Mamdani’s ideas are so loony – free childcare, free buses, government grocery stores, low cost housing by his say so, legal prostitution (not free though), that nothing is going to get done … but he’s unlikely to further damage the city – except for the antisemitism. He’ll probably be mayor for eight years – unless he runs for President.
Here’s the Journal, excerpted from their Best of the Web section.
Allegedly savvy media practitioner hands his critics an irresistible metaphor.
New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is reaching into the dustbin of history, and not just for his Marxist ideology. Jeffery Mays reports for the New York Times:
As hundreds of thousands of people amass in Times Square for the annual New Year’s Eve ball drop, a much smaller gathering of historical importance will begin underground at a long-abandoned subway station.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will be sworn into office at the old City Hall subway station, its tiled arches, chandeliers and vaulted ceilings emblematic of a Gilded Age civic ambition that Mr. Mamdani is seeking to honor in spirit…
The City Hall station, which opened in 1904, was closed down on New Year’s Day in 1945 because its curved platform did not line up with the doors of newer trains, leaving dangerous gaps.
Mr. Mays credits this scoop on the mayor-elect’s plans to a website called NYC Streetsblog, where Dave Colon reports:
Mamdani said he views the station as a symbol for the aims of his upcoming administration, including the transformative politics that built the subway in the first place.
“When Old City Hall Station first opened in 1904 — one of New York’s 28 original subway stations — it was a physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working peoples’ lives,” Mamdani told Streetsblog in a statement. “That ambition need not be a memory confined only to our past, nor must it be isolated only to the tunnels beneath City Hall: It will be the purpose of the administration fortunate enough to serve New Yorkers from the building above…”
Looking on the bright side, while the results of socialism have included hideous misery for people around the world over the last century, the abandoned public transit stop Mr. Mamdani will honor is not nearly so dingy and dated. Mr. Colon reports:
The station looks markedly different from other stops on the subway system, having been built with chandeliers and skylights that once brought in light from City Hall Park (officials blacked them out during World War II)…
The old station hasn’t fallen into disrepair, despite being vacant for 80 years. If anything, the lack of foot traffic has kept it from collecting the usual grit and grime that coats other subway stations.
Still, it’s not every day that an elected official seeks to define the start of his term with an image of subterranean obsolescence. Is this our new mayor’s way of lowering expectations?
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