r/BlackPeopleTwitter • u/SpectacularOtter ☑️ Horny Police! 🚔🚨 • Aug 24 '26
Country Club Thread Mayor Fix-it!
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u/SunForge_Arts Aug 24 '26
Crazy how for the first time in my adult life I'm seeing a politician act like what we were taught about them in school. All that bureaucracy and yellow tape wasn't that big of an obstacle after all, huh?
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u/UltimateM13 Aug 24 '26
New York City mayors have a lot of authority baked into the position. It’s not the same for a lot of positions but Mamdani is very much what happens when a good person with a lot of drive and ideas gets put in a position where he’s allowed to act on them. Let’s not forget he employs/is surrounded by a lot of very capable people who take their jobs seriously.
Not to downplay his work. He’s great. He’s what all other politicians should be. He just also has the means to make it happen.
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u/Informal_Snow9191 Aug 24 '26
Yeah, in places like LA the power is divvied up between multiple places of power. So the mayor can do some things, but not all of them. And the power primarily rests in the city council. And there are fifteen of those seats and it's difficult to fill all of them.
But what this says to me is that there are a lot of potential pickups in towns if you run the right people and you have the knowledge to make the bureaucracy run. You don't just need the drive, but you also need the knowledge about how to secure funds and write and execute laws.
It probably also really helps that New York is functionally a city-state and it has one of the largest budgets in the world. But I think that even smaller cities or towns could be run in a way that helps people. You just need the will to actually do it.
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u/Training_Medicine_49 Aug 24 '26
He boxed in the governor Hochul who was adamant about not funding his projects but when he said he would have to fill in the budget gaps with higher taxes, she sang a different tune. So he’s a smart guy. Don’t let that beautiful smile fool you! He’s also a ninja!
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u/DrunkEngr Aug 24 '26
LA Mayor does wield considerable power. Most recently she used it to help NIMBYs block a much needed expansion of the LA Metro system.
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u/SomberArtist2000 Aug 24 '26
Good points, especially for someone like me from CA where mayors don't have as much authority.
That said, all previous NY mayors had the same authority, and he is making them all look relatively bad in comparison. Also, him assembling a strong team is also a credit to his leadership and ideology.
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u/UltimateM13 Aug 24 '26
Absolutely. The fact that he has been this effective is a sign of how absolutely worthless the previous ones in our lifetimes were.
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u/pimppapy Aug 24 '26
Beyond worthless with some like Giuliani.
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u/UltimateM13 Aug 24 '26
Dude only had any goodwill post 9-11 for not fucking it up worse than it was. Amazing to see him piss it away in the last few decades.
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u/gambalore Aug 24 '26
Other NYC mayors did things to build up political capital. Mamdani is using his political capital to do things.
Every other mayor wanted to look like they were doing something about this BQE problem but they didn't want to piss off the NIMBYs who would be upset about pretty much any plan that was actually put into action so they did the bare minimum in repairs and kept forming committees to look into the issue and produce reports. Mamdani just cut through all that and said, here is a plan that is going to suck (because every possible solution sucks) but it will get the job done.
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u/No-Trouble814 Aug 24 '26
We’ll see in the next election he’s in, but it seems like he’s proving that spending political capital is the best way to earn more political capital.
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u/UltimateM13 Aug 24 '26
This is totally true. Often times the only way to burn political capitol with the people is when you has a disinterested populace and are pushing measures people don’t understand or don’t care about.
If you have people who pay attention, and can address how and why what they’re doing is good and popular, political capitol is absolutely a renewable resource.
I think a lot of establishment politicians are just used to indolent apathetic voters, and thus the only political capitol they have to worry about is other politicians/donors/etc.
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u/makemeking706 Aug 24 '26
Two things. First all of the previous NYC mayors had the same means, but didn't make it happen. Second, lacking the means to make it happen in other places often means there are other politicians in place who are happy to not make it happen.
The barrier to progress is and will always be people who are profiting from or simply content to keep things the same.
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u/Halo_cT Aug 24 '26
New York City mayors have a lot of authority baked into the position.
Especially when you consider that NYC has more Americans in it than Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, Montana and Maine
COMBINED
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u/SunForge_Arts Aug 24 '26
Very good points, if only the rest of the country could be run the same way
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u/Lemesplain Aug 24 '26
Surrounding yourself with capable people is part of what makes Mamdani such a great politician, and also why the shitbird establishment politicians hate him so.
It’s so much easier to surround yourself with “yes men” and grifters.
