Zohran Mamdani outlines his mayoral platform to freeze rent, build 200,000 affordable homes, and raise the minimum wage to $30 by increasing top-1% taxes to match New Jersey's rate. He details securing state endorsements from Governor Hochul and leaders Heastie and Stewart-Cousins to bypass SECRA delays while creating a Department of Government Efficiency to cut consultant spending. Addressing the 90% rent surge driving immigrant support for Trump, Mamdani argues that delivering tangible economic relief through municipal bonds and ending patronage politics is essential to overcoming billionaire opposition and restoring trust in democracy. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Out of Touch Leadership00:14:52
You should come through.
We're at Maharaja Suites in Jackson Heights.
Hey, do you have to get it?
Give me a number, Ty.
I would love to.
All right.
Next time I'll let you know.
I'm going to get your number because Tom's team ducks me.
Socialists.
I'm going to get your number right now.
Take it.
Beautiful.
I'm going to get it after you.
I'm going to get you right now, bro.
Because they'll probably yank me.
We got to start this immediately.
Zara runs a tight shift.
Yeah, dude.
She don't around.
She does not.
Feel free.
You can share with everybody here.
Okay.
Socialism.
I'm so social.
Are we rolling?
I'm so angry.
You guys did the New York City Olympics.
Because I hit that guy up.
I was watching Subway Tips, and I'm forgetting the guy's name right now, my dad.
But he goes, we should have like a New York City Olympics where the boroughs compete.
And I DM'd, I didn't DM Kareem, I DM'd the guy.
I go, let's make this happen.
Like, I am down.
And he goes, how will we do that?
And I go, we'll find a way.
And then I see you a few weeks later like, we're doing it.
Everybody, come out.
Where are you, Fort Rockaway or something?
No, Cody Alex.
It's Cody Alex, Cody Alex.
Anyway, guys, we're here with the next mayor of New York City.
Oh, my God.
93% on Calci right now.
Yes.
Chances of victory.
93%.
So barring this doesn't go horribly.
I think this is how we bring the numbers down.
We've got to get some power.
People understand this election's not over, so I'm going to tank.
I'm 85 by the end of this interview.
We're going to work on something.
Dude, you've done, like, I want to give you like a few compliments here, but they're also like very validating because I think, you know, every week I'm talking to Charlemagne and we're talking with the boys here on the pods.
And it's like, we keep on saying, hey, Democrats, can you please just run for something and not against somebody?
And it is a very simple solution, but I think people at their core want to feel like their issues are addressed and their concerns are met.
Not simply that guy bad.
And then you guys have done it massively.
Obviously, you're a great talent and your team is phenomenal.
Zara, I know you're listening.
You're great.
Give us a little more time.
You're great.
But it was like, it was really validating to see that.
You know, it's like, wow, if you talk about the issues people care about and say that you're going to do something about it, they will support you.
What a fucking crazy idea.
You know, it's also crazy.
The things that I would say you inspire, change and hope, the last great Democrat, those were kind of his mantras or however you'd say it.
Change and hope.
And that's what you inspired.
Hillary Clinton?
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And I think that's been lost a little bit.
I mean, I appreciate you guys.
I think it's just, there's been a lot of lecturing and not much listening.
And, you know, we saw a swing towards Trump here in New York City in the last general election.
Whose responsibility was that?
Who the hell my dad?
What the fuck are we even talking about?
Dude, those guys.
I can't believe they did this.
What a crap noise.
But you know, there are a lot of caricatures of who Trump voters are.
And in New York City, we saw the swing was actually in the heart of immigrant New York.
And I went to Hillside Avenue in Queens.
I went to Fordham Road in the Bronx.
And I asked New Yorkers, who did you vote for and why?
And I met the vast majority of them were Trump voters.
And I asked them why.
And it just came back to cost of living, cost of living, cost of living.
And if I had spent that time lecturing them as to why they were wrong, as opposed to listening to them as to how we could get right.
Yes.
Then we would run a very different campaign.
And this is one thing I said I wanted to talk about.
I feel like the establishment Democrats don't understand a pretty simple thing.
We want to vote for someone who might make things better.
Even if the risk is it will make things worse.
A lot of people voted for Trump because he might make things better.
And the other person is saying, I wouldn't change anything.
Things are not good.
In New York, things are not good right now.
Those are guys saying it's the same.
And you're saying it could give me a good idea.
It's a privilege to maintain the status quo.
You know what I mean?
Like, if it's like we're privileged, like, it's very nice to know that.
Delete this.
No, we can't afford it.
We're the same.
So here's the thing.
Like, it's so funny because I saw it was like Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk, and they were talking about you.
I don't know if you remember this.
I didn't see this.
But they were speaking.
It was almost like the shoehorn theory.
Have you ever seen that?
Like politically?
Oh, sorry, sorry.
Horseshoe.
Yeah.
So it's like...
And I think that they were basically saying that you were meeting the moment in terms of what people are concerned with.
Right.
And it's obviously cost of living.
And it's like, I think it's so specific.
I think it's like, it's rent.
And I think everything is derivative of rent.
Yeah.
And it's the number one issue in the city.
Bro, I started looking up numbers because like I think a two-bedroom six years ago was the average two bedroom compared to right now, I think has gone up 90%.
I mean, it's, it's untenable, right?
Like, and I think this is the thing that 90% almost doubled in six years.
Six years.
That's great.
How are people supposed to keep up with this?
And I think what's so come to what you guys were saying, if the politics on offer is right now is as good as it's ever going to get, that's not good enough for the vast majority of people.
And I think it speaks to how out of touch a lot of them are.
Yeah.
And I think it's just, you have, you know, I spoke to a nurse who after she finishes her shift, she drives for an hour and a half, leaving the state of New York to get to where she can afford a place.
Wow.
That's what you're putting working people through.
People are living in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Jersey City, commuting it.
Dude, white people have to live in the outer boroughs.
Fix the storage.
What is going on here?
This is what happens when you call him a socialist.
He got over.
I'm going after a story.
I'm going after concept.
Come on.
The Greeks are not white enough.
No, no, but continue, please.
Yeah.
It is absurd that in order to afford her life, you know, and there are obviously certain circumstances that have created this situation.
What I want to talk about more is, because I looked at your plan to go fix it, and I would really like this to be able to happen.
A lot of people are making this impending war about you and Trump.
I think it's going to be you in Albany, bro.
Can you speak a little bit more on that?
Like what you need Albany to essentially allow you to do?
Yeah.
There are restrictions in government.
Like there are systems in place that don't allow you to do what you want, even if you think it's in the best interest of people and even if that's what the people want.
So how are you going to convince Hochul?
How are you going to convince these people to allow you to enact these policies?
So New York City continues to be a creature of the state.
New York City, if you have an ambition for the city that matches the scale of the crisis, you have to have an Albany agenda.
So when De Blasio wanted to deliver universal pre-K, he knew he would have to go to Albany to get that money.
He actually overcame the objections of then-Governor Andrew Cuomo to get that money to make this a reality.
Now it is one of the best examples of government actually meeting the needs of working people.
And so when we talk about raising revenue, you know, raising taxes on the top 1% by 2%, the top corporate tax to match that of New Jersey, that's something we will do in Albany.
And that's partially why the endorsements of Governor of Hochul.
You almost said it.
You almost said it.
I'll never be taking that one.
You almost said it.
Governor Hochley.
He's posting that on Instagram immediately.
You see, the trauma is coming back.
I'm going to deal with that man so much.
Governor Hochul, Assembly Speaker Carl Haystreet, Majority Leader of the State, Senate Andrea Stewart Cousins.
