Mamdani and the Rise and Fall of Great Cities

Rome, Athens aren't what they were. New York next?

What is to happen to New York—and for that matter to Los Angeles and a host of lesser but still important American cities? I have been thinking about that for some time—particularly after the recent LA fires that have barely been repaired— but have started to obsess about it with the rise of Zohran Mamdani in the NY mayoralty race.

Mamdani seems a prototype of what we used to call online a “useful idiot,” a phrase ascribed to Lenin, although, like so many similar, no one seems to be able to locate evidence of his having used that precise language. No matter. In this instance it’s pretty accurate anyway.

Mamdani, the well-heeled (aren’t they always) son of a filmmaker and and a Columbia professor, is 33 and claims to be a socialist, 33 being about ten years too senior for such a belief that is somewhat excusable in one’s early twenties. Thereafter, one wonders about the ability to recognize reality. No one I have ever met has ever been able to point to a truly successful economy that is socialistic or communistic. Even Communist China essentially abandoned that several decades ago in all but rhetoric in favor of totalitarian oligarchy..

But Mr. Mandani thinks it will work in New York All you have to do is employ the word “democratic” in front (as if), give out the usual freebees in rent, transportation and a new one in government grocery stores (don’t ask), add more than a soupçon of antisemitism and voila.

Which brings us back to an actual, verifiable quote from Lenin, “What Is to Be Done” —in case this charismatic (to some) smiling doofus actually wins.

I have just read Benjamin Kerstein’s response to the problem on his “No Delusions, No Despair” Substack under the title “New York’s Jews after Mamdani’s Victory”. Mr. Kerstein contends NY’s Jews should organize and emulate the opposition to the notorious Labour Party antisemite Jeremy Corbyn in the UK.

Very respectfully (and that’s not just rhetoric; I respect Kerstein as a man and a writer) I disagree and have a radically different solution. I wrote the following lengthy comment on his Substack that I will copy here. But before I do so, it’s important to note that although this is largely about Jews, it is hardly exclusively so. Many gentiles will be leaving New York for similar reasons, possibly an equal or even greater number.

Mr Kerstein, I have been reading you for some time but subscribed so I could add to this discussion that I have already addressed in a sarcastic manner on my own Substack under the title "Imagine New York without Jews". It featured an AI cartoon of Sinatra singing New York, New York... "Start spreading the news... New York has no Jews!"

I was obviously making the point that should Mamdani win the mayoralty, many Jews would flee NYC. Unlike you, I think this is a good idea. I am not that much of admirer of the war on the wretched Corbyn, successful as that may have been. The UK remains a hotbed of antisemitism and Islamism and is not, in my view, to be imitated. As one who was born in Manhattan, lived decades in LA as a screenwriter, and now in Nashville, New York even now (before Mamdani) is intolerable to me.

All great cities have their days in the sun--Rome, Athens and so forth--and the time for NY to go is gone. It will be hastened by many successful Jews leaving (largely to Miami or Tel Aviv) and New York will have to stew in its juices. The city will go into a rapid, and VERY DESERVED, decline. A lesson (hopefully) will be learned. Some of this is sad. I love the Metropolitan Museum and the Opera as much as most people (the theater is already a wasteland) but nothing is perfect. One can always visit.

But NYC was largely (not exclusively of course) built by Jews in almost every area of life. Jesse Jackson called it "hymie town" for a reason, obnoxious as that term was. We can, and have, built great things in other places and other times. . Socialism, meanwhile, as anyone with an IQ in the proverbial triple digits knows, has never worked and never will, The wretched Jewish pols of NY like Schumer can go stuff it in their slavish hypocrisy as they take a knee for Mamdani. They have been less than pond scum for years. Florida has better government anyway by far. Move there. Or head to Jerusalem, or anywhere in Eretz Israel. In January, every Jew reading this will thank me as New York turns into more of a hellhole than it already is. You will be doing something more revolutionary than marching against stupid progressives who won't listen to you.. (When have they ever?). And if New York comes back to its senses because it goes broke, you can always return. But don't hold your breath.

I can be wrong—it won’t be the first time; far from it—but I think I am right about the cataclysmic change to New York that will occur if Mamdani is elected and about the exodus of many Jews and gentiles from the city thereafter. I admit my evidence for this is extremely anecdotal. You only know who you know. But virtually everyone in the city I have talked with is either planning to leave, debating leaving or wishing they could leave but regretting that they can’t for personal reasons (family, work, etc.).

I was recently in Miami and already that city is asserting itself as the new Wall Street, center of our financial life. Culture will undoubtedly follow. It may never have the cultural greatness New York had and is losing, but the same could be said of Paris that is nowhere near the artistic center that it once was. We’re not in an era of great culture, sad to say.

To be clear, if I were still a New Yorker, which I haven’t been for decades, I would join to the extent that I could the fight against Mamdani’s election, even if it meant backing one of their endlessly corrupt officials. But at the same time, I would be thinking even harder about leaving. After all, I already did. As is written in the “I Ching”…. “Change/Opportunity.” Hard as it is to conceive, the people who built New York could build something great or even greater elsewhere.