NYC mayoral candidate, self-described Democratic Socialist lays out policy positions

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat representing part of Queens, has seen his 2025 campaign for mayor surge into second place behind former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The self-described Democratic Socialist has led an energetic campaign with savvy marketing on social media, and a series of recent high-profile endorsements, including from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Nydia Velazquez.

The candidate also released a campaign video this week calling for more free transit options drawing a connection to the free-of-charge Staten Island Ferry. Filming for the campaign video followed a recent visit to the Island when Mamdani met with business and faith leaders.

He’s also won the support of the Staten Island Democratic Association, a group of progressive local Dems. Early voting in the election will run from June 14 to June 22. Election Day is June 24.

Mamdani’s campaign website lays out a series of policy initiatives he would hope to implement if elected, and the candidate recently responded to a 17-part questionnaire about what a Mamdani mayoralty would look like. This is the unedited version of those responses:

Public Safety

Crime continues to drop post COVID, but there’s a constant chorus of people saying they don’t “feel safe.” What can be done to ensure people’s sentiments meet statistical realities?

Every New Yorker deserves to be safe walking down our streets, riding our subways, or taking our buses, but the Adams administration has failed to deliver that safety. Our city currently offers a patchwork of programs for dealing with issues like gun violence and mental health crises, but they are underfunded, inaccessible or unable to produce long-term safety. The police are overworked and officers are leaving the force as a result. And the programs we need require interagency coordination and implementation at a citywide scale that have been absent under our current mayor.

My administration will create The Department of Community Safety (DCS) to address these gaps. It will work to prevent crime before it happens, and to ensure the city is using every tool it possesses to make this the case. It will address issues of homelessness and mental health, including creating an evidence-based crisis intervention system and providing mental health services across our neighborhoods and our subway system. It will increase hate violence prevention and response by 800%, increase victim services, and expand gun violence prevention. The DCS will free up police to do their critical work, rather than spend hours responding to non-emergency calls about mental health needs, homelessness, or telling tourists which exits are working on the subway.

People in mental health crisis have become a focus with more elected officials calling for increased institutionalization. How do you balance safety concerns with people’s civil rights?

Thirty-four percent of New Yorkers with a diagnosed mental illness aren’t receiving the care they need. We see the failure of our city to meet those basic needs on the streets and on public transit. And it manifests on Rikers, which is the largest mental health facility in New York and the second largest in the country, housing thousands of people in need of treatment, but seldom providing adequate service.

I have a comprehensive plan to increase mental health support services. The DCS will ensure we address preventative and ongoing care, as well as crisis response. It will oversee the establishment of a community mental health navigator program to engage people before they reach a crisis point. It will expand peer clubhouses (peer-led, voluntary, proven rehabilitative programs for individuals with serious mental illness), and transform our crisis response in our subway system and on our streets. This system of mental health outreach will integrate with housing and substance use services, such that hospitalization is rare. The goal: to end the revolving door from hospital rooms back to subway platforms.

A 2023 survey conducted by the Advance/SILive.com found most Staten Islanders were concerned with property theft crimes. What do you think can be done at the city level to better prevent those types of crimes?

I would do so in two ways: by freeing police up to do actual police work, and by reducing poverty.

Under Eric Adams, police response times are up 20%, to over 15 minutes, and only 39% of crimes are solved. That’s because we ask our officers to step in for every failure of the social safety net, which prevents them from doing their important jobs. Police should not be responding to mental health crises and homelessness—that’s not what they’re trained to respond to, and the officers I speak with say they would welcome city support for those calls. I have a plan for that: my Department of Community Safety will invest in citywide mental health programs and crisis response—including deploying dedicated outreach workers in 100 subway stations, investing in community mental health navigators, and expanding supportive housing. The DCS will address homelessness and mental health issues, and let police concentrate on the kinds of crime Staten Islanders are concerned about.