These are endorsements, not just of me, but of the agenda.
Because in Albany, it's often spoken about as three men in a room.
Now it's two women and a man who are in that room.
And to have the endorsements of all of them, it's huge and it paves the way Your political momentum.
No, right?
Thank you.
No, no, no.
And I mean that, I don't even mean it as a compliment.
I mean, no, I'm telling you, I'm taking it back.
It's like a guy once told me America doesn't have allies that has interests.
And I think that politicians are often that way.
I can't speak about you, but like Hochul needs reelection and she's going to, it's next year, right?
I imagine she is thinking, okay, if I raise taxes like you would want, I might lose some of my constituents.
But she's also probably thinking, if this guy is such a tsunami and I rebuked, if I rebuke him, I could also lose people.
So is your strategy to have so much support in a Trump-esque version?
Like he's the only other example I can see that has like found a way to completely transform his party.
Is your strategy get so much support that Hochul's political future is dependent on her connectivity to you?
My strategy is to build the political will such that Governor Hochul has a partner in delivering universal child care.
He's good man.
He's a politician.
Governor Hochul has spoken the need.
Governor Hochul has said she wants to deliver universal child care.
What she's had in the mayor we have right now is someone more focused on getting out of jail than actually funding these kinds of programs.
We're partying, we're going to bring 11 to New York.
That is a fire idea.
You shouldn't even know it down.
I didn't know what it was until you posted the clip and I was like, now you're like, let him run again.
You can still bring it, though.
You still have to take it, bro.
Okay.
You were saying, you were saying.
So I think it's, it's, what are you using your political capital for?
Because the same people who will say, oh, we can't afford free buses.
We can't afford $700 million a year in making the slowest buses in America fast and free.
I don't agree with that.
I think you can.
No, no, no, no.
But here's the thing.
I want to put that on the website.
You can put it whenever you want to do it.
I also think this idea that New Yorkers are going to flee because of a 2% increase, it's like, I've been everywhere else.
You're not going anywhere.
Camille Ackman's not going nowhere.
He's going to be in the Hamptons all for a while.
There's only one place to write those tweets.
That's it.
New York City.
Every character you want.
AC goes out in July in Miami.
He's sweating writing tweets.
There's no way.
He's spending more money against me than I would even tax him.
Everybody's like a million dollars.
Like a million dollars.
I don't even want that to be going.
You're going above and beyond.
Okay.
So I don't think anybody's moving.
And I honestly feel that way.
And like, I'm in the tax bracket.
We're going to tax more.
Like, dude, if you're going to deliver all this shit for 2%, give it.
I'm 100% supportive.
It makes life easier for New Yorkers.
This is my one identity in my entire life is a New Yorker.
It's the thing I care the most about.
But what I will say is that I think that there are going to be people in government that are going to try to restrict you from doing that.
And I know that you're aware of that.
So I'm like, how, and there are people that might disagree on economic policy.
We can have like a philosophical discussion about like what economic policy works, but I don't even know if I think that's like a waste of time.
What the fuck do you do when special interest groups are going to be lobbying like crazy?
They're going to say, I want to bail 200,000 units.
And then the second you try, they're going to be like, well, not in my neighborhood at home.
I mean, you have to.
How do you do that?
You have to be ready to take on these fights.
You cannot be nice to me.
I'm taking on it right now.
And special interest groups are.
But I mean, I appreciate the point because there is a reason why we haven't had progress, right?
If you look, for example, at the Department of Education, this is the agency we spend the most amount of money on in any agency in New York City.
Of the $40 billion we spend, we spend about $10 billion on contracts and consultants.
Those are a lot of people who are looking forward to the renewal of their contract.
No, it's to educate you nerds at Bronx Science.
You know, some of us dump kids that went to regular public school.
You know, we don't need all that money.
Where'd you go to high school?
Baruch College Campus.
What was your mascot?
The Blue Devils.
All right.
Yeah, yeah.
Who are you?
Amini.
Let's talk about that.
So segregate.
Segre.
Get us back to Hokle.
Get us back to Hokle.
But here's my point.
There are people making money off the status quo.
And so there will be a lot of interest in retaining that status quo.
Right now, the city of New York will pay McKinsey a few million dollars to design a trash can.
McKinsey's not going to be happy when I say we don't need you to design that anymore.
We can actually design that ourselves.
The Second Avenue Subway, which is the most recent expansion extension of New York City subway.
Shut that shit down, bro.
Okay, that's not where I'm going.
Nobody needs a subway on 2nd Avenue.
Exactly.
Why will you and Curtis Sleewa so against the 2nd Avenue subway?
Because we're from Manhattan.
You don't want to get to 125th Street Street Street?
Never go to Upper East Side.
I grew up a subway.
I went to middle school there.
I went to elementary school.
You don't go there now.
I know, but so I don't need it.
No, the last place we need a subway is on the Upper East Side.
They're going to be okay.
They're not leaving.
We're in the subway now that's Rybeka.
Whatever you are.
Wherever you are.
Connect the Q-train to something.
That's what I'm trying to do.
You don't get the place in the Second Avenue subway.
You don't take the subway.
So what?
It's not about that.
You know what I mean?
I'm here giving my 2%, but not to the 2nd Avenue subway.
I'm not going to stay in there at 2% on the 26th.
Tell them to walk two more blocks and then take the six.
I think we got to go from 96th Street to 120th.
Did you just hear what he says?
He goes after the subway.
That's right.
That's eight blocks, Matt.
Maddie.
What I'm saying is, why are you trying to build more white people's subways, man?
Look at this.
Look at this.
So you were fine with the 2nd Avenue subway.
76.
86, 96, but you don't want to go to 125th?
I never wanted it at any of those stores.
Here's my point.
It has always been against the 2nd Avenue subway.
They want to live over there and make them walk.
I dated a girl over there.
That shit was horrible.
I had to walk.
They got to walk.
I was walking to York Avenue in shorts.
You know, put everything up in.
Put in a landing on the 2nd Avenue subway.
Use the polls or something.
My point, though, is that people in Harlem were promised a subway to 125th Street on 2nd Avenue decades ago.
Yeah.
Crazy.
It's taken us so long to even get to this point.
Why didn't we start with them?
We had to connect it.
What is it?
But you could connect it the other way, too.
Affordable Housing Dilemma00:15:18
We could have started it up there.
But where are they going to come from?
125th Street to 15th.
Once as long as it's 200.
I'm actually here to announce that the head of design at the MTA is about to be saved.
Thank you.
I would have done that too.
Now you're making some good decisions.
I'm taking back my 2% if I'm a worker.
No, no, I hear what you're saying.
You got to connect to the 51st Street.
But I think the larger point here is, though, that when they did the first phase of construction for the Second Avenue subway, the MTA spent more money on consultants than construction.
So this is part of the issue: you're right that we're going to have to transform the inner workings of government.
And that means ending a patronage politics.
There are a lot of people who have jobs more to do with who they know than what they do.
Yeah.
No, that's not specific to Eric Adams.
And you're going to have to do it.
Sounds like we want to create a Department of Government Efficiency.
Kind of sounds like.
Kind of sounds like.
I said I was in favor of it.
He's a liberal cuck when it was a Republican idea hated.
And now I'm in favor.
Now look at him, not at all.
Not gonna judge people who like to watch others have sex with their wives.
That is their efficient and wicked.
You can wait for Andrew Cuomo to have these options.
Here's my point is that it is.
It is sad that we've let someone like Elon Musk take the words efficiency, fraud as if they are right-wing concerns.
I agree.
