WHEN Zohran Mamdani took the oath of office on the steps of City Hall on January 1, 2026, the skeptics began their countdown before the confetti had settled. A 34-year-old democratic socialist, a former state assemblyman with no executive experience, the first Muslim and first South Asian-origin mayor of America’s largest city—surely, the argument went, New York would swallow him whole.

Six months later, the city is still running and so is he. Within his first week, Mamdani stood beside Governor, Kathy Hochul, to announce a $1.2 billion investment in universal child care, expanding free 3-K seats and, for the first time in the city’s history, offering full-day care for two-year-olds. Then came the rent freeze on stabilized apartments, delivered........

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