A giant yellow banner on a busy expressway linking New York’s Brooklyn and Queens boroughs proclaims: “Vote Zohran — for a city we can afford.”The city’s soaring cost of living, perhaps more than any other issue, has propelled the unlikely Democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani to the front of the Big Apple’s mayoral race. Early voting began Saturday and election day is November 4.Astronomical rents and housing scarcity are pervasive problems in America’s most populous city of 8.5 million people where one in four people cannot afford life’s essentials. In June, the median New York rent exceeded $4,000 for the first time, according to the StreetEasy property site — more than double the US average.Unregulated rents increased 5.6 percent in the first quarter of 2025 compared to 2024.Mamdani has said he wants to freeze rents for the two million rent-stabilized tenants whose housing increases are governed by the city, and build 200,000 additional homes in the next decade.Critics say his policies will deter maintenance and investment.”Whatever you need to live in this city, that is not something that you should be priced out of,” he said on the hugely popular Breakfast Club radio show.”We can’t let the market determine who gets to live that dignified life.”Under outgoing mayor Eric Adams, regulated rents have gone up 12.6 percent since he took over in 2022, approved by an independent board Mamdani could shake up.”(Mamdani) realizes that everything is — after Covid (and) inflation — very expensive, and people feel strained,” said Daniel Schlozman, an associate professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University.”He was speaking to those issues in ways that his leading rival Andrew Cuomo was not.”- ‘Politics of affordability’ -Outside a recent Mamdani rally, Santiago, a 69-year-old retiree who did not give his last name, brandished a banner reading “we want affordable housing for our community.” “We are overwhelmed by housing costs,” he said in the shadow of the George Washington Bridge that links the city to New Jersey, the neighboring state where many New York families have been forced to move in search of lower rents.Santiago gave the Bronx as an example where lower average wages have been outstripped by rising rents. For community organizer Lex Rountree, “tenants make up 70 percent of New York, so we are the majority.” “We have, if we come together, a real chance to make a huge impact,” the 27-year-old added, wearing tenant rights pins on her shirt.Mamdani painted Cuomo, the former New York state governor, as a friend of landlords and big business, attacking him in a debate for policies that neglect the cost of living. “That’s why he lost the primary. That’s why he’ll lose the general election,” Mamdani said in a TV debate.Surging grocery prices compete with outlandish rents for the top spot among New Yorkers’ economic complaints.Prices of eggs, meat, poultry and fish have surged by 8.9 percent in the city in the last year.”Grocery prices are out of control — as mayor, I will create a network of city-owned grocery stores,” Mamdani said on Instagram.Nine in 10 New Yorkers say grocery costs are going up faster than their incomes, according to Mamdani’s campaign.The proposal drew criticism from the right, and from fellow Democrat Cuomo, who questioned “Why would you subsidize rich people’s purchase of food?”US President Donald Trump, a fierce critic of Mamdani, has called the frontrunner a “communist.”But a Data for Progress Poll showed that two-thirds of New Yorkers backed the proposal.”He realized that the politics of affordability were absolutely critical,” Schlozman said.Steven Looez, a 41-year-old bartender, told AFP he has considered leaving New York for a more affordable city.”We’re always kind of perplexed where our money goes,” he said. “It adds up.””But I’m a little spoiled being in New York City, where everything you need culturally and socially is here, so it’s hard to match that.”