.
Speaker 2: This speech was really the first time since the inauguration
Speaker 2: that the mayor has talked at length about what it
Speaker 2: means to govern as a democratic socialist and the example
Speaker 2: that New York City can set for the rest of
Speaker 2: the country. The address was mostly attended by city workers,
Speaker 2: who the mayor invited to enter into a ticket lottery
Speaker 2: For most of the speech, I was pinned between a
Speaker 2: group of uniformed Department of Sanitation employees and workers from
Speaker 2: the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. The event in
Speaker 2: general was focused on uplifting civil servants and celebrating public service,
Speaker 2: whether that be bus drive, school teachers, or the sanitation
Speaker 2: workers that kept the city running during the worst snowstorm
Speaker 2: in years. It feels like for the past few decades,
Speaker 2: the only public sector job that gets regularly celebrated as
Speaker 2: noble by those in government or in the media, and
Speaker 2: promoted by pop culture is being a police officer. Being
Speaker 2: a cop is the only public sector job that gets
Speaker 2: uplifted with propaganda. Zoron's little videos promoting three point one
Speaker 2: city call center workers is to quote front of the
Speaker 2: pod Ben Lorber, rolling back decades of neoliberal propaganda reasserting
Speaker 2: the dignity of public sector work and workers. A common
Speaker 2: turn of phrase uttered by Mayor Mumdani is if you
Speaker 2: can't solve the smallest task in someone's life, why would
Speaker 2: they ever trust you to solve the biggest one. So
Speaker 2: let's go over some things big and small that Mumdani
Speaker 2: has been able to do in his first one hundred days.
Speaker 2: One of Mamdani's core campaign promises was to to freeze
Speaker 2: the rent. On February eighteenth, Mayor Mamdani appointed six new
Speaker 2: members to the nine member Rent Guidelines Board, which each
Speaker 2: year is tasked with determining the rent increase percentages for
Speaker 2: the more than one million rent stabilized apartments in the city.
Speaker 2: Under airic adams, the board approved a three percent rent
Speaker 2: increase for one year leases and a four point five
Speaker 2: percent increase for two year leases. In just a few weeks,
Speaker 2: the new board will hold a preliminary vote to freeze
Speaker 2: or raise rents before their final vote in June. Public
Speaker 2: testimony on rent adjustments is currently underway. Housing in general
Speaker 2: is one of the top issues affecting affordability in the city,
Speaker 2: and the Mayor's approach has not been limited to filling
Speaker 2: vacancies on the Rent Guidelines Board. After Zora's inauguration speech
Speaker 2: on January first, he went to a neglected apartment building
Speaker 2: just east of Prospect Park to sign an executive order
Speaker 2: revitalizing the Mayor's Office to protect tenants and appointed at
Speaker 2: time tenant organizer to lead the office. This apartment building
Speaker 2: was owned by a literally bankrupt landlord called the Pinnacle Group,
Speaker 2: who was responsible for more than five thousand housing violations
Speaker 2: and fourteen thousand complaints. The revamped Office to Protect Tenants
Speaker 2: and the Mayor intervened in the bankruptcy proceedings and successfully
Speaker 2: secured thirty million dollars in repairs and upgrades for tenants,
Speaker 2: as well as protection from future displacement. Through this office,
Speaker 2: the administration has continued to crack down on bad landlords
Speaker 2: who violate New York City law and mystrey tenants. Just
Speaker 2: a few weeks after the inauguration, Momdannie announced a two
Speaker 2: point one million dollar settlement from A and E Real
Speaker 2: Estate Properties for tenant harassment and hazardous conditions across fourteen
Speaker 2: buildings in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. As a part of
Speaker 2: the settlement, A and E was also required to correct
Speaker 2: more than four thousand building condition violations. In February, the
Speaker 2: Department of Housing, Preservation and Development released a public list
Speaker 2: of the two hundred and fifty buildings with the most
Speaker 2: severe housing code violations a city wide and put them
Speaker 2: under heightened oversight via the Alternative Enforcement Program, with the
Speaker 2: city stepping in to make repairs, then billing the landlords
Speaker 2: if they failed to address violations.
Speaker 3: Since January first, we have won more than thirty four
Speaker 3: million dollars in settlements, judgments and repairs for tenants, delivered
Speaker 3: improvements to six thousand and seventy apartments so far, and
Speaker 3: issued one hundred and ninety five thousand, eight hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty nine violations. New York City will no longer tolerate
Speaker 3: exploitation as a business model.
