Street Cleaning Volume 12:

Street Cleaning is the monthly feature of quick takes, links, and nonsense. Have something interesting you think I should share? Send it my way!

A huge thank you to everyone who came in the rain to my little tour of the Brooklyn waterfront. Hopefully, you’re now armed with facts to bore people with at dinner parties, unless you’re at dinner with me, then we can talk. Twenty-five of you spent a Saturday learning about marine worms, the BQE, and the definition of “rip rap,” and I truly appreciate it. There will be more tours, and the best way to guarantee a spot is to become a paid subscriber. A hearty thanks to Mark Townsell, who kept the beer flowing at the bar afterwards and the shawarma flowing not long after that.

I’ll be in London for the first time in three years. Street Stack started when I was living in London in 2023, and although Britain—like America—seems to be circling the drain, London is my favorite city besides New York. Very original, I know. I’m excited to see the new V&A, pop into the weird pubs (Nolan’s, Effra Hall Tavern, Ye Olde Mitre) I used to frequent, and maybe get a little mudlarking session in (what’s mudlarking? read below)

If you know any interesting new projects, sites, venues, etc., you think I should check out, please let me know!

Someone recently described Street Stack as a “body of work,” which made me laugh because it sounds very academic, but it did make me realize that 50+ posts is a lot. So I took some time to tag and organize posts on the Street Stack home page, with new tabs at the top, including a new “best of” section which newer subscribers might enjoy. I’ll be traveling the rest of May, so writing will be light.

The State budget is now over a month late, which means the NYC Budget is also delayed. All those Eric Adams no-bid migrant shelter contracts and De Blasio childcare programs have saddled the City with debt and obligations precisely at the time the Federal government is pulling back from vital services like food assistance, environmental protection, and housing vouchers. There are a lot of bills coming due, and not a lot of money-pots to go around, with a 2 billion dollar budget shortfall projected.

In Mamdani’s telling, there is one big, untapped source of income— raising taxes on wealthy residents. NYC taxes are among the highest in the country, and there is an endless debate about whether high taxes cause wealthy residents to skip town altogether. But Trump’s One Beautiful Bill delivered NYC residents making over $1 million dollars a 2.7% tax cut already, collectively worth 12 billion dollars in tax revenue. In this context, I think some sort of local tax increase is reasonable, especially as State and City governments struggle to cover expenses the Feds used to handle. Under pressure from Mamdani, the Governor announced a tax on second homes, but its revenue will fall well short of the total deficit.

In the likely case NYC can’t close its budget gap with new revenue, we’re about to experience a truly fascinating scenario: socialism in an age of austerity. What will a Mamdani who can’t fund free buses or dozens of new grocery stores do with his time? Sensing the difficulty of pulling off his campaign agenda in this climate, the Mayor seems to be shifting his message to emphasize nuts and bolts city government. Spring started with a “Pothole Blitz,” filling 80,000 potholes in two months, before Mamdani announced a large slate of new bus and bike infrastructure projects, along with a new redesign of the iconic Park Avenue. In his 100-day address, Mamdani drew parallels between his administration and a more pragmatic “sewer socialism” focused on public works and good operations. We’ll see if this emphasis continues as the Mayor’s more ambitious agenda items appear increasingly out of reach. Frankly, most everyday New Yorkers want this stuff anyway, and the Mayor’s poll numbers remain strong.

Should the economy really start to tank, the Mayor will be faced with the uncomfortable prospect of having to shrink spending as well as take steps to help stimulate the local economy. Mamdani hasn’t said much about job-creation, and has more or less ignored the City-run Economic Development Corporation. There are, frankly, a lot of economic storm clouds on the horizon, and we have an unavowed big-government socialist in charge. The tension between these two facts, and whether Mamdani’s “Pothole Socialism” continues, will be fascinating and consequential to watch.

• John Surico is one of the very best writers and thinkers on New York City public space and government operations, and I’m loving his new column over at Vital City called Just Fix It.

• Donald Trump is a developer, and his team has brought a developer’s sensibility to reconstructing Gaza with unsurprisingly dystopic results.

• Another very good video from Daniel Steiner explaining urban form, this time the unique grid and square system of Savannah, Georgia.