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u/UltimateM13 Aug 24 '26
This is absolutely true. To become a leader requires a little bit of delusion that you can solve a problem. To BE a leader requires the knowledge to know you can’t solve a problem alone. A lot of people with ambition do the former, and forget how to do the latter.
Mamdani has surrounded himself with some very capable people, many of whom are leaderley in their own right. It requires a lot of collaboration and cooperation to get things done, but a lot of the worst shitty establishment folks only want people who will shut up and do what they’re told.
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u/Abefroman12 Aug 24 '26
Mamdani is like a real life Leslie Knope. Turns out, people like competent politicians
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u/antsh Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
Basically Mr Smith Goes to Washington if James Stewart was played by… let’s go with Ashok Kumar.
Edit: I worded that poorly and now I’m imagining Ashok Kumar playing James Stewart instead of Mr Smith
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u/NobodyLikedThat1 Aug 24 '26
This guy is wild to me. He either has the world's best PR team or is actually the first mayor to do his job.
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u/Hello_Badkitty Aug 24 '26
Both
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u/zezxz Aug 24 '26
Eric Adams set the bar so low as far as PR teams lmao, who made this
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u/makemeking706 Aug 24 '26
Nah, trump has the world's best PR team. The entire fourth estate carrying his water.
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u/FistPunch_Vol_7 ☑️ Aug 24 '26
100% both. He just fixed the streets on my block. It’s been broken for a decade. So many accidents because people swerving over potholes. Now I can skate that shit and it’s smooth like butter.
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u/GitEmSteveDave Aug 24 '26
Had anyone ever reported it to 311 and followed up?
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u/All_Work_All_Play Aug 24 '26
Mamdani specifically overhauled 311 with training and better tracking system because it wasn't working before.
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u/matthung1 Aug 24 '26
I've been reporting uber/lyft driver violations a lot lately and they all result in some type of follow up. It's pretty satisfying to actually have something come out of these reports. So far most of these guys have just folded and admitted wrongdoing pretty quickly.
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u/rawbdor Aug 24 '26
I'll give the guy credit for the vast majority of the headlines he's made so far. He's actually doing things.
But this BQE plan, I can't really credit him with that. Articles from 4 years ago show Adams trying to also jumpstart a plan. The difference is, back then there wasn't enough urgency or consensus in the community to solidify on a specific plan.
Now, this section basically HAS to have a published plan, because it's in such bad shape they need to restrict trucks from driving on it. The 2022 article clearly said trucks would need to be restricted starting in 2026. This means that some type of plan (even if it's just restricting trucks) must be released at this point. But it also means that the community was probably pushed to the point of accepting an otherwise unattractive plan, because forcing all the trucks into the lower streets would basically be hell on earth for everyone.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/13/nyregion/brooklyn-queens-expressway-construction-plan.html
Now Adams didn't have a plan, but, I sincerely doubt this is Mamdani's plan either. I think negotiations and necessities have just moved forward enough that a few options have now been collected and placed before the mayor with a decision deadline of yesterday.
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u/Penland_2008 Aug 24 '26
From the outside it looks like Mamdani is using his popularity and good PR to help create urgency to complete or start a lot of these projects that old Mayors never could or wanted to do
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u/rawbdor Aug 24 '26
Your statement is true. But this isn't one of them. This one had to be done now and everyone knew it.
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u/Suyefuji Aug 24 '26
To be fair, part of being a good politician is also surrounding yourself with people who are smart and capable of putting together a coherent plan for things like this. No one can be an expert in everything but everything has at least one expert.
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u/Yetiassasin Aug 24 '26
There's lots of projects like that in New York, that have plans made up, lots of great plans. But nothing done about them. It takes someone to push those plans forward into action. That's the major difference here, he's actually doing things, not just making plans.
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u/TheLowlyPheasant Aug 24 '26
He seems like he is doing everybody's job. Like potholes SHOULD NOT be on his radar because there should be a department on top of that shit.
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u/NobodyLikedThat1 Aug 24 '26
agreed, but results are results. You'd hope the mayor would be able to focus heavily on the big-picture stuff, but a lot of times the little things matter too. Showing his constituency that their everyday problems are things he actually cares about goes a long way.
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u/SongShikai Aug 24 '26
Yeah like "no problem too small" is a great attitude for a mayor to have honestly, love his energy. He seems very focused on public service and make tangible improvements in the lives of his constituency, its crazy that this is not what we demand from our politicians in general.
