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Good morning, Roca Nation. Here are today’s four need-to-know stories:
Former Vice President Dick Cheney died at age 84 on Monday (free)
Shein imposed a ban on sex doll sales after French authorities discovered dolls resembling children for sale on its platform (free)
Palantir and Nvidia stocks fell after Michael Burry – of “Big Short” fame – disclosed a $912M bet against the companies
Democrat candidates swept major elections in New York City, New Jersey, and Virginia
By Max Frost
New York City isn’t that left-wing. While I can hear our readers laughing from the Heartland, bear with me a sec: Compared to major American cities, New York actually has political diversity.
This was one of the first things I noticed upon moving here from DC, and it has become consistently more apparent over the last four years. When I lived in the heavily Jewish Upper West Side, there were regular vigils for the Israelis kidnapped on October 7; a lot of the people there ended up voting for Trump. When I lived in Jackson Heights, Queens, I had a Trump-supporting Brazilian roommate whose primary concern was that socialism would do to America what she said it did to her country. Just this week, I saw a Latina woman lifting in my Manhattan gym in a “Trump was right about everything” t-shirt. In DC? Never.
And the numbers back this up: Trump won just 6.6% of the vote in Washington, DC, and 15.5% in San Francisco. He won 30% in New York City, more even than the county containing Austin, TX.
Yet a Democratic Socialist will now govern the City. And while there are many factors – Gaza, charisma, vibes – Zohran Mamdani’s hit one topic more than any other: “It’s the housing, stupid!”
And, indeed, housing is a crisis.
Here are average rental costs in New York City, according to Apartments.com:
A studio: $3,264/month for 436 Sq Ft
One bedroom: $4,031/month for 590 Sq Ft
Two bedroom: $5,473/month for 794 Sq Ft
Three bedroom: $6,945/month for 974 Sq Ft
Living in desirable neighborhoods is often considerably more expensive. In many popular Brooklyn or Manhattan neighborhoods, searches often yield zero one-bedroom apartments for under $4,000/month. And this is just the tip of the cost-of-living iceberg: High grocery, insurance, and leisure costs, plus taxes, come together to crush the hopes of the starry-eyed young American in Gotham.
And to have kids? Pay for childcare? Or buy a home? As New Yorkers say, “Fuhgeddaboudit.”
New Yorkers – especially young ones – are giving up, having realized that getting a four-year degree and moving to the City doesn’t actually guarantee you prosperity. Take that disillusionment, mix it with Zohran’s ever-smiling ace, and you have a 34-year-old Democratic Socialist in Gracie Mansion.
Zohran’s social media-savvy pitch to solve the housing crisis was this: Freeze the rent on rent-stabilized apartments, make buses and childcare free, subsidize groceries, and boost the minimum wage to $30/hour.
People can disagree on these policies and whether they support them. Yet, in many ways, even if they work, they are like pain relievers, treating the symptom rather than the root cause.
So what is the root cause? What policies and trends have made the rent in New York City so damn high? And digging past the viral clips, what is Zohran’s deeper solution to the housing crisis?
That’s the subject of today’s deep-dive.
This full report is for paid subscribers, who fund our journalism. If you start a two-week free trial today, you’ll be automatically entered to win a free year. Once you sign up, you can access all of our articles here!
Editor’s Note
Thank you for reading. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the election. And for our New York readers: Are you optimistic about Zohran’s ability to reduce the cost of living in the city? Send us your thoughts by replying to this email.
Thanks to those of you who wrote in about yesterday’s article on Trump pardoning Changpeng Zhao. Sharing a couple of those emails below.
WTB from Manassas, VA wrote:
This was a bad move by Trump politically. It goes to show that Trump is not a politician. The picture you showed of all the cofounders and the people involved in that company. It does look very bad for Trump. Yes, I do think there was some hanky-panky going on. Not any different than when I see the other side also partake in shady deals. Pelosi‘s stock trades, NJ governor candidate trading stock while on the defense committee. It happened on both sides and that does not make it right.
And Spencer from Naples, FL said:
Last week, I wrote on the app that you guys will inevitably get "pushed over to the right by the left" by not virtue signaling to them. Without virtue signaling, you have managed to make me eat my own words. I am someone who considers themselves "on the Right" and also a Trump supporter (although a much less enthusiastic Trump supporter than I was this time last year), and you have written an extremely fair and balanced article pointing out what clearly seems to be, at the very best, fishy, and, at the very worst, blatant corruption by the Trump family. Nobody on "the Right" is talking about this, and we all need to hear it. Corruption is bad and we should all be opposed to it, no matter what side of the aisle it comes from. Keep up the great work!
And as always, find our latest stories below if you’ve missed them:
See you tomorrow.
—Max and Max
