I am writing this on a plane between New York City and Detroit, which is fitting, because I have lived in both places. Each of them will elect a new mayor this week, and traditionally if Americans assumed which one would be facing major ugly issues at election time, from crushing economics to homelessness to nasty accusations between the candidates, they might assume Detroit.
Not anymore.
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During that same time, Detroit has had just one mayor, Mike Duggan, who led the city out of bankruptcy, heavily eliminated the blight issues, brought down crime, brought up investment, and recently boasted an 84% approval rating.
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In New York, Mamdani has divided the voters — and in many ways, the nation — as to his intentions, his qualifications and his honesty.
His proponents see him as a fresh face unbeholden to the political machine, an advocate for the poor and the marginalized, a Muslim man who knows what it means to battle hate, and a young guy who gets that the cost of renting an apartment in New York is insane, like pretty much everything else there.
His critics see him as a slick product of the social media age, an anti-rich, antisemitic activist with unworkable ideas borne from the Democratic Socialist party to which he proudly claims membership. They paint him as a hypocritical poser, claiming to be marginalized when his father is an Ivy League professor and his mother an Oscar-nominated film director.
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