Dear Mayor-Elect Mamdani,
First, let me wish you the very best as you step into this role. There are countless New Yorkers who are rooting for you. Truly. And, as is always the case in this city, there are also people quietly waiting to see you fail.
For what it's worth, I'm not one of them.
I genuinely hope you become one of the most successful mayors this city has ever had. In my time as a New Yorker, I've witnessed only one who has been worthy. New York needs leadership with courage, clarity, and imagination. And whether people admit it or not, many of us are hungry to see you rise to the moment.
If you're open to suggestions (unsolicited, yes) but offered with sincerity, here are the five (or six) things I would do in my first year if I were mayor. Ambitious ideas that could meaningfully shift the trajectory of this extraordinary and complicated city.
1. A Vacancy Tax for Empty Storefronts (Because a Dark Window Is a Dead Street)
A city communicates through its streets. And some of ours have gone quiet. Walk a few blocks, and you'll see empty storefronts that sit vacant for months, sometimes years, held hostage by landlords waiting for a mythical tenant at an unrealistic rent. Other great cities: Vancouver, Paris, San Francisco, even Washington, D.C, have already put meaningful vacancy taxes in place, and the results are undeniable. Rents become more realistic, street life returns, and neighborhoods revive.
When storefronts stay empty, they inevitably become temporary shelters, not by design but by default. Filling these spaces reduces the opportunities for vulnerable people to end up living in unsafe, makeshift conditions. It's not a solution to homelessness, but it prevents a symptom we should never have normalized. So, I'd introduce a graduated vacancy fine here in New York. Not to punish owners, but to bring the market back to earth and restore life to our streets. When retail thrives, neighborhoods breathe. When it sits empty, the city suffers.
2. Privatize the MTA (Because Hope Is Not a Maintenance Strategy)
Anyone who has recently taken the subway or the LIRR knows we've normalized dysfunction at a level that would be unthinkable in almost any other global city. If I were mayor, I'd hand the MTA over to the private sector.
Not because I don't believe in public transit. I do.
But because systems with accountability tend to evolve, innovate, and fix themselves faster than systems without it.
Cities all over the world have already proven that this model works. Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, London, Stockholm, and even Melbourne rely heavily on privately operated transit systems. And the results are consistent. There are cleaner stations, better maintenance, faster innovation, and on time performance that puts New York to shame. These cities show what happens when transportation is run with accountability and ambition instead of bureaucracy and hope. They have transit that is safe, clean, efficient, and reliable. New York should be leading that race, not limping through it.
3. Turn Empty City Buildings Into Affordable Artist Housing
Every great New York neighborhood (Soho, Tribeca, Chelsea, the West Village) was built by artists long before it was built by developers. Artists created the culture, the edge, the energy, the identity.
New York actually has the real estate to do this. The city owns dozens of underused buildings across Lower Manhattan, Midtown, Downtown Brooklyn, Long Island City, and the South Bronx. These are exactly the kinds of places where creative housing could spark the same cultural renewal that once shaped Soho, Tribeca, and Chelsea. I'd convert these buildings into subsidized artist housing and studios.
If we want New York to remain the global center of creativity, we need to invest in the people who make it creative. Culture doesn't appear out of thin air. It comes from the people who shape it.
4. Replace the Javits Center With the Most Sustainable Stadium in the World
The Javits Center is sitting on extraordinary land and giving us very little in return.
I'd tear it down.
And build something bold in its place. A sustainable, technologically advanced, architecturally daring stadium that could host everything from world-class sporting events to global conferences.
We've already seen what a single, well run venue can do for New York. The US Open is the perfect example. It has become the largest annual sporting event in the world by attendance and one of the city's most powerful financial engines, generating more revenue for New York than the Super Bowl, the World Series, and the NBA Finals combined. One tournament. Two weeks. Billions in economic impact.
Now imagine replicating that success not once a year, but year round. A state of the art stadium on Manhattan's west side could host global events, concerts, championships, tech summits, cultural festivals, and international gatherings by drawing millions and generating revenue at a scale that would meaningfully reshape the city's budget.
And here's the real opportunity.....
Some of that revenue could be channeled directly into building rehabilitation centers, mental health campuses, and long-term care institutions outside the city, where the environment is calmer, more humane, and more conducive to healing. Places where people struggling with homelessness, addiction, or severe mental illness receive real treatment. Not sidewalk triage.
5. Build a World Class, Tuition Free State University to Keep New York's Best Here
Every year, New York loses some of its brightest students to other states. Not because they prefer leaving, but because those states offer better public university systems and more attractive financial packages.
I'd create a world-class, Ivy League caliber public university, funded by the city and state and tuition free for New York residents.
A school that retains our talent.
A school that elevates every neighborhood.
A school that gives every New Yorker a world class opportunity.
And it wouldn't stop at the bachelor's level.
If a student pursues a master's degree, the city would fully fund it. With one condition. Graduates would have to commit to working for a New York based company (public or private) for two years. The city invests in them, and they invest back into the city's future.
6. (Bonus) Build Public Bathrooms. Everywhere. The Japanese Approach.
Probably the least glamorous idea on the list but maybe the most humane. Japan has an abundance of clean, safe, beautifully maintained public bathrooms. New York, meanwhile, treats the basic act of existing in public as a logistical challenge. We can fix this. We should fix this. The city becomes instantly more livable when people have dignity in the smallest ways.
A Final Word
Mayor-Elect Mamdani, New York doesn't need perfection from you. It requires courage, creativity, follow-through, and a willingness to solve the obvious problems. The ones we've lived with for so long, we stopped believing they could change.
I hope you succeed because our city is ready for success.
A surprising number of us are quietly cheering you on.
And if you ever want to hear more unsolicited ideas, you know where to find me.....
Let's Do This!
Shaun