New in PJ Media:
They voted for him, and so they have him, but that doesn’t mean that even New Yorkers are thrilled to see the systematic destruction of what was once the greatest city in the world. More of them voted for the young, handsome, dynamic candidate than for the sleazy retread corruptocrat Andrew Cuomo or the clownish Curtis Sliwa, but that doesn’t mean that New Yorkers are collectively ready to don Mao jackets and start singing the praises of the five-year plan. Mamdani’s audacious scheme to socialize New York City housing is already coming in for severe criticism.
One sign that some New Yorkers are aware of what Mamdani is really all about was an unsigned editorial in the New York Post on Monday. The Post Editorial Board wrote that Mamdani’s “‘Block by Block’ plan to build 200,000 subsidized apartments entails a lot of handwaving, magical thinking and reliance on ‘responsible stewards’ . . who have been failing to manage the real-estate portfolios they already have.” Mamdani promises that “if ‘community land trusts, nonprofits or even the tenants themselves’ control the city’s housing stock, these miracle-workers will ‘expand New Yorkers’ access to safe, stable, and affordable homes.’”
However, the Post points out that “programs that do all this are so old and tired that Mamdani’s Gen Z policy experts appear never to have heard of them, maybe because the experiments had already failed when they were building fantasy housing projects out of Legos.”
Indeed. If socialists learned from experience, there would be no more socialists. There is system on the planet that has been tried so many times and failed just as many times, and yet constantly gains new young adherents who don’t know how bad socialist regimes really have been, or would care if they did know, because in their youthful arrogance, they’re sure they’re going to do right this time what their elders kept doing wrong. Mamdani is going to be the world’s first socialist to build a society. Sure, and he is also going to sprout wings and fly to Mars.
Mamdani announced, of course, that he planned to seize rental properties from landlords who have not maintained them properly — in the judgment of none other than Mamdani and his cronies. He then intends to hand over ownership of those properties to “community land trusts” and “non-profits.”
Oh yeah, that’ll fix everything. As foredoomed as this idea is as any sort of real solution to New York’s housing problems, it has long been high on Mamdani’s to-do list. Intifada on the Hudson: The Selling of Zohran Mamdani shows how he has made socialized housing schemes a centerpiece of his program ever since he entered politics. “People often ask,” Mamdani wrote on Dec. 3, 2020, “what socialists mean when we say we want to ‘decommodify’ housing. Basically, we want to move away from a situation where most people access housing by purchasing it on the market & toward a situation where the state guarantees high-quality housing to all.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Typical Dems. Don’t think through the potential consequences of any of their proposals, and are then horrified by the side effects of those policies once they get passed into law
New Yorkers made their collective bed, and can now lie in it. Only thing: rest of us shouldn’t bail them out, but our illustrious POTUS can’t help himself, thanks to his love for the city that hates him
Westman says
Yes, I remember, “The Projects”, and the promise they would be low cost housing which would allow the economically disadvantaged to rise to their potential. And I remember, as a visting contactor, walking to work on a west-running street with a native man who insisted we walk on the other side of the street from a Project which was a half block down a north-running street to our right. A half block away and he still wanted the extra street width margin of safety.
Humans do not generally maintain things in which they have no investment. As dismal as rental units might be under landlord ownership, they will be worse under renter or government maintenence. Whether private or government maintenence, a new agency will be created of people who only consider it as a job. Didn’t we see this already in the Soviet housing model?
Marxism doesn’t work. Even Islam promises carnal rewards “proportional” to the efforts for it. Humans will not ultimately tolerate giving an equal portion of their earnings to those who won’t work. Such a system can only be maintained, for a time, by force and living in it will be dangerous.
James Lincoln says
Westman says,
“Humans do not generally maintain things in which they have no investment.”
Yes.
To your point, how many people wash a rental car before they turn it back in?
David Lakatos says
What does a socialist do when they run out of other people’s money? They bankrupt the banks and get bailouts. Then the Fed prints up more money out of thin air to make up the difference.
Thomas Black says
The Community Development Corporations that provide housing often utilize Article XI tax incentives, where the city Council approves a full or partial real estate tax exemption for up to 40 years in exchange for strict income and resale restrictions.
The total real estate taxes collected by NYC is not reduced. Transferring buildings to CDCs transfers a real estate tax burden from those buildings to other real estate owners.
James Lincoln says
A great quote from Robert Spencer:
“If socialists learned from experience, there would be no more socialists.”
Now that’s a keeper!
bill says
Absolutely, I thought the same when I read it
Kepha says
What did the people of NYC expect? They had Vito Marcantonio and Bella Abzug represent them in Congress in times past, and now they have Mamdani as mayor. How many of them voted for Mamdani just to burnish their liberal/progressive credentials? I just hope that they can get their act together to throw the bum out in the next election.
OLD GUY says
When something is free to someone it is paid for by someone else.