New Yorkers are already moving to Connecticut in anticipation of a Mamdani win
Trying to beat the mad rush:
As Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani surges ahead in New York City’s mayoral race, residents are racing to secure homes in the leafy, affluent enclaves of Connecticut and Westchester County — driven by anxieties over potential policy shifts that could reshape the city’s economic and social fabric.
Real-estate brokers in these suburban markets report a frenzy reminiscent of the early pandemic exodus, with properties vanishing in days amid fierce competition and all-cash deals that push prices far beyond expectations.
In Greenwich, long home to the well-heeled, available listings have dwindled to historic lows, hovering around 117 from more than 800 a few years earlier. It has fueled intense rivalries even for multimillion-dollar estates.
They’ll have egg on their faces, I suppose, if he somehow loses. But I don’t think he will lose.
Why don’t they move further away? I guess because they want to keep their NYC jobs and access, and are willing to commute. It will be fascinating – if Mamdani is in fact elected – to see if there’s a massive exodus from New York or not. The rich have more options than the poor, as usual.
Perhaps we’ll also see Staten Island – the only conservative borough of New York – really get serious about seceding from the city, something it’s talked about for many decades. Staten Island also has a much smaller population than the other boroughs, and is often called “the forgotten borough” of New York. But Staten Island is a huge Trump stronghold, having voted for him in all three presidential elections in which he’s run. He got abut 2/3 of the Staten Island vote in 2024, for example.
I’ll take Manhattan.
The Bronx and Staten
Island too.*
The forgotten borough?! Lorenz Hart made sure it will always be remembered.
*I love that lyric! Very clever.
Hi Neo, I’m a lifelong Staten Islander. Geographically there are 3 political divides. The north shore of Staten Island is extremely democrat and will probably vote for Mamdani. Mid-island and the South shore are Republican.
I live on the north shore and have run a few campaigns for local offices. The numbers are very frustrating with democrats outnumbering Republicans by a huge amount. Hopefully things will change. I voted today and made a last moment decision to hold my nose and vote for Cuomo.
Could Staten Island secede from the city legally? I have no idea what New York law says about that.
Kate:
Some information can be found at this link.
Kate, about 25 years ago we actually voted to secede. 66% wanted to leave. The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver ( who eventually went to jail for corruption) simply vetoed the vote. No serious effort has been made since then.
Davemay:
It must have been painful to vote for Cuomo, but I think you did the right thing.
Rufus T. Firefly:
The next line – “It’s lovely going through the zoo” – has long made wonder whether it’s the Bronx Zoo or the Staten Island Zoo.
Neo: I had the same thought-why don’t they move farther away?
Here is a sample of what you can buy for $2.4M in Riverside (East side of Greenwich CT)
https://www.christopherfountain.com/blog/2025/10/29/good-lord
If NYC will be a hellscape, why be within commuting distance?! I mean what would you be commuting to? I think a relo and job change would be in order
Many conservatives have left New York. Likewise blue states in general. With the net effect that those areas become bluer.
I would argue that Mamdani wouldn’t have stood a chance to be mayor twenty or even ten years ago.
Re: Zoo
Paul Simon was a New Yorker. He wrote a light, fun song about a zoo there. Don’t know which:
______________________
Someone told me
It’s all happening at the zoo
I do believe it
I do believe it’s true
It’s a light and tumble journey
From the East Side to the park
Just a fine and fancy ramble to the zoo
But you can take the crosstown bus
If it’s raining or it’s cold
And the animals will love it
If you do …
–“At The Zoo/ Simon & Garfunkel/ (1967)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qRHKqfFcYc
______________________
It’s not a major S&G song but it always make me smile.
huxley:
I’ve always liked that song.
But I’m not sure it’s not just a generic zoo in some generic city rather than a specific NY zoo. It’s not the Staten Island Zoo for example, which is much more of a long trip and would involve ferry or bridge, The Bronx Zoo isn’t crosstown from the East Side, unless it’s the east side of the Bronx (which to the best of my knowledge isn’t called the east side). The East Side is in Manhattan, and if you take a crosstown bus to the park (as in the song) you could get to the Central Park Zoo. However, it doesn’t have zebras or elephants, which the song mentions.
107 SECONDS TO PARADISE – Ann Coulter
After this, Ms. Coulter gets negative.
https://anncoulter.com/2025/10/30/107-seconds-to-paradise/
If all of these refugees from NYC are so rich (look at the prices in the NYPost story Neo linked), why were they still there?
If they are rich conservatives, even more so.
