NYC Mayoral Candidates All Agree on Building More Housing. But Where?
Candidates to be New York’s next mayor have come around to the view that the city needs to build hundreds of thousands of homes. But they diverge sharply on how and where.
Andrew Cuomo, New York City mayoral candidate, from left, Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayoral candidate, and Whitney Tilson, New York City mayoral candidate, during a mayoral Democratic primary debate on Wednesday, June 4, 2025.
Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/AP PhotoIt is a truth universally acknowledged that New York City needs to build a lot more housing in order to bring down rents. All of the leading mayoral candidates in the Democratic primary, from Andrew Cuomo to Zohran Mamdani, agree on this general point.
In the mayoral debate on Wednesday night, hosted by NBC New York and Telemundo, the first question for the nine-candidate field was on their one big idea to make the city more affordable. Seven candidates talked about accelerating the rate of homebuilding.