Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani has declared war on the scaffolding cluttering the sidewalks of the Big Apple and turning the metro into what he called a “concrete jungle gym.”
Under the mayoral front-runner’s proposal, city-owned sidewalk sheds will be pulled down if they have been in place for more than three years, as amNY reported.
Mamdani unveiled his plan during a press conference in Manhattan’s Union Square on Monday ahead of Wednesday evening’s second and final mayoral debate.
Mamdani will square off against his opponents in the race, fellow Democrat now running as an independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, with housing challenges expected to feature in the televised discussion.
Mamdani weighed in on the issue of scaffolding on his X account earlier this week, writing a tongue-in-cheek jab post that said “Overstaying its welcome. Making New Yorkers’ days grimmer. Something we should relegate to the past. No, we’re not talking about Andrew Cuomo. We’re talking about scaffolding.”
Addressing reporters Monday while flanked by state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, and City Council Member Keith Powers, the candidate took a swipe at outgoing Mayor Eric Adams’ handling of the sidewalk shed issue.
Mamdani’s plan to shed the sheds
In April, Adams signed a package of bills authorizing the New York City Department of Buildings to compel property owners to finish building repairs more quickly and remove scaffolding as soon as work is completed.
But according to Mamdani, under Adams, fewer than 400 sidewalk sheds have been removed—a claim City Hall disputes.
According to a Citizens Union report from 2023, there were over 9,000 active sidewalk sheds across New York City totaling 380 miles of wood and metal boxes—and Mamdani said this week 1,000 of them have been up for at least three years.
“If you put those sidewalk sheds on the highway, they would stretch from New York City to Albany to Buffalo to Montreal and beyond,” Hoylman-Sigal said Monday.
Mamdani said if elected, he will tear down hundreds of sidewalk sheds within the city’s jurisdiction that have overstayed their welcome and “bring light back into New Yorkers’ lives.”
Mamdani’s platform includes moving away from using traditional scaffolding and instead turning to “safer, brighter, and airier” designs.
As part of the candidate’s initiative, the city will double the building inspection timeline from five to 10 years for newer properties that pose less risk, and offer incentives to private owners to get rid of sidewalk sheds faster.
Critics of sidewalk sheds argue that they create dimmer, less safe streets while hurting small businesses.
“One thing New Yorkers universally agree on, we want scaffolding down,” said Powers.
Final mayoral debate
Going into Wednesday’s debate, Mamdani continues to hold a lead over Cuomo, 43.2% to 28.9%, according to a new poll from AARP and Gotham Polling. Sliwa trails in third with 19.4%.
Sliwa has been facing calls from fellow conservatives to drop out of the race ahead of the Nov. 4 election, with the assumption being that his supporters would then back Cuomo—and potentially thwart Mamdani.
Critics on the right, including President Donald Trump, have painted the 34-year-old politician from Queens as a Communist. Mamdani has repeatedly denied that claim, identifying himself as a Democratic Socialist.
Housing at the heart of Mamdani’s platform
For Mamdani, housing has been the signature issue of his campaign, with his “freeze the rent” plan at the core if it.
If elected next month, Mamdani says he’ll put the brakes on rent hikes for more than 960,000 rental units—roughly 45% of the city’s private rental supply.
But according to Realtor.com® senior economist Jake Krimmel, the initiative could prove to be a double-edged sword.
“While that would deliver immediate relief for many families, it would make an already tight rental market even tighter,” says Krimmel.
According to the economist, with the rent freeze in place, fewer renters would move, fewer apartments would turn over, and available stock would shrink further, with the resulting scarcity likely putting upward pressure on rents for the remaining 55% of market-rate units.
Additionally, Krimmel argues that Mamdani’s signature reform proposal does not address the root cause of New York’s affordability crisis: a lack of inventory.
“Rent freezes and affordability mandates may ease pressure for some renters in the short term, but they do little to unlock the new housing construction the city desperately needs,” he says.
A Realtor.com analysis released over the summer found that even with rents frozen in NYC, it would take 20 years for rents to become affordable.
One of the planks in Mamdani’s platform is building 200,000 affordable homes over the next 10 years to boost the city’s housing supply, but Krimmel points out that even that ambitious goal is unlikely to keep pace with demand in a metro of 8.5 million people.
Besides the mayoral race, voters heading to the polls in November will also be deciding on three crucial ballot initiatives aimed at speeding up the permitting process and removing city council members’ veto power over new construction.
Kimmel says if enacted, the reforms could encourage the development of more new housing—both affordable and market rate.
