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April 23, 2025 — Yes, it seems like there is a mayoral forum every other night, and yes, the candidates (at least most of them) field a lot of questions. But I’m hoping the candidates (Dems, GOP, and Independents are all invited) will answer 50 more (not including subparts) because: (a) some of these questions don’t typically get asked, including some that break taboos with which supposedly open and candid New York City is afflicted; (b) I want to encourage reporters to probe for — and candidates to provide — more specificity; (c) it’s important that more “why” and “why not” questions be asked; and (d) what New Yorker doesn’t want to get his or her two cents in?
Candidates can email responses to mayoralqs at remappingdebate dot org.
If you’re not a candidate but want to answer and/or critique the questions, send an email to the same address.
P.S. - I’ve put in some easy ones.
Budget/taxes
1. Do you agree that, in the short term at least, New York City will wind up with substantially fewer dollars coming from the federal government? If not, why not?
2. Even if you believe that the federal reductions can be made up with higher taxes, identify three programs outside the domain of public safety to be cut substantially or eliminated. Why these three?
3. Should there be a pied-à-terre tax. Why or why not?
4. To what do you attribute the loss of the commuter tax? Is there a way to get it back? How?
5. Are there functions for which the City now pays not-for-profits that you believe should be performed by City workers? If so, provide two important examples.
Education
6. What is your estimate of the percentage of New York City schoolchildren who either (a) fail to graduate; or (b) if they do graduate, are not ready for college, work, or the responsibilities of citizenship?
7. To what extent are higher performing students getting the enrichment they need?
8. Which of the following best captures your overall evaluation of the New York City public education system? Excellent? Good? Fair? Poor? Fire-alarm fire?
9. If your answer was “fair,” “poor,” or “five-alarm fire,” why has this condition been allowed to persist for so long?
10. What is the role, if any, of neighborhoods of concentrated poverty in contributing to poor outcomes for students? If you believe there is a material role, what should be done?
11. What is the role, if any, of parents who are largely or totally uninvolved in their children’s education in contributing to poor outcomes for students? If you believe there is a material role, what should be done?
12. What is the role, if any, of sub-standard teachers in contributing to poor outcomes for students? If you believe there is a material role, what should be done to change the status quo?
13. There is widespread agreement that quality early childhood education and development is critical for, well, everything. What are the indicia you want to be examined at each level from 3K through third grade to identify children who need — expensive though it is — intensive, individual help and attention?
14. Do you believe it is feasible for an elementary-school teacher to serve the needs of both a child with a first grade reading level and another with a third grade reading level in the same room? What about a child with a first grade reading level and another with a fourth grade reading level? If yes, how do you see that working for the teacher and for each child?
15. How important, if at all, do you believe it is for a child to have a teacher that “looks like” him or her (race/ethnicity matching)?
16. What is your assessment of the performance of the current Chancellor?
Healthcare
17. Is it your observation that it is impossible or virtually impossible to find a health insurance plan on the New York Health Exchange (“New York State of Health”) that provides out-of-network coverage in New York City?
18. If yes, why do you think that is true?
19. Do you think that there should be plans available that offer out-of-network coverage? If not, why not? If so, what have you done and what will you do to make that happen?
20. What are your key metrics for determining whether a New York City H+H hospital is performing well?
21. Using those metrics, which are the two best performing H+H hospitals, and which are the two worst performing H+H hospitals? Explain.
22. Do you think it is desirable to establish a new H+H hospital (or transform an existing one) so that it would provide not merely adequate care, but rather the gold standard of care, a hospital that would attract some of the doctors who are now sought out by private hospitals such as Presbyterian, Weill-Cornell, NYU Langone, and Mount Sinai? If not, why not? If so, is it feasible to do so? How would you go about it?
23. What is the single most important thing that New York State should do to increase oversight and regulation of private hospitals in New York City? What is the single most important thing that New York City should do to increase oversight of private hospitals here? Why haven’t those things been done to date?
24. Anticipating the next airborne pandemic: what steps, if any, should the City take to improve the indoor ventilation of offices (public and private), schools, and healthcare facilities?
Housing and segregation crises
25. It’s widely agreed that we are in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. Are we also in a housing segregation crisis? Why or why not?
26. Have you noticed that condo after condo has gone up in already gentrified and currently gentrifying parts of town with zero affordable units as part of the package? How has that been allowed?
27. Would you support a pilot program whereby the City, acting as developer, acquires property in a high-cost, “high opportunity” part of town, and causes to be constructed a condo building where most of the units are market-rate and thus return most or all of the City’s capital investment in the short term, and where the balance of the units continue to be owned by the City and are rented out as permanently affordable units? What are the upsides and downsides of proceeding with such a pilot?
28. While the Supreme Court has refused to hear a few challenges to New York’s rent regulation system, it is apparent that a majority of Supreme Court Justices are deeply hostile to economic regulation, including rent regulation. Assume for the moment that the Supreme Court were to overturn the current regulatory system while you are Mayor. Unless you agree that the system should be overturned (in which case, say so), what steps consistent with the command of such a decision do you think the City and/or New York State could take to put in place a largely equivalent system?
