By Jacob Wetrogan, Staff Writer
The 2025 New York City mayoral election is fast approaching, and it promises to be one of the most crucial elections in recent history. Three major candidates remain in the running after Eric Adams, incumbent New York City mayor, dropped out in late September: Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa.
The two front-runners are Democratic nominee New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani. Mamdani, born in Uganda and the son of a Columbia University professor and renowned filmmaker, worked as a musician and campaign manager before being elected to the New York State Assembly in 2020. Andrew Cuomo, a moderate career politician and the son of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, served as governor from 2011 until 2021, when he resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment.
The Republican nominee is Curtis Sliwa, who also won the party’s nomination in 2021. Sliwa is the founder of the Guardian Angels, an NYC watch patrol that has been active since the late 1980s. Sliwa has positioned him self as an anti-establishment, anti-Trump moderate Republican.
As many Yeshiva University students wonder which candidate is best for both NYC residents and Jewish students, here’s a look at each candidate’s platform and how they plan to address problems ranging from housing and public safety to antisemitism.
Education
Education is perhaps one of the most critical ways to make our city safer by ensuring the next generation has everything they need to succeed — not only to remain off the streets and to be productive citizens, but to help stimulate the economy. Mamdani has proposed renovating 500 schools to make them more climate-friendly, while offering somewhat generic promises to increase funding for actual education. Sliwa has proposed a plan promising to cut bureaucracy and waste, promote school choice, support specialty programs in art and STEM and increase funding for special education services. Cuomo has developed a 25-point plan to improve NYC public schools by optimizing funding, investing in fighting truancy and providing students with programs that will focus on preparing them for college and future careers. He also plans to invest in after-school programs to keep kids off the streets, in the hopes that putting kids on the path of being productive citizens and keeping them away from crime and homelessness will help make the city safer.
Housing
Housing is a major issue of this campaign, with New York facing the highest rates of homelessness since the Great Depression and its housing costs skyrocketing. Mamdani has proposed numerous policies to provide affordable housing such as rent freezes, building more affordable homes and giving the city more authority over landlords.
While rent freezes seem like a good idea on the surface, these landlords will lose profit, and as such, businessmen will look to sell their buildings or reduce upkeep. In the long run, this will lead to a loss of affordable housing as these landlords sell their buildings off to be turned into luxury homes or office space. The truth is that the simplest solution is usually not the best, and forcing prices to stay stagnant disrupts the economy and leads to long-term damage, not benefits.
However, building more affordable homes is an effective strategy. Instead of disrupting the economy, it provides a new option independent from private businesses and is fully in government control. Giving the government control raises questions, though: will the government really commit to this and how will they decide who gets these apartments? This is an issue Mamdani has not spoken on, but it’s not a wild assumption that, in accordance with his worldview, he will give priority to marginalized communities.
Mamdani’s third answer to rising housing prices is to crack down on landlords streamlining the process and giving the city more power to force out bad landlords. This is a power that could be extremely effective in helping New York citizens, but it leads to a fear of abuse, of this new power being overused to force out landlords the government doesn’t like and to deter new investment. Ultimately, this policy relies on who runs it and who they appoint.
Cuomo shares many of Mamdani’s vision to control rent prices and protect tenants, but he seems to aim to accomplish it in more reserved ways over longer periods of time. Sliwa has suggested cutting taxes and regulation, as well as the more populist promise to fight corporations controlling large amounts of property.
Safety in the City
With the increase in homelessness, drug use and crime and an ongoing mental health crisis, many no longer feel safe in New York City. Mamdani aims to reduce crime by creating a Department of Community Safety that he says will provide social programs and improve community outreach.
Cuomo has promised to increase the size of the New York Police Department (NYPD) and use new technology and strategic deployment of officers to keep the city safe. Cuomo, throughout his career, has taken a moderate approach to public safety policy, acknowledging problems in policing and condemning the murder of George Floyd, while also condemning former Mayor Bill De Blasio for allowing riots and cutting the NYPD budget by $1 billion. He also has a strong record of criminal justice reform, allowing prosecutors to use all resources available to crack down on violent crime and repeat offenders while also ensuring civil rights are protected and promoting reform for juvenile offenders.
Sliwa also plans to hire more officers, and he has pledged to crack down on all forms of crime. Sliwa has positioned himself as tough on crime, as opposed to Cuomo’s more moderate stance, but he also plans to cut oversight and has vowed to end “petty rule enforcement.”
Both Cuomo and Sliwa have pledged to crack down on open-air drug use and work on getting homeless people into shelters. Mamdani has said he will focus more on providing support and affordable housing to the homeless, but his social programs don’t address crime and drug use as much as they embrace a progressive policy of outreach.
Safety on the subway has become a major concern for New Yorkers, including YU students. In 2024, subway crime was three times as high as 2009. 59% of crime on the subway is committed by homeless people, and 69% of people who commit crime on the subway have had a prior drug-related arrest. Sliwa and Cuomo have pledged to hire more transit officers and remove homeless people from the subway, in addition to improving the subway’s infrastructure. Mamdani plans to build homeless outreach centers in subway stations, wanting to help instead of remove the homeless.