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u/Kwaussie_Viking Aug 24 '26
Building that confidence also helps with the big projects like the BQE. These projects can be slowed by resistance from local groups. Showing fast resolutions to raised issues (like potholes) reduces the local worries causing less resistance and a faster project over all.
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u/GitEmSteveDave Aug 24 '26
He has a really great PR team. There are multiple things Reddit fawns over him for doing, and if you do the smallest amount of research, you'll find previous admins had started programs or passed laws that took effect 2026 and giving him credit. Like proposing a balanced budget. EVERY NYC mayor has to do that. It's required by law.
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u/Ryboiii Aug 24 '26
Eric Adams had to propose a "balanced budget" which also created a 12 billion dollar deficit
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u/Yetiassasin Aug 24 '26
So you're saying it's not a good thing that he's building on previous plans? And actually actioning on those plans?
My opinion would be the person actually following through and getting plans done deserve a lot more credit than the ones making the plan.
It's very easy and happens all the time to make plans and do nothing about them or push schedules over and over, this has been happening for decades in New York.
Also very easy to just scrap old plans for no other reasons than it was the opposition party who came up with the plan. Look at Trump scrapping countless good plans and projects for that reason to the detriment of American people.
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u/FistPunch_Vol_7 ☑️ Aug 24 '26
FUCK YES MAMDANI FIX THAT SHIT OMG. Fuck the BQE so much.
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u/pres465 Aug 24 '26
Not from New York, sincere question, what's the issue that he's talking about?
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u/timinator232 Aug 24 '26
there's a segment on the BQE that's been 5 years away from collapsing for about 30 years. They keep doing patch jobs and traffic alterations to try to extend the life and he's saying he's gonna come in and actually fix it.
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u/kaithana Aug 24 '26
It’s a really complicated problem not just because of the roadway but also where does this traffic route to? Brooklyn city streets? Those particular exits before and after the promenade are nightmares under normal circumstances.
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u/KubelsKitchen Aug 24 '26
BQE = Brooklyn/Queens Expressway
I had to look it up myself.
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u/pres465 Aug 24 '26
Appreciate it, still hoping someone from New York can clarify the issue.
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u/Inverted-Rockets Aug 24 '26
The issues are manifold and they’ve stymied previous attempts to perform larger repairs on the BQE. Very generally, the issues are concentrated in Brooklyn Heights and they fall into:
Design: The BQE “stacks” lanes on top of each other with a triple cantilever design made from reinforced concrete. The climate of NYC and the salt applied to its roads have significantly degraded the structure over time.
Loading: The types and volume of traffic the route serves today far exceeds original designs, with heavy commercial vehicles causing accelerated deterioration of the roadway and structure.
Alternatives: This is the really hard part. The BQE a critical route for goods and workers into NYC that can’t be closed. Proposals to temporarily reroute it have faced strong opposition from the local community that killed previous efforts. The current plan seems to be to build completely parallel overpasses though details are limited.
The politically “easy” option is the enormously expensive option of digging a tunnel in parallel. An engineering study put that cost around $11B.
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u/cweaver Aug 24 '26
An engineering study put that cost around $11B.
For context, NYC's entire tax revenue this past fiscal year was $85B. The work Mamdani has done to actually tax the billionaire corporations and property owners is raising revenue, but not by so much that they can afford to just drop $11B like it's nothing, especially with all the other improvement projects they're working on.
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u/pres465 Aug 24 '26
Yikes. Yeah, and it's sure to upset people to do any construction, but it sounds like it needs to be done.
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u/verdantsf Aug 24 '26
All the trolls and bots who say, "it's all performative!" Okay... performative stuff that results in shit getting done? Great!
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u/Panzerchek Aug 24 '26
At this point, even just pretending to be a good person is a step up from normal politics
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u/WeirdIndividualGuy Aug 24 '26
"He's only doing this to get re-elected!"
...well duh, that's how a politician should get re-elected, off of their prior actions.
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u/Libertydown Aug 24 '26
America is constructing the idea democratic control from base principles. These analyses of electability and «I have the experience!» postures have been strange from the outside.
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u/Shisa4123 Aug 24 '26
NO you don't understand. There just has to be an evil, very Muslim, very scary, ulterior motive to filling in potholes and fixing bridges. Just wait until our rent and groceries are cheaper and then BAM!- shakira law.