Speaker 2: In March, Mayor Mumdani announced a quote unquote landmark victory
Speaker 2: against famously bad landlord Seth Miller of IGIs Realty. You
Speaker 2: can say the landlord was egregious at Realty. The city
Speaker 2: brought a case against Miller for dangerously direct conditions at
Speaker 2: nine to one to nine Prospect Avenue in the South Bronx,
Speaker 2: and for the first time ever, courts imposed the maximum
Speaker 2: penalties under the city's nuisance Abatement law, a one thousand
Speaker 2: dollars fine per day until housing violations are addressed and
Speaker 2: two point one seven four million dollars in retroactive penalties.
Speaker 2: During the first one hundred days, the city held five
Speaker 2: rental ripoff hearings, one in each borough, providing New Yorker's
Speaker 2: a platform to discuss various problems with their landlord from
Speaker 2: poor conditions to repair delays or junk fees. This was
Speaker 2: a dedicated public forum for tenants to speak directly to
Speaker 2: city officials and collectively shape housing policy going forward. A
Speaker 2: month into office, the mayor announced a thirty eight million
Speaker 2: dollar investment to install modern heating and cooling in seven
Speaker 2: hundred and twelve of New York City's public housing units
Speaker 2: at the Beach forty first Street houses in Queens And
Speaker 2: Technically this is after the first one hundred days, but
Speaker 2: I think it's worth mentioning that just a few days ago,
Speaker 2: zorunannounced a two point five billion dollar investment in public
Speaker 2: housing to deliver new energy efficient lighting and faucets to
Speaker 2: forty five thousand homes, heat pumps in twenty thousand, and
Speaker 2: ten thousand new induction stoves, all affecting the niche public
Speaker 2: housing in New York City. On Zoron's very first day
Speaker 2: in office, he also signed two executive orders to accelerate
Speaker 2: housing construction by building on city owned properties to increase
Speaker 2: the supply of affordable housing and cutting red tape to
Speaker 2: make it faster and more affordable to build. The development
Speaker 2: approval process for building affordable housing has been reduced by
Speaker 2: more than two years by the administration's implementation of the
Speaker 2: new voter approved expediated Land use Review procedure, combined with
Speaker 2: a new program called the Neighborhood Builder's Fast Track, which
Speaker 2: will pre select qualified developers to shorten the pre development
Speaker 2: timeline by eight months for certain projects city owned land.
Speaker 2: Another of Zorn's core campaign promises was universal childcare. On
Speaker 2: his eighth day in office, Mayramdani announced a partnership with
Speaker 2: Governor Kathy Hochel to provide free childcare for thousands of
Speaker 2: two year olds in New York City with a one
Speaker 2: point two billion dollar increase in state funding. Since then,
Speaker 2: the mayor has expanded the free three K program for
Speaker 2: three year olds to more than half of all school
Speaker 2: districts in the city, and announced two K fall enrollment
Speaker 2: for school districts eighteen, twenty three, ten, six, and twenty seven,
Speaker 2: which serve lower income neighborhoods. Two K applications open for
Speaker 2: the first time on June second, with the program operating
Speaker 2: on a full day schedule from eight am to six
Speaker 2: pm all year round. As a part of the three
Speaker 2: K expansion, seven new early childcare education centers are opening
Speaker 2: in Western Queens, Staten Island, South Brooklyn and the South
Speaker 2: Bronx And. On March thirtieth, the mayor announced the city's
Speaker 2: first piecelet program for free on site childcare for city workers,
Speaker 2: based at the David Dinkins Municipal Building, with applications opening
Speaker 2: on April thirtieth. The city also created a new accessible
Speaker 2: childcare provider map with interactive features to filter by location,
Speaker 2: age group, and cost. The mayor says that all these
Speaker 2: steps will lead to free childcare for every three year
Speaker 2: old and two year old in the city by the
Speaker 2: end of his first term. Another key promise was fast
Speaker 2: and free buses. The administration is making headway on the
Speaker 2: fast park by building more bus lanes, redesigning streets, as
Speaker 2: well as adding protected by lanes on McGinnis Boulevard, thirty
Speaker 2: first Street in Astoria, Ashland Place, across Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood,
Speaker 2: and Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues in central Brooklyn. Amdani restarted
Speaker 2: the stalled Madison Ave bus lane redesign to make buses
Speaker 2: faster and more reliable for ninety two thousand daily riders.