If they are rich Democrats, what made this election their final tipping point for leaving?
And how are they voting now, while they still live in their old homes?
That house in Greenwich looks like a mansion compared to my house in Silicon Valley which has been valued at close to $2M on Zillow/Redfin. Disclaimer: paid $250k for it in 1995. And was overpriced then compared to almost anywhere else in the country.
“Many conservatives have left New York. Likewise blue states in general. With the net effect that those areas become bluer.”
Huxley, that is called “the Curley effect”. It has gone nationwide, contributing to the political polarization of not only cities but many states.
Interesting view of what you can get for a couple of mill. Location, as the realtors say. But…what is it outside the door that makes people want to live there?
The location is New England. Used to have family there. One cousin in Norwich, CT, said years ago that he wouldn’t put his car in a garage which cost under $100k. He wasn’t a garage snob. Anything costing less would probably fall on his car.
Eventually, after a certain number of miles, NYC isn’t a part of your life. It’s a place some miles away you go to once in a while, or maybe not. But the location, for purposes of home prices, is New England. And you’re going to pay.
I have no intention of moving, but when we travel–by car so as to see the country–I sometimes try to get a feel for the area as a place to move to.
The mid-south has some advantages. Lots of hills, which people like and are a feature of New England. Small towns seem relatively prosperous. Where there’s some altitude, the summers are not particularly hot. Indeed, there are places where old money went, even prior to the Civil War, to escape the summer heat. Banner Elk is one place. Interesting even today. Off the main road there are upscale subdivisions with nobody in them. We were there in April and weren’t sure those were owned by the summer crowd or the ski crowd.
You’d be a ways from any large city or industrial area, but if your life and job could get by without those, areas like this would likely be cheaper than New England.
I know some folks who’ve migrated from Florida and Texas to Michigan. They’ll take our winters rather than averaging 100+ daily in the summer. Mid South is a compromise.
All of which said, what proportion of NYC voters for Mamdani are going to profit from the catastrophe? And of those who have front seats at the Trough and can grab money going past….how many will be left when the money runs out?
As it surely will.
The rest of the voters are going to punch themselves in the face seeking free stuff, much of which won’t happen, and those who hate the people Mamdani hates.
The victims are he minority trying to do the right thing but unable to afford to flee.
Connecticut long ago shed its rock-ribbed New England reputation, and is extremely left-wing in it own right. Like all those suburbs of Washington DC. So this may be described as jumping out of one frying pan into another.
Ben
Too bad. My father and his ancestors were in Norwich back some generations. I was there until maybe ten years old and visited on vacations.
Figured that maybe within half an hour’s commute of NYC would be contaminated but the rest would be okay.
AesopFan, “If all of these refugees from NYC are so rich (look at the prices in the NYPost story Neo linked), why were they still there?”
I think a lot of people don’t think purely logically about where they live. They live where they live. I grew up in Chicago and never imagined I’d leave, never thought about leaving, and, had I continued to live there I doubt I would have ever weighed the costs, climate, amenities, traffic, crime, taxes… against any other geographic options.
For the rich it must be even easier to not think about relocating.
Richard and Ben,
We lived in Lebanon, CT a very rural town just NW of Norwich. When we left it was about 50/50 red/blue. Now, 5 years later it is definitely more blue than red which is the trend in CT. I still watch the Lebanon facebook page and there are still people complaining about such things as the additional $100 or so fee on electric bills to “help the poor”, and other typical liberal BS that CT pushes. However, Murphy still wins the vote there as does the Ds for state offices.
Sudan: totally neglected by the media because the horrific events there are contrary to the narrative the media wants to present.
Bill Gates: what a hypocritical, arrogant POS he is.
He lives on the east shore of Lake Washington in Medina, Washington in a gigantic mansion; 66,000 sq ft.. He demolished two (or was it three?) nice homes to build his mansion. (I don’t recall, though at the time he built his home, I was living 10 miles northeast of his home).
Though I really don’t know, I will surmise his home has a natural gas cooking stove. Oh yeah, he owns 4 private jets and has a 23 car collection.
Yep, he is a real environmentalist !!
Anyway, now that enormous amounts of electricity will be needed to build the dozens of massive AI server farms – which must rely on natural gas or coal or nuclear plants to provide reliable energy – Gates is now singing a different climate tune.
Being the cynic that I am, Microsoft – the largest tech investment in the Gates Foundation Trust – is a major investor in AI, and you can bet your house that Gates is not urging that MIcrosoft invest only in wind or solar powered AI facilities.
