Zohran Mamdani should focus on recent NYC mayors' successes for inspiration, political experts say
As Zohran Mamdani becomes New York City's 111th mayor, he can look to his predecessors for both inspiration and warning signs.
Every mayor has had successes and failures, with each leaving a stamp on the five boroughs that defined their tenure at City Hall.
CBS News New York's Marcia Kramer spoke to political experts about some of the men who also swore to leave life in the Big Apple better than they found it.
Bloomberg set the gold standard
Mamdani has said that Fiorello LaGuardia was the best mayor the city ever had, but political experts say he might do well to study the record of Michael Bloomberg, a businessman who came into office vowing to think out of the box and owing no one anything.
Marc Shaw, senior advisor at the CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance, has worked with and for mayors and governors going back decades, and while the pluses and minuses of men like Rudy Giuliani, Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams rolled off his tongue with ease, he said that in recent times it was Bloomberg who set the gold standard.
"[Bloomberg] came from the perspective and had the freedom to, you know, aside from being a really, really smart guy, he had the freedom to do exactly what he wanted because he didn't depend on any other politicians for what he needed to get done," Shaw said.
Bloomberg had his weak spots. He could be tone deaf to the needs of the poor and he was seen sunning himself in Bermuda when the Christmas 2010 blizzard crippled the city.
But he also:
- Brought the city back from 9/11
- Built the 9/11 Memorial and Museum
- Enacted mayoral control of the schools
- Banned smoking in restaurants and public places
- Created parks and business districts like Hudson Yards
- Started Citi Bike
- Implemented calorie count disclosures for fast food
- Started 311
Rudy Giuliani's successes
As for Giuliani, who preceded Bloomberg, he:
- Became "America's mayor" after 9/11
- Brought crime down with his controversial "Broken Windows" policy
- Ended mob control of a number of industries
Bill de Blasio's signature policies
De Blasio is best known for:
- Starting the city's pre-K programs
- Initiating "Vision Zero" to make the streets safer
- Starting the city's municipal ID program
- Coping with the COVID epidemic
Despite turmoil, Eric Adams had many accomplishments
Although Adams became the first mayor in modern history to face criminal charges, he can also point to successes such as:
- Dramatic reductions in crime
- The "City of Yes" affordable housing plan
- Trash containerization
- New math and reading programs
- The war on rats
Mamdani is already a star, but will need wins, experts say
So who will Mamdani pattern himself after?
"From the way that he has become an international sensation and a national figure, I can see him taking this position and become even more popular and really want to maybe be like Bloomberg, but maybe even bigger. Who knows?" political expert J.C. Polanco said.
Asked for his advice to the incoming mayor, Shaw said, "To learn the ways of Albany and learn how to work with them because New York City, as important and as big as it is, can't do almost anything without the approval and working with, successfully, the state of New York."
So now it's up to Mamdani to put his own stamp on New York City as a new generation of leader, promising much, and hoping to deliver.