Speaker 2: The city announced a new bus lane for the Bronze
Speaker 2: Crosstown bus service to Yankee Stadium and restarted the Fordham
Speaker 2: Road Bus Lane project to improve the busiest bus corridor
Speaker 2: in the Bronx, servicing an average of one hundred and
Speaker 2: thirty thousand daily riders across four routes. Just this week,
Speaker 2: construction began in Brooklyn for the redesign of Flatbush Avenue
Speaker 2: with the goal of improving bus speeds by over forty
Speaker 2: percent for one hundred and thirty two thousand daily riders,
Speaker 2: and before the World Cup this summer, Zoron has promised
Speaker 2: to complete new bike lanes and pedestrian upgrades in Lower Manhattan.
Speaker 2: As for the free part, that will be a bit harder.
Speaker 2: Amdani maintains that his administration is working with the state
Speaker 2: government in Albany and the MTA to eventually make New
Speaker 2: York City buses free, and proposed a five week free
Speaker 2: bus pilot program during the World Cup, though it's unclear
Speaker 2: if that will happen. It's not all sunshine and rainbows
Speaker 2: in New York City. Upon taking office, Mayor Mumdani discovered
Speaker 2: the city was facing an unexpected financial crisis in the
Speaker 2: form of a hidden twelve billion dollar deficit left by
Speaker 2: former mayor Eric Adams. Stemming from years of fiscal mismanagement
Speaker 2: and the under budgeting of essential services like rental and
Speaker 2: cash assistance, shelters, health insurance, and special ad as Mayor
Speaker 2: Eric Adams covered up this massive budget deficit by leaving
Speaker 2: the gaps grossly understated, gaps that were made worse by
Speaker 2: divestment in New York City by the state under former
Speaker 2: Governor Andrew Cuomo. The mayor is actually required by law
Speaker 2: to have a balanced budget, so rather than sweeping this
Speaker 2: under the rug by continuing to cook the city's books
Speaker 2: like his predecessor, Zoran chose transparency about the financial crisis
Speaker 2: he's inherited and signed an executive order to designate chief
Speaker 2: Savings Officers in every city agency to streamline processes and
Speaker 2: eliminate waste. Some of these savings so far include canceling
Speaker 2: twenty thousand dollars of Slack subscriptions to saving one hundreds
Speaker 2: of thousands of dollars by foregoing vacant office space. Through
Speaker 2: his relationship with Governor Kathy Hochel, the mayor secured one
Speaker 2: point five billion dollars in state aid in February that,
Speaker 2: combined with higher than expected Wall Street revenues and savings
Speaker 2: measures shrunk the deficit to five point four billion. Zoron's
Speaker 2: preliminary budget, released last February, sparked criticism for failing short
Speaker 2: of promises to increase funding to parks and libraries. While campaigning,
Speaker 2: Zoron advocated for city libraries to receive zero point five
Speaker 2: percent of the city budget, but the preliminary budget only
Speaker 2: allocated point three nine percent, which is actually a twenty
Speaker 2: nine million dollar cut from the last Adams budget down
Speaker 2: to four hundred and fifty six million dollars. Meanwhile, the
Speaker 2: park budget remained effectively flat at about points five percent,
Speaker 2: rather than boosting it to one percent of the total
Speaker 2: budget as Mamdani previously hoped. Though in March, Mayor Mamdani
Speaker 2: announced new capital investment of fifty million dollars to reconstruct
Speaker 2: ten parks in underserved neighborhoods. This February budget is preliminary
Speaker 2: and subject to change as Zoron's negotiations with the city
Speaker 2: council and the state continue. In February, Mamdani reversed a
Speaker 2: previous policy against the force removal of homeless encampments after
Speaker 2: twenty people died in the street during a horrific blizzard
Speaker 2: and sudden cold snap in late January, despite the efforts
Speaker 2: of outreach workers visiting known homeless people every two hours
Speaker 2: to offer warm shelter and check if they needed help.
Speaker 2: Fourteen hundred people were placed into shelters and warming centers
Speaker 2: during that first freeze, with eighty five people involuntarily moved
Speaker 2: or hospitalized. The new encampment SPEEP policy will be led
Speaker 2: by the Department of Homeless Services rather than the NYPD
Speaker 2: as they were under Eric Adams, which mcdonnie said put
Speaker 2: homeless New Yorkers in danger and was ineffective in moving
Speaker 2: people into shelter or housing. Under the new plan, after
Speaker 2: posting a removal notice, outreach workers will visit encampments every
Speaker 2: day for a week with the goal of connecting people
Speaker 2: to shelter and establishing a pipeline to stable housing, while
Speaker 2: opening new shelters across the city, including New York City's
Speaker 2: first ever pet inclusive transitional housing facility for families. Much
Speaker 2: of the criticism levied at Zoran revolves around his choice
Speaker 2: to retain NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tish, something he announced before
Speaker 2: of the election. Zoron did cancel and Eric Adams plan
Speaker 2: to add five thousand more NYPD officers, but as promised,
Speaker 2: their budget remained effectively the same despite the financial deficit.
