Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City’s mayor on January 1, 2026, after a campaign focused on affordability and public services. A recent commentary in The Nation argues that his administration should learn from the mixed legacy of former mayor John V. Lindsay, whose 1966–1973 tenure combined major liberal ambitions with political and economic vulnerabilities that later helped expose city programs to retrenchment.
John Vliet Lindsay served as New York City’s mayor from January 1, 1966, through December 31, 1973, after winning the 1965 election as the Republican nominee with Liberal Party support. He later lost the Republican primary in 1969 but won reelection on the Liberal Party line.
In a January 1, 2026, analysis, The Nation portrays Lindsay as a case study in how a liberal administration can enact ambitious policies yet fail to build durable political power capable of defending those gains. The magazine argues that Lindsay expanded social programs and advanced civil-rights-era reforms inside city government, but that his coalition and governing approach did not strengthen working-class organizations and neighborhood-level political capacity in a way that endured.
Some of the article’s most specific budget claims—such as a fivefold increase in welfare spending, a quadrupling of health-care budgets, and a doubling of education funding—are not documented with figures in the cited commentary and could not be independently confirmed from the sources reviewed for this edit. What is well established is that the city’s overall budget rose sharply during Lindsay’s tenure, alongside repeated labor disputes and growing fiscal strain.
The Nation’s commentary also emphasizes that Lindsay pursued a development strategy that leaned heavily on corporate and finance-linked actors. It points to the creation of an Economic Development Council dominated by business interests, and to major projects associated with the era’s planning agenda—including the World Trade Center and a proposed Midtown convention center—as emblematic of a white-collar growth model. The author argues that Lindsay’s administration treated the loss of manufacturing as less alarming than later analysts would, citing contemporaneous reporting that described Lindsay downplaying industrial flight in favor of office-sector expansion.
The political risks of that approach were illustrated by events that became symbolic of outer-borough resentment. In February 1969, a major snowstorm paralyzed the city and triggered a prolonged backlash after parts of Queens remained unplowed for more than a week, amid accusations that Manhattan was prioritized. Lindsay’s handling of the storm is widely remembered as a turning point that damaged his standing.
Against that backdrop, Mamdani entered office after being sworn in on January 1, 2026. Reporting on his transition and early governing plans has highlighted an effort to assemble a leadership circle spanning progressive policy and civic institutions. Mamdani has also named Lina Khan as a transition co-chair. The Nation article says Mamdani has drawn advisers “with ties to the solidarity economy,” including Khan, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, and Deyanira Del Río, and argues that his administration’s durability will depend less on symbolic progressivism than on building institutions that deliver concrete benefits and sustain working-class trust—from tenant legal defense and reliable basic services to policies that strengthen labor’s leverage in the city’s political economy.
The central warning, the author argues, is that progressive policy victories can be reversible if they are not reinforced by broad coalitions and organization capable of surviving the economic and political shocks that often hit cities first.
