‘Working-class New Yorkers are being pushed out of the city they built’: why Zohran Mamdani is running for mayor

The socialist millennial, and first south Asian man in the state assembly, is entering an already crowded mayoral race

In a quiet and unassuming coffee shop in Astoria, a once affordable, diverse neighborhood in Queens where rent is skyrocketing to the heights of other parts of New York, a man in a black jacket sits against the window.

He doesn't look the part of a large metropolitan city's typical politician, but Zohran Mamdani represents this area in the state legislature as the assembly member for district 36 - the first south Asian man in the state assembly and only its third Muslim.