Speaker 2: But Tish specifically has been seen as a rare moderating
Speaker 2: force in the administration, an outlier that may be preventing
Speaker 2: police reforms that Zoron campaigned on, like disbanding the SRG,
Speaker 2: the Strategic Response Group tasked with responding to both protests
Speaker 2: and terrorism, as well as getting rid of the NYPD
Speaker 2: gang database. Critics have noted that Zoron seems to be
Speaker 2: moving towards quote unquote reforms of the gang database rather
Speaker 2: than his previous call to get rid of it, saying
Speaker 2: in early April, quote I've made my critiques of the
Speaker 2: database clear, and the NYPD has also implemented a number
Speaker 2: of reforms as per the recommendation that came through, and
Speaker 2: the implementation of those reforms and the results of that
Speaker 2: are part of the active discussion that we are having. Unquote.
Speaker 2: The gang database in New York has shrunk by forty
Speaker 2: percent in the last two years. As for the SRG,
Speaker 2: Mayor Mamdani still maintains that he remains quote steadfast in
Speaker 2: my commitment to disband the SRG, to do so in
Speaker 2: a manner that upholds both First Amendment rights of New
Speaker 2: Yorkers and keeps New Yorkers safe, and that is the
Speaker 2: subject of an active conversation that we are Commissioner Tisch
Speaker 2: has been particularly resistant to the idea of disbanding the SRG,
Speaker 2: though earlier this month, Mayor Mumdanie's chief of staff, elbsgard
Speaker 2: Church said on the news that the administration remains committed
Speaker 2: to fulfilling the campaign promise of disbanding the SRG, and
Speaker 2: that a delegation of city Hall and NYPD officials traveled
Speaker 2: to Columbus, Ohio to learn about their protest policing model,
Speaker 2: focused on quote communication and quote de escalation over mass
Speaker 2: arrests and aggressive force.
Speaker 1: The commitment is to disband the SRG, and I think
Speaker 1: that the Columbus visit showcases that we are committed to
Speaker 1: a really disciplined approach here. We want it to work,
Speaker 1: and we want to do it in collaboration with the NYPD.
Speaker 1: So the Mayor is in regular conversation with his police commissioner,
Speaker 1: and our teams also meet regularly so that we can
Speaker 1: design something that is best suited to that commitment being
Speaker 1: fulfilled and not compromising any of the same safety and
Speaker 1: the protection that New Yorkers deserve.
Speaker 2: In an April interview, Mayor Mamdani did express to The
Speaker 2: New York Times that when unable to reach an agreement
Speaker 2: with Tish, he does have the power to overrule her
Speaker 2: on police policy if needed. Quote. Ultimately, I hold the
Speaker 2: final decision, no matter which department or agency we're speaking
Speaker 2: about on quote. Mamdani has not exercised this power with
Speaker 2: the NYPD as of yet. In March, Zoron took the
Speaker 2: first step in establishing the Department of Community Safety by
Speaker 2: opening the Office of Community Safety, led by Deputy Mayor
Speaker 2: Ronita Francois, who directed Deblasio's Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety
Speaker 2: and advised Campaign Zero, which opposes the Gang Database. The
Speaker 2: new Office of Community Safety will develop strategies and coordinate
Speaker 2: efforts to combat gun violence, mental health, crisis response, hate crimes,
Speaker 2: and substance abuse issues. At the announcement, Francois said, quote,
Speaker 2: the evidence is clear. Addressing what ails our communities, whether
Speaker 2: that be mbling, physical infrastructure, social disconnection, or a lack
Speaker 2: of access to economic opportunity, is how we best ensure
Speaker 2: that our communities are safe unquote It's too early to
Speaker 2: judge the impact of the office, but such an office
Speaker 2: or city department has the potential to challenge the police's
Speaker 2: monopoly on public safety. The other common critique of Mumdani
Speaker 2: is based on his endorsement of liberal Governor Kathy Hochel
Speaker 2: and his decision to focus on governing rather than dedicating
Speaker 2: resources and political capital towards further uphill primary challenges. Zoran
Speaker 2: has said, quote, the success of our movement will be
Speaker 2: defined by the success of our government. Through his working
Speaker 2: partnership with Governor Hokeel, the mayor has been able to
Speaker 2: extract wins from the state, particularly for universal childcare and
