30-06-2025
‘Nepo baby' Zohran Mamdani is still a breath of fresh air
If Zohran Mamdani's 'luxury beliefs' turn out to be even half as effective as those of fellow 'nepo baby' Franklin Delano Roosevelt's — social security, minimum wage, and that pie-in-the-sky idea of a 40-hour workweek — he will be a great mayor.
Sandy Huckleberry
Jamaica Plain
Globe Opinion writer Carine Hajjar's analysis of Zohran Mamdani's victory in the New York mayoral primary fails on several counts.
First of all, her accounts of being harassed on the New York City subway presumably happened under current or prior administrations. None of them are socialist. How Mamdani will handle subway crime is unknown at this point. Bernie Sanders, a strong supporter of Mamdani, is hardly a self-soothing progressive. He is a genuine populist, and presumably so is Mamdani, who cites Boston's Mayor Michelle Wu as a role model.
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As for calling him a nepo baby, where does that come from? His father is a professor and his mother is a film director. So what? Is no one with a college degree allowed to be a populist?
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Michael Keating
Cambridge
In her recent column, columnist Carine Hajjar turns her sights on Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor. She paints a picture of a city beset by dangerous, mentally ill, unhoused people, and insinuates that 'nepo baby' Mamdani doesn't have the best interests of New York's most vulnerable, particularly women, at heart. She cynically pits various groups against each other to advocate for more policing.
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Ironically, she fails to acknowledge that the aforesaid crimes and misdemeanors are happening on the watch of 'tough on crime' Mayor Eric Adams. Similarly, while bemoaning the experiences of harassment faced by women, she makes no mention of Andrew Cuomo's well-known history of harassing his female staffers and employees. Cuomo, a former New York governor, conceded New York City's Democratic mayoral primary to Mamdani on Wednesday.
Hajjar suggests that Mamdani's ideas for advances in mental health care and community violence prevention are pointless — dangerous, even. Yet we know from our experience here in Boston that these types of innovative community violence prevention efforts do, in fact, work. It is just such initiatives, put in place by Mayor Michelle Wu, that have helped crime rates in our city
Katie Sutton
Hingham
New Yorkers rejected the Democratic status quo
While no one can predict how successful Zohran Mamdani will eventually be, there is little doubt that his victory was due to an overwhelming desire on the part of New Yorkers to believe in, to quote from his victory speech, 'the power of the politics of the future: one of partnership and sincerity.'
Bruce Goldberg
Newburyport
Mamdani only promises more chaos
Carine Hajjar states that the current NYC policies — such as neglect of the mentally ill and the homeless, and the deliberate nonenforcement of misdemeanor crimes, have made everyday life more miserable and dysfunctional in the city.
Mamdani promises more of the same, only less law enforcement in the interest of public safety and even more neglect. How would that lead to better personal security, cleaner neighborhoods, and an improved quality of life?
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J Q Public
