Jami Floyd Asks: Mayor Mamdani, Now What?

Jami Floyd on Substack - November 11, 2025

One week after his historic win, Zohran Mamdani’s message is clear — and so are his mistakes. Here’s what the new mayor gets right about New York families, and where his solutions go wrong.

Zohran Mamdani has been mayor-elect for one week.

I didn’t vote for him. But now that he’s won, there are reasons for all of us, supporters and skeptics alike, to take note.

When he takes office in January, Mamdani will become New York’s first Indian-American and Muslim mayor — and its youngest mayor since 1892. More importantly, he ran and won on issues that Democrats have neglected for a decade: putting food on the table and keeping a roof overhead. The things that matter most.

Echoes of the Past

Mamdani tapped into the same current that another talented young politician did thirty years ago. His name was Bill Clinton, and when asked what the most pressing issue was for voters, he said, “The economy, stupid.”

Clinton spoke to middle-class anxieties; Mamdani speaks to the working-class. But both understand that government should serve the people.

As an aide in the Clinton White House, I learned a simple truth: politics is about delivering results, not rhetoric.

I agree with Mamdani’s instincts — but not his solutions

HOUSING: Build, Don’t Freeze

Mamdani is right: New Yorkers are being squeezed out of the city they love.

But his rent-freeze proposal for one million stabilized apartments would backfire. It would choke investment, reduce maintenance, and shrink the housing supply.

The truth is that there can be no affordable housing without those who build and maintain it.

We need to stop vilifying landlords. This isn’t Mary Poppins. In any functioning housing market, landlords need to be partners not perpetual antagonists.

The solution to the housing crisis: build more housing. Cut red tape. Streamline zoning. Incentivize developers to include affordable units.

I grew up in subsidized housing. That’s the only way my family was able to stay in the city. Every New Yorker deserves that same chance. That’s why, on Manhattan Community Board 7, I voted for the City of Yes after we pushed for common-sense changes to the Adams plan, because we must build, not block. Our leaders in Washington can partner with city and state agencies to make more housing available for New Yorkers to stay, grow their families, and improve their lives.

FOOD: Fresh Markets, Fair Prices

Mamdani’s right again. Food costs are out of control.

Even in wealthy neighborhoods, grocery bills are crushing budgets. But his plan for city-owned grocery stores is fantasy. The city can’t run supermarkets better than grocers who already operate on razor-thin margins.

Moreover, publicly owned stores would undercut bodegas and mom-and-pop markets — the lifeblood of our neighborhoods — leaving more empty storefronts in our communities.

The problem is structural and so is the fix.

Let’s incentivize small grocers. Fill empty spaces. Work with upstate farmers to expand greenmarkets and move fresh produce directly into city neighborhoods. Finally, let’s encourage more local redistribution of food to reduce waste.

No family should choose between healthy food and rent. No senior should skip a meal to save for medicine. No politician should forget that there are children and seniors who are hungry at night in this city of abundance.

HEALTHCARE: A Right, Not a Burden

Mamdani wants more outreach and reinvestment in public hospitals. That’s admirable.

But outreach alone won’t fix a system that bankrupts families and binds workers to jobs they hate just for health insurance.

Healthcare should be a fundamental right. Period.

Again, the solution is structural.

Let’s expand coverage, lower drug costs, and finally make home health care and nursing support for seniors affordable. Only in America is healthcare this expensive and fragmented.

Federal leaders must also partner with City Hall to boost funding for Health + Hospitals, mental-health and addiction care, and senior services. We must step out of our liberal lane to admit that a lack of funding for these basic social services impacts all communities of our city. As those with mental health disorders and/or burdened by addiction sleep on our subways and park benches, and overpopulate the justice system, regular citizens pay in ways great and small. And of course: the person struggling pays too. It is not a progressively kind solution to ignore their treatment for fear of offending their sensibilities. It is cruel.

It is time to fix our broken health care system for everyone. So everyone can not just survive, but thrive.

EDUCATION: Back to Basics

Mamdani is right to care about public education, a system that has been failing our kids for decades.

Even today, over forty percent of NYC public-school students cannot read proficiently.

Our teachers are underpaid, under-supported, and leaving the profession. But relinquishing mayoral control and eliminating Gifted & Talented programs won’t fix systemic failure.

Education is the keystone of our democracy. Which is precisely why our democracy is full of fissures. As our education system falters so does our country.

Democrats must restore federal funding for public education, back the science of reading, return to knowledge-based learning, and restore basic civics education so people care enough to vote.

And beyond K–12, we need bullet-proof reform of the federal student loan system.

Education is not just the window to opportunity we promise every American. Without a functioning educational system, America will not survive.

SAFETY: Safer Streets, Smarter Policing

New Yorkers don’t feel safe. And perception is reality.

Mamdani’s right that policing needs reform, but creating a “Department of Community Safety” isn’t enough.

I’ve spent my career in and around criminal justice — from the courtroom to the White House to police ride-alongs. I’ve called out countless bad cops. But I also know: not all cops are bad.

The truth: We need more cops, not fewer. Heading up the Public Safety Working Group on our Community Board, I’ve seen the problem firsthand: NYPD has lost over 15,000 officers since 2020. Retirements are up, recruitment is down. Our anti-law enforcement culture has made policing tougher, enforcement weaker, and consequently, neighborhoods less safe.

In Washington, we need leaders who will fight for federal funding for recruitment, training, and a return to community policing. Because safety starts with community presence, not slogans.

STOP SILENCING the MIDDLE

Zohran Mamdani capitalized on a brand that is bad: the Democratic Party brand.

If we want people to be proud Democrats again, we must stop shaming voices of moderation and silencing dissent. We won’t rebuild trust by telling voters their concerns don’t count. We can’t shout down people who have a different opinion from our own. We can’t storm out of classrooms or campuses. We can’t cancel someone on social media just because.

Democracy dies without dialogue.

That’s why I’m running for Congress. To bring common sense back to our politics.