Speaker 2: the one point five billion dollars in state aid. In
Speaker 2: the realm of discourse, some leftists, anarchists or ultras have
Speaker 2: jumped on any fault or policy shift as a sign
Speaker 2: that Zoron has wholly moved to the right or betrayed
Speaker 2: the movement. Such opinions are rewarded by the social media economy,
Speaker 2: which tends to encourage whatever is seen as the most radical, extreme,
Speaker 2: or divisive opinion. This tendency has been present even among
Speaker 2: some of Zoran's earliest online supporters. Behind this tendency is
Speaker 2: a willingness and frankly hunger to turn on Zoron, not
Speaker 2: necessarily for anything he has or has not done, but
Speaker 2: because of the position he now occupies. Zoron used to
Speaker 2: be an outsider challenging the Democratic establishment embodied by Andrew Cuomo,
Speaker 2: but now he's one of the most popular Democrats in
Speaker 2: the country. DNC social media accounts are hosting Zoron memes
Speaker 2: and hype videos. This could be viewed as a massive accomplishment,
Speaker 2: evidence that the Democratic Party can be forced to bend
Speaker 2: toward left wing populism because of the working class voters
Speaker 2: and mass organizing that put Zoron in the position he's
Speaker 2: currently in. But others view Zoron's acceptance and select promotion
Speaker 2: within the party as a sign he's been corrupted, co opted, recuperated,
Speaker 2: or made palatable. Both of these things can be partially true.
Speaker 2: The Democratic elite certainly have their own motives for dipping
Speaker 2: their toes into the Mamdani Hotub, just as Zoron and
Speaker 2: the New York City DSA have their own aspirations for
Speaker 2: influencing the direction of the party towards social democracy and
Speaker 2: democratic socialism. In general, there's a lot of confusion or
Speaker 2: disagreement on what it means to be a democratic socialist
Speaker 2: in a position of power. As an executive, Zoron is
Speaker 2: in a unique position that not many other DSA members
Speaker 2: have ever had. Being in such a position of power
Speaker 2: informs and shapes the way someone interacts with the systems
Speaker 2: of party and state in a way that those outside
Speaker 2: of power cannot fully understand. Stand. It filters ideology into
Speaker 2: material actions. This idea frightens many, but differences in political
Speaker 2: horizons also affect the way people interact and move with
Speaker 2: these systems. The question is not what should Zoron do
Speaker 2: if there were no constraints on his power, because then
Speaker 2: obviously he should just implement utopian communism. But his power
Speaker 2: obviously does have constraints if the goal for the left
Speaker 2: is to build a working class movement to that end,
Speaker 2: as a function of Zoron's constraints, it may actually be
Speaker 2: more effective for him to operate down certain state pathways
Speaker 2: that allow him to facilitate the building of a working
Speaker 2: class movement and avoid other more extreme pathways that, because
Speaker 2: of the current constraints on executive power, would either be
Speaker 2: ineffective at best, or self destructive at worst. As the mayor,
Speaker 2: Zoron's job is to run the biggest city in the country,
Speaker 2: and as a democratic socialist, that means using government to
Speaker 2: make life better for the working class. His task is
Speaker 2: to govern in a way that alleviates economic conditions, to
Speaker 2: make it easier to organize and build a working class movement.
Speaker 2: But building that movement is not his job. It's yours.
Speaker 2: It's the job of the people, and such a movement
Speaker 2: is the only way of holding elected leaders like Zoron accountable.
Speaker 2: Zoron is not a revolutionary nor is he an organizer.
Speaker 2: He's the mayor of New York City, and as mayor,
Speaker 2: he has to serve more than eight million New Yorkers,
Speaker 2: not just the fourteen thousand members of New York City DSA.
Speaker 2: The mayor may join the picket line with striking nurses
Speaker 2: and fight for working class New Yorkers in city Hall,
Speaker 2: or even open an office of mass engagement, like Zoron
Speaker 2: has done, but it is up to those outside city
Speaker 2: Hall to move in tandem by working to rebuild a
Speaker 2: labor movement. Assuming that Zoron or some random public official
Speaker 2: can do whatever is the most extreme radical thing mistakingly
Speaker 2: sees the state as having more power than it actually does.
