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Its donations have shrunk to a fraction of what it raised under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“Mamdani Cuts Out Business Elite” (U.S. News, Aug. 6) about Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s dismissing the advisory board of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City casts the move as a break from the city’s tradition of courting private capital. But the Mayor’s Fund had been atrophying for years, with its donations shrinking to a fraction of what it raised under Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
In a fiscally unconstrained environment, city leaders lost the need and the motivation to fund ambitious public projects with private money. Over the past quarter century, New York City’s budget has tripled in nominal terms, far outpacing roughly 90% inflation over that time. In a city flush with cash, the fund’s purpose withered. Its website today features an appeal for earthquake relief in Venezuela.
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John Ketcham is a legal policy fellow and director of Cities at the Manhattan Institute.