Hannah Alpert-Abrams and August Wogsland
 |  Letter to the editor

Knoxville residents have a lot to learn from New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s popular platform, which proposes practical solutions to a cost-of-living crisis that stretches from New York to Tennessee.

For example, Mamdani’s platform includes freezing rent, a short-term response to rent inflation that has been shown to prevent residents from being forced out of their homes. Two-thirds of Knox County residents think housing affordability is a “very/fairly big problem,” and the gap between incomes and home prices in Knoxville has increased 45% in five years. A rent freeze could help turn this around.

Mamdani’s platform also proposes no-cost child care. In 2024 in Tennessee, infant center-based child care was more expensive than in-state tuition at UTK, forcing many parents to forgo employment and putting their children’s health at risk. Research shows that affordable child care is one of the most worthwhile investments we can make in our economy.

Policies that would allow us to invest our collective resources in building a better future are worthy of serious consideration. Instead, a recent editorial in this paper by William Lyons dismissed these issues, implying that Mamdani’s charisma and social media skills disqualify him and his policies. This makes a mockery of the democratic process that led to his overwhelming success in the primary election.

Worse, Lyons’ article repeated the widely discredited claim that Mamdani’s positions are “blatantly antisemitic.” They are not. In fact, Mamdani has widespread Jewish support in New York, while his proposed policies would benefit Jewish Americans like us.

Twenty percent of Knoxville residents live below the poverty line, household incomes are well below the national median, and costs are rapidly increasing. Instead of misleading attacks on political candidates in distant cities, we deserve a real discussion about policies that could make our city better.

Hannah Alpert-Abrams, Knoxville, 37917

August Wogsland, Knoxville, 37914