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Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not

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Re: Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not

#21

Post by lwansbrough »

mlinhares wrote: post #6
Terr_ wrote: post #2

> Silicon Valley In this case, does that mean something more like "an exclusive clique of lucky tech-bros that converge on political views in their private channels"? As a larger region/industry, I can't see why SV would "panic" about a city mayor of a different city in another state thousands of miles away, no matter how populous the city is.

Its just a bunch of people that see "socialist" and panic.

That seems like a reductive defence of a platform that is pitching rent control and socialized housing without addressing underlying demand. Which is basically the recipe the entire western world has used for half a century and has resulted in the worst housing price inflation in history.

The hard truth is that New York isn't even remotely dense enough for the demand. The entirety of lower Manhattan from Canal St. to midtown is "low" density. As is everything above 59th. And this is codified. So no wonder NYC housing prices are out of control. NYC should look like Sao Paulo based on demand.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not

#24

Post by jerlam »

Terr_ wrote: post #2

> Silicon Valley In this case, does that mean something more like "an exclusive clique of lucky tech-bros that converge on political views in their private channels"? As a larger region/industry, I can't see why SV would "panic" about a city mayor of a different city in another state thousands of miles away, no matter how populous the city is.

The "panicking" people mentioned in the article all seem to be more politically oriented than tech. No one thinks Linda Yaccarino is a tech-bro or in Silicon Valley.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not

#25

Post by lazyeye »

code_for_monkey wrote: post #11
mlinhares wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its just a bunch of people that see "socialist" and panic.

they dont even know what it means, its just the big scary word.

Either that or they understand exactly what it means, the actual reality of it as compared to the "sounds nice in theory..."

Re: Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not

#26

Post by toomuchtodo »

code_for_monkey wrote: post #10

Zohran's run one of the smartest, most focused campaigns Ive ever seen. Honestly at this point his competition is in a race to the bottom, I'd say most NY'ers, even the millionaires, like him. It seems most of the people with issues with him are billionaires or people that live in the suburbs.

+1. Philanthropist Elizabeth Simons, the daughter of Renaissance Technologies founder James Simons, gave $250,000 to a super PAC supporting Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani last week. It's nice to know there are some decent wealthy people out there still.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not

#28

Post by wat10000 »

the_gastropod wrote: post #20
next_xibalba wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A more honest way of writing this might be ”we’re going to test UBI because it’s untested, but Mamdani is scary bc rent control has been shown over and over again to be bad for cities.”

I think you're right that this is what people believe. But as far as I've been able to tell, Mamdani's platform does not include anything about rent control. The closest position he's advocating for is to freeze the rent stabilization rate for 5 years while massively ramping up the construction of new apartments to bring rental costs down. Much of the pushback about Mamdani seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding…

Is that difference relevant here? I'm not familiar with the difference, but looking it up real quick, they seem to be extremely similar. They both act as price controls, which implies the same sorts of economic consequences.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not

#29

Post by fragmede »

code_for_monkey wrote: post #13
next_xibalba wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A more honest way of writing this might be ”we’re going to test UBI because it’s untested, but Mamdani is scary bc rent control has been shown over and over again to be bad for cities.”

rent control is a huge part of New York City, and has been around for ages. Hasn't been so bad for it, last I checked city is still doing pretty good.

Finding an apartment in NYC is still terrible but we don't have a way to duplicate the Earth and remove rent control and re do the last 50 years. If there were no rent control, who's to say how things would look like today? $500/month studio apartments in mega highrises because we also deregulated zoning and housing regulations in this hypothetical.

Re: Silicon Valley Is Panicking About Zohran Mamdani. NYC's Tech Scene Is Not

#30

Post by ModernMech »

Terr_ wrote: post #2

> Silicon Valley In this case, does that mean something more like "an exclusive clique of lucky tech-bros that converge on political views in their private channels"? As a larger region/industry, I can't see why SV would "panic" about a city mayor of a different city in another state thousands of miles away, no matter how populous the city is.

I'll break it down for you.

For a long time, neoliberals like Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have run the Democratic party. They have enjoyed soaking up the progressive votes from the more left parts of the party, but they have done everything possible to prevent those elements from rising too high in the power structure. You saw it in 2016 when the party leadership coalesced around Hillary to nudge out Bernie, and again in 2020 when they did the same with Biden after Bernie won Nevada.

Neoliberals and the left have a lot of tension. The left believes that liberals, due to their affinity for corporations, will side with fascists over socialists when it comes time to choose sides.

To date, liberals have proven that correct. The result has been for my lifetime that no matter which party is in power, corporations are treated favorably.

But times are changing. The neoliberals are getting old, and it's time for them to retire and pass the torch. My whole life, I'm 40, Democratic leadership have been pro corporation liberal boomers: Clinton, Gore, Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Schumer... they held onto power as long as they could, but time is ticking and it's time for millennials to takeover.

And millennials are decidedly less pro corporation. We are not like our parents, we are not going to treat corporations like our parents did. For my whole adulthood, we've been told by the boomer generation that our ideas about society and governance are not good, and progressive ideals are unelectable. AOC began a wave of congressional elections that proved them wrong, at least for local congressional elections. Then we started to see rising stars like Buttigieg get top leadership positions in government. Now, Mamdani represents the next milestone -- a progressive millennial at a high executive position for a huge city like NYC.

So that's what this race is about and why it has national implications. It's progressive versus neoliberal, and if the progressive wins, it's going to be harder in the future to claim that progressives are unelectable. If he (god forbid) ends up doing a good job, then it's going to be harder to claim progressive policies are wrongheaded.

It's also millennial versus boomer. Cuomo and Adams are both boomers. It's probably not lost on a lot of people that if they lose, it might be the last time a boomer will ever be elected as Mayor in NYC. Mamdani's election would really be the end of the post 9/11 era for New York and the start of something new for the city.

So why is SV anxious? Mamdani is a harbinger for a new age. It means the neoliberal boomers are going to the wayside, and the progressive millennials are coming to power. Which, if you listen to what they have to say about billionaires, might make you nervous if you're a billionaire.

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