Rise of Zohran Mamdani has Wall Street giving up on Gotham
A who's who of the New York City business community were no shows for a Tuesday meet and greet session with socialist democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.
The list of New York City-based CEOs that declined the Partnership's invitation includes Jamie Dimon, the nation's top banker and chief of JP Morgan, the nations largest bank; Steve Schwarzman, the CEO of private equity powerhouse Blackstone; Brian Moynihan, the head of Bank of America, the nations second largest bank; Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock, the worlds largest asset manager; and David Solomon, the CEO of investment banking giant Goldman Sachs.
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Most publicly pleaded 'scheduling conflicts.'
But 'what is this guy going to tell us that we don't already know?' is how someone close to Solomon described the situation.
Those sentiments were pretty universal among according to sources at the banks of the CEOs who didn't attend.
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There was once a time that CEOs of this caliber would want to meet the likely next mayor of the city.
Now, it's resignation — a bet that New York City is a lost cause, and a belief that the Partnership, run by the retiring Kathy Wylde, is an increasingly impotent advocate to turn back the increasingly leftist political class.
Most business leaders I know are looking for an exit strategy rather than a strategy to deal with a mayor Mamdani.
Yes, they want the current mayor Eric Adams to stick around — ethical warts and all — because he's the devil they know and they like his very competent police commissioner, Jessica Tisch.
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But Adams faces an uphill climb, all the more so because Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani in the primary, is leading what they see as a Quixotic run as an independent.
Curtis Sliwa, the GOP nominee, is going nowhere fast.
The polls, for now, show a likely Mamdani mayoralty, combined with a leftist city council and a state government that veers nearly as far left as Zohran.
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All which spells disaster for those businesses who stay: Police defunding, higher taxes and government takeover of businesses like supermarkets.
And that gets us to why there were so many no shows Tuesday: the city's business community doesn't have to stay.
If you follow these big firms, as I do, you know they employ hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers — but fewer and fewer in recent years.
The harsh COVID lockdowns here gave them the excuse to move operations to places with lower taxes and regulations, mainly Florida and Texas, but also Utah and even Tennessee.
Mamdani will be another reason for the big banks to finally say goodbye to Gotham.
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