Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral bid has sparked alarm among critics who fear his socialist policies could unravel New York City’s economic fabric.
Fox Business reported that Mamdani, a Democratic-socialist, won the Democratic primary for New York City mayor on June 24, 2025, pushing a platform of free buses, rent control, and city-owned grocery stores.
Critics like Karen Rodriguez and Gabriella Hoffman, whose families fled oppressive regimes, warn that these ideas echo the failures they escaped. Their concerns deserve a hard look, as history often repeats itself when ideology trumps pragmatism.
Rodriguez, a Cuban-born teacher, and Hoffman, a Lithuanian-American, shared chilling family stories of life under socialism and communism.
Both described scarce food, constant government surveillance, and crippling taxation that left families struggling. These aren’t abstract theories—Rodriguez and Hoffman’s warnings are grounded in lived pain, not political talking points.
Rodriguez’s mother and grandfather fled Cuba during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift, a mass exodus that marked one of Cuba’s largest migrations.
Her aunt, a type one diabetic, endured physical intimidation, being dragged by her hair by neighbors loyal to the regime. Such brutality, Rodriguez argues, stems from the same collectivist mindset that Mamdani’s policies flirt with.
“They thought of it as, ‘You're a traitor,’” Rodriguez said of her family’s ordeal. That kind of neighbor-against-neighbor surveillance, enforced by Cuba’s Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, feels eerily close to Mamdani’s vision of centralized control. New Yorkers should ask: do we want our communities divided by ideology?
Hoffman’s parents, Lithuanian Jews, escaped the Soviet Union nearly 40 years ago, arriving penniless in New York before settling in California.
Her grandfather survived 18 months in Stalin’s gulags, a testament to the human cost of unchecked state power. Mamdani’s ideas, Hoffman warns, risk turning the city into “Caracas on the Hudson.”
“In the former Soviet Union, it was 90% that the government taxed you,” Hoffman said. Empty shelves and controlled economic output left her family with little to live on. Mamdani’s city-owned grocery stores sound like a step toward that same scarcity, where government dictates what’s on your table.
Rodriguez recalled the shock of seeing a strawberry for the first time in America, a fruit she’d only seen in cartoons. “When was the last time you cried in a grocery store?” she asked. Her point cuts deep: Mamdani’s policies could erode the abundance New Yorkers take for granted.
Mamdani’s campaign, notably silent when Fox News Digital sought comment, has drawn support from figures like Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Her endorsement signals a progressive stamp of approval, but it also fuels skepticism among those wary of big-government experiments. New York’s future, critics argue, shouldn’t be a testing ground for idealism.
John Catsimatidis, Gristedes CEO and billionaire, didn’t mince words: Mamdani, a 33-year-old assemblyman, is “not qualified” to lead New York City.
Catsimatidis predicts Mamdani’s policies would scare off investment, drive up prices, and create energy shortages. His warning isn’t just elitist griping—it’s a reality check from someone who’s seen the city’s economic engine up close.
“If he were to win, I would feel so bad for New York City,” Rodriguez said. She cautioned that socialism, once entrenched, is hard to escape: “You can’t vote yourselves out.” Her words carry the weight of someone who’s lived the consequences of utopian promises.
Hoffman echoed this, noting her parents’ “arduous journey” to America, where they lost friends and family ties to escape oppression. “If the likes of Zohran Mamdani were to be advanced… they won’t have anywhere to go,” she said. She fears that New York could become a cautionary tale, not a beacon of opportunity.
Rodriguez’s childhood in Cuba was marked by small but crushing losses, like the government cutting off milk rations at age seven. “For them to take that away was going to be difficult for my parents,” she said. Mamdani’s platform, with its top-down controls, risks imposing similar hardships on New Yorkers.
Catsimatidis warned that Mamdani’s policies would make the city “unattractive for investments” and “inhospitable” for residents.
High taxes and heavy-handed regulations could choke small businesses and drive out the middle class. It’s a grim forecast, but one rooted in economic reality, not fearmongering.
