Mayor Mamdani has promised to deliver the “most ambitious agenda to tackle the cost-of-living crisis that this city has seen since the days of Fiorello La Guardia.”
By Lana Schwartz | lana.schwartz925@gmail.com
From the campaign trail to his inauguration, Mayor Mamdani has promised to govern in the tradition of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, considered widely to be the greatest New York City mayor of all time.
Now that Mayor Mamdani has reached his 100 day mark, the question stands: So far, how does Mayor Mamdani stack up against his political inspiration and many-years-earlier predecessor?
Stuff Mayor Mamdani Has Done Like La Guardia
Making significant investments in housing
Maybe he had to use some unconventional methods to get there, but the mayor’s Sunnyside Yard plan to create 12,000 new homes — half of which would be Mitchell-Lama apartments — would be the biggest investment in housing creation the city has seen in decades.
This fits squarely in the legacy of Mayor La Guardia, the creator of the New York City Housing Authority.
Stood with striking workers
When laundry workers went on strike, Mayor La Guardia stood with them by shutting off the water to two major laundromats, forcing owners to cave to the workers’ demands. So far, no strikes in New York City have come to this, but you can find Mayor Mamdani on the picket line with striking nurses and Starbucks workers.
Fulfilling his promise of“being outside”
In his inauguration address, Mayor Mamdani promised to, in the words of Jadakiss, “be outside.” Similar to how Mayor Mamdani can be found walking from City Hall to Gracie Mansion, or making Instagram reels to promote his policies, Mayor La Guardia was also “outside.” You could find La Guardia conducting an orchestra of the police, fire, and sanitation departments at Carnegie Hall, and he famously read the comics in his weekly Sunday radio show broadcast on WNYC.
A Few Things Mayor Mamdani Can Do to Be More Like La Guardia
Finish Bushwick Inlet Park
It’s what Mayor La Guardia, whose tenure saw the creation of almost 200 new playgrounds, would do. (When in doubt, ask WWMLDWTSTCOATNPD?)
Drink a beer in Congress
Yes, La Guardia was doing it in protest of Prohibition — which means that it was his own concoction made of a “near beer” and two-thirds of a bottle of malt tonic — and yes, Prohibition has long since been repealed. Does that mean it would be any less fun if Zohran found a reason to do it? We will let you answer that for yourself.
Appoint an official magician
It was the mid-1930s, the Great Depression was roaring, and Mayor La Guardia needed a way to boost the morale of the city’s children (or New York’s Cutest, as Mayor Mamdani calls them). His solution: To appoint Abraham Hurwitz as the city’s official magician. Hurwitz, a government employee with a PhD in educational guidance, used magic to help kids learn. One more thing to keep kids off their phones!
Some Stuff La Guardia Did That He Shouldn’t
Build an airport
I think this would cause more problems than fix them.
Smash all the city’s pinball machines
While it would make for a pretty good photo op, there’s really no longer any plausible deniability that pinball is endemic to gambling and racketeering.
Appoint a Robert Moses-like figure to power, setting off a chain of events that will allow an unelected official to wield power unlike the the city has ever seen before, bending it to their will and ensuring that current and future generations suffer from his decision to prioritize cars over people, public transit, and housing
Seems self-explanatory.
Lana Schwartz, a columnist for the Star, is a writer who was born and raised in Queens and today lives in Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared on The New Yorker, The Onion, McSweeney’s, and more. She is the author of the books “Build Your Own Romantic Comedy” and “Set Piece.”
