Long Island needs a good manager for New York City mayor

Early voting has begun in the New York City mayoral primaries, and while residents of Nassau and Suffolk counties are only bystanders, we look on with a clear regional interest in the fate of the five boroughs.

The June 24 Democratic contest is expected to be tantamount to a general election due to the deeply ingrained electoral habits of city voters. Republicans are barely a force in the city and incumbent Eric Adams, ruined by a federal corruption prosecution, is expected to run in November as an independent but is unlikely to undermine the Democratic advantage.

Right now, the primary is widely touted as a matchup between Assemb. Zohran Mamdani, a declared socialist and fresh face who has represented Astoria and Long Island City since 2021, and nearly-three-term former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, whose resignation that year is well known. The arguments against Cuomo have been made. His sins have been recorded. He also knows Long Island better than any candidate.

The one-on-one calculus, however, is complicated by the city’s "ranked-choice" voting and the dizzying 11 Democrats, including relative unknowns, from which to choose. While Newsday is not endorsing since Long Islanders are ineligible to cast ballots, we seek to provide context for the stakes for our region. 

What’s in danger of being lost in the day-to-day news coverage of the campaign is that the true mayoral challenge is managing a huge bureaucracy as deftly as possible to serve a wide array of popular interests.

COMPETENCE MATTERS

Competent big-league governance is more important than ever at a time when simply executing the basics of the job seems to elude many elected officials. One saying often quoted but rarely displayed is attributed to Depression-era Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia: "There is no Republican or Democratic way to pick up the garbage."

For the more than 485,000 Long Islanders who go to the city to work, and those who visit or have family members there, a concern that the city is unsafe has persisted since the spike in crime during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Crimes in top categories have declined, but a visual impression of disorder and social breakdown lingers in big cities, from homelessness to irrational behavior, fueled by sporadic subway shovings and seemingly random attacks.

Different candidates emphasize different proposals, some overlapping. Cuomo announced plans to hire 5,000 more cops. Mamdani has proposed using unrented spaces in transit stations to treat the unhoused mentally ill and keep them off trains. Outside-the-box thinking shouldn’t be dismissed no matter who wins. That's true also for housing that is affordable, which must be a top priority for the next mayor. State Sen. Zellnor Myrie has shown he understands well the challenges facing working-class residents trying to find housing.

Candidate Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker, is on solid ground when she says the record of Eric Adams (they’re not related) suggests he has mismanaged the NYPD he once served in.

Now, instances of antisemitism and other hate crimes are fueling disgust — adding another dimension of particular concern to Long Islanders.

FISCAL ACUMEN NEEDED

The city, with its sprawling swath of government agencies, is a major employer of Long Islanders, from police and correction officers to firefighters, teachers, medics and health care employees. Their wages, contracts and retirement plans depend on the city’s fiscal viability, which has not always been solid. The next mayor has to hire, oversee and direct a competent fiscal management team.

On that score, candidates Scott Stringer and Brad Lander have served as the city’s elected comptroller and realize the sheer scope involved. The city’s 2025 operating budget totals $112.4 billion. The state budget for fiscal year 2026 is $254 billion. Cuomo, for one, is presumably prepared to wrestle with a tax-and-revenue system smaller than the one he oversaw as governor.

Fiscal challenges loom. State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli has warned that the state budget adopted in Albany last month doesn’t adequately account for threatened federal aid cuts of more than $10 billion. Such big-dollar dilemmas always draw the city into the fray, requiring the mayor to deal with shortages under pressure.

The candidates have jockeyed over who is better equipped to "stand up" to Republican President Donald Trump, but coping with Trump and a GOP-run Congress will involve more than theatrics and forming coalitions with other parts of the country. The city will be prodded to control spending and increase revenues. Mayor Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul faced cuts during the recent migrant influx under the Biden administration.

Transportation will be key. All candidates have proposals for infrastructure but Cuomo has a record of big improvements — a revamped LaGuardia Airport, a new Kosciuszko Bridge, and the opening and expansion of the Second Avenue Subway. As mayor, he could effectively push plans for Penn Station. The next mayor's appointments to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board can invigorate city-suburban vitality by selecting members who will support the Long Island Rail Road.

In the end, this election is about the business of government, and who's ready to conduct it.