Research also shows property crime is concentrated around poverty, which makes sense: when people are desperate and struggling to survive, they are more likely to resort to crime. We can reduce shoplifting and other types of property crime by making our city more affordable, so that fewer people view it as a way to survive. My mayoralty will deliver a city where everyday New Yorkers can afford their homes, their groceries, their childcare — it will ensure we can all afford a good life in the greatest city in the world. I will also work with employers to ensure adequate staffing to deter shoplifting, which has been proven effective while also generating jobs for our community.

Retail theft is a real issue, and we fail to intervene successfully when it happens. In 2022, 327 people were arrested more than 6,000 times for shoplifting, representing about one third of all retail theft arrests in the city. That speaks to the fact that we’re not providing services necessary to stop retail theft; we’re merely arresting people then releasing them into similarly desperate situations. I will expand services to meet their needs and work to reduce this kind of theft that strains businesses, alarms retail workers, and contributes to a sense of disorder. I will also explore legislative solutions to retail theft, such as mandating staffing levels in pharmacies and other businesses, which can both protect workers and deter shoplifting.

Transit/Traffic

Staten Island has no rail connection to the rest of the city. What can a mayor do to advocate for that kind of transit improvement? Where would it connect?

I am committed to improving public transit across our city – this has been a focus of my time in the Assembly. As an Assemblymember, I won over $100 million for better bus and subway service and a fare-free bus pilot that dramatically increased ridership and provided clear economic relief to low-income commuters—the highest uptick in new riders was from individuals earning less than $28,000 a year. As mayor, I will also pursue faster and more reliable public transportation across the board, and I am eager to consider all MTA infrastructure improvements with DOT, transportation advocates and community stakeholders. Every corner of our city should have fast, reliable, and affordable public transportation, but too often City Hall fails to provide that to Staten Island.

Most Staten Islanders drive. What can the city do to improve traffic conditions on the Island?

New York City has some of the most congested traffic in the country, and traffic violence killed a New Yorker every 34 hours last year. Driving in our city is both too slow and too dangerous. I will ensure our roads are well-maintained and that traffic code is enforced. To do so, I will work closely with the Department of Transportation to build safer street infrastructure, expand daylighting, increase use of camera technology, and support enforcement. I will also create a designated fund to redesign our most dangerous streets, to prevent traffic fatalities and to speed the flow of traffic.

Would you commit to keeping Staten Island Ferry service free?

Yes, proudly! The Staten Island Ferry’s free service shows the value of fare-free transit for New Yorkers and I will maintain it.

Housing

What is your position on Mayor Adams City of Yes for Housing Opportunity?

I applaud the Council’s work to fight displacement and include deeper housing affordability within the City of Yes, and would honor these commitments as mayor. I would further expand them—making them not just something the Council has to negotiate, but a part of the city’s common practice. We must ensure developments don’t dictate what our neighborhoods look like. That’s why, as part of my plan to build permanently affordable housing, I am committed to initiating a comprehensive citywide planning practice which will allow NYC both to address the legacy of racially discriminatory zoning and to proactively plan for the health and needs of the city—in housing, transit, education, and other areas.

What can be done to improve housing costs for homeowners and renters around the five boroughs?

I’m running for mayor because the working people who built our city can no longer afford to call it home, and housing costs are the biggest expense for most New Yorkers.

For tenants, I will freeze the rent for the more than two million tenants living in rent-stabilized housing. I will triple our production of truly affordable housing, creating 200,000 units of union-built, rent-stabilized housing, tripling our production. I will use every tool the city has to make housing permanently affordable, and fast-track any project that commits to the administration’s affordability, stabilization, union labor, and sustainability goals through land use review. And I will crack down on bad landlords by overhauling the Mayor’s Office to protect tenants while delivering a 311 that actually works and holding negligent landlords accountable.

Meanwhile, 25% of all NYC homeowners spend more than half their income on housing costs, placing many of those families behind on payments. And inequalities in our property tax system entrench inequality across the five boroughs—the city’s wealthiest pockets pay just a fraction of their just tax bill because assessed values are artificially capped to stay low while actual market values soar. I will fix that by shifting the tax burden back to expensive homes in richer neighborhoods, pushing assessment percentages down. I will also stop the unequal taxation of co-ops and condos to bring their property tax burden down. I will create an Office of Deed Theft Prevention and a Tangled Title Fund to protect New Yorkers against scam artists who steal family homes by targeting vulnerable homeowners, especially the elderly. I will end the tax lien sale, in which the city sells public debts to private investors. And I will invest in support so that homeowners can actually afford to pay for the improvements Local Law 97 requires, including fighting to extend the J-51 tax breaks.

