Focusing on affordability propelled Zohran Mamdani to the mayoralty last year and affordability will certainly be the buzz word of the 2026 midterms. Talking about affordability may make voters feel seen, but it only matters if you can actually do something about it . Here are six ideas the mayor can advance.
First, use drones to conduct building inspections instead of scaffolding. Scaffolding imposes costs for homeowners and renters. It hurts small businesses whose signage and entrances are obscured. Drones could easily detect building structural issues that need to be addressed. The actual repairs still may require scaffolding but that will be a fraction of the current expense and inconvenience.
Second, use AI for city operations. From what I can tell, around 30,000 to 40,000 city jobs focus on functions like compliance, facilities management, data management, licensing and permitting. The savings would not materialize in year one. It will take time to bring in the expertise to automate the new functions. But over two terms, the savings would come and if 10% of the city’s workforce could be replaced by technology, that should produce somewhere between $2-4 billion in annual savings — around the same cost as the mayor’s child care proposal.
Third, crack down on fare evasion and use the money to help pay for free buses. If you’ve been on the Métro in Paris, you know that to get in or out, you have to insert your ticket. The gates are tall. You can’t jump over them or crawl under them (the tiny bump the MTA put on turnstiles feels like a practical joke). As a result, people have to pay the fare and far fewer people who are addicts or mentally ill enter the system. Eliminating fare evasion on the subways alone will save the MTA $350 million annually.
Fourth, close the illegal weed shops to boost tax revenue from the legal shops. Of the 13% in taxes on sales at licensed cannabis dispensaries, 9% goes to the state and 4% goes to the city. However, an estimated $1 billion per year in sales is already lost to illegal weed shops. Over two terms, that 4% amounts to well more than a billion dollars in lost city tax revenue.
Mayor Adams managed to close about 1,500 illegal weed shops but hundreds (at least) still remain, not only taking away city tax revenue but far worse, selling uninspected, unregulated weed to anyone, even kids.
Fifth, work with judges to imprison serial shoplifters. The NYPD estimates that 30% of all shoplifting in New York City is done by just 327 people who have been arrested a cumulative 6,600 times!
New Yorkers hate having to press a button and wait for someone to come open a plastic case just so they can buy toothpaste. Many instead just order products on Amazon, which results in both more lost store revenue and lost tax revenue as well as more vacant storefronts, which hurts the economy and quality of life even further. Judges are often afraid to impose jail time because they don’t want to face criticism from the left. The mayor can change that.
Sixth, get rid of most of the zoning restrictions around what can go where. Having cumbersome, highly prescriptive zoning rules that say that housing must go here and manufacturing there and retail there doesn’t make for a better city. It makes for more expensive housing and businesses that struggle to stay afloat.
Look at Houston. They impose far fewer restrictions on zoning and they have far more affordable housing than most major cities and far less homelessness. It’s cheaper and easier to buy a home or operate a business there. Sometimes the market does know best.
Now, Mamdani’s base may object to each of these ideas. They’ll say that drones for building inspections equates to creating a surveillance state. They’ll say we can’t fire city employees we don’t need because the unions will hate it (although I doubt a single New Yorker would say they would rather see their taxes pay for middle management functions rather than free child care).
They’ll say that fare evasion enforcement is racist, as are prison sentences for shoplifting (maybe they’re OK with closing illegal weed shops). They’ll say we can’t trust the market to do anything, especially zoning.
Whether the mayor has the courage to put New Yorkers first even when it angers his base and costs him politically is unclear. If he does, he has the chance to actually make this city more affordable. If not, he’s no more than de Blasio redux. Let’s hope he has it in him.
Tusk is a venture capitalist, political strategist and philanthropist.
