On Wednesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani paid homage to Eric Adams's classic parental room search video, only instead of finding drugs "secreted" in stuffed animals, Mayor Mamdani was locating savings to taxpayers.
"A contract with McKinsey for the Department of Social Services? No more," Mamdani says, pulling back an old oil painting to reveal a wad of cash that would have gone to the reviled consulting firm. "That's $9 million that we won't be spending next year."
The video is masterful content—a simple, compelling message delivered with good humor.
The problem? Nine million dollars isn't jack shit when the City is facing a $5.4 billion budget deficit over two years, and messaging like this isn't terribly useful, unless you're trying to soften the blow of some difficult decisions the administration is making, ones that would involve breaking two significant campaign promises.