These are actually the concerns that should be at the heart of a progressive politics.
Yes.
Because I want to increase taxes on the top 1% by 2%.
And I also want those same New Yorkers to be able to look at that increased revenue and say, every single one of these dollars is being spent efficiently.
It can't be in and of itself the reason why you do it.
It has to be what you deliver with that.
And I think like Doge was universally supported before it became what it was.
But the idea was that.
Yeah, it was never actually intended to fulfill the intentions.
But the intentions.
The intentions were right.
Let's agree.
Let's limit it.
Okay, I love that.
Guys, generational triumph tour.
First of all, San Jose, all the shows are sold out.
We just added one Sunday.
Australia, we had an Australia run in February.
Most of those shows are sold out.
We're going to add some more.
And in Chicago Theater, the pre-sale went live.
It went amazingly.
Keep buying tickets.
Akashing.com for all of the shows.
We're coming to a city near you.
I promise.
I love you guys.
God bless.
Hey, what's up, guys?
Miles, can we add music behind this as well?
Thank you.
Nashville, Tennessee, Denver, Colorado, Hoboken, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Fort Wayne, and Detroit, Michigan.
I'm coming to all these lovely cities, some of the greatest cities in this beautiful nation we call America.
Can't wait to see you guys there.
It's going to be one singular hour of stand-up comedy.
No more, no less.
I can't wait.
Come out and shake my hand.
See you there.
So if rent is the most important issue, which I think we all agree, it's like fucking absurd.
The rent freeze was like incredibly effective communication, right?
This idea, because everybody else is talking about we're going to build all these units.
When you're drowning, you're not worried about like someone building you a boat.
You need a life vest.
I get that 100%.
I think that makes sense.
You correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that you can do that to like about 50% of the units in New York.
Yeah, because those apartments, pretty much.
They're like the rent stabilizer, rent control.
About two and a half million New Yorkers live in these kinds of apartments.
Got it.
How do you offer relief to the other 50%?
And let me just clarify the people listening.
Like those other 50% aren't necessarily people who are wealthy.
They're just living in market rate units.
And people that work here and they just didn't have the ability to get one of these rent control jobs.
And so I'd first say there's rent control, which is a very small minority.
The vast majority of what we're talking about is rent stabilization.
Rent stabilization means there's a limit on how much your rent can increase every year.
It's not what your rent is, what the increase will be.
And it's all determined by a board called the Rent Guidelines Board composed of nine people that the mayor appoints.
You can appoint them.
Yes.
But I think the appointing process might even take a little bit, right?
It's not like day one or two.
It is, it's each of these terms are on kind of a rotating basis.
Got it.
And there are a number of these terms that are open right now.
Got it.
So you can point some, and there might be some people that are empathetic to your philosophies already.
Because they actually did a study.
That same board, under Eric Adams, did a study.
It found that landlord profits had increased 12% of those units in the same year that the median household income of tenants of those units was $60,000.
And with that information, they decided, let's hike the rent again.
So it actually doesn't have to do with the data.
Got it.
But the point that you're making is right, which is that we have to have a housing policy for all 8.5 million people.
And that's why you couple a rent freeze with construction of 200,000 truly affordable homes.
The reason I say truly is because, like, I represent Steinway in Astoria.
I'll call a constituent and I'll say, there's a new affordable housing development coming up.
Do you want to apply?
They'll say, how much do I have to make?
I say $140,000.
They're hanging up the phone.
Yeah.
Affordable housing.
Because how are they going to afford that?
Right.
And so my point is thinking about affordability more with the median household income in New York City, which is $70,000 for a family of four.
I love it.
So you have to increase that and you have to make it easier for the private sector to also build.
I agree with you 100%.
Like I think Ezra Klein put out a great book that I think he's been like unfairly maligned by a lot of people on the left, but like where he's just going, hey, I appreciate democratic policies.
I want to implement them.
I think they're better for people, but there are certain things that we need to remove so that we can be competitive in an open market.
And I think that there's a truth to that where, look, I'm somebody who believes in the public sector.
I believe in regulation.
I also believe that if I can't give you the reason for the regulation, then it has no reason to exist.
I cannot justify a restaurant giving the city every year $25 for the right to sell a frozen dessert.
That doesn't make sense.
That is something that should be eliminated.
I cannot justify someone who wants to open a barbershop, filling out 24 forms, going to seven agencies, and then attending 12 in-person events.
That does not make sense to me.
So I think that there is a truth to some of the regulations we've created have made it far more difficult to build housing.
And even the justifications we used back then are not the ones that have been borne out today.
So we need to change those.
So how do we, first of all, I completely agree.
And as like someone who has someone renovating above me, please believe I like the fact that there is regulation.
Do you know what I mean?
Like I have a kid who's 21 months old.
It's like they want to sleep.
And if somebody's 20, 21, 21, this guy's 21 months old.
Yes.
So she'll never listen to 21,000.
Apologies.
And so I guess my question is like, how do we get those 200,000 units out?
Because the real only thing that's going to solve this crisis, and it's a legitimate crisis, like is more units.
You can freeze rent.
You can do all these things.
You have to do it with more.
And some people, and I'm sure you would probably acknowledge this, that like even freezing rent within the controllable units that you have could cause like a surplus pressure in the non-controlled units and those might go up.
So while we protect those 50%, the other people who are making the same amount of money as them, because of those market pressures, could have increased rent and they're going to make their money.
And that's, but that's why you have to take this as an opportunity to also tackle the cost that landlords are facing.
Because when I speak to landlords.
Talk to me about that.
That's interesting.
I hear that the insurance of affordable housing units has doubled in the last few years, right?
And that cost is one that is driving so much of the pressure.
That's interesting.
And there's a number of those landlords that came together to create a different risk pool through something called Milford Street Captive.
And they've managed to depress that cost.
What if the city invested in that kind of a mechanism to help those landlords address that?
The other thing here is that...
Are they gouging the affordable housing units because they know that they're government-backed?
No, they're gouging them because there's money to be made.
In the same way that like universities can charge whatever they want for an education because they know the government will back the loans.
To me, what this gouging more looks like is there are many providers who are now paying the cost of a number of bad landlords who have made insurance such a high part of doing business.
Got it.
Right.
And so you have better providers who are pooling their risk together.
Got it.
Got it.
And so my point here is if you invested a significant amount of capital, you could assist that kind of an intervention.
Got it.
The second thing is you have a property tax system that's broken in New York City, one that effectively penalizes rental apartments and the owners of those rental apartments.
And if you had a system that incentivized the construction of rental apartments, you could have a very different landscape of housing.
So to me, it's freeze the rent and take on the cost of insurance and fix a broken property tax system and streamline development and have the city produce 200,000 homes.
And also when I've talked about 200,000 homes, that's just what I think the city should do.
I think the private sector should be doing an immense amount of additional construction.
But they're going to need incentive structures as well, right?
Like there was that program, forgetting what it was.
Was it 421A, then 485?
I think that you're talking about the HTPSA that just sunset recently.
You're speaking about the extension of 421A.
No, these are separate things.
Oh, okay.
You're talking about 2019 rent laws.
Yes, but that's not what I was referencing.
Then there's the tax incentive 421A now, 485X or 45W.
Yeah, I'm talking about the one that basically allowed developers over a 35-year period.
So essentially, the idea is there was like a tax abatement for 35 years.
For the first 25 years, they didn't pay.
The last 10, they started increasing 10% every year.
And at the end of the 35, all the units were now free market.
But I think at a certain point in time, 30% of them were like rent control.
There's stabilization and there's a set aside for affordability.
