by Anthony Barrows
LIFT NY, Executive Director
When run well, government is an engine for economic mobility, and New York City could be firing on all cylinders soon. The mayoralty of Zohran Mamdani, who ran on a message of affordability and dignity, could be a multigenerational springboard for struggling New Yorkers. At LIFT, we come to work every day to advance economic mobility two generations at a time. After 25 years of that work, we recently released a Policy Agenda that closely mirrors the transformative vision Mamdani has laid out — and we believe that the moment is ripe to chase that vision as far as we can.
Mamdani’s core platform will be familiar to anyone who’s watched the news (or social media) in the last year: affordable housing, fast and free buses, affordable childcare for all, city-owned grocery stores. The list continues, but the spirit remains the same: families need their basic needs met. At LIFT, we wholeheartedly agree — our “Radical Imagining” policy agenda argues that these building blocks of social infrastructure are essential for family well-being. In a society that values families, you don’t have to choose between paying rent or buying groceries, and you don’t have to wonder whether it’s worth working because most of your paycheck will head right back out the door to pay for childcare. For the world that we imagine, these policies aren’t utopian extras — they’re the foundation for economic justice.
We use the word foundation purposefully, because we see these policy asks as infrastructure: yes, a well-functioning city needs roads and bridges and rails that work, and it also needs childcare centers, grocery stores, and homes that people can afford. And critically, it’s not just affordability that matters; it’s quality too. Our public-facing systems must treat communities with dignity and respect. On this note, we share another priority with mayor-elect Mamdani, and his commitment to excellence in public services. LIFT’s policy agenda argues that we should attend to the “how” as much as the “what” in the public sector, and for us, excellence means high quality programs with low administrative burden that integrate the lived expertise of the people who use them.
The lived expertise of our members — the families we work with — was the underpinning of our policy agenda. Our ideas came directly from the folks who are the most critical experts on social programs in our view — the people who navigate and rely on them daily. This is almost certainly why our goals align with Mamdani’s. He too formulated his platform by talking to constituents about their most pressing needs and arguing for public sector responses that would meet them. The simplicity of this approach is also its power — when you trust people to be experts on their own lives, they respond.
Our approach to all of our work is summed up in three words: “Hope, Money, and Love.” The premise is straightforward; we want to equip parents to pursue their boldest dreams for themselves and their children. We believe that when you treat people with love, it builds community — something we all need to thrive. In community, you can begin having conversations about how to get from where you are to where you want to be: hope. With that sense of community-embedded hope, people stabilize socially and that helps them meet their goals financially: money. And at LIFT, we know that a little money can go a long way, so we provide modest but meaningful cash transfers to ease their paths. While direct cash payments are not on Mamdani’s platform at the moment, perhaps there’s hope for his 2029 run!
As promising as this moment is, nothing is guaranteed. Collaboration will be key to the new mayor’s success. Mamdani will need good ideas about fighting poverty, and he will need the good will of New Yorkers as those ideas hit resistance. To navigate both those issues, he will need the help of community members, civil society, and other elected leaders. To make the case for skeptics and supporters alike, he will also need measurable outcomes to track success and hold systems accountable. And underlying it all, he will need to continue waging a narrative fight, especially about deservedness. None of us should be defined only by our needs, especially while we are in the midst of struggle. Instead, New Yorkers can define ourselves by the possibilities we can provide each other collectively when we work together to provide a dignified floor for every family, because that’s what all of us deserve.
If this is the Big Apple, let’s make sure every family gets a bite.