Realistic leaders balance compassion and order
Manhattan: As a lifelong New Yorker, I’ve never written a letter before, but because I love this city so much, I feel compelled to. I’ve watched our city rise and fall under mayors like Ed Koch, who restored fiscal stability and pride in the city after the 1970s crisis; Rudy Giuliani, who brought crime down dramatically in the 1990s and helped make New York’s streets safer; and Mike Bloomberg, who rebuilt the city’s economy and public safety after 9/11. Each succeeded because they combined practical management, fiscal discipline and visible accountability. That’s the balance New York needs now.
Zohran Mamdani’s ideas are compassionate, but large-scale social programs take time, careful planning and money. New York City’s adopted budget for Fiscal Year 2025 is about $112.4 billion, and city-funded spending has increased roughly 40% over the past decade, outpacing inflation. Promises of immediate transformation for 8.5 million people risk ballooning the budget, mismanagement, and higher taxes, potentially driving residents and businesses away. Compassion without accountability isn’t progress, it’s chaos. New Yorkers need leadership that restores safety, order, and competence first, then carefully expands programs in ways the city can manage sustainably. Real empathy means protecting law-abiding residents, keeping streets and subways safe, being fiscally responsible and delivering services that work.
We can care for the vulnerable and maintain a livable, thriving city, but that requires practical, results-driven leadership, not idealistic experiments that can ultimately hurt the city. Before you vote for Andrew Cuomo or Curtis Sliwa or Mamdani, think hard about what is realistically achievable. You can’t make this city work by choosing programs that sound good on paper but are impossible to implement effectively. Think hard before you pull the lever today. K.S. Fleming
Checked & balanced
Madisonville, Pa.: A word about the election for mayor. Any mayor anywhere does not rule alone. There is a City Council that can propose and pass legislation. A mayor can suggest or veto, but they can’t rule by fiat unless allowed to by the council. All the screaming and yelling about any candidate and what they will do once in office is just partisan noise. Unlike Washington currently, NYC has strong guardrails in place that will ensure that nothing disastrous happens. Those would also ensure that any future mayor would have to learn to compromise to achieve anything. Tom Mielczarek
Season of change
Bayside: As the leaves are changing to vibrant colors, the three candidates are as different in the autumn season. Variety is the spice of life. It’s getting cooler out. The heat is on who the winner will be. The mayor’s race is happening simultaneously with the marathon. I happen to be a poll worker on Election Day — not to be confused with pole workers. Ironically, “pole work” is also a type of exercise to incorporate at the job, and will possibly be legal one day as prostitution will be in New York. Gayle Dorsky
Homes vs. gardens
Manhattan: The possibility of reviving housing on Elizabeth St. after Mayor Adams betrayed housing advocates by cancelling it (“Where support for ZOH withers,” Nov. 2) has upset some of Mamdani’s supporters. He and the Daily News have been long-time, consistent supporters of more affordable housing, but the article only presents the garden supporters and none of the housing supporters, like Habitat for Humanity. I hope future articles will give voice to both sides of the argument. We have a housing crisis in this city, not a garden crisis, no matter how attractive the garden is in its present form. Alec Pruchnicki
Stated position
Westlake Village, Calif.: Once again, Al Sharpton has opened his mouth before engaging his brain (” ‘Islamophobia’ marring mayor race, says Rev. Al with Mamdani at his side,” Nov. 2). Contrary to his ridiculous assertion, the opposition to Mamdani’s candidacy is not Islamophobia in any shape or form. This is simply opposition to one man hoping to lead the nation’s largest city who refuses time and again to retract his ideology of anti-Zionism. This could be Father Charles Coughlin or Roger Waters, for that matter. Mamdani’s religion has nothing to do with it. It’s just another example of Sharpton creating an issue when none exists just to get his face in the media. What really puzzles me is why The News continues to acquiesce to this egomaniac’s rantings. Ken Ferber
Projected hate
Manhattan: Among all the anti-Mamdani letters you’ve published every day over the last couple of weeks, Voicer JoAnn Lee Frank’s takes the cake for sheer lunacy and lies. She claims, with zero facts, that Mamdani not only hates Israel and all Jews, but America itself. Just because he calls out Israel for its relentless, disproportionate killing of Gazans despite any ceasefires it refuses to honor, at no time have I heard him say or have I read that he hates all Jews and Israel. Even more, where — other than in Frank’s mind — does anything Mamdani has said or done translate to his hating America and being more dangerous than North Korea? I suspect it’s either Frank’s ignorance, blatant Islamophobia or a combination of both that motivates her hateful diatribes, which are devoid of rational thought. Miriam Applebaum
Anti-immigrant?
Brooklyn: I see the legal-immigrant communities are a key base of support for Mamdani. Do they really think they can trust his feelings about immigrants? Most Israelis were born in Israel, but Hamas considers Jewish Israelis to be “unwanted foreign immigrants” no matter where they were born. When Hamas slaughtered 1,200 Israelis in cold blood on Oct. 7 and took 251 hostages, the far-leftists who support Mamdani were silent or actually cheered. If they abandoned those unwanted immigrants when they were attacked, do you really trust them to defend immigrants in NYC? Larry Kallus
Persecuted minority
Staten Island: To Voicer Edwin Garcia: Your extremely un-woke comment refers to Jews as “them” and calls “antisemitism” a special designation. I find this comment to be an oxymoron. There is no privilege in being victimized. Perhaps it has to do with the world’s population of 8.2 billion people, of which only .2% are Jews, and how we are marginalized. Myra B. Goodman
Bad old days
Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Fifty years ago, this newspaper ran your famous front-page headline and picture, “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD.” I also remember that the Bronx was on fire. We entered a decade where 2,000 homicides would be committed every year and 5,000 cops were laid off. After a five-city chase across the U.S., in San Francisco, we caught two indicted (later convicted) cop killers who belonged to a group with no redeeming social value whatsoever. Their sole mission was to kill cops. I then received a call from the Manhattan district attorney’s office that there was no money to bring us home to NYC. Yes, I remember it well. Randy Jurgensen, NYPD Detective (ret.)
Taking the lead
College Point: After Europe’s resounding victory over the U.S. in the Ryder Cup on U.S. soil a couple of weeks ago, their equine compatriots replicated their success in the Breeders’ Cup races in Del Mar, Calif., on Saturday. The so-called world championship of horse racing was dominated by Europeans again winning all the big races, along with a lone Japanese success in the Breeders’ Cup classic. The turf was actually won by an Irish horse who is more used to jumping fences in Ireland than on the flat, and he actually cantered home, winning the race in a record time and earning $5 million for his owners. The top trainer in the world, Aidan O’Brien from Ireland, comes to the Breeders’ Cup with his horses every year, unafraid of the competition. Unfortunately, U.S. trainers and owners are scared to do likewise in Europe for similar races, and to me, it’s obvious why. Sean McPhillips
Fact vs. fiction
Bayside: In regards to Kim Kardashian disputing America’s 1969 moon landing, perhaps she’s confusing this fact of history with the 1977 movie “Capricorn One,” where a Mars landing was staged and in which her father’s dear friend O.J. Simpson co-starred. Hmm? Mary Santora
Relegate to irrelevance
Brooklyn: To Voicer Jeff Tuck: The way you feel about Donald Trump not getting a third term is the way I feel about seeing Barack Obama’s mug in the news all the time. Why do we need to hear from Obiden? They are history. Enough already! John M. Corbett
