Against my better judgment and the advice of Oscar Wilde, I let socialism in New York City take up another one of my evenings. This time, I was curious to see a new, taxpayer-funded canvassing machine in action before this month’s crucial decision on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign promise to freeze the rent on the apartments where about 2.4 million New Yorkers live.
Six weeks ago, Mamdani announced the launch of Organize NYC, which he said “will mobilize New Yorkers to make sure they know they have a voice in that decision—and how to use it—because government only works when it answers to the people it serves.” The city agency in charge of Organize NYC is led by Tascha Van Auken, who built Mamdani’s campaign organizing operation.
It wasn’t the first time I responded to the mayor’s call to participate in civic life. After a major snowstorm in February, I enlisted in the city’s emergency snow shoveling corps for a day. I earned $70—but still haven’t been paid. (On Thursday, a city official told me that my paycheck exists, is sitting in a downtown office, and will be promptly mailed to me.) In March, I attended a “Rental Rip-off” hearing, sitting under a banner that said “New Yorkers vs. Bad Landlords.” Most of the complaints I heard were about the same landlord: the city.
For the canvassing effort, the mayor said volunteers would fan out across the city to encourage tenants and landlords to testify at hearings, including one on Thursday night in Brooklyn, by the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB), which proposed raising rents by 0 to 2 percent on one-year leases. The announcement also said canvassers “will not advocate for any specific outcome in the RGB vote or guide what participants say if they choose to testify.”
