Why This Mayoral Race Matters for the Middle Class
By Tony Lindsay, President, New York Homeowners Alliance Corp.
If you live in Canarsie, Flatlands or Mill Basin, you know what homeownership means. You’ve spent years building it, paying it off, maintaining it and fighting to keep up with the rising cost of living. For most of us, this isn’t just a house — it’s our peace, our security and our piece of the American dream.
That’s why this year’s mayoral election matters more than ever. What happens at City Hall in the next four years will determine whether neighborhoods like ours stay livable for the middle class — or become unaffordable for the very people who built them.
A Tale of Two Visions
This election boils down to a choice between practical governance and reckless ideology.
On one side, Andrew Cuomo — the experienced public servant who rebuilt the state after crises, improved infrastructure and backed law enforcement when it mattered. His campaign focuses on restoring public safety, keeping the city affordable and protecting the middle class.
On the other, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who’s campaigning on a radical platform: abolishing private property, freezing rents citywide and dramatically expanding government spending and subsidies. These may sound academic, but for neighborhoods like Canarsie and Mill Basin, the impact would be anything but theoretical.
The Real Cost of Rent Freezes
Rent freezes sound compassionate on paper, but in practice they lead to warehousing — when landlords in rent-stabilized areas take units off the market rather than rent below cost. That means fewer available apartments, a tighter housing market and higher prices overall.
As housing shortages grow elsewhere, City Hall often turns its eyes toward small homeowners — the one- and two-family homeowners in areas like ours — to fill the gap. The expectation becomes: “Rent out your basement or attic to help solve the housing crisis.” But in New York, that’s a dangerous game.
We live under the most hostile landlord-tenant laws in the country. Once you take on a tenant, it’s nearly impossible to remove them, even when they stop paying rent or damage your property. Most homeowners here don’t want to be landlords — they just want to live peacefully, raise their families and retire with dignity.
Who Pays for All This?
Mamdani’s platform is packed with new subsidies and social-spending programs — each one sounding noble, but all of them expensive. Government doesn’t generate wealth; it redistributes it through taxes.
As the city’s highest earners continue fleeing under these heavy-handed proposals, the tax burden shifts squarely onto the middle class. That means us — homeowners in Canarsie, Flatlands, Mill Basin and many other communities across the five boroughs of New York.
We’re already feeling the squeeze: rising property taxes, higher water rates, new fees tucked into our utility bills. Add another wave of citywide spending and the result is predictable — the middle class gets stuck paying for everyone else’s promises.
The Decline of Quality of Life
Canarsie residents should be concerned about what Zohran Mamdani’s policies mean for day‑to‑day life. His calls to decriminalize prostitution and eliminate most misdemeanors for people under 26 would have dramatic effects in neighborhoods like ours.
Misdemeanors include assault, menacing, vandalism and petty theft — the very offenses that chip away at public safety and community trust. Weakening enforcement invites disorder, especially as gang activity and open drug use are already climbing across the city.
In contrast, Andrew Cuomo’s public‑safety agenda promises to add 5,000 NYPD officers, boost patrols and crack down on nuisance crimes and subway disorder. Along corridors like Avenue L, Flatlands Avenue and Rockaway Parkway, where small‑business owners hold the neighborhood together, those two paths could not look more different.
Canarsie has fought too hard to maintain order and pride to let it erode under policies that favour leniency over law and order. Quality of life here isn’t a luxury — it’s the foundation of a thriving community.
Experience Versus Experiment
This election isn’t about party lines; it’s about common sense. Do we want a city that supports homeowners — or one that punishes them?
Cuomo’s record shows he understands fiscal responsibility and public safety. He’s calling for stronger policing, targeted investment in education and support for working homeowners who keep the city stable.
Mamdani’s rhetoric, on the other hand, reads like a social experiment — one where homeownership, property rights and basic accountability are treated as outdated relics. But for neighborhoods like ours, those principles are the foundation of stability.
Canarsie’s Choice
Canarsie and Mill Basin are among the last strongholds of Black and Brown middle-class homeownership in New York City. Our community represents everything that’s right about this city: hard work, discipline and the dream of passing something better on to our children.
We’ve endured waves of policy that drove costs up, services down and our voices out of the conversation. Now, with another election on the horizon, we can’t afford to sit it out.
Whether you lean left, right or somewhere in between — go vote. This race will determine whether our neighborhoods remain stable, safe and affordable, or become collateral damage in someone else’s political experiment.
Cuomo’s not perfect, but he represents a level of experience and balance this city desperately needs. His focus on law, order and fiscal realism stands in sharp contrast to policies that threaten to bankrupt the very people who keep New York functioning.
If you value peace, safety and the ability to hold onto your home — the choice couldn’t be clearer.