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u/WrinklyScroteSack Aug 24 '26
Once the roads are all fixed, that’s when he brings in the Shania law tanks and forces every man in New York to go through gender affirming care. Once they’re all women, that’s when the real subjugation begins! Burqas for everyone!! /s for safety
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u/bi-bee-bb Aug 24 '26
One of the biggest problems with corruption and government inaction is that the public trust and expectation in our government gets completely eroded, which creates incredibly fertile ground for the neoliberal privatization of services (selling public goods and services paid for by tax payers to private companies with the false promise of increased 'efficiency') and, in extreme cases, fascism, because the people have no belief that a democratic government can deliver its mandate.
Not only is Mamdani's getting shit done refreshingly good governance, it's also very good politics.
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u/NineToeBIll Aug 24 '26
Real Life Knope
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u/rudebii Aug 24 '26
Mamdani is a beautiful tropical fish - smart as a whip and cool under pressure
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u/WrinklyScroteSack Aug 24 '26
I’m starting to think politicking isn’t as complicated as they all say… apparently you just need to fuckin give a shit about people.
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u/wcd2848 Aug 24 '26
It certainly can be complicated at times, the problem is that most of the time the complication is "I don't want to piss of my donors"
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u/Worldly_Expression43 Aug 24 '26
now it just makes me wonder - what the fuck were the politicians before him doing all day?
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u/Deathstriker88 Aug 24 '26
Taking legal bribes from companies and Israel while sexually harassing their staff.
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u/GitEmSteveDave Aug 24 '26
If you look into it, many of the things he is being credited for on social media are actually programs/laws started/passed by previous admins, but people didn't "care" about it before and Mamdani and his team are good at putting up posts about it.
Like this BQE has been talked about for years. It was first proposed under Deblasio, who started by preventing heavy trucks from using it, as well as by Adams. https://gothamist.com/news/a-new-plan-to-fix-the-crumbling-bqe-in-brooklyn-heights
https://council.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/NYCC-The-Future-of-the-BQE.pdf
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u/trilobyte-dev Aug 24 '26
I think the point is that while previous politicians talked a lot about doing these things Mamdani has a bias to action and is actually focusing on execution. Is he drafting on some ground work laid down by previous administrations? Sure, but he's now got both hands on the wheel and is stepping on the gas, which is a gear change.
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u/GifHunter2 Aug 24 '26
Nothing you're saying is a reflection of what's Happening. The Bronx river cleanup and trashcan were done by previous administrations.
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u/trilobyte-dev Aug 24 '26
Mamdani has not claimed any credit (that is publicly available) for the the Bronx River Cleanup.
Just because there's a bunch of memes about other issues isn't a reflection on what he is accomplishing.
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u/GifHunter2 Aug 24 '26
the point is that while previous politicians talked a lot about doing these things Mamdani has a bias to action
You just said that the previous politicians were all talk, while mamdani actually does things. I just gave you proof that's wrong. You just weren't paying attention then. It's bad analysis. It's stupid
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u/tbkrida Aug 24 '26
Isn’t the point that he’s not just actually proposing things or just starting things, but getting things done as well?
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u/coolaznkenny Aug 24 '26
so many bots saying the same shit and try to down play this. BQE was in the works for over 20 years but every mayor was being a bitch about it. He actually nut up and move the plan forward. Establishments can suck it.
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u/Inevitable_Egg_8248 Aug 24 '26
I know the Dems and republicans thank god every day that he is not a natural born American citizen and can’t run for president.
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u/EverWatcher Aug 24 '26
I am not upset at you, but I am mad and sad at how correct this is.
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u/Inevitable_Egg_8248 Aug 24 '26
I know fam - he could really replay Obama in 2008 if he was born in nyc. It’s so sad
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u/EverWatcher Aug 24 '26
If he gets the maximum 2 terms and they go smoothly, I hope to see him as a Cabinet Secretary by 2037. He could campaign with the Democratic pres. nominee in 2036...
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u/digitalbullet36 ☑️ Aug 24 '26
It’s crazy when I see people who don’t even live in the state of NY complaining about him.
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u/Le_Lng Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
Lol deadass. I was vacationing in the Hilton Head South Carolina last week. Flight back to NY got canceled on the day I was suppose to track back due to inclement weather.
I essentially had to switch my flight to next day at SAV (Savanna GA) which was an hour away so I had to book a hotel for the night in Savanna.
