Thursday, June 18, 2026

Swing For The Fences

Mamdani: Last year, New Yorkers were asked to make a choice, and many were told that it was a choice between a government that could answer the challenges of today and one that could imagine a better tomorrow. They were told it was a choice between a government that clears the streets of snow and one that would hold corporate abusers to account.

After all, they told us, surely government couldn’t both fill potholes and provide universal child care. Surely government couldn’t both dare to deliver and dare to dream.

My friends, if these past six months have proved anything, it is that these are false choices.

Government can achieve so much more than those who seek to discourage and demoralize are willing to admit.

Government can fix crumbling streets, bring people together, and transform our city. And those who tell us otherwise are driven by a four-letter word: fear.

Fear that maybe things will change. Fear that maybe power will no longer be restricted to backrooms and boardrooms, but extended to the working people being priced out of this city.
Mamdani: Affordability is not magic. It is not something that can be summoned by words. It must be summoned by deeds.

We must stand up to corporate greed, build affordable housing, and make child care something every family can afford.

And as we speak, there are those hoping to divide the working people of this city, to convince us that the problems we face are not a result of their greed, but instead of our neighbors.

They will do whatever it takes to maintain a broken status quo that benefits the privileged few at the expense of the many. And they think there is no one who will try to stop them.
Bookends. So, if we can’t fix it, or at least do all we can to, what are we doing here?

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