Thread

Adam Tooze on NYC, Mamdani race & the unequal Gilded City: “The city gets by. Its people are resourceful and resilient. But this coping comes at a price: increasing stress, resentment and incomprehension. How can things be this unaffordable, this dysfunctional and shoddy? Why is the city not as great as it could clearly be? Of course, a minority do extremely well. They feel no urgency for change. But for the majority of people the trends, both of recent decades and more immediately since COVID, are in the wrong direction. A politics that speaks openly about these pressures and urges bold and imaginative steps as Mamdani and the New York left do, is a starting point, both to address the issues and to relegitimize city government. His success is a rare sign of hope in American politics. If entrenched elites were to derail his candidacy in favor of machine interests, it would be a victory for privilege and a disaster for democracy that would resonate beyond New York.”