Paperboy Prince: A “Joke” to Take Seriously
By Chinyere Obasi
Make no mistake: this is not an attempt to endorse or even advocate for Paperboy Prince’s mayoral campaign. While their Utopia Plan’s focus on social action is surely welcome (with policies like a $2000 universal basic income and a plan to allow free Wi-Fi for everyone in the city remaining as campaign highlights), antics such as hiring a 13-year-old campaign manager, suggesting a 3.5 day work week, and releasing a song targeted against a fellow candidate (as well as having no political experience beyond campaigning) has somewhat undermined in many people’s eyes the legitimacy and strength of the campaign. Most have written them off in favor of more “serious” candidates, and it would be easy to write Prince off as a fringe also-ran, or even a joke. But … is that necessarily a bad thing?
Putting aside the very real situations where “joke,” or at least “comedic,” candidates were elected and actually became leaders taken seriously in their respective locales (one may think of Volodymyr Zelensky being elected President of Ukraine or Al Franken becoming a U.S. Senator), Prince’s willingness to truly be “out there” with their policies could be the start of the unraveling of the American tendency to favor decorum and status quo above all else in elections and fundamentally change the culture around elections in this country. While Prince’s own shot at the mayoral seat was almost certainly dead on arrival, their willingness to try and try authentically in whatever weird and fantastical way they can may inspire a shift in how future politicians view their own campaigns and politics in general. After all, their alternative model of campaigning somewhat worked: they made it on the ballot, which not every mayoral candidate can say, and they did so having raised far less money than most of their competitors. In addition, their relative success suggests that the United States, right after the “electability” election of 2020, is willing to look at a young, Black, non-binary candidate seriously, which is no laughing matter.
Kathryn Garcia: Progressive Leadership with Housing Know-How
By Will Imbrie-Moore
Kathryn Garcia is New York’s progressive public servant with a pragmatic streak, and she is mounting a formidable campaign as a problem solver ready to lead a big city with big problems. The city’s former six-year sanitation commissioner, Garcia rose from longshot candidate to “everyone’s second-favorite” (including opponent Andrew Yang’s), before finally taking her seat among the frontrunners — winning the coveted New York Times endorsement in May.
Garcia’s approach to progressive leadership shines when it comes to housing policy. As New York City faces a relentless housing crisis of historic magnitude, the moment demands smart, bold action on housing reform. As Garcia reminds primary voters, New York City gained 500,000 new residents and only 100,000 new housing units over the last decade — causing rents and prices to soar. Garcia’s housing plan prioritizes ending the housing shortage that has been fed by restrictive policies like single-family zoning; as mayor, she would “accelerate approvals for new housing construction,” “end discriminatory zoning,” “end apartment bans,” and allow duplexes, triplexes, and accessory dwelling units. She eschews the city’s pervasive “not-in-my-backyard” attitudes that paradoxically blame new development for the housing crisis, instead coupling her housing plan with sweeping public transit, biking, and pedestrian infrastructure plans to make New York the livable place it should be. Garcia backs up her market-savvy approach to housing reform with more targeted plans for affordable housing investment, homelessness, and improving the city’s public housing authority, which she formerly led.
While other campaigns quibble over personalities and ideologies, Garcia has shown she is the city leader who can finally cut through the palaver and make progress for New York.
New Yorkers Deserve Better
By Ilana Cohen
I never imagined that the struggle of casting my first-ever vote for New York City mayor — also my first-ever vote in ranked-choice election — would come in a void of principled, progressive, and competent candidates.
Especially as we continue to grapple with the immense human and financial toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on our city, New Yorkers need and certainly deserve better than the Big Apple circus that the 2021 mayoral race has quickly become. We deserve better than scandal, watered-down progressivism, and empty rhetoric. But in a reality where all of those factors have superseded meaningful policy debate, what’s most important is that we remember that casting our ballots is just the first step. The next, and in many respects, equally or even more important step is preparing ourselves to hold whoever takes the helm of City Hall accountable for building back from the COVID-19 pandemic in ways that address the structural inequalities and injustices that pervade city life, from segregated schools and police brutality to rampant environmental justice, a raging climate crisis, and a flailing public transit system.
Our city has long been a beacon of progressive change not because of the leadership we elect but because of who elects them. New York has a long and rich history of grassroots activism, the legacy of which we must carry into the next four years. In the meantime, let’s look to our communities and our movements, not to mayoral hopefuls, for on-the-ground solutions.
Fixing the MTA
By Matylda Urbaniak
About a century ago, New York City had the most advanced subway system in the nation. Since then, while it’s been inching forward, everywhere else has caught up. The New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) is poorly run and is not making the expansions necessary to serve a growing population living in areas just outside where the current subway lines end. When choosing their next mayor, New Yorkers should think about how they will impact transportation for years.
A major issue of contention is ownership and control of the MTA. Despite serving New York City, the MTA is currently under the control of the state government. At times, this meant that the MTA was used as a political weapon in feuds between Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill De Blasio. If control were to switch to the city, these fights could be prevented, as the city would also have more control over MTA campaigns. Recently, the MTA spent $249 million dollars on a campaign to combat fare evasion that ultimately had a negligible effect on the amount of fare collected. If control switched, this may have not happened.
Regardless, the fact that so many people jump turnstiles is a testament to the unaffordability of transit for the poorest New Yorkers. The fare subsidies for people on government assistance only go so far and do not benefit New Yorkers who aren’t citizens. Funding will also be a huge issue for the MTA this cycle. By implementing congestion pricing, traffic would decrease in Manhattan, and that additional funding could go straight to the MTA.
What Happened to Andrew Yang?
By Arpit Bhate
A recent Marist poll cemented the reality that has been unfolding for the past few months: from being the frontrunner to now fourth place in the race, Andrew Yang has lost ground in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary. Yang, with 15% of first choice votes among likely voters, placed behind Eric Adams, Kathryn Garcia, and Maya Wiley in both first choice votes and the Ranked Choice Voting simulation. While his victory is still possible, he clearly has an uphill battle to climb as voters begin to go to the polls.
Looking back at the race, it seems like this slide in popularity was all but inevitable. As the candidate with the highest initial name recognition — he was familiar to 77% of likely voters compared to Adams’ 53% in April — the popularity from his presidential run was bound to confer an early advantage in the race, one that has dissipated as other candidates approached similar recognition. His status as an early frontrunner also hurt his chances going into the final stretch, with other candidates targeting most of their attacks at him through April and May, emphasizing his lack of government experience or clear policy proposals. Yang has also consistently had the highest unfavorability ratings in the race, with voters punishing him for a perceived lack of substance as a candidate.
But one thing that almost everyone acknowledges is that Yang possesses an infectious charisma around him. And as we look to the final days of the race, it remains to be seen if he can use this to convince enough voters to overlook the shortcomings of his candidacy and vote him in as the next mayor.
Image by Florian Wehde is licensed under the Unsplash License.