And again, I don't know like what metrics work, and I'm not like an economist and I'm not a developer.
But to me, just from talking to some people in development, they said that since this, I think, what was it, the HCPSA, since that, or if it was this program, was this Affordable New York?
HSTP is the Housing Stabilization Tenant Protection Act.
That was the de Blasio thing.
That's not this thing that I'm talking about.
Yeah, you're basically, well, I'll kind of step back for a second.
Please, yeah.
You'll hear from developers that the HSTPA passed in 2019 made it more difficult for them to maintain a lot of housing units because it put limitations on what they could do with regards to profit and how they could push many tenants out of those same tenant buildings.
At the same time, there's the incentive through 421A that has since been renewed to become something called 485, which is a tax incentive for the construction of new housing.
Is that the New York yes or whatever, or is that city of yes?
City of yes.
These are three different things.
Oh my God.
Okay.
Okay.
So we can.
But I think here's the thing is that most New Yorkers don't have time to know every single set of numbers and letters.
Right.
But that's representative of more New Yorkers than those who know.
And that's our job to break this down, right?
What City of Yes does is it makes it easier to construct more housing across New York City.
It changes zoning regulations.
It's estimated to allow for the additional construction of a little less than 90,000 new units.
We have to build on top of that.
It has to be even more than that.
My point here is that when I speak to developers, you know, we'll have disagreements about labor.
We'll have disagreements about maybe materials and the cost of it.
One place we have a real agreement about is the cost of waiting.
Many of these developers will tell me one of the most expensive things they have to deal with is the wait.
They'll put in an application, they'll put forward a bid, and then they'll have to wait and wait and wait.
And we know time is money because you're not just waiting, you're also paying other people who are waiting with you.
And there is an environmental law at the state level called SECRA.
SEECRA requires you when you're putting forward an application to estimate the traffic flows of 10 to 15 years from now.
So when they did the Williamsburg rezoning, they were asking people to estimate these traffic flows before Lyft and Uber existed in New York City.
And so now obviously their presence in New York City makes a mockery of any estimate that was made prior to that.
And yet that estimate is still one you could be held liable for in court.
Say, you said it would be this and now it's this.
And so to me, these are examples of what you were bringing up earlier of how do we bring these regulations more in line with reality and how do we ensure that we are able to build the immense amount of housing we need so that we can actually have New Yorkers stay here.
That's the goal because we're building four homes per thousand people.
Jersey City is at seven.
Tokyo is at nearly 10.
What is Houston at?
Tell me.
They're doing an unbelievable amount because there's just no regulation.
Now, there are different circumstances.
And they're building on top of each other and there's a lot more land.
I understand.
And I don't like those comparisons generally because New York is such a specific city.
We're living on top of each other and next to each other and there's different considerations that we have to make.
Okay, the HTPSA.
HSCPA.
HSPA.
Yes.
My boy about say HSBC.
Bro, I like that.
I feel like I'm on the airport just walking through the bad success.
So, like, some people would say, and I think you just mentioned it, that like this was a progressive policy that had a really good idea.
It's like, how do we protect these people that are in these rent stabilized units from being pushed out?
And then, obviously, what landlords would say is you've created a situation because you can, once something is rent stabilized, it can no longer be brought to free market rent that it doesn't incentivize them to renovate the spaces.
And now they have these like zombie apartments or ghost apartments.
And I saw that one of your policies was to like impose punitive damages on like these big conglomerates like BlackRock that own all these, you know, that could be anything from brownstones to buildings that have these vacant units.
Right.
And I have different theories on that.
But do you think that that policy did lend itself to making these zombie apartments from a perspective of it's not worth it as a landlord to reinvest in this unit because I can't extract the rent that would justify justify that?
So I think the HSCPA was a good thing.
I think it was a good thing because what you had prior to it was many landlords taking units out of rent stabilization and using a vacancy bonus that they could receive when you pushed out a tenant as the reason they would continue to harass any 20% bonus that you could get.
And obviously, you can imagine how many tenants were having to face that kind of harassment.
So put it in perspective, like my friend Carlos growing up, like his in a rent control building and they literally just stopped accepting his family's rent.
And he had to put the rent in escrow during like a multiple year process where they were just trying to get him out of the building because they were obviously trying to flip the building.
So I say that like I 100% empathize with that and that is a real issue.
Yes.
But sometimes protecting real issues can cause other ones that are unintended.
And that's where I think that the policies I put forward that you're referring to, there's two separate things.
One is ensuring that we're actually holding bad landlords accountable.
This is about violations of housing code.
Because right now, the city of New York is owed $800 million by landlords who have violated housing codes that the city has not collected a dollar of.
It's just sitting there.
Unintended Consequences00:08:46
Why is that?
Yeah, why?
A lack of political will.
Is it lobbying?
Is it like going on in the fight?
The same landlords who are saying we can't afford a rent freeze dropped $2 million against me in the primary.
So my point being is that there is money.
And I think you're right that we have to take all of these concerns seriously.
And what I've actually proposed with vacant units is having an actual study being done on the number of them because that's the reason for why they are currently being held off the market and finding what is the cost of bringing them back online.
Because there's a lot of discourse, a lot of anecdote.
We want to get to the facts of it.
Because there's like a circumstance where you look at, and I'm sure it happens in New York City as well, but like Vancouver, for example, where there's a lot of foreign investment in apartment buildings out there.
And then the people of Vancouver just couldn't afford to buy into their own city that they lived their whole life.
And I was a foreclosure prevention housing counselor before I was an assembly member.
And when I was running for assembly, at that point, one-third of all homes purchased in Queens were being purchased by unnamed LLCs.
One-third.
And what would that mean?
Is that somebody trying to be sneaking on taxes, or is that somebody that is an outside?
There's a lot of hollowing out of neighborhoods where you're purchasing it oftentimes for the intent of flipping it, where you're purchasing it.
Yep.
And this is part of the issue where so much of what has been the foundation of stability for so many New Yorkers has become seen as an opportunity for something like private equity.
All right, guys, let's take a break from this communist trash.
Yeah.
For one second, we're going to talk about unbridled capitalism.
Oh, God, while we still have some money.
While we still have a couple bucks.
While you guys still have a couple bucks before this guy convinces us to give it all away.
But no, I have Zoron.
Yeah.
I don't know if you can't say that.
Holy shit.
Fuck.
No, I'm not running for anything.
You guys say it because I thought he was here.
That was disrespectful what Mark just said.
No, what you said.
I know what you said.
What you said.
You said it looks like he ate Zoron.
I was fucked up.
I said that.
Did I really?
I didn't even remember saying that.
Well, I didn't from the top.
Come on.
Did I really say that?
You said that.
You said that.
Ah, gosh, you're racist, bro.
You're right.
I apologize.
I meant to say, Alex, Alex, you're racist, bro.
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Let's just take a break for a second, okay?
It's me and Zoran here.
And we are.
Oh, gosh.
Did you notice when the thigh was so fat?
You thought Zoron took a blue chew.
This is crazy.
Did you just keep popping up?
I know it was wild.
My lord.
I feel like the joke will get worse throughout the ads, but then eventually maybe it will get better.
Oh, yeah, four ads.
So we could keep on doing it.
We're not leaving.
We're not leaving.
So, guys, Blue Chew, man.
It's just the greatest, bro.
It's just the greatest.
Guys, you deserve.
You deserve to have the hardest dick you've ever had in your life.
You deserve that.
Okay?
You deserve that.
It's a human right.
It's a human right.
Housing might be a human right.
Getting that dick housed in a wet pussy.
But also being.
We can do that for homelessness, bro.
