Bill Ackman warns of disaster in NYC if Mamdanis far-left agenda succeeds: Watch what happens
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani will bring “disaster” to the Big Apple if he succeeds in implementing his far-left economic agenda, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman warned in a new interview.Ackman, whose outspoken criticism of progressive politics has made him one of Wall Street’s most prominent conservative voices, argued that New York’s affordability crisis stems from years of bad public policy — not capitalism — and warned that “socialism is a disaster.”“Watch what happens to New York City if Mamdani succeeds in implementing these plans,” Ackman told Fortune on Wednesday.The warning comes tensions between Mamdani and New York’s business establishment have intensified.Hizzoner this week dismissed the entire advisory board of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, removing executives tied to Blackstone, Citigroup, the Real Estate Board of New York and several major real estate firms.The nonprofit has long relied on private-sector relationships to raise money for city programs, including more than $100 million for families of rescue workers killed or injured in the Sept.11, 2001 attacks and $54.5 million during the COVID pandemic.City Hall said Mamdani plans to install a new board that will put people “directly impacted” by city policies in the rooms where decisions are made.Ackman on Wednesday singled out Mamdani’s proposal to freeze rents on nearly 1 million stabilized apartments, arguing the policy would discourage investment and worsen the city’s housing shortage.He also ridiculed the mayor’s plan to roll out city-owned grocery stores, saying government intervention isn’t the answer to soaring food costs.“[Housing costs are] so high because left-wing mayors have made it very difficult for developers to build here, and Mamdani, by freezing rents, is just going to make the problem worse,” Ackman told Fortune.“If you make it hard to build where people want to live, and you don’t let landlords recover renovat...