Instead of tackling the real problem—too little housing supply—socialist Assemblyman and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (D-Astoria) wants to double down on government control.
His answer is the so-called “Vienna Plan,” a reheated socialist fantasy that’s flopped everywhere it’s been tried.
Modeled on 1930s “Red Vienna,” the scheme calls for massive city-owned housing complexes where government, not private builders, acts as the landlord. In theory, that means below-market rents. In reality, it means higher taxes, longer waitlists, rampant favoritism, and units going to the well-connected rather than the needy.
Mamdani tosses around buzzwords like “community land trusts,” “social housing,” and “community ownership” as if they’re magic spells. But this isn’t new. From Moscow to Beijing to Vienna, we’ve seen how this ends: shortages, decay, and failure.
Just a "Red Vienna" thought.
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