Back in new York City to cover Zohran Mamdani for The New World), it took me a while to realise just why I was finding his mayoral campaign so endearing.
Of course, he cared about the sort of things I care about: making sure renters can afford to have and keep a roof over their heads, making public transport better and cheaper, and so on. Sure, the fact that we’re pretty much exactly the same age and have clearly grown up on the same internet, and with many of the same popular culture references helped too.
Naturally, it didn’t hurt one bit that he was such an unusually jolly political figure, and unusually pleasant to look at too. I’m only human. Still, somehow that wasn’t exactly it, I could tell. What was I missing? As is so often the case, I had to wait for someone else to put words on this thing I just couldn’t articulate.
I may not be an American citizen or even live in New York full-time, but Mamdani and I have one crucial thing in common: we love – love! – big cities. More than being shamelessly progressive, his campaign was also aggressively pro-urbanism, pro-people and pro-NYC. It celebrated diversity and the art of sharing often tight spaces together. It was loud and brash in its pride. It was a tremendous breath of fresh air.
Since the first election of Donald Trump, pundits and lawmakers have spent much of their time discussing towns and the countryside; the rust belt and “flyover country”. To do so isn’t a crime, obviously, but their eagerness was such that they ended up throwing most major cities under the bus.
The denizens of NYC, LA and elsewhere just weren’t representative of the country, you see. They barely were real voters. You just couldn’t take them, and their ivory towers, even vaguely seriously. As you may remember, a similar dynamic blossomed in the UK after the Brexit referendum.
Back then, and under the Boris years, all we talked about was the Red Wall, the former Labour heartlands, and the people who, allegedly, were more important than anyone else in the country. Again, this newfound focus wasn’t inherently bad.
Instead, what rankled was this weirdly popular belief that Londoners were clearly all rich, woke, unbearable and better off being ignored. What, exactly, had we done to deserve this? Inequality thrives in our cities, just as it does elsewhere, and living near a tube stop hardly guarantees a pain-free existence.
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Years later, the discourse has, if anything, only continued to deteriorate. According to the right wing, both in Britain and elsewhere, major cities are now so expensive that only millionaires can lead fulfilling lives in them. Somehow they are, as the internet loves to tell us, also ridden with violence and crime to such an extent that only a madman would feel safe leaving the house.
Though it is true that we do struggle with the cost of living crisis – as does the rest of the country – a study found recently that Londoners are actually less likely to be a victim of violent crime than others in England and Wales. More broadly, it clearly needs to be stated, again and again, that our density and intensity are our strengths, not weaknesses.
If country dwellers get to boast about their access to nature and fans of the suburbs are allowed to wax lyrical about the size of their houses, then we, too, should be allowed to talk about what makes cities great. Our flats may be smaller and our public spaces busier, but we get so much in return.
Oh, and, crucially, things are getting better all the time for us. It’s too early to tell whether New York really will become safer and more affordable soon, but London’s air has, thanks to Sadiq Khan, already become purer than we thought would ever be possible in the 21st century.
Over in Paris, the relentless Anne Hidalgo has ensured that it’s easier and more convenient than ever to cycle across the French capital, and is waging such a war on cars that there, too, air quality is getting better. As you may have seen over the summer, the Seine has changed beyond belief, and is now clean enough that people can swim in the middle of it.
At the risk of sounding selfish, it also seems worth mentioning that this is happening even in countries where the political situation is perilous. No one would argue that, right now, Britain is in the best possible place, and you’d struggle to make that case about France too. The less said about the US, the better,
I was in two minds about returning to New York this year, having last left just after the 2024 election, but it turns out I was wrong to be worried. The city remains just as lively and alive and manic and joyous as it ever was. London and I have had our highs and lows over the years, but I just can’t wait to go home in a few days and be reunited with it.
It may be true that we live in a bit of a bubble, but can you really blame us? It’s lovely over here. You should join us.
