Zohran Mamdani has a problem with the black political establishment, as well as the black middle class.<\/p>\n
And he knows it, hence his pilgrimage to Greater Allen AME Cathedral in Queens on Palm Sunday.<\/p>\n
It was no accident that he was seated next to Rep. Gregory Meeks, the boss of the Queens Democratic machine, and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.<\/p>\n
But proximity to establishment leadership does not make up for the lack of a working political relationship \u2014 or bad ideas.<\/p>\n
Greater Allen AME, and in particular that section of Queens, is home to New York\u2019s greatest concentration of the black middle class \u2014 professionals, civil servants, corporate workers, Democratic operatives and, most importantly, homeowners.<\/p>\n
These are the people Mamdani addressed on Palm Sunday about the evil of . . . city tax liens sales and how those sales force black New Yorkers out of the city<\/a>.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, the mayor didn\u2019t attempt to quell concerns about his own two tax proposals, which directly threaten their ability to own their homes or to pass on the wealth generated by those properties to their heirs.<\/p>\n Feeling robbed<\/strong><\/p>\n Mamdani didn\u2019t dare speak about his threatened 9.5% property tax hike or his push to lower the \u201cdeath\u201d tax threshold, the state\u2019s estate-tax exemption, from $7 million to $750,000, and tripling the top rate to 50%.<\/p>\n The median sale price for a home in Southeast Queens is fast approaching $750,000.<\/p>\n Not only are Mamdani\u2019s politics and policies far to the left of middle-class black Democrats, his policies would rob them of the generational wealth they\u2019ve spent a lifetime building.<\/p>\n For Mamdani, who grew up in a Marxist household and inside the Democratic Socialists of America, the political debate is about class warfare, poor vs. rich, without thinking of the implications for the black middle class<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our privileged socialist mayor would understand this if he had real relationships with black Democrats.<\/p>\n But there are hardly any in Mamdani\u2019s inner circle.<\/p>\n