Speaker 2: People often see the state as an ahistorical, abstracted seat
Speaker 2: of power, but no, the state is just the mediator
Speaker 2: between capital and labor. The power of the state to
Speaker 2: support labor is exercised by doing things that are in
Speaker 2: the interest of labor and society as a whole, rather
Speaker 2: than just capital. But this ability is directly linked to
Speaker 2: the extent that labor is organized. So if labor is
Speaker 2: largely unorganized, then Zoron is more restrained in what he
Speaker 2: can do. What he can do then is use his
Speaker 2: position to help build working class power, which will then
Speaker 2: enable him further, so on and so on. The state
Speaker 2: has no power against capital outside of the power that
Speaker 2: labor gives it. Our situation is one where capital is
Speaker 2: very strong, which means when the state serves capital it's
Speaker 2: quite strong, but in its function of serving labor it's
Speaker 2: rather weak. Because the left is failed to reckon with
Speaker 2: the fact that right now, labor is actually quite weak,
Speaker 2: which means that state actors, even those on the pro
Speaker 2: labor left, are very constrained. So the main thing they
Speaker 2: can do to strengthen labor is providing better conditions for
Speaker 2: which labor power may be built, and importantly, organizers must
Speaker 2: utilize those conditions to build the labor movement. Zorn's other
Speaker 2: task is to demonstrate that left wing working class politics
Speaker 2: can actually govern, not just critique. Whether or not he
Speaker 2: succeeds at governing and delivering for working class New Yorkers
Speaker 2: determines the perceived viability of democratic socialist politics nationally going forward.
Speaker 2: As Mam Donnie has said, the worth of an ideology
Speaker 2: can only be judged by its delivery. Mamdani is not
Speaker 2: the first democratic socialist to be put in such a position.
Speaker 2: In his one hundred Day Address, Mayor Mumdanni spoke about
Speaker 2: the so called sewer socialists of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who one
Speaker 2: hundred years ago quote built the greatest public park system
Speaker 2: in the nation and whether the Great Depression better than
Speaker 2: almost any other American city, Milwaukee purged corruption, built the
Speaker 2: first municipally sponsored public housing development in the nation, and
Speaker 2: transformed the city's sewage disposal system unquote. Mayrra Mamdani is
Speaker 2: trying to revive this legacy of municipal socialism by acting
Speaker 2: on his mantra there is no problem too big, no
Speaker 2: task too small. On day six of office, Mamdanni fixed
Speaker 2: the infamous Williamsburg bridge bump that has long plague cyclists,
Speaker 2: and in response to the historic winter damage affecting city streets,
Speaker 2: the administration launched a five borough pothole blade, filling one
Speaker 2: hundred thousand potholes in less than one hundred days.
Speaker 3: This is pothole politics, our twenty twenty six answer to
Speaker 3: sewer socialism, where government is not too busy, not too
Speaker 3: self important, not too mired in paperwork, to fix the
Speaker 3: problems of this city, no matter their size.
Speaker 2: This quote unquote pothole politics has extended to scaffolding reforms,
Speaker 2: reducing the time that sheds clutter our sidewalks. In January,
Speaker 2: the mayor announced a new program to expand modular public restrooms,
Speaker 2: and starting this summer, the roof of the historic David
Speaker 2: Dinkin's Municipal Building will be open to the public for
Speaker 2: free viewing and tours. Fighting for workers from within city
Speaker 2: Hall isn't just an abstract ideal. In the first one
Speaker 2: hundred days, the administration secured nine point three million dollars
Speaker 2: in restitution.
Speaker 3: No longer will city government be afraid of its own shadow.
Speaker 3: If anyone should be afraid. It is those those who
Speaker 3: take advantage of working people.
Speaker 2: On January fifteenth, the city filed a lawsuit against a
Speaker 2: predatory delivery app called Moto Click for violating worker laws
Speaker 2: like minimal pay rate. At the end of January, Zoron
Speaker 2: announced more than five million dollars in worker restitution and
Speaker 2: penalties due to minimum pay rate violations from three major
Speaker 2: restaurant delivery apps, Uber Eats, Phanton, and Hungry Panda. This
Speaker 2: money will be paid to almost fifty thousand workers, and
Speaker 2: as a part of the settlement, Uber also agreed to
Speaker 2: reinstate ten thousand wrongfully deactivated delivery workers. In March, the
Speaker 2: administration won almost two million dollars for over eight hundred
Speaker 2: fast food workers at Taco Bell and retail workers for
Speaker 2: violations of worker protection laws against unpredictable scheduling. The mayor
Speaker 2: signed executive orders strengthening consumer protections by targeting hidden junk
Speaker 2: fees and impossible to cancel subscriptions, and expanded the protected
Speaker 2: time off law to four point three million preview mostly
Speaker 2: unprotected workers, and issued compliance warnings to nearly sixty thousand employers.
