Mamdani’s booming ‘agit-prop’ bureau shows he’s all about the eternal campaign
Making New York City work will never be Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s priority; his approach to governing is all about his image and promoting his radical allies.
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Witness the plans for a metasticizing Office of Mass Engagement, set to grow to $5.2 million in salaries as its headcount balloons 186%, with 26 new hires drawing an average of $125,000.
This isn’t the mayor’s (also ample) press office, nor agency-directed community engagement: It’s political organizing; its first task is recruiting people to show up at Rent Guidelines Board hearings to produce a show of mass support for Mamdani’s rent freeze.
Another part, of course, is the support for far-lefty challengers to progressive Democrats like Reps. Adriano Espaillat and Dan Goldman.
(Since Speaker Carl Heastie ran point for Mamdani’s priorities during budget negotiations, the mayor’s not backing primary challenges against Heastie’s Assembly incumbents this year, though the Democratic Socialists are certainly looking to pick up strength in the Legislature.)
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The mayor’s also salting city government with radicals, from a new NYPD-bashing sheriff to refusing to renominate even de Blasio-appointed judges his team deems insufficiently activist.
Mamdani’s only real nod to keeping city government working is his retention of Jessica Tisch as police commissioner, though it remains a question how long that can last when he keeps ordering dangerous forbearance of deadly threats.
Beware: Even if the NYPD remains solid, the rest of city government is headed off the rails as long as City Hall is focused exclusively on winning more power for the mayor’s movement.
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