We can just pinch tents and let them hide in there.
That's a reality.
That's great.
Give him some place to home.
Yeah, I love it.
Y'all are really disrespectful to our guest.
What do you mean?
You're disrespecting our guest.
He's not.
No.
I was going to bring that up the second we got back from commercial.
I was going to add, what do you think we should do about it?
Okay.
In all seriousness, Blue Chew, though, man.
I mean, it's the best dick you've ever given anyone in your entire life.
And you're going to get it for free.
It's $5 shipping.
Like, I just don't understand.
This is such a no-brainer.
Okay.
This is such a no-brainer.
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I can just imagine all of Zoran's friends that are watching this.
What happened?
Like, this is really interesting.
These guys are getting somewhere.
It's just like, you want a huge pod?
This is what capitalism is all about.
Yeah, dude.
That shit probably feels fire.
If you're, you know, it feels good if you're getting it, probably.
Right?
No.
Say what David said.
Say what he said.
For her, or if you're gay.
Say what he said.
For her.
If you're getting it as a woman, it feels good.
David said, just want to let you guys know, David said, I don't know if it was today or another day, but at one point in time, he said to Mark in private, he goes, yo, dick must feel so good for a woman.
What the hell are you doing, bro?
What the hell are you doing, David?
How do you even agree?
I didn't even know what just happened.
He hit me with it.
Listen, we're getting back to this.
Blue Chew is delivering that dick Dave is talking about.
That thing you just want to bounce all on.
Dave was like, you know, bouncing on it.
I need some of that.
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Right now, you're going to get your blue chew.
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You know, David already got it.
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Use the promo code flagrant.
Let's get back to the show.
This is where we get into like the philosophy of like, what is housing?
Like, is housing.
Debt Ceiling Drama00:14:30
No, like, and this is where it's like, I have empathy for both sides.
Like, I have empathy for the Puerto Rican family that worked their entire life and they were able to like buy this brownstone and they were told that like real estate is the only thing.
Like my parents are financially illiterate.
They got lucky.
They bought an artisan residence loft in a neighborhood that was too fucking dangerous for us to live in that end up getting flipped around by NYU.
It's like pure luck, you know?
So it's like, so I have empathy for these people that put everything in it.
Right.
And then at the same time, I also see there are people that are kind of holding hostage an asset class that we maybe should look more at as like, I don't want to say a utility, but like there can be a little bit more restriction when it comes to like a roof over your head.
So, so, so I have empathy for your communist position.
I was getting nervous about the thoughts.
I see you.
I gotta get out of this.
I don't know.
I gotta hear.
No, but I hear you.
This is you could probably articulate what I'm saying.
No, you have something which is a necessity for you.
So, it's like, what if somebody invests in water?
It's been treated and it's been treated as a means by which to make profit.
And so, I know that there are many who bought into this system with the promise of unrestricted profit.
That's what it was before the HSTPA.
And one of the issues you're hearing from a lot of landlords is they entered into loans with banks that could only be paid back if they evicted a majority of the tenants who were paying the rent at the time they purchased the building.
And that's also why I have empathy when we're hearing about insurance costs and water bills and coned and property taxes, because those are also costs that are skyrocketing.
And so, for me, it's how do we create a city where we understand housing as a human right and also ensure that our affordability agenda is universal?
It's tenants, homeowners, landlords.
I think in order to do it, I think in order to do it, like it's in order to do it with rent stabilization or rent control, it's going to be need to be government-funded because I don't think any private developers are going to see the incentive structure that they need to put that kind of capital in.
And if you're going to do it, you're going to have to raise money.
And I saw on one of your things was you were considering, you know, selling muni bonds, right?
And I think you want to raise like $100 billion over 10 years, right?
So, we're looking at like, I think 70% of that was coming from the muni bonds.
So, it's like we're looking at, let's say on average.
We're saying we're at 30 million.
We've got to get 30 billion.
But like, and like, it's an ambitious endeavor.
You know, there are some limitations, as I'm sure you looked at.
And this is where we go back to Albany.
It's like, I looked into this.
It's like, you got to raise the debt ceiling in order to be able to do that.
Like, you got to ask Kathy to do that.
Or if Kathy loses, you got to ask, was it Stephonic?
We're not even talking about Stephanie.
No, but like, then that's not going to happen.
They're going to fight you tooth and nail.
We're not going to have to worry about that hypothetical with Stephanie.
Okay, fair.
But look, so what do you do in that scenario?
Because I think this is, you know, we're talking about, right, the current law is 10% of the five-year valuation of real estate in New York City.
Okay.
Right.
And having to change that.
And I think this is where politicians don't get to decide the scale of the crisis they're facing.
They get to decide how they want to respond to it.
Facts.
And so this is an ambitious agenda, no question about it.
But this is a time where if we don't match that crisis with that ambition, we're going to lose held hostage by their will to match.
That's what I'm saying.
And what I would argue is that I've been in Albany.
I've seen legislators and legislative leaders who've had a vision of a city where you tax the wealthiest a little bit more to provide for everyone.
And they haven't had a partner and a mayor.
It's not to say it's going to be easy, but my point is that we haven't even tried.
Ooh, this is interesting.
So Andrew Cuomo is an example of not trying.
He had 10 years of running.
He had some deaths to cover up.
Poor guy.
You know what I mean?
His hands are full.
Sliwa had a bar, dude.
Killing grannies and grabbing fannies is on the ball.
Sliwa had some bars on it.
He did stage.
You love his hat.
You want that shit.
I can't believe that I'm being called a communist and the Republican nominees will hold.
I keep calling him Emily in Paris.
Shout out, Curry.
But yes.
So what you're saying is you're like shouting out a sponsor of the show.
But shout out Celchy.
You're at 80%.
It's going on.
So, what you're saying is that there might be people in Albany that are more sympathetic, but because they've been up against a mayor in New York that has maybe no sympathy because they've been put in power by people who do not want this change, then they're not willing to.
That's an interesting perspective that they do not have the political capital.
The coalition.
And I think this is the other thing: we, from the beginning of this race, wanted to break out of the bubble of New York City politics and get into the world of New York City.
I thought you just didn't want to go to his wife.
One of the best moments ever.
It was that moment and then the one in the debate recently where fucking Cuomo couldn't say whether he was going to go to the Mets game or the Knicks game.
I said he wanted to go to both.
And like, you'll have moments where just pick it.
Exactly.
You'll have moments where you cut through political fraudulence and he's just like, I would do half and half.
And you go, this guy.
When they asked the question, when they asked the question, my mind was like, there's no wrong answer here.
And then he created the wrong answer.
And it's like just a five-year-old answer.
How are you?
How are you going to vote?
Come on.
You're so poised.
You're so articulate.
And he said it, and you're just like, this fucking handsome.
You created that.
Anyway, I mean, it's, it's, um, but look, I grew up in this city, and I've often seen the city that our politics cares about, and then the rest of the city.
And there's that divide.
And when I actually spoke to Trump voters, you know, in Queens and in the Bronx, it felt like here was a campaign that was bridging that divide, that was getting beyond that bubble.
And we have to, if we want to actually have people believe in democracy, we have to show that democracy can deliver on their needs.
Like, I can't go and knock on somebody's door and say, help me fight for the ideal or the value of democracy.
I have to go to that door and say, this is how this democracy is going to make it easier for you to afford your apartment.
This is how this democracy is going to make it easier for you to afford your groceries.
I mean, Fiorella LaGuardia said, you can't preach liberty to a starving land.
And that's what we've been doing for so many years.
So what do you do?
And this is like my concern.