Speaker 2: Speaking of sewer socialism, at the end of March, Mayormamdani
Speaker 2: announced a one hundred and eight million dollar investment to
Speaker 2: upgrade and replace more than six thousand and seven hundred
Speaker 2: water catch basins to combat flooding. This quote unquote pothole
Speaker 2: politics least the groundwork of public trust needed for larger
Speaker 2: systematic transformations.
Speaker 3: If government can't do the small things, how could you
Speaker 3: ever trust it to do the big ones. How can
Speaker 3: we promise to transform our city if we can't pave
Speaker 3: your street.
Speaker 2: At the end of the one hundred day Address, Mayor
Speaker 2: Mamdani made a series of announcements. The administration is restarting
Speaker 2: trash containerization and will make buses faster for one million
Speaker 2: New Yorkers by speeding up buses by twenty percent along
Speaker 2: forty five priority corridors and constructing new rapid bus routes
Speaker 2: for one hundred thousand New Yorkers who live more than
Speaker 2: half a mile away from a subway or rail stop.
Speaker 3: But the big.
Speaker 2: Announcement was an update to another of Zoron's core campaign promises.
Speaker 2: The first of five city owned grocery stores will open
Speaker 2: next year, with one store being opened in each borough
Speaker 2: by the end of Mamdani's first term. The location of
Speaker 2: the Manhattan Municipal grocery store has already been selected. La
Speaker 2: Marquetta in East Harlem, a public market opened by the
Speaker 2: New Deal era mayor Pharaoh LaGuardia. The city will build
Speaker 2: a nine thousand square foot store at the site to
Speaker 2: offer cheaper groceries than the capitalist competitors.
Speaker 3: I know there are many who use socialists as a
Speaker 3: dirty word, something to be ashamed of. They can try
Speaker 3: all they want, but we will not be ashamed of
Speaker 3: using government to fight for the many, not simply the few.
Speaker 3: We will not be ashamed of adding more heat pumps
Speaker 3: to knights of buildings in the Rocks, or building more
Speaker 3: supportive housing in Harlem, or standing steadfast alongside our trans neighbors.
Speaker 3: We will not be ashamed of investing in youth mental
Speaker 3: health clinics, or working to close wrikers, or fighting for
Speaker 3: immigrants targeted by Ice. To any New Yorker, whether you're
Speaker 3: under attack from the federal government's cruelty or suffocating under
Speaker 3: the affordability crisis, we will stand beside you. Because government
Speaker 3: is a series of choices, and socialism is the choice.
Speaker 3: To fight for every New Yorker to extend democracy from
Speaker 3: the ballot box to the rest of our lives.
Speaker 2: Three days after Mamdannie's one hundred day address, on tax Day,
Speaker 2: April fifteenth, they announced that he and Governor Hockel had
Speaker 2: agreed to a new tax the Rich proposal. New York
Speaker 2: State will have its first ever heated tear tax, a
Speaker 2: wealth tax on second homes in New York City valued
Speaker 2: above five million dollars owned by out of state elites.
Speaker 2: This tax on the ultra wealthy is projected to generate
Speaker 2: five hundred million dollars in annual revenue. And if owners
Speaker 2: want to avoid the tax by moving into the residents,
Speaker 2: that's fine too, because then they'll have to pay New
Speaker 2: York resident taxes. So you get taxed either way. Part
Speaker 2: of pushing back against the libertarian ethos in America by
Speaker 2: showing that government can actually make your life better is
Speaker 2: actually showing people what local government is doing. Since taking office,
Speaker 2: Zoron has employed the same widely successful messaging style that
Speaker 2: helped get him elected to make pssays and inform New
Speaker 2: Yorkers about what the administration has been able to accomplish.
Speaker 2: This is something Democrats have largely failed to do by
Speaker 2: either just not doing this sort of outreach. While governing,
Speaker 2: making any outreach inaccessible or hard to understand, or having
Speaker 2: your outreach come off as cringe or out of touch.