My Lyft driver comes pick me up, making small talk told him my flight from NY got canceled (big mistake, white dude of course, sweaty big lookin mf too, car low key smelled like ass) and this mofo started asking "about how you feel a out that Mandami fella messing everything up" and "he's giving money to trans folks" and he somehow went iff a target about "white ppl were slaves too, and the person that had the most slaves was a black man, said he saw it on google" lol im like ??? "OH God it had to be this mfr"
I asked what's his source "he changes the subject to black on black crime" im like yo????
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u/digitalbullet36 ☑️ Aug 24 '26
Nah, I would’ve been like this is the part of the ride where we just ride in silence homeboy because you doing too much.
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u/TheGriffin Aug 24 '26
You're damn right I dont live in NYC and I'm very much going to complain...
About my city not having a mayor like him 😭
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u/altmannnn3 Aug 24 '26
Haha and my family who doesn't live in nyc hates this man... Something about Muslim 🤷♀️
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u/srkaficionado ☑️ Aug 24 '26
Don’t forget the socialist part. Probably.
If you ain’t pulling those bootstraps or making people pull their bootstraps, you’re a socialist and an enemy to AMERIKKA!
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u/WearyCopy5686 Aug 24 '26
If Giuliani’s brain wasn’t mush he’d be so upset right now.
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u/blachippy ☑️ Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
Alabama needs someone like him, but all we got is this special Ed ass nigga.
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u/Kaiser4567 Aug 24 '26
Kinda happening in Pittsburgh too. It seems if you elect a good person they will actually do good stuff.
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u/ShadowForPresident ☑️ Aug 24 '26
Los Angeles needs him as our mayor🥲😭
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u/universe2000 Aug 24 '26
Yes, but remember that LA’s mayorship doesn’t have the same power as NYC’s. LA needs multiple Mamdanis in its City Council to have the same effect.
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u/CoachDT ☑️ Aug 24 '26
Many of the things hes doing are actually following through with plans made by his predecessors.
He has elite 1 of 1 messaging though and he also has some of his own ideas that im interested in seeing how they come to fruition.
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u/DontForgorTheMilk Aug 24 '26
Even so, the fact that he can get those plans at least started, if not finished, within his first year as Mayor says a ton about how undeniably inept his predecessors were. He may not deserve credit for thinking of the plans, but him (or those in his employ at least) deserve all the credit for actually acting on them.
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u/CoachDT ☑️ Aug 24 '26
Legislation usually works on timelines. Its why for example the minimum wage increases aren't just a flat "one day its 7.25 and the next day its 15" type shit. Especially when large swaths of money are set to help out programs.
We also saw this when it came to things like bus prices actually increasing during Mamdani's tenure already (and given Adams' track record we'll be seeing a few more poison pills) because once again his predecessor set something in motion that can't really be undone without having state legislature essentially pull a "sike just playing" to it.
He deserves credit for his ideas. And he's a smart politician so he understands how to take credit from ideas so that people who don't work in sectors directly impacted by them can just go "woooow look at all of this stuff he's doing". Hate him or love him Zohran is an incredibly smart politician.
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u/Kwaku-Anansi Aug 24 '26
Lack of follow through is arguably the main thing people hate about politicians. Mamdani has it
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u/CountOff Aug 24 '26
Probably cause his predecessors didnt actually want to solve all this shit, they just wanted to funnel money to their business friends who funnel money to their re-election campaigns with helping the people as an occasional positive externality
Beautiful how effective things can be when we decrease the amount of money in politics
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u/WonderChemical5089 Aug 24 '26
The thing is, he is not only doing things but also FANTASTIC at communicating what they are doing. Often politicians forget that bit.
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u/ladyevenstar-22 Aug 24 '26
I don't get politicians you could still do your devious corruption shit if thats your thing and still gets lot of shit done for the people but clearly they're too dumb for that logic .
Same goes for drug dealers they could run their business without all the bloody tomfoolery.
Its a shame I dont have an inclination for power I'd be a terrible yet beloved ruler .
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u/Kinto_il Aug 24 '26
is this what communism is? if so-- can we have more of it??
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u/Dudewhocares3 Aug 24 '26
I now see why the corporate dems didn’t back him.
Because he’s helping people
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u/Bubbly-End-6156 Aug 24 '26
Paper pushers were handsomely rewarded for accomplishing nothing. Mamdani is proving just how much power a mayor has if they aren't trying to appease the oligarchs.
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u/JPMoney81 Aug 24 '26
All the other politicians are so terrified of this dude because he says he'll do shit, then does the shit he says he'll do.
So.. basically he does his job and they don't like that.