What do you do if you get strung up by the bureaucracy in the system?
Because after talking to you, and even before talking to you, I genuinely think you believe this stuff.
I don't think you're somebody who's like selling a dream that you don't believe in.
And I don't think it's possible to communicate in the way that you've communicated and like touch people without authenticity.
Without the authenticity.
But like, I'm worried about entrenched politics.
And I'm worried about the people that fund them because they're the same people that have been fundraising against you.
Okay.
And I'm worried about them bending to their whim.
And what scares me a little bit is there are going to be people that are incentivized for you to fail.
And then if that pendulum swings all the way the other way, how many more people get hurt?
And I guess my question is like, do you ever worry about that?
Or do you have to be so blinders on that you're going to win?
Like I love this city more than anything.
And it is something I consider.
Like, what if we get the complete opposite of you that has like no care about the tenants, no care about what people are paying rent?
Some guy who comes in and just goes, hey, this is a free market.
Welcome to New York.
It's capitalism.
We're talking about Andrew Cuomo.
But like that's what happened.
You can be crazy.
No, no, and I think my point here is that there is going to be immense opposition.
There are incredible incentives to fight our agenda.
What gives me hope is that the billionaires spending millions against me right now, they're not doing so because they're afraid my plans won't work.
They're doing so because they're afraid that they will.
And how would that not incentivize them in some way?
If people in the city have more money, they have more money to spend on whatever business they have.
If you look at the actual studies of free buses, it costs $700 million.
It generates more than double that economic benefit.
What a business.
You're a personal voter.
I was asking myself, who is Curtis Lewis talking to?
I'd extended the Second Avenue somewhere.
It's this guy.
Curtis, I love you, baby.
I love you, comrades.
It's Mr. Housing is a human right, but I don't want trains.
Don't want 25th Street.
Well, here's what happened.
I do feel like it's a human right housing.
I knew.
No, no, I knew that.
Two of my life.
Two miles.
Hey, no, Like, I literally did it.
Not a human right in terms of.
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't think anybody should have a house.
I do feel that way.
You got the mission accomplished, manner.
Yeah.
I don't think, I think anybody who knows him would know this is, he's been fairly liberal most of his life.
These are things he would believe.
I think what we worry about is that it won't work.
And then my larger worry: if you, you are a kind of like a, you are a test for all of America.
You are a case study, whether you realize this or not.
And if you promise all these things and you deliver 40% of it, 40% is a great, New York will be better off.
But people will look at you nationwide, maybe worldwide, and say, you know what?
That shit didn't work.
Look at all the things he accomplished and look at what he couldn't get done.
And yeah, they're spending millions.
Billionaires are spending millions to stop you now.
My fear, they're spending millions so just so they don't have to spend tens of millions later.
Ooh, that's a great question.
I'm going to get it done.
I'm going to block everything he wants to get done.
I just want to save a little money.
Just have him lose so I don't have to spend more later.
That's my fear.
And I root for you because it feels authentic.
I actually trust you more because you're not born in America.
And I mean that.
No, no, no.
Hold on.
Let me say this because he cannot be president.
That's a part I dislike.
No, no, no, hold on.
Because you cannot be president.
So many politicians, what do they aspire to?
You're a star.
I would look at that guy and go, he could be president one day.
With you, that's not even an option.
So I trust your incentives more.
I just care about the city.
What do I want to be governor of the state?
Who gives a fuck?
You're starving.
The mayor is above governor, right?
Yeah.
It is, though, right?
I'm looking forward to working with the governor.
Be honest, blown up in New York.
Did you ever ask your governor?
Look at Boojee.
What up, governor?
No, but I go on this agenda.
I just found out we had a female governor.
I had no clue.
My mother was still a blind guy.
I thought it was the blind guy.
In terms of the story.
He was a great governor.
Governor Patterson?
Patterson was fantastic.
He was like a fillet.
They put him on the first base.
They put him on first base at the Yankee game, the poor guy.
Do not put the photo up.
In terms of star power, he's right.
We've had Bloomberg was a celebrity that became mayor of New York.
He didn't try to be fucking governor in New York.
Nobody cares.
Star Power Rise, this is the biggest thing.
Second most powerful position in the world.
And you can't be president.
So that makes me trust you more.
I just want to say that.
Please don't tell every uncle that you can find that I can't be president.
Every time an uncle takes a photo with me, they whisper in my ear, president next.
I'm like, it's illegal.
It's illegal.
Tell him to vote for Vic.
It's a fish house.
Officials.
I don't know.
I'm going to contact him.
Y'all have more in common than you realize.
That's my guy.
Is that your guy?
The more I got to know him, the more that they're fake.
You're told he wants to do partition.
We don't need to fucking Muslim beef.
We don't need more innocent Muslim beef.
Yes, we do.
Oh my gosh, one word in here.
Don't let me get my fucking Indian off, bro.
Direct the camera in it.
You're from Uganda.
Yes.
You're from Uganda.
You're like, I was like, you're barely in India.
Oh, wow.
You're barely even in India.
You're barely in an Indian.
Wait a minute.
They always leave cigarette.
Didn't they migrate?
Indians in Africa are like, the Indians in America assimilate a lot more.
He's more Indian than most Indians born here.
But listen, but I was looking up a little bit.
Didn't they actually remove?
We were expelled in 1972.
My family was one of.
What do you mean, right?
Yeah.
My family is one of the very few families that went back after the expulsion.
Went back to Uganda.
Went back to Uganda.
That's why I was born there in 91.
So my family in 1972 were expelled.
They became refugees in London and lived in a refugee camp.
And then after the fall of Amin, they returned to Kampala.
And so that's where I was born.
91.
Shit on that.
Yeah.
I'm just saying, how shitty is London?
How shitty is London?
You stayed in public housing for a few weeks and you're like, we're going to go back to Africa.
I can't build it.
Whoever built that camp, don't hire us to build the 200,000 units in New York.
That's all I'm saying.
I was wondering where you were going to go.
I was wondering where you were going to go.
You were like, this is pretty sad.
I got shit on my favorite.
Dishum?
But yeah, no.
I've been nuts.
No.
Brigadier's better.
Nishuum, fine.
Jim Conna, it's great for white people.
That's Dishum.
Fine.
My man likes Maving.
You're really going to love Jim Conner.
You're going to love it.
I tried Jim Conner.
In London?
Oh, it's a food plant?
I want to like this yoga.
He's one of my closest friends.
I got Jim Conner.
Shout out, Bungalow.
I love you.
Bungalow.
I'm a fire.
Bungalow fire.
They got another one.
Have you been to Bungalow yet?
No, I haven't been to Bungalow.
Oh, wow.
Let's go.
I'll take that.
Let's go to Kaban.
Wow.
Kaban can have done many times.
I think it fell off a bit.
But we'll go Daisy Galaxy because all the good Indian food is in New Jersey.
Honestly, Edison.
Yeah, Daisy Galaxy.
That's my spot.
Caldera Labs Spotlight00:03:05
All right, guys.
Let's take a break for a second.
Listen, have you ever noticed how two news outlets can cover the exact same story and make it sound like we live in two different realities?
Have we ever noticed that?
Have we noticed that?
We don't know how to do it.
Sometimes we do that every podcast.
But yes, this happened.
One headline says the economy is booming under strong leadership.
The other economy says Americans can't afford eggs.
Who's telling the truth?
We don't know anymore.
Okay.
That's why we've been checking out Straight Arrow News.
They actually show how every side covers the same story.
So you can see the bias for yourself.
It's news for grown-ups who don't want to be played.
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Go to san.com/slash flagrant to check it out.