Speaker 2: Regardless of how much effort is put into outreach, the
Speaker 2: people have to also see the improvements being talked about
Speaker 2: in their own lives or in their own neighborhoods. A
Speaker 2: dense population and having a cohesive city culture like New
Speaker 2: York helps with that. Millions of cyclists cross the Williamsburg
Speaker 2: Bridge every year, so when the mayor fixes the bump
Speaker 2: during his first week in office, that's an easy reference
Speaker 2: point for people. The success of the administration's comm strategy
Speaker 2: has been by using Zoron's popularity to promote the public
Speaker 2: sector and public sector workers while actually showing people how
Speaker 2: social services help city residents. As the mayor says, New
Speaker 2: York belongs to all who live in it. While in office,
Speaker 2: Zoron has largely declined to explicitly talk about how his
Speaker 2: administration may impact the future of democratic socialism across the country,
Speaker 2: instead keeping his vision laser focused on improving the lives
Speaker 2: of working New Yorkers and making this city more affordable.
Speaker 2: To quote the Mayor, we cannot burden ourselves with the
Speaker 2: question of what this means beyond this city. But before
Speaker 2: the mayor went on stage at the one hundred day address,
Speaker 2: they played a clip of the Progressive New Deal Mayor
Speaker 2: Fiorello LaGuardia saying that the greatness of New York City
Speaker 2: is in the services to its people, where public problems
Speaker 2: are really the problems of all the people. Quote, and
Speaker 2: if we succeed here, surely it can be done elsewhere.
Speaker 2: When former Socialist Mayor Bernie Sanders made a surprise appearance
Speaker 2: during Zoron's speech, the Senator spoke about how what's happening
Speaker 2: in New York is influencing those outside the city.
Speaker 4: And I want to tell all of you and the mayor,
Speaker 4: but what you guys are doing here in New York
Speaker 4: City is important not only to the people here. What
Speaker 4: you are doing, what the Mayor is doing, is providing
Speaker 4: hope and inspiration not only to people all across our country,
Speaker 4: but honestly all across the world.
Speaker 2: As a part of Mamdanie's first one hundred Days press circuit,
Speaker 2: he was asked on CBS News about the future of
Speaker 2: the Democratic Party and if his socialist politics are really viable.
Speaker 3: You know what I find is that New Yorkers asked
Speaker 3: me less about how I describe my politics and more
Speaker 3: about whether my politics includes them, And I think what
Speaker 3: we can see is that a democratic socialist politics is
Speaker 3: one that should be judged on its delivery, like any ideology,
Speaker 3: And what we're showing in this city is we can
Speaker 3: we can pursue the big things like universal childcare and
Speaker 3: do the pothole politics at the same time time that
Speaker 3: we're showing and not just filling in the potholes, changing
Speaker 3: the catch basins, but also repaving over one thousand miles
Speaker 3: of roadway. But mister Mayor, presidential and statewide elections are
Speaker 3: often decided in battleground regions that do not look like
Speaker 3: New York City. Yeah, I'll be honest with you. Before
Speaker 3: I was the mayor, I was an assembly member of
Speaker 3: a story in Long Island City. At that time, I
Speaker 3: was told that you could only be a democratic socialist
Speaker 3: in Northwest Queens. Then I became the mayor. Now the
Speaker 3: next question is the state, Then it'll be the next
Speaker 3: question will be the country. I think that this is
Speaker 3: a politics that can flourish anywhere because, frankly, there is
Speaker 3: only one majority in this country. That's the working class.
Speaker 3: And it's time we have a politics that puts them
Speaker 3: at the heart of what it is that we're pursuing
Speaker 3: and not as part of the appendix.
Speaker 2: Mamdani still has over thirteen hundred days left in his
Speaker 2: first term, and there will be more challenges along the way,
Speaker 2: challenges with the NYPD, the MTA, the state government, federal government,
Speaker 2: the billionaires, and the bloodsucking monsters among the Democratic Party elite.
Speaker 2: Attempts to hold politicians like Zoron truly accountable to their
Speaker 2: politics will require more than Twitter, maoists and your small
Speaker 2: DSA caucus. Navigating all these problems will require not just
Speaker 2: principal leadership with a commitment to working class politics, but
Speaker 2: also growing the mass organizing apparatus that helped get Zora
Speaker 2: elected and continuing to build power in city hall, state government,
Speaker 2: and in the workplace that does it today. For it
Speaker 2: could happen here, see you on the other side.
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