29. A map of New York City Housing Authority developments shows vast parts of the City where there are no such developments. That did not happen by accident. Would you do anything to modify that pattern? What? If not, why not?
30. Ten of the 14 Council Districts that had the least housing constructed from 2022-24 have non-Hispanic Black population of 5 percent or less (less than 25 percent of the Citywide total). Would you commit to building mixed-income housing in such segregated neighborhoods? If not, why not? If so, what do you do about the invariable local resistance?
31. By the latest estimate, there are more than 400,000 coop units in the City. Whenever a coop board turns down an applicant, the board – per industrywide policy – refuses to give the reasons. Legislation to require prompt, written disclosure of the specific reasons is supported by a vast majority of New Yorkers throughout the City, is co-sponsored by a majority of Council Members, and has not been permitted a hearing. If the bill (Intro 407) remains stymied this year, will you, as Mayor, push for its passage next year? If not, why not?
32. Do you agree with the principle that “all of our neighborhoods should belong to all of us, regardless of where in the City we’re coming from, and regardless of where in the City we want to go?” If not, why not?
33. Do you believe that, in a city like New York, there is any applicability of the concept of “voluntary segregation” when measured by: (a) the existence of some people who wish to reside with members of their own racial or ethnic group, AND (b) the existence of a neighborhood or neighborhood where no members of the “out” (non-dominant) groups want to live? Hint on this one: if there are people who want to move to a neighborhood but who are made unwelcome (or expect to be unwelcome), then they’re not part of the “voluntary.” If your answer is “yes,” please explain.
34. In resolving a fair housing lawsuit, New York City agreed that “for decades, suburban counties in the New York metropolitan area, as well as many of the municipalities therein, have not produced sufficient housing to meet regional affordable housing needs, which in turn has exacerbated the City of New York’s housing affordability crisis and reduced opportunities for residential mobility.” Do you agree that New York City’s affordable housing crisis has a regional dimension? Why has New York State been so unsuccessful in combatting suburban exclusionary zoning? Have New York City legislators paid enough attention to this issue? What, if anything, would you do as Mayor to: (a) cause the State to change the exclusionary status quo; and (b) directly assert New York’s rights under federal and/or state law to take on the suburban jurisdictions that maintain exclusion?
Immigration
35. In terms of the President’s patently illegal invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, what is the best argument to convince Trump voters that his doing so really is unlawful?
36. Do you agree that, in constitutional and statutory terms, conduct of immigration policy is an area where federal authority is at its zenith and state and local authority is significantly constrained by federal supremacy principles? If not, why not?
37. Do you support the hiring of a massive number of new immigration judges who would be able to begin to work through the enormous backlog of asylum applications and thus regularize the status of those whose claims have merit?
38. Do you support the deportation of those asylum seekers who: (a) have been afforded the due process rights as to which, until recently, there was a legal consensus they are entitled; (b) have been found not to have a meritorious asylum claim; (c) have exhausted all appeals; and (d) would not be at a risk of harm if returned to their countries of origin? If not, why not?
39. In a federal government with a very different President and a very different Congress, would you support the comprehensive use of e-Verify for employment as part of a comprehensive deal on immigration?
40. Less talked about on much of the left (and on those parts of the right who are determined to reduce all forms of immigration) are those individuals and families who have made application to come to the United States through regular channels. Assuming for now the continuation of a condition of constrained resources, what priority should those individuals have in relation to the individuals and families of varying circumstances who are in the United States without authorization?
Jails
41. Have you called for the Court that has been overseeing the Rikers consent decree for almost 10 years to appoint immediately a Receiver to run the facility? If not, do you do so now? If you haven’t and won’t now, why not?
42. Do you accept as the goal the elimination of (not simply a reduction of) violence visited on detainees by Corrections officers? By other detainees? Do you believe this is an attainable goal? How do you get there?
43. Do you accept as the goal the elimination of (not simply a reduction of) violence visited on Corrections officers by detainees? Do you believe this is an attainable goal? How do you get there?
NYPD
44. To what functions specifically, if any, should NYPD be adding personnel? Why?
45. To what functions specifically, if any, should NYPD be cutting personnel? Why?
46. What specifically, if anything, does NYPD need to be doing better (that is, what necessary function that does not involve adding personnel but rather changing strategy)?
47. Should the City try to impose a residency requirement on police officers? Why or why not? If yes, how?
48. What should be the education requirement for an entry-level police officer? What is your rationale?
49. What changes in policy, if any, would you make to balance the interest of apprehending fleeing suspects with the interest in avoiding harm to members of the public?
50. What changes, if any, would you seek to make in the calculation of pension benefit (whether involving calculation of close-to-retirement overtime or promotion, or otherwise)?