Take advantage of a better way to get the news.
Welcome back to trustworthy journalism with straight hour news.
All right, guys, let's take a break for a second.
Guys, you need to take care of your skin, man.
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Get wrinkles.
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Men.
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Chilling.
Mind of my business.
Yeah.
The brother came around and I couldn't believe this.
I swear.
I swear.
I said, what the fuck are you doing?
He knows everybody.
I know.
The only express he knows.
There's not a single rapper he knows for baby.
Your brother had it going.
He was something kind of wicked.
Wicked.
Had to kick it.
Yes.
Go, go, go, keep going.
Damn.
That brother had some caldera labs on when I saw him.
He must have had Caldera Labs.
The way they did fucking Salt and Peppas was looking at him.
The way this Salt and Peppas was looking at him, he must have had that Caldera lab because it's a four-step process.
It takes care of everything you need to look better.
And you looked at that guy and he was something kind of wicked.
He was washing his face.
He put on three products and then he was done.
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You want to look better?
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You want girls to see you and go, shotgun, bang.
Real Talk on Responsibility00:14:36
What's up with that thing?
I want to know.
How does it hang?
Straight up.
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It's crazy the way that female rap groups are going to lust over you in their lives.
I mean, it was, I mean, you saw them.
Those girls were just, with all due respect, a lot of humidity in the panic.
You know?
Just saying.
Let's get back to the show.
If you cannot accomplish all these things you set out to, are you aware of the pressure that's on you?
Are you aware of the domino effect that potentially comes with that?
I think I know there's definitely a lot of pressure.
There's a lot of responsibility.
I think oftentimes, though, the position of mayor, it's spoken about like it's a burden.
There's also an immense opportunity.
In fulfilling this agenda, you make it clear that politics can be more than choose between now and worse than now, as opposed to something that's better.
And so to me, when I talk about freezing the rent, when I talk about making buses fast and free, delivering universal child care, these are not slogans.
These are not just slogans.
They're commitments.
And I know there's going to be immense pressure, but I also believe that once you start to succeed in your delivery of these things, the way you will see people's political imagination expand.
We made five bus routes free in New York City.
I went on them on the first day that that program started.
And the one of the Bronx was the BX18A.
And I got on the bus.
I was talking to the driver.
He was like, today's been better because all I have to do is get from point A to point B. Don't have to talk about the fare.
I'm just driving.
And then a nurse got on and she reached for a Metro card in her purse.
The driver was like, I got you, boo.
It's free.
Look at this guy.
Look at this guy.
My Mary Adler.
You didn't think he was trying to flex like he was on.
He's like, it's on me today, boo.
It's all me.
Let's make a beautiful song.
What was she wearing?
You got the run clap.
I'm clapping for 17.
You know, she's reaching for a metro card.
And he's like, it's free.
And she's like, what do you mean it's free?
And he's like, no, no, no, no, just, they've made this one bus route free.
And then she starts dancing down the aisle to her seat.
And to me, this is an image of someone going to work at a hospital who has, for the first time in a long time, had government actually look out for her.
And people said that we wouldn't be able to deliver that.
They said that we wouldn't be able to have more riders.
We wouldn't have a decline in assaults on bus drivers.
That there would be more homeless people on the buses.
None of those things were true.
And that's what I see is that every time we succeed, it builds the coalition even more for the next.
Yeah, I just worry some of the larger things won't happen.
And that's what you'll get judged.
Which ones are you worried about?
I think the housing for the rent freeze is going to be tough.
I think raising minimum wage to $30 an hour is great in theory.
I would love it.
But I think we often forget that corporations just like you try to tax a billionaire, they find a loophole.
You make minimum wage $30 an hour.
Watch how much we automate these jobs.
And I'm not saying that's good, but that's my fear.
And then if suddenly these two like major things don't happen, do we look at even getting free bus rises?
Yeah, but that wasn't.
That's who gives a fuck.
It's free bus rides.
They already had five free routes.
It still sucked.
I think.
I don't think you have much to worry about because Trump ran on building a wall and cleaning the swamp.
And look, he's back being president.
So it's like, if you don't get everything done, I don't think it's the end for his, you know, I don't want to get caught.
But I think, you know, both of you are debating a premise that we can't accomplish these things.
And my point to you is that it's an ambitious agenda, but it's one that I'm really confident delivering.
The history of America's relationship with government is a very antagonistic one, right?
Like the inception of America is fuck government, fuck people telling us what to do.
The reason why I hope you can succeed is because I would love us to have more faith in government.
If you've spent time abroad, like, you know, you live in Europe and it's like, yeah, they're annoyed at their government, but at the same time, they're kind of like, it's cool.
I get healthcare.
There's a little bit more faith and trust.
And then you go to like Scandinavia and they're like, the government can do no wrong.
You know what I mean?
They could literally just, they could kill like 400 people and the government would be like, the people would be like, I probably did something bad.
Like they're just so trusting of the government.
I think Americans need to see government working for them.
And if that actually works, I think it would be a really beautiful thing where we can start believing instead of being skeptical of every single thing.
Yeah.
And I think the point here is that there will be many New Yorkers for whom I will have to deliver first to earn their trust.
And I understand that.
White people.
Don't want to do gray sweater.
No, like, no, no, no.
A-L-G, white people.
Not white people.
Don't do it.
Don't do it for us.
Just a little bit of the white sweater.
Am I going to get my photo camping?
Okay, Zara, we're having fun, Zara.
Zara's going to make so much money.
It's unbelievable.
I mean, like, I know she's got to work with you and like build a camp, but when it's done, it's like, I told you, there's going to be like warlords in the third world that are going to give her chests of gold to just come run their campaigns.
This is what I see.
Yeah, it's a brilliant campaign.
Yeah, you're doing great, Zara.
We're going to keep going just for a little longer.
Is anything standing in your way?
You make it seem like, you know, Albany's excited to work with us.
And, you know, there's so much momentum and people are excited.
So if things don't get done, I mean, the status quo is standing in our way.
And the reason that I'm excited is I think we have all of the ingredients to change that status quo.
But the same people who've spent millions of dollars will still have an immense amount of money that they could use to try and spend in opposition once we're in government as well.
And that's why to me, the speed at which we deliver on a wide variety of things is critically important.
That's why it's not just a plan to deliver universal childcare.
It's also how do we take down scaffolding across New York City, right?
I love this point.
But my point is you hit on some specific shit.
You're like, halal cheaper and get the rid of the scaffolding.
So New Yorker's like, yo, he's spam.
It's like, how could I begrudge someone refusing to believe in the ability for us to deliver universal childcare if their interaction with government is government's inability to deliver on removing one sidewalk shit?
This is what we're talking about.
That's like, you have to find every single interaction where government has failed New Yorkers and say, this is an opportunity for me to do better.
And the city has an opportunity to say, not just to building owners, what you should do.
We have hundreds of sidewalk sheds at city-owned properties that have been up for more than three years.
We could take those down ourselves.
We don't have to wait on anybody.
And my point is: let's be the example.
Let's show that efficiency and waste and actually falling through on our commitments.
There's not an Elon Musk idea.
It's actually for us.
If a vehicle is swamping idea.
Anyway, it is a vec idea.
And he wanted to do it the real way.
But anyway, go on, go on.
You have the support of Hochul in Albany.
How come the other establishment Democrats like Kakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer haven't endorsed you?
Talk that shit though.
Talk that real shit.
Talk that real shit.
I've appreciated the conversations I've had with them.
And the reason I've appreciated it is a lot of the talk in our politics is just about what's in two weeks, the election.