Economy
Each candidate has a different approach to stimulating the economy. Sliwa plans to lower the corporate tax rate in the hopes that this and improved safety will attract more business. Cuomo’s plan focuses mainly on expanding the workforce and improving infrastructure. He plans to improve education and support job programs for at-risk young men between the ages of 18 and 24 to keep them off the streets. In terms of infrastructure, he plans to work on revitalizing the city’s central business district and expanding transportation infrastructure in the outer boroughs, including building four new transit hubs in the Bronx. Finally, Cuomo has pledged to invest in building up New York City’s tech sector, specifically artificial intelligence (AI), to give the city a competitive edge in years to come.
Mamdani’s plan for the economy is a reflection of his ideals as a self-identified democratic socialist., He has pledged over $70 million toward fighting corporations and plans to raise the corporate tax rate in the city by 4.25%. In truth, this is a populist promise meant to win votes, as Mamdani will not have the power to end what he deems to be bad business practices. What, then, is the point of this? Another Mamdani policy that appeals to his populist socialist base is raising the corporate tax rate in the city by 4.25%. This may seem small but in terms of tax hikes, this is huge. Mamdani aims to drive out the large finance and business companies in New York, one of the very things that makes New York what it is. Mamdani also has plans to raise the minimum wage to $30. While this sounds appealing to college students like ourselves, forcing places like restaurants and grocery stores to pay employees $30 an hour will significantly raise prices. This is a simplistic idea that doesn’t stimulate the economy and only provides short-term relief to few. One final populist proposal of Mamdani has also proposed making public transit free. While desirable, it is important to remember that last year the MTA made $900 million in profit for the city. Cutting their ability to make revenue would not only hurt its ability to maintain itself but slash nearly a billion dollars from the city budget that Mamdani plans to expand.
Sliwa has offered standard Republican pledges of cutting taxes for corporations. Cuomo offers plans for smart investments and job growth to help stimulate the economy, and Mamdani, as said above, offers a radical reform that could cause businesses to leave the city.
Antisemitism
One of the issues that affects YU students the most is the rise in antisemitism. Sliwa has been mostly silent on the issue and has faced controversy for antisemitic remarks in the past, once stating that, as a non-Jew, antisemitism was in his DNA, which he would later apologize for. While Mamdani has promised to crack down on hate crimes, he has put more of an emphasis on Islamophobia and homophobia, despite antisemitic attacks making up 64% of hate crimes last year. He has also faced significant controversy for anti-Israel rhetoric that many say is antisemitic. Cuomo has pledged to fight antisemitism and has given speeches on the subject, as well as signing executive orders against Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movements as governor. He has not faced major scrutiny for any history of antisemitic remarks. It’s clear that the candidate who will truly fight antisemitism is Cuomo.
Zooming in on Zohran: Marginalized Communities & Israel
Now it’s time to address the elephant in the room, Zohran Mamdani. What makes him so divisive is his socialist economic policies, which have been discussed, as well as his left-wing social ideology that many have characterized as woke. One shining example of this is how Mamdani has pledged 87 million dollars to help address homelessness, mental health, and rising healthcare costs; however, this 87 million dollars is only to help LGBTQ+ people facing these issues, not all New Yorkers. The problem is not that Mamdani wants to help marginalized communities; that is an extremely noble goal. The problem is that, like many in America, he buys into the idea that only these communities are suffering and that they are at a disadvantage and need to be lifted up. Not only is this a pandering false view, but it leaves those perceived as having privilege in the dirt.
There are also his pledges to spend $165 million to fight back against the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, and to provide 65 million to provide gender-affirming care.
For many students at YU, Mamdani’s rhetoric around Israel is a particularly significant sticking point when it comes to the mayoral candidate. Mamdani has repeatedly called Israel an apartheid state and accused it of genocide, while refusing to condemn the use of phrases such as “globalize the intifada,” seen by many as a call to violence against Jews. While Mamdani has denied accusations of antisemitism, what leaves Jewish students worried is that his rhetoric will lead to an increase in antisemitic attacks. Mamdani has also previously supported defunding the police, whom he has described as racist and wicked, which many worry will lead to less protection for Jews against antisemitism. In the end, Mamdani’s socialist policies will cost the city $10 billion annually and threaten to transform New York into an even more far-left divided city than it already is. It is clear he can not become the next mayor of New York City.
The resolve of many to prevent the election of Zohran Mamdani has meant discussions of coalescing around one other candidate to prevent vote-splitting, which would advantage Mamdani. Curtis Sliwa and Andrew Cuomo have similar platforms when it comes to cracking down on crime, but they differ on how to solve the economy and education, with Cuomo preferring smart investment and Sliwa taking the classic republican stance that the government should spend less. While both men’s platforms have their strengths, the truth is Sliwa is untested and his republican platform just isn’t what New Yorkers want, and we see this in the polls with him currently in 3rd at 15% of the vote. The truth is, New Yorkers won’t elect a republican, and his red beret doesn’t help. Andrew Cuomo is a tested politician with a good moderate liberal track record as governor and strong proposals, as well as having a true chance at winning, having been a close second in the democratic primary and currently polling in second at 33% of the vote, trailing Mamdani who is first with 46%. Cuomo is also the candidate who will best address the rise of anti-Semitism.
If we are to prevent the election of Zohran Mamdani, we must go out and vote for the candidate that is right for this city and has the most realistic chance at beating Mamdani, and that candidate is Andrew Cuomo.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the views or editorial stance of the YU Observer.
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