Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and the likely next mayor of New York City, believes the solution to Gotham’s perpetual housing crisis is stringent price controls and massive government subsidies. His flair for making wonky policy fun and relatable helps to explain his popularity. In a TikTok video shot on the beach at Coney Island in January, Mamdani told viewers, “I’m freezing…your rent,” before joyfully rushing into the frigid water in a suit and tie. The video goes on to elaborate on his popular call to halt rent increases for roughly a million regulated units.
What Mamdani doesn’t understand (or chooses to ignore) is the extent to which the Big Apple’s housing market is already drowning under the government’s outsized role in setting rents, subsidizing construction, and serving as landlord for the roughly half a million New Yorkers who live in public housing…