Where do you see the most opportunity to build housing in the five boroughs?

New York City does not have a plan driving its growth and development. It’s high time we reformed our disjointed planning and zoning processes to create a holistic vision for affordability, equity, and growth. I will undertake comprehensive, citywide planning that will allow NYC both to address the legacy of racially discriminatory zoning and to proactively plan for the health and needs of the city—in housing, transit, education, and other areas. That planning process will ensure that our entire city contributes to our need for hundreds of thousands of new units, by increasing zoned capacity. This will allow housing supply to meet New York’s demand for both mixed-income and permanently affordable housing in areas that have historically not contributed to citywide housing goals—including those cut out of City of Yes.

Health

What can be done to bring a public hospital to Staten Island?

The city’s failure to provide a public hospital on Staten Island is a disservice to the borough and its people. While Staten Island’s two overburdened private hospitals struggle to provide care, a public hospital is indispensable for ensuring care for all New Yorkers, to say nothing of the lives that H+H hospitals saved during the pandemic. It is unacceptable that the city currently fails to provide that service in Staten Island, and I would work to change that.

The city’s hospital funding structure is separate and unequal: many New Yorkers in the outer boroughs struggle to find care in hospitals that are overburdened, understaffed and on the brink of closure, even as hospitals in wealthy neighborhoods rake in hundreds of millions of dollars and pay their executives tens of millions of dollars. That’s because our broken healthcare system pays hospitals unequally, paying less for care delivered to Medicare and Medicaid patients and the uninsured than for those with commercial insurance. I would work to remedy this inequity by demanding that wealthy hospitals pay their fare share towards city health needs, and would use this funding to expand healthcare access in the outer boroughs – including on Staten Island. I would also advocate for expanded state support for existing safety-net hospitals like Richmond University Medical Center.

Many Staten Island officials have said the borough hasn’t seen its fair share of the state’s Opioid Settlement Fund. What can the mayor do to see more of that funding directed to Staten Island?

Staten Island communities have been among those hit hardest by the ongoing opioid crisis, and Staten Island deserves its fair share of funding to address the crisis. Unfortunately, city and state decisions on opioid settlement fund distribution have shortchanged Staten Island communities. While some progress has been made in redressing these inequities, we must do more. I will work with community leaders to identify impactful ways to distribute Opioid Settlement Funds, and ensure that Staten Island receives the resources it needs to combat the opioid epidemic, both by distributing city settlement funds equitably and by advocating vigorously in Albany for a fair distribution of state funds.

Community

What would your administration do to improve environmental resiliency around the five boroughs, particularly on Staten Island?

We all remember the devastation Hurricane Sandy brought to our city, particularly to Staten Island. Its damage underscores the urgency for both climate action and emergency preparedness. As an assemblymember, I have taken such action, helping to lead the fight to pass the Build Public Renewables Act and the All-Electric Buildings Act while also successfully defeating a dirty fracked gas plant in my assembly district. As mayor, I will continue that work. I will lead a massive decarbonization and climate resiliency process citywide. This will include building out renewable energy on our public lands and fulfilling the vision of Local Law 97 through assistance from the city for middle income homeowners. I’ll oversee a disaster preparedness program that prioritizes safe and resilient housing, public waterfronts, and other infrastructure at the forefront of flood protection, and use a multi-agency approach to tackle extreme heat, which kills more people—particularly New Yorkers of color—than any other type of weather event. Furthermore, as ConEd tries to raise utility rates by over 10%, I will firmly oppose these exorbitant hikes. Finally, I will invest in improvements in our schools to reduce school building emissions (which account for roughly a third of all city building emissions) while simultaneously delivering safer and more comfortable classrooms and more abundant green spaces. This plan will renovate 500 public schools with renewable energy infrastructure, like solar panels, as well as HVAC upgrades; build green schoolyards, which reduce heat emissions and absorb flood water while providing more green space for communities to enjoy; and it will transform 50 schools into resilience hubs—community facilities that are equipped to support residents and provide resources before, during, and after disasters and emergencies.

