“Affordability” and “Democrat” cannot be used in the same sentence.

New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani talks to reporters at a news conference in New York, Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Much continues to be written and said about the election of far-left Democratic-Socialist Zohran Mamdani to the mayoralty of New York City. Mamdani’s margin of victory was substantial. To be fair, he was running against weak candidates. Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo can only be described as damaged goods. And perennial candidate Curtis Sliwa – whose stated principles are solid – nevertheless has no shot of ever winning elective office in New York City.

Mamdani campaigned on a smorgasbord of free stuff. Free bus rides. Free college tuition. Free childcare. His campaign theme – a theme now taken up by the Democratic Party – was “affordability.”

As the saying goes, “that’s rich,” given the history of Democrat dominated cities in this country. Few ever point out the irony that the least affordable places in America are the places run by Democrats.

To cite examples, New York, Chicago and San Francisco – the three most expensive cities in America – have been dominated by Democrats for decades. Chicago’s last Republican mayor left office in 1931. San Francisco’s last Republican mayor departed in 1964. And except for Rudy Giuliani’s eight years from 1994 to 2001, New York has been run by Democrats since Fiorello LaGuardia left office in 1945. (John Lindsay was elected as a Republican in 1966 but switched parties for his second term.)

The clear and unmistakable record of Democrats at every level – but certainly at the big city level – is that they aggressively spend more while getting less.

New York City’s budget is $115.9 billion. Florida’s state budget is just 1.3 percent more than that at $117.4 billion. But Florida’s entire state population of 23.3 million is nearly three times New York City’s population of 8.5 million.

New York City schools are the most expensive in the nation. The literacy and graduation rates are the worst.

Rent controls, convoluted building regulations and hyper-restrictive zoning laws all conspire to make housing costs in New York, Chicago and San Franciso among the highest in the world. Nothing about housing is “affordable” in these Democrat-dominated cities.

Unaffordable homes, terrible schools, crime, dysfunction and corruption are combining to drive those with the means to do so to decamp from these once great cities. When they leave, they take with them the tax revenue to pay for the programs and the freebies with which Democrats are buying the votes to get themselves elected. The result is that an ever-greater share of the tax burden is borne by those left behind and least able to afford it. (There’s that word.)

And bonus. These Democrat strongholds are ticking financial time bombs. Politicians pay for today’s votes with lavish (and unfunded) city employee pension liabilities and a mountain of debt. Those liabilities continue to mount and will certainly lead to fiscal insolvency and municipal bankruptcy. Today’s voters are being bought off using the money of their children and unborn grandchildren.

The bottom line: No Democrat that I can think of can legitimately use the word, “affordable.” We should loudly call them out whenever they try.