Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic primary victory will strike many conservatives as confirmation of a long-held belief: that the New York built by hard-working immigrants and business ingenuity is gone. In its place stands a socialist enclave whose unraveling has only just begun.
As a lifelong New Yorker who has seen this city at its worst and best, I see Mamdani’s win not as a total defeat, but as a wake-up call — to fight for the city New York can still become. That fight doesn’t require grandiose ideologies or MAGA slogans. It requires a compassionate conservative vision rooted in New York’s promise and opportunity. This vision must draw on the moral center that has shaped the city’s social infrastructure and embrace principles of dignity, safety, innovation, and, above all, competence.
Law and order are the foundation of any compassionate society. In New York, when chaos reigns, it is the working-class, elderly, and marginalized who suffer most. Recent surges in public crime — from subway stabbings to organized retail theft — have eroded the dignity of those who rely on public spaces and services the most.
Each new headline or report makes this descent seem unprecedented, but New York has been here before. In the 1990s, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his police commissioner, Bill Bratton, revived a crime-ridden city by prioritizing the dignity of all citizens in policing — not just leniency for criminals.
Today, we have leaders like NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who share the fundamental belief that law and order is the foundation for a dignified thriving society. She has been a vocal advocate of re-establishing cash bail, after a grave policy mistake that has allowed criminals to walk free and continue to offend. Eliminating cash bail is the worst, but far from the only, example in which criminal justice reform has not only made our streets less safe but has increased rates of recidivism.
New Yorkers are tired of performative politics. Local leaders have treated public office as an opportunity to grandstand without delivering the changes citizens have demanded. Public housing remains mismanaged, with $80 billion in unmet capital needs. Amid this dysfunction, Mamdani promises 200,000 new public housing units while gutting much of the city’s revenue. His ideas are not only unworkable — they alienate the business community that forms New York’s economic backbone.
Mamdani treats the city’s tax revenue like Monopoly money he can spend and raise at will, ignoring that it represents a sacred trust with businesses and individual taxpayers. The solution to New York’s housing crisis is not found in doubling down on a failed system of rent regulation, but in incentivizing the free market to work as it should.
Rent regulation laws strengthened during the de Blasio administration have strangled the free market investment in housing for all New Yorkers. By framing prosperity as a zero-sum game, Mamdani’s tax policy will alienate communities who feel targeted not for wrongdoing, but for success. A path forward for all New Yorkers requires policies that lift everyone through economic growth, not by creating division.
Right now, business — big and small — is being crushed by the weight of taxes, fines, and mandates. We must recognize that economic growth is the most effective form of social welfare. It creates sustainable jobs, revitalizes neighborhoods, and lifts communities.
Consider the public housing accomplishment of Mayor Adams’ administration. Under Adams, NYCHA has utilized the private-public PACT program to raise $1.7 billion in capital investments and build or update more than 50,000 public housing units. The PACT program does not alienate private partners but instead utilizes their expertise and capital to improve public services. That’s the kind of conservative governance New York needs — not big government, but smart government.
New York doesn’t need more ideology, it needs solutions. We must stop treating New York’s decline as inevitable and writing off its citizens based on the vocal minority. The universal dignity conservatism is based on demands that we recognize the opportunity New York provides for real change. The time has come to rebuild New York — not with ideology or slogans, but with competence, compassion, and a whole lot of work.
Scharf is co-managing partner of New York law firm Morrison Cohen. The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the firm.
