Since taking office in January, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been boasting that his political hero is New York’s former mayor, Fiorello La Guardia, who served as the city’s chief executive from 1934 to 1945.
Mamdani views La Guardia as a kindred spirit — a so-called transformative mayor who prided himself on being a political “maverick,” supported “soak the rich” taxes, and embraced the most radical left New Deal programs.
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But Mamdani’s view of La Guardia is based more on nostalgia than reality. The fact is, the flamboyant mayor, during his tenure in office, implemented tax and spend policies that drove the city to the edge of bankruptcy.During his first term as mayor, La Guardia used his congressional experience and cordial relationship with President Franklin Roosevelt to get an inside track to procure a richly disproportionate share of federal funds for jobs, housing, subway cars, and bridges.
He also imposed a sales tax for the first time to help balance his ever-growing budget.
However, as Dr. Thomas Kessner in his definitive biography, “Fiorello H. La Guardia and The Making of Modern New York,” points out “La Guardia had one open vice — he loved power. His lust for power culled his campaigns, his treatment of underlings, his aspirations for higher office, and ultimately it made him an irascible, brittle, and deeply frustrated man of him.” La Guardia “sought power without apologies.”
[…]Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and his ideological heirs have wreaked havoc on New York City.
And La Guardia’s latest disciple, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, after only five months in office, is already pursuing reckless fiscal policies that will lead to financial destruction.
— George J. Marlin, May 15 Newsmax column
Marlin has regularly melted down over Mamdani.