Michael Goodwin: Mamdani is carving out a historic path — an NYC mayor who hates the city, its people and is trying to destroy both

Over its long history, New York City has had every kind of mayor under the sun. Most have been reasonably competent, some have been bold and brilliant and some turned out to be crooked to the core.

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But to my knowledge, Zohran Mamdani is in a class of one. He is the first mayor in modern times who appears to hate the city and many of the 8 million people who call it home.

As he constantly makes clear, he is not here to fix things. He is here to smash the city as it is and build a socialist utopia in its place.

A troubling result is that seven months into his tenure, Mamdani remains in constant campaign mode. His appearances and public remarks are aimed exclusively at his supporters, here and in leftist outposts around America and the world.

Governing in the broad public interest of the people who actually live in the city does not appear to be part of his plan.

What does interest him is creating and seizing opportunities to keep his base fired up as he pursues the radical political and social agenda that carried him to City Hall last year.

Foe of 9/11 families

He surely counts his class-warfare approach as smart, but in fact he is squandering the opportunity to expand the goodwill he inevitably will need. It’s a cliche but true that there never is a second chance to make a good first impression.

The impression Mamdani is making to the unconverted is hugely negative. A glaring example is that many 9/11 families say they don’t want the mayor to ­attend the 25th anniversary.

No mayor has ever faced such a movement.

Although the mayor speaks in platitudes about his goals of free this and free that, his hatred of Israel is an obsession that is never far beneath the surface.

The most recent of many examples is his decision to go public with his desire to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he sets foot in the five boroughs.

When he spoke, the mayor already knew he had no authority to do that because the United States does not recognize the International Criminal Court, which indicted Netanyahu, as President Trump reminded him.

But the mayor threw a bone to the antisemites in his camp by saying he was still searching for a way to make it happen. Then, when city lawyers told him again he had no options, he released an odious video in which he said, “Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large,” he said. He also accused Israel of starving children and intentionally bombing hospitals in Gaza.

As for Hamas’ kidnapping, killing and raping while vowing to eliminate Israel — Mamdani remains speechless.

In effect, the video turned the limits on his power into an opportunity to remind Jew haters he is still with them.

New York, with nearly one million Jewish residents, has the largest Jewish population of any city in the world, and yet the mayor is trying to “otherize” them. The only thing he learned from history is how to do that.

Although sheer incompetence remains a special concern given his youth and lack of experience in any serious job, his determination to turn the Jewish state into a permanent punching bag reveals a malevolent core.

‘Creepy and weird’

Another revolting habit is his fixation on wealthy New Yorkers. His video mocking Ken Griffin, the billionaire investor and hedge fund owner, was indeed “creepy and weird,” as Griffin said.

Read more Exclusive | Longtime New Yorkers fume after being hit with massive pied-à-terre tax bills: ‘Is this a witch hunt?’

Standing outside Griffin’s Manhattan apartment building and crowing that “we’re taxing the rich” is how the mayor celebrated the pied-à-terre tax Gov. Hochul and lefty legislators gave him to fund his big-spending plans and close the city’s budget gaps.

He has now flexed that taxing power again with the City Hall letter to nearly a million households threatening a huge surcharge if the occupants fail to prove the home is their primary residence.

A friend who got one such letter, despite being a full-time resident in the house he has owned for about 40 years, sees it as especially mean-spirited.

Noting that the letter is titled a “non-primary residence property surcharge,” it demands all kinds of proof within three weeks from those who wish to apply for an “exemption.”

In other words, you are guilty until you prove you are innocent.

My friend says the city already has the proof it needs in his tax returns, which show his home is his primary residence and he is a city resident.

But still he must prove he’s not subject to the surcharge by submitting a raft of documents, some of which are four decades old.

He adds that lawyers will have a field day helping people negotiate the minefield of demands and threats of huge surcharges. He also wonders if the bureaucratic exercise is at least partially designed to drive people out of the city by making it so onerous and expensive to stay.

Payback for Hochul

Fortunately, New Yorkers who are sick and tired of being vilified for their religion, financial success and political affiliation have a chance to hit back in November.

The mayor is not on the ballot, but Hochul is, and none of Mamdani’s war on the rich would be possible without her help. She pretends she’s a moderate by citing her refusal to go along with his push for higher income taxes on the wealthy and large corporations.

But no real moderate would push a pied-à-terre tax, as she did. As economists and others have noted, driving the most well-off residents out of New York is a form of suicide.

The leftist claptrap that high earners are stealing from the less well off is boob bait for idiots. In fact, high earners spend enormous amounts of money that create jobs and opportunities up and down the socioeconomic ladder.

As former Mayor Mike Bloomberg and city comptrollers have noted, a relative handful of wealthy families pay a disproportionate amount of the city’s personal income tax. Without that revenue, the city would be unable to pay huge numbers of teachers, firefighters and police officers.

The war on wealth is a huge threat to the city’s future, and should be an opportunity for Bruce Blakeman, Hochul’s GOP opponent. He promises to cut taxes, not raise them, but Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, has failed to lay out a clear, alternative vision.

Statewide campaigns require much more than staid platform promises. They’re also a test of a candidate’s ability to be nimble enough to seize opportunities based on changing circumstances.

Mamdani’s use and abuse of the pied-à-terre tax is one of those moments. It offers Blakeman an opening to remind voters that ­Hochul gave the mayor that destructive power.

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