MNY Politics Roundup #2
Plaudits // Events // Writing // RFEs and RFWs and General Requests // Jobs
Last week’s roundup was called “MNY Abundance Roundup,” but this one is called “MNY Politics Roundup #2.” Most of the stuff I post about will likely be abundance aligned, but I wanted it to be a bit broader—whatever is going on in New York politics that’s interesting/actionable, with occasional commentary from the wider arena. You can just change the name of a series when it’s your blog!
Plaudits
🏆 Micah Lasher, who represents part of the Upper West Side in Assembly District 69, has a newsletter. His most recent piece is a movie review of the documentary “Drop Dead City.” He gets a plaudit, because I think all legislators should have a blog where they write widely on policy and culture (and the ones who code should link their GitHub so we can see commits). Plus the review is good! Also: if you’re one of his constituents, and you’ve never connected with his office before, consider this your prompt. Say hello and ask how you can help him build more housing in NYC (or whatever).
🏆 Samir Thanedar is hosting his first political fundraiser this coming Tuesday, May 6, for city council candidate Ben Wetzler. Join him, especially if you live in District 4!
🏆 Zach Thomas, who writes Friends of New York City Abundance, is hosting his first political fundraiser this coming Thursday, May 1, for mayoral candidate Zellnor Myrie. Join him! For more info on Zellnor, see his interview with The New York Editorial Board.
Note on political fundraisers: you don’t have to fully align with a candidate to go to one. The point is to get to know the candidate a little more personally, see what they think, and shake their hand. I highly encourage everyone to attend fundraisers, and to host them. Both are vital civic skills. Here are some good first-time fundraiser reflections.
🏆 Tal Roded is on the plaudits list for the second time in a row with a new post on his new blog, NYCuriosity: “Politics, Proclamations & Public Engagement: Manhattan CB3’s April Session in Review.” Starting a publication and writing well about NYC civics/politics is a high value thing to do, but most people don’t do it. Of those who do, 99% get one post up and then quit. For me, the real test is whether you can get to ten. The MNY email list is watching you, Tal! He’s at two of ten.
Events & Things to Do
🗓️ Evens to go to, calendars to subscribe to:
Come to the monthly Maximum New York meetup/party on Saturday, May 17.
Go to the NYC 2025 Primary Bootcamp UWS Meetup next Wednesday, May 7.
👑 I’m helping to organize Abundance Queens, which you’ll hear more about in May. If you live in The World’s Borough and want in on the ground floor, send me an email (daniel@maximumnewyork.com), a Substack DM, or drop a comment. I heard from a decent amount of you last week, and I’d love to hear from more!
🥇 After last week’s post, I had a few people ask if I knew anyone in the Bronx who wants to organize a regular Abundance meetup. If you live in The First Borough and want to meet others interested in Abundance, send me an email (daniel@maximumnewyork.com), a Substack DM, or drop a comment.
🎓 The Maximum New York Lyceum will launch early this summer, with more details coming soon. You will select a New York policy area of choice, and become an expert in it by the end of the year (this involves reading at least five books about it, for example). But that’s not all—you will help bring good policy change into the world! If this sounds exciting, but you’re not sure how you’d do it, don’t worry. I and others will be on hand to help establish and guide your research. The group will be no larger than 20, and you will work together to level each other up, even as you dive deeper into your various areas of research. You can suggest your own research area, but some already on the table: expanding Manhattan via land reclamation, and NYC’s rent regulation system.
Writing & Media
This section contains things I think are interesting, relevant to the project of building a better New York and America, and of interest to all of you.
Dipali Gupta published a beautiful meditation on the MTA capital budget, “Motionless in a City Built on Motion” (April 28, 2025). Guess how much the budget is before you click through to the story, and see how the guess compares.
Sachi Takahashi-Rial has a nice, short piece on changing NYC politics with social media, “How Carla Marie Built a TikTok Following by Making NYC Politics Relevant and Fun” (April 28, 2025).
Does Abundance Start at Home? Kelsey Piper and Jasmine Sun talk about microschools, whether localism is the enemy of Abundance, and why Chinese bureaucrats are like Growth PMs, from Asterisk Magazine (April 22, 2025).
A YIMBY Theory of Power in The Nation (April 28, 2025).
Committing to the Drill Bit: Derisking Enhanced Geothermal’s Unique Market Structure, by the Center for Public Enterprise—located in Brooklyn, NY! (April 29, 2025).
Stealing ‘Abundance’: Conservatives, not liberals, are best positioned to build—and in many cases, are already doing so, from Commonplace (April 28, 2025). This piece hits on many of the same points I made in Call It Blue Tape.
RFEs: Requests for Events
Knitting together social fabric is one of the most high-value things someone can do for the political future of New York. Here are some events I would like to see. If someone wants to host these, I would help get them off the ground and would love to attend. If you haven’t hosted an event like these before, no problem! You’ll be a pro in no time, and at the center of a healthy, growing political ecosystem.
Host a salon to read Theodore Roosevelt’s The Duties of American Citizenship aloud with your friends. It’s my favorite American political speech, and there’s something transformative about reading a speech aloud with your friends—after all, that’s how speeches are supposed to be experienced! I can supply pamphlets, and will be happy to help discuss the larger historical and political context of the speech, which was delivered in 1893. TR was a great New Yorker, and had a whole history in New York City before he went on to the presidency.
Host an evening where you and your friends (or your company!) review city and state bills relevant to your industry/interest. Are you a technologist? Invite your friends over and see what AI bills are pending at the city and state level. Do you want more housing to be built? Are you interested in criminal justice, criminal procedure, and what’s going on at Rikers? Well, get the gang together and see what the evolving policy landscape looks like, and see what you want to do about it. I’ll help you find all the legislation, and will help you read/interpret it too. Just make sure to have snacks.
Suggest your own! Ask for help!
RFWs: Requests for Writing
Create and publish the definitive guide to SEQRA. This would be a bibliography of relevant statute, case law, and more to understand New York State’s environmental review law. Create a guide that could quickly onboard any smart, interested person. Reforming SEQRA is vital for New York’s future, and an important part of that reform is teaching people what it is. You can become the expert! You don’t even have to produce it in one go. You can write it as a long series of blog posts first, in easy, manageable chunks.
Abundance Jobs
Are you working in the Abundance space? Do you need to hire someone excellent? Well this newsletter has many such people in its audience. Send me your listings, especially if they relate to New York City and State.
Challenge accepted! Road to 10 articles in progress… 🏗️🌇
Thanks for the shout out 🙌