Zohran Mamdani arrived at the final New York City mayoral debate by bus, underscoring his key campaign point of making the Big Apple a more affordable place to live.
Mamdani has offered an ambitious agenda that includes freezing rent for millions of New Yorkers and making the city bus service free, fuelled by increases in taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
Mamdani estimates his plan would cost “just under” $800 million a year, “$50 million less than what New York spent on the new Buffalo Bills stadium,” reported The Washington Post.
Earlier this week, he rode one of the city’s slowest routes to a news event, arrived 25 minutes late, and used the delay to drive home his point: “What good is a free bus if it’s a slow bus?”
Most New Yorkers use the subway, which can get as crowded as the Kolkata metro during office time.
Mamdani has promised dedicated bus lanes, more frequent service, and additional loading zones to reduce delays. But free transit comes with a price. Past administrations faced pushback when they tried to expand routes, and even now, opinions are split.
The mayoral debate was less than two minutes old before the first mention of US President Donald Trump.
Asked to imagine an ideal headline a year into his hypothetical term running the largest city in the country, Mamdani suggested: "Mamdani continues to take on Trump, delivers an affordability agenda for New Yorkers."
His answer encapsulated how Trump's threats against New York have loomed over the campaign, even as Mamdani has built a double-digit lead in public polls over his chief rival, former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, by relentlessly focusing on the cost of living in the US financial capital.
Trump, who hails from New York, has vowed to cut federal funding to the city if Mamdani, whom he has dismissed as a "communist," wins the race.
Earlier this week, the President suggested he might deploy the National Guard to New York if Mamdani becomes mayor, as he has sought to do in other Democratic-run cities such as Chicago and Portland.
During the campaign, Mamdani, a 33-year-old state legislator, dismissed Trump's threats and promised to stand up to him on behalf of New Yorkers.
At the debate, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa pressed Mamdani on his free bus proposal: “Zohran, you talk about free, free, free, but we know somebody’s got to pay for it.”
Former governor Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent, more combative than in the previous debate, attacked Mamdani relentlessly.
“My main opponent has no new ideas,” he said. “He has no new plan. It’s Bill de Blasio rehash, and we know how that turned out. He’s never run anything, managed anything; he’s never had a real job.”
Mamdani fired back when it was his turn to question Cuomo, referencing the multiple allegations of sexual harassment against Cumo. He pointed out that one of the women was in the audience: “You sought to access her private gynaecological records. She cannot speak up for herself because you lodged a defamation case against her. I, however, can speak. What do you say to the 13 women that you sexually harassed?”
Mamdani’s own answers were cautious. On housing measures on the ballot, he said, “I have not yet taken a position on those,” drawing jeers.
Pressed on education, he said, “I believe that every single child deserves to have an excellent public education, and we have not seen that under the stewardship of those schools with this mayoral administration.”
Throughout the debate, Mamdani was under fire from both sides. Cuomo and Sliwa, despite their differences, united in attacking his record and views on antisemitism.
“They don’t think when antisemitism rears its ugly head, which it’s now doing more than ever before, that you will have the ability to come in and put out those flames of hate,” Sliwa said.
“They think you support global jihad.” Mamdani replied, “I have never supported ‘global jihad,’” saying he was being targeted because of his Muslim faith.
On immigration, all three candidates opposed the federal raids on Canal Street. Mamdani said he would “end the chapter of collaboration between City Hall and the federal government,” while Cuomo said Trump’s aggression “must be met with equal force.”
Sliwa argued it was a local issue, saying, “The feds should not have stepped into this situation.”
The debate wasn’t short on barbs. Mamdani accused Cuomo of spending more on a “singing water fountain” at LaGuardia Airport than on affordable housing.
Sliwa mocked Mamdani’s inexperience, “Your resume could fit on a cocktail napkin”, and Cuomo’s excesses — “Your failures could fill a public school library.”
Cuomo, in turn, took a final jab at Mamdani’s youth: “He thinks he’s a kid and he’s going to knock him on his tuchus.
While opposition to Trump has shaped the campaign, the increasing cost of living in New York has also been a driving force, with soaring rents and childcare costs making it difficult for even middle-class households to afford the city.
Mamdani, Cuomo and Sliwa are vying to replace unpopular Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, who abandoned his own foundering re-election bid last month.