Build it, together

Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former governor of New York now running for mayor, is already counting his chickens before they hatch. He’s announced that even before he wins the Democratic primary, which appears to be inevitable, that he intends to spend the next eight years in Washington D.C. 

The last thing New Yorkers need, in a city with a myriad of problems, is a newly elected mayor who is more concerned about helping the Democrats retake the White House than he is about the welfare of the citizens who put him in office.

Very few mayors or governors for that matter, have had any real success battling Washington, no matter what party is in power. Eric Adams made the mistake of criticizing the powers that be in his own party and soon, if all goes according to Cuomo’s plan, will find himself on the outside looking in because of it. If a politician’s own party shuns them, what chance does the politician have who goes gangbusters against the opposition? The only people who get hurt are those they represent.

It would be better if Cuomo looked to a great mayor of the past for guidance. Fiorello La Guardia, for example, was a Republican mayor who worked with a Democratic president, Franklin Roosevelt, for the betterment of his constituents. Cuomo’s campaign ads claim that his administration will build 500,000 new affordable homes.

That's an impossible task without the federal government’s help. And even with it, the actual number will not nearly be that many if attempts to build affordable housing by past city mayors is any indicator. There simply isn’t enough land in New York City to build the houses and packing low-income residents in skyscrapers, the way they are housing the upper class, isn’t a viable solution either.

Back in 1935, during his first term in office, La Guardia partnered with Roosevelt to build the first federally funded low-income housing development in New York City. Their shared goal was to improve living conditions for the poor, not score political points for one party or the other. Knickerbocker Village on the Lower East Side is still in existence today, 90 years later. Ironically, while Kamala Harris won the borough of Manhattan in the 2024 presidential race with 81 percent of the vote, the residents of Knickerbocker Village chose Trump by a small margin. Maybe they knew something others didn’t.

Trump, first and foremost is a builder, albeit mostly of luxury properties, but no doubt, if given the chance, he would jump at the opportunity to help build affordable housing in New York City. He built a skating rink in Central Park and a golf course in the Bronx after both projects had stalled for years until he took charge.

This city will be better served by a mayor who puts his differences with the current administration aside and seeks to work with it for the betterment of all. The voters would do themselves a favor if they sought the same from their candidate of choice.