New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani will bring “disaster” to the Big Apple if he succeeds in implementing his far-left economic agenda, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman warned in a new interview.
Ackman, whose outspoken criticism of progressive politics has made him one of Wall Street’s most prominent conservative voices, argued that New York’s affordability crisis stems from years of bad public policy — not capitalism — and warned that “socialism is a disaster.”
“Watch what happens to New York City if Mamdani succeeds in implementing these plans,” Ackman told Fortune on Wednesday.
The warning comes tensions between Mamdani and New York’s business establishment have intensified.
Hizzoner this week dismissed the entire advisory board of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, removing executives tied to Blackstone, Citigroup, the Real Estate Board of New York and several major real estate firms.
The nonprofit has long relied on private-sector relationships to raise money for city programs, including more than $100 million for families of rescue workers killed or injured in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and $54.5 million during the COVID pandemic.
City Hall said Mamdani plans to install a new board that will put people “directly impacted” by city policies in the rooms where decisions are made.
Ackman on Wednesday singled out Mamdani’s proposal to freeze rents on nearly 1 million stabilized apartments, arguing the policy would discourage investment and worsen the city’s housing shortage.
He also ridiculed the mayor’s plan to roll out city-owned grocery stores, saying government intervention isn’t the answer to soaring food costs.
“[Housing costs are] so high because left-wing mayors have made it very difficult for developers to build here, and Mamdani, by freezing rents, is just going to make the problem worse,” Ackman told Fortune.
“If you make it hard to build where people want to live, and you don’t let landlords recover renovation costs, they’ll pull units off the market,” he added.
“That’s what happened in New York — about 60,000 units are off the market because renovation costs can’t be recovered under rent regulations.”
Ackman castigated Mamdani for targeting wealthy captains of industry and finance titans such as Ken Griffin, the Citadel boss who publicly clashed with the mayor over his newly enacted pied-à-terre tax.
Griffin threatened to reduce investment in New York after Mamdani filmed a social media video touting the levy in front of the hedge fund manager’s Central Park South penthouse.
“You want people like Ken Griffin locating Citadel here — spending $250 million on an apartment, because that purchase makes a building economically viable, which creates construction jobs and brings in wealthy residents who pay taxes,” Ackman told Fortune.
Despite Griffin leaving open the possibility of cutting down his footprint in the Big Apple, the CEO of Vornado Realty Trust announced earlier this week that it will continue with plans to build a $4.5 billion skyscraper at 350 Park Ave. that will house Citadel’s local offices.
Ackman says that Mamdani would do well to embrace pro-market policies to encourage growth.
“The system can work well,” he told Fortune.
“You want the top earners — who are a small share of the population—paying a large share of taxes … But you don’t want to discourage people like Elon Musk from locating their businesses here.”
The Post has sought comment from Mamdani.
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