The Big Apple “will be a disaster” under Zohran Mamdani, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani believes — because the socialist mayor-elect fundamentally misunderstands the homeless problem.
Mamdani’s pledge to end sweeps of homeless camps will create a “ticking time bomb,” Giuliani proclaimed, noting many on the streets are “paranoid schizophrenics” who tend to get “much worse” and even “violent” in isolation.
“The thing paranoid schizophrenics need is contact,” he told The Post this week.
“The therapy . . . is constant talking, constant bringing them out. So think about it, the more they go inward that’s how they go from being a relatively safe person that first goes into homelessness to a killer five weeks later, five months later.
“So he is going to produce . . . possibly the most dangerous thing a New York mayor has ever done,” predicted Giuliani, adding he fears dark days ahead for the city not seen since the crime-ravaged early 1990s under Mayor David Dinkins.
The late Dinkins, like Mamdani, was a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
An August AP-NORC/Harris poll found 43% of Americans favor clearing homeless encampments compared to 25% who don’t.
Cities can enforce bans on people sleeping outside in public places, according to a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Even lefties like California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom and Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu have implemented policies resulting in the clearing of homeless encampments in their states.
Giuliani praised outgoing Mayor Adams, saying the moderate Democrat inherited a disaster from his far-left predecessor, Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“Adams has done a pretty good job,” said Giuliani, adding he’s got the city at least “halfway back,” in terms of public safety, to how it was under him and ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“That is not bad when you consider he’s got a City Council that should be in Red China,” quipped Giuliani.
He also praised Mamdani’s decision to keep Adams appointee Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner — though Giuliani questioned how long the relationship will last.
Mamdani is under too much pressure from the DSA and other far-left factions to push a soft-on-crime agenda, he added.
“Even if he wants to be reasonable — which I am not sure he does — they are going to bang him,” he said
Giuliani currently resides in Palm Beach, Fla., but he said he regularly visits the Big Apple, including two weeks ago to take in the opera.
“It still looks pretty good,” he said. “Adams did some good things, you know?
“The city’s not bad right now. It isn’t the city that it was when Bloomberg gave it to de Blasio, or I gave it to Bloomberg, but it’s nowhere as bad as when Dinkins gave it to me.
“I’m just really very concerned about what will happen next.”
Mamdani’s office did not return messages.
