Mamdani’s ‘cost of living’ campaign seems to some leftist pundits a potential road back to power

Zohran Mamdani ’s cost of living’ campaign offering rent control, free buses, childcare and city-owned supermarkets seems to some leftist pundits a potential road back to power, under the guise of the burgeoning YIMBY (yes in my backyard’) movement that seeks to lower rental prices through massive housing construction.

Since 2020 , California has consistently lagged in construction not just of single-family housing.

Mamdani 's vision is less an AI-era Levittown than a revival of Soviet -style urbanism.

The priorities of older generations of social democrat better-performing schools, basic infrastructure, affordable housing and the promotion of blue-collar jobs appealed to the basic ambitions of most people.

In contrast, most YIMBYs follow a more ideological notion a sort of idealised Communist City ’, as promoted in the 1960s .