How can the city improve opportunities for small businesses?

Small business owners account for over 90% of all firms in the city and employ nearly half of all New Yorkers within the private sector. But too many mom-and-pops are forced to close because keeping a business open costs too much and navigating our bureaucracy is too difficult. That costs New Yorkers their jobs, small business owners their dreams, and our city the places that give it character.

I will make it faster, easier, and cheaper to start and run a business in New York City, so that bodegas and corner stores stay open and dollar slices come back. I will cut small business fines in half, speed up permitting and make online applications easier, and increase funding for 1:1 small business support by 500%. And I’ll appoint a mom-and-pop czar to make sure it happens.

With President Trump’s mass deportation strategy, what more can be done to protect our immigrant neighbors, documented and undocumented? How would you uphold the city’s sanctuary city status?

Donald Trump will stop at nothing in his attacks on our immigrant communities and will try to intimidate those who stand by their side, as we’re seeing in Los Angeles this week. In New York, he’s waging war on the First Amendment and our constitutional rights as he continues to abduct New Yorkers from across our city. New York needs a mayor ready to stand up to him. I will do so by removing ICE out of all city facilities and ending all collaboration between Trump’s deportation machine and city agencies. I will ensure no city resources are used for immigration enforcement. I will bolster legal support, investing $165 million in immigration legal defense services. These services make an enormous difference in the outcome of immigration cases: 74% of non-detained immigrants with lawyers win their cases, versus 13% who don’t have legal help. And I will protect all personal data from Trump’s attacks, thinking expansively about ways to protect undocumented New Yorkers from deportation or other federal attacks.

Education

What can be done to improve city schools?

As mayor, I will fully invest in our city’s schools, making sure teachers and staff are paid fairly and treated with dignity and students receive the highest quality education. That means supporting our staff. I will work to fix Tier 6 so school staff can retire earlier than 63. I will support our paraprofessionals, whose vital work to support students’ success is undervalued — as mayor, I will back the City Council bill to provide them with an annually recurring $10,000 bonus. That also means investing more in our schools. Our school system has a responsibility to provide every student with the opportunities they need to reach their full potential. As mayor, I will work to equalize resources and outcomes for all the students. I will bring the city into compliance with the new class size law, which will provide a better education to our students and more support for our teachers. Doing so will require the city to hire over 10,000 new teachers. I will also hire more counselors, school psychologists and social workers to support students in every facet of their lives. Working closely with UFT will be core to this mission—teachers’ experiences, insights and knowledge will inform all my work with schools and the solutions we establish. Regular meetings and advice from the UFT and its offices will thus be key, and I look forward to your ideas about collaboration and partnership.

What is your position on charter schools?

I oppose efforts by the state to mandate an expansion of charter school operations in New York City. I also oppose the co-locating of charter schools inside DOE school buildings, but for those already co-located my administration would undertake a comprehensive review of charter school funding to address the unevenness of our system. Fifty-seven percent of last year’s increase to Foundation Aid went to charter schools, even though these schools only serve 14% of the city’s population. Matching funds, overcharged rent, and Foundation Aid funding would be part of this audit as my administration determined how to manage the reality of co-located schools and legal entitlements.

What is your position on school vouchers?

I oppose school vouchers, which have consistently proven to destabilize public school systems, lack fiscal and academic accountability, and primarily benefit the wealthy at the expense of low-income students. Despite being advertised as a tool to uplift vulnerable students from underperforming schools, studies have shown that voucher programs are primarily used by richer families with children already in private school. As Trump seeks to create the first federal school voucher program, our city must reject any attempt to undermine the real pathway to educational equity for our students: a fully-funded, highly successful public school system.