But to me, one of the most important dates is not just November 4th.
So you should sign up, register to vote by October 25th.
You got a little bit of time left.
It's January 1st.
And I'm going to be working with Congressman Jeffries, with Senator Schumer, on delivering this affordability agenda.
And that's something that I'm looking forward to.
Are there specific political answers?
There's that real shit, man.
Like the party energy.
You got the party energized right now.
You got the party energized right now.
You're the Democratic nominee for New York.
Like, why wouldn't they get it?
Why is the party running against you?
That shit is hardy to come together.
And I think that's another reason why many lifelong Democrats from like myself have been disillusioned by the party.
Because it's like, why aren't you accepting the will of the people?
They did it to Bernie.
They did it to Bernie twice, right?
They tried to do it again during this election.
It's like, when do we get to take part in the Democratic process?
And when we do get to take part in the Democrats, when do you respect that?
They might disagree with you, but it's not up to them.
This is the will of the people.
So if the people want to see this through, why are they spending millions of dollars to stop it?
It's very frustrating.
I think it undermines democracy.
I think if you look at Andrew Cuomo and I in the primary now in the general, it is in many ways a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party.
It's two very different visions.
And the things that we like to say are exclusively Republican problems.
We saw a lot of them in the Democratic primary.
It wasn't a Republican that sent a melee that artificially lengthened my beard.
It wasn't a Republican that called me.
I appreciate that, man.
If you meant to handsome with a big A, you just, you know, it was my Photoshop guy.
I thought he was sincere.
But my point is that that's from a man that at one point was being spoken about as being the next president of this country.
Like it's easy to forget now that we watch Andrew Cuomo on stage.
But not that long ago, people were saying he should be the next president of this country.
Who?
When did I say that?
Early in COVID, before we first run the tape, everybody on the tape before we burned everybody.
It was a private conversation America in public.
It was not a good person.
We still talk every night with him and his brother.
It was fun.
We're locked in.
We're waiting for the last dance.
I'm going to ask you a question.
You might not want to answer this, but this is something I see.
Brown guy to brown guy.
BG.
A lot of people, a lot of people like, there's a lot, there's an anti-Semitic label.
Anti-Semitic label that happens.
Do you think that happens if you're not Muslim?
Because I've looked into what you said.
It seems like you denounce anti-Semitism.
I do.
You criticize Israel.
A lot of times it gets conflated, but the label won't stick unless there's another outside factor.
I do think that Andrew Cuomo, there are a number of things that he has said and done he would not have done if I weren't a Muslim candidate.
And It is all too familiar for a lot of Muslim New Yorkers who grew up in this city to see the speaking up of for Palestinian human rights to then be labeled as if it is bigotry against the Jewish faith.
And what I've appreciated is that for all of the fear-mongering that he's done, there are so many Jewish New Yorkers who are able to see through that.
And that I can look through his fear-mongering and still reckon with anti-Semitism in the city and talk about the real ways that will actually root it out.
It's not how Andrew Cuomo wants to weaponize it.
It's are you going to increase funding for hate crime prevention programs?
Are you going to ensure that the NYPD are outside of synagogues and temples on the Jewish high holy days?
Are you going to actually have a curriculum like hidden voices taught in schools that celebrates the breath and the beauty of Jewish life?
These will do all of these things.
All of these things.
And that's what's been so frustrating is that this is a real concern that many Jewish New Yorkers have.
And here's a guy who's just using it for political.
And I think we all laughed at the Israel moment and it was ridiculous to watch it, but I knew the reason everyone was hammering you on it on that stage.
I was like, it was pretty obvious.
There was another thing that I thought was hilarious, like the picture with you with the Imam and the New York Post put in the front page.
And I'm like, holy shit, this looks bad.
And then I look them up and like Bloomberg campaigned with him and Mayor Adams campaigned.
I'm like, wait, okay, so what exactly is going on here?
And then I think Cuomo said something where he goes, look at him standing with this guy who's homophobic.
Like he even detached himself from the World Trade Center bombing thing because he knew it was a problem.
Unindicted co-conspirator is translation for man who was not found guilty of anything.
It's like, I obviously object to a number of things that the Imam has said about queer New Yorkers.
And I am able to still stand there and speak to him while having a platform to defend those same queer New Yorkers, celebrate and cherish them in the city.
And Andrew Cuomo is always looking to distract from the fact that he has no platform.
I'm not asking you to justify yourself.
I'm just showing you that there are these campaigns that are put out there and people will twist the truth.
And like, it doesn't only happen with politicians.
It happens like anybody famous.
You know what I mean?
So it's like, and you're getting the brunt of it.
And I think you've handled it like with a lot of class, to be honest with you.
Like, I know what it's like for the internet to say something about me that is completely false and then people just believe it.
And you are existing in this.
And you're lucky enough to have a message that resonates with people where they can refute those lies that people say about you.
I don't know if that's luck.
I think that might be like talent.
Like you earned it.
But it is fortunate that there are people that will be vocal despite the criticism that they might endure.
Like, yeah, it's pretty, that's pretty awesome that you're touching people like that.
I genuinely hope that like what you're presenting can be executed.
I mean that sincerely.
I mean that sincerely.
I appreciate it.
And I know that there's going to be a lot of opposition.
You know that more than anything you've been in government.
And yeah, I just hope you have the political capital to push it through.
And I hope that these decisions actually make life better for New Yorkers.
And I hope if you find that they don't, that you won't be caught up in your ego and you will be able to pivot for the best in you.
It always has to be for the city.
Okay.
Because that always has to be for the future.
But just sometimes we make decisions and we have the best intentions behind those decisions and they don't work out.
And the politicians or the leaders in general that are willing to go, ah, that wasn't the right thing.
We can make that happen.
We can actually grow.
Dude, we'll like you even more for acknowledging it.
And I feel even though I also think this is, it's a human, it's a part of being human, right?
To be able to reflect and to be committed more to a mission than it is to yourself.
And look, like I came on the show for me, it was bad for New York.
Future City Decisions00:01:52
I'm learning that.
I'm not going to come back.
This was a selfish decision.
I can learn to speak.
It's like spinning noise.
What's the odds then right now?
51.
51%.
51%.
You have to win because I bet him $1,000 that you would win.
Okay, he bet against you.
That's crazy.
I had a guy I hadn't spoken to.
I was like, I'm not even the people.
I had a guy I hadn't spoken to since high school text me like five days before the election goes, yo, bro.
I just put a thousand on you.
Like, please don't let me down.
Okay, Zara is trying to get you at it.
Where do you have to go next?
Procurement press conference.
Okay.
What does that mean?
What does that mean?
What are you procuring?
Yeah.
We're talking about how to cut down on waste.
I love this.
You want to talk about language?
I will.
We are in the pottery.
I got to precure.
You're not serious about this efficiency game.
No, we're going to go to bungalow and then we're going to talk.
And then I'll come up here with you.
Just come up.
Before you go, Joey, bring in the bench press because he has to.
Why are you sitting at bench?
Every year, I'm going to do one pound more.
Let's go.
Next year, 136.
Let's go.
You got to do that bench.
I was like, you fucked up, dude.
Let me tell you.
You shouldn't have done it.
I knew I fucked up when I said I thought.
You think I thought I was going to kill it?
I knew there was a problem.
And this guy was like, you got to do it.
You got to do it.
I was like, I really don't.
You should have put the big 10-pound weights on.
You know, them big 10-pound weights.
Nah, you got it.
I was telling you, but next year, 136.
Okay.
There's promises I can keep.
Let's just keep 136.
135.
You didn't keep 135.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for taking the time.