Zohran Mamdani, a radical socialist and Democratic Socialists of America member, ran as the most left-wing mayoral candidate in the city’s modern history. Less than a year into the job, the socialists who put him in office are worried he isn’t radical enough, as reported by the NY POST.
The fight is over how the city handles its public housing. New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) complexes are traditional public housing under Section 9 of federal law. NYC owns the buildings and runs them directly. Most are decades old and in bad shape. Hardline Democratic Socialists of America members and some tenants want the buildings repaired in place and kept under pure public ownership and control.
But Mamdani and some DSA members in his administration support partnering with private developers through federal programs that tear down the old buildings, put up new ones, and convert the units to project-based Section 8. Under that model the federal government still subsidizes the rent so tenants pay about 30% of their income, but private partners manage the property and bring in outside capital.
The first real test is over a pair of NYCHA complexes in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood known as the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses. Mamdani is backing a $1.2 billion plan that would let private developers demolish the crumbling buildings and replace them with mixed-income housing in exchange for rebuilding roughly 2,000 public housing units.
New York City officials see the project as a possible model for other aging NYCHA complexes across the five boroughs. That is exactly what scares the hard left. If Chelsea goes this route, they fear the rest of the city’s public housing could follow.
Tenant activists at the complexes have joined the New York City chapter of the DSA and are calling the plan the privatization of public housing. Some residents argue the buildings should be repaired under Section 9 rather than demolished. On Saturday, three of those tenants will go before the DSA convention, where members will vote on whether to formally oppose the city’s plan. A yes vote would mean a socialist mayor getting rebuked by his own socialist organization in his first year in office.
Mamdani and the DSA members in his administration argue the buildings are in such bad shape that tearing them down and building new is cheaper than renovating them.
They say federal housing money is shrinking, and there is no other realistic way to fix them. The money for the rebuild is meant to come through the federal RAD/PACT program, which converts the units to Section 8 so private partners can bring in the capital. The socialist mayor is accepting private capital to rebuild the housing, and his own organization is calling it a sellout.
The housing fight is not the only sign the DSA is losing trust in its man at City Hall. The chapter is also set to vote Saturday on a resolution to put a socialist in as City Council speaker in 2029, when current Speaker Julie Menin is term-limited out. The goal is making sure Mamdani stays radical.
The draft resolution calls for turning the 51-member Council into a separate power center that keeps the mayor tied to the DSA’s agenda and stops Republicans and conservatives from becoming the main outlet for anyone unhappy with his administration. It says the Council should try out more aggressive policies, such as police reform and expanding a Department of Community Safety, that the mayor’s office will not or cannot push right now, starting in the districts where Mamdani won by the largest margins.
The same organization that elected a DSA socialist mayor now believes it needs the City Council to stop him from moderating. It also acknowledges that New Yorkers dissatisfied with Mamdani could turn to conservatives if the left does not offer its own outlet for discontent.
The far left is beyond radical, and this is their all or nothing rhetoric. Mamdani promised the world, and the moment he made one decision that sounded like a capitalist idea, knocking down falling-apart buildings and building new ones with private partners and federal Section 8 funding, the people who cheered him on started treating him like a sellout.
Less than a year in, Mamdani has personally signed just two bills. One made outdoor dining permanent, and a another (COPA) gave certain nonprofits the first opportunity to buy specific distressed multifamily buildings before they hit the open market. Everything else the Council passed became law without his signature. Outside of a rent freeze on about one million stabilized apartments and a state-funded free 2-K childcare program launched with Gov. Hochul, he has delivered little of the sweeping change he promised. This is what electing a socialist mayor actually looks like.
Every Democrat in this country who rode the DSA wave will face the same choice next year, either go full radical or get eaten by your own side.
Watch Saturday’s votes. If this is what the DSA calls too moderate, ask what they really want for this city.
