Candidates for New York mayor face off in final debate
Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani, and Curtis Sliwa clashed over Trump, housing, crime, and sexual harassment claims.
- New York City is facing a chaotic mayoral election, contrasting sharply with a more stable political situation in Detroit.
- New York’s leading candidate, Zohran Mamdani, is a controversial figure, while other options include a disgraced former governor and a perennial candidate.
- Over the past 12 years, Detroit has had one mayor, Mike Duggan, who is credited with leading the city out of bankruptcy and has a high approval rating.
I am writing this on a plane between New York City and Detroit, which is fitting, because I have lived in both places. Each of them will elect a new mayor this week, and traditionally if Americans assumed which one would be facing major ugly issues at election time, from crushing economics to homelessness to nasty accusations between the candidates, they might assume Detroit.
Not anymore.
At the quarter pole of the 21st century, it is New York City in the spin cycle of chaos, with a mayor’s race that is ugly and roiling the populace. The Big Apple, which has been dealing with a population exodus over the last five years while remaining the most expensive city in the nation, may be on the precipice of electing Zohran Mamdani, a controversial 34-year-old with no real experience in running anything.
This would follow three different mayors over the last 12 years: Michael Bloomberg, criticized for favoring the rich, adopting a “stop and frisk” police policy, and regulating sugary drinks; Bill DeBlasio, who was seen as arrogant, bad on the homeless issue and police, and more interested in running for president, and Eric Adams, so embroiled in a federal indictment for bribery and fraud, and “too-cozy” criticism with the Trump administration, that his bid for reelection fizzled quickly.
During that same time, Detroit has had just one mayor, Mike Duggan, who led the city out of bankruptcy, heavily eliminated the blight issues, brought down crime, brought up investment, and recently boasted an 84% approval rating.
Slight difference, huh?
The Best of New York?
In New York, Mamdani has divided the voters — and in many ways, the nation — as to his intentions, his qualifications and his honesty.
His proponents see him as a fresh face unbeholden to the political machine, an advocate for the poor and the marginalized, a Muslim man who knows what it means to battle hate, and a young guy who gets that the cost of renting an apartment in New York is insane, like pretty much everything else there.
His critics see him as a slick product of the social media age, an anti-rich, antisemitic activist with unworkable ideas borne from the Democratic Socialist party to which he proudly claims membership. They paint him as a hypocritical poser, claiming to be marginalized when his father is an Ivy League professor and his mother an Oscar-nominated film director.
Many New Yorkers don’t like Mamdani, but their alternatives are hardly exciting: There’s former-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace over sexual harassment charges and seems to be running for the last office he can, or Curtis Sliwa, the omnipresent founder of the Guardian Angels, who ran four years ago and had no chance, and has no chance this time, either.
The real question in New York may not be why Mamdani is leading, but why, in a city of 8.5 million people, are these three the best they can come up with?
Detroit gets public support
Now consider Detroit. Duggan, a White mayor in a city that is 77% Black and 8% Latino, has led for a dozen years of relative calm. When other cities — including New York — raged, burned and saw massive looting during the George Floyd aftermath, Detroit held steady. It endured COVID-19 better than many major metropolises. Businesses continued to invest in downtown. And after years of diminishing population, the numbers are going the other way.
A recent poll shows that 76% of Detroiters think the city is heading in the right direction. Seventy-six percent?
Yes. A similar poll in NYC found that only 31% feel that way about their city.
Which may be why our mayoral race feels almost sleepy — especially compared to the rancor of the Big Apple. Our City Council president, Mary Sheffield, has a big lead in the polls and is the presumptive winner. And while she is not without her critics, she certainly makes more logical sense as a successor to Duggan, someone she has worked closely with for years in a power position just a slot below his, than a total outsider like Mamdani, a disgraced former governor like Cuomo, or a controversial crime-stopping organizer like Sliwa.
Now, Detroit is far from perfect. Our crime is still too high, as is our unemployment. And our school system seems to be in perpetual turmoil, although, in fairness, unlike in other cities, that is not controlled by the mayor.
But given their traditional reputations, and the national disdain often hurled Detroit’s way, it’s worth noting that the bigger mess right now seems to be in The City That Never Sleeps, which could take a few lessons from the civility, cooperation and pride that Motown has been cultivating. As someone who spent his early career in the former and will finish his career in the latter, I can tell you, the difference is substantial.
Also, $4,000 a month will pay the mortgage on a nice house here.
It gets you a studio apartment in Greenwich Village.
Take your pick.
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom on x.com.