Since Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, one part of the electorate keeps coming up: the Black vote. Did Mamdani connect with Black voters, how did he win with a new coalition, can he deliver in November, and so on.
But as pundits talk in circles about our votes, rising costs push our friends and neighbors out of the city. According to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, between 2010 and 2024, the population of Black New Yorkers decreased by 4% or nearly 100,000, while the total city population went up 5% or by 460,464. The main cause? Cost of living.
Bread and butter policies like raising the minimum wage and universal child care would curb this exodus and bolster a healthy Black middle class in NYC. Our next mayor must invest in policies that help Black families thrive, so that the New Yorkers who’ve built this city for generations can stay here, too.
Black New Yorkers are disproportionately impacted by stagnant wages, lack of affordable housing, unemployment, and the cost of child care. In NYC, 82% of minimum wage earners are Black or Latino.
Our minimum wage is just $16.50, but that’s not nearly enough to cover rent, meals, and utilities for one person, let alone a family. MIT estimates that’s more like $30 an hour. The state passed a meager raise in 2023, but that same year, rents grew seven times faster than wages — the largest gap in the country. For the more than two-thirds of Black New Yorkers who are renters, the math just doesn’t add up.
The minimum wage has been a flashpoint on the campaign trail, with Mamdani proposing $30 by 2030 and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo pitching $20 by 2027. It’s easy to see why: recent Cornell polling shows that 82% of NYC Democrats and 89% of Black New Yorkers support raising the minimum wage to at least $26 an hour.
For comparison, Boulder, Colo. will reach $25 by 2030, Seattle is already close to $21, Washington, D.C. just hit $17.95, and organizers in Los Angeles launched a campaign for $25 an hour. With one of the highest costs of living in the country, NYC must raise its minimum wage.
But for New York to remain a place for Black families of all income levels, we must also invest in child care. The average NYC family spends $18,000–22,000 on child care. But Black parents have had to quit or pass up a job twice as often as white parents due to child care complications.
No one should have to choose between putting food on the table and ensuring their child has proper care, but that’s the reality for many Black parents in NYC, and it’s not sustainable. With universal child care, parents would have the support they need to raise a family, work, and support the city’s economy.
Lack of jobs and quality schools is driving Black families out of NYC, too. While the national unemployment rate sits steady at 4.2%, the Black unemployment rate is 7.2%, nearly one point higher than last year. Meanwhile, our public schools are crumbling, and our kids’ education is suffering.
The greatest city in the world is running 75-plus year old school buildings that are too hot, too cold, and plagued with mold, leaky ceilings, and poor ventilation, made worse by the heat waves, flooding, and poor air quality of our climate crisis. These conditions create bad learning environments linked to lower test scores and attendance, and more disciplinary referrals. I’ve seen this firsthand as friends and family leave in droves, drawn to places with more job opportunities and better schools.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We can invest in healthy schools for all New York’s children while creating tens of thousands of union, family-sustaining careers. ALIGN and our partners in Climate Works for All have been pushing for Green, Healthy Schools, which would upgrade schools with clean, green energy and create career union job pathways for the communities of color most affected by climate change. If fully implemented, it could be the catalyst for a new, green middle class in NYC.
It’s time for politicians to stop pandering to Black New Yorkers and realize safety for our community goes beyond policing. We need forward-thinking leadership with bold ideas to help secure our economic stability in the city we helped build.
No matter who wins the general election in November, the next mayor needs to make issues that address our livelihood — including raising the wage, delivering universal childcare, and investing in green career jobs and healthy schools — their number one priority. Our next mayor must invest in a tomorrow where Black working families can thrive.
Moore is the executive director of climate and economic justice organization ALIGN.