Geez, I wonder why?
I just don’t get it.
Of course, Gates is immune from the consequences of the policies he promotes given his wealth. The same cannot be said of the citizens of Sri Lanka.
And since Gates is a lefty, greenie, well, he is also immune from any criticism from the enviro wacko left.
You won’t see that Swedish mental case – Greta Thunberg abandoning her maritime treks to Gaza to protest Gates’ new stance on climate change.
Gates is your proto-typical progressive; the unwashed masses must listen to his prescriptions, but don’t expect him to follow them.
Journalists will always make three people into a “trend”. Remember all the stories about people leaving the country if Bush or Trump was elected?
The evidence presented in the article is anecdotes from a half-dozen people on half-dozen houses followed by statistics going back months predating the election. I could write a mirror-image article using a half-dozen houses that won’t sell, quoting a half-dozen people who love Mamdani, as evidence that New Yorkers are staying put. Plenty of articles like that.
Anticipating those who misunderstand my comment as pro-Mamdani, it’s not, it’s anti-journalist.
physicsguy
I recall Lebanon from my Dad’s stories.
How far north does the virus go? Is there someplace in New Hampshire where it’s New England?
“How far north does the virus go? Is there someplace in New Hampshire where it’s New England?”
Well consider the current politics of Vermont (Bernie Sanders) and Maine (The Dem with the Nazi tattoo. Susan Collins being about as far right as you can go). That should answer your question. In 1936 they were the only two states that voted against FDR.
When I was growing up in CT in the 50s and 60s the Democrats were a little to the left of center, the Republicans a little to the right and supporting different political parties was like rooting for different college football teams. This is where Connecticut is today:
https://nypost.com/2025/10/28/opinion/leftist-madness-infected-my-small-towns-council-now-im-at-risk/
“Figured that maybe within half an hour’s commute of NYC would be contaminated but the rest would be okay.” No such luck, the big city on the other side is Boston. In reference to Milford in the NYP article it is between New Haven and Bridgeport so closer to NYC but the state is pretty uniformly blue now. Possible “light blue” patches but not much else.
The red area of Connecticut begins north of Milford and runs northward to the Massachusetts border. The column averages about 3-4 municipalities wide. There’s another light red zone one muni wide running along the Rhode Island border.
FOAF:
The more rural and more northern parts of NH, Vermont, and Maine tend towards the red. And NH is still red on the state level (governor and legislature).
AD,
Ahhh the infamous Voluntown Nazis along the RI/CT border. At least that’s the reputation given those poor swamp Yankees by the more “sophisticated ” people of CT.
Neo,
We have friends in Lancaster, NH. That area is bleeding red and turning blue. Littleton is already lost.
physicsguy:
That’s why I used the word “tend.”
Well maybe some of those towns in CT with 1000 people or fewer elect a Republican once in a while …
“North of Milford”
Like Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury and New Britain lol
@ Niketas > “it’s anti-journalist.”
I’m not surprised to see the Gen Z enthusiasm for Mamdani; we all know they have no knowledge of history and so no anticipation of disaster because of his socialist policies (they need to listen to those TikTok ladies from Iran and Russia on another thread).
BUT, there is no journalistic excuse for publishing this tripe with such obvious approval:
“And while the participants are supporting Mamdani because they believe his policies would make their lives easier, the historic nature of his candidacy is not lost on them.
“New York City was the center of Islamophobia after 9/11, and New York City is about to elect their first Muslim mayor. And that’s badass,” Patrick said.”
It is NOT “Islamophobia” if they really ARE trying to kill you, and succeeding!
It is badass. But not in the sense Patrick thinks.
@AesopFan:we all know they have no knowledge of history and so no anticipation of disaster because of his socialist policies
Granted the first part, but Mamdani cannot impose socialism or sharia on New York City. He can do stuff like work to raise city taxes, defund or defang the police, spend money on stupid things that don’t work, implement various policies that annoy rich and/or poor, but he only has the powers available to a mayor.
If there are any New Yorkers fleeing because Mamdani is going to create gulags or behead people who insult Islam, they are just as delusional as anyone in GenZ expecting he’s going to create woke paradise.
I personally think he is an Obama-style huckster, an empty suit willing to do or say about anything to climb the ladder. I’m anticipiating a lot of talk and very few consequences, because the party machine is behind him and he will be doing what they want done or he’ll find himself ejected from office like Andrew Cuomo. I’m quite certain that life in NYC will be slightly more of the same as it has been.
Nikita
If local, informal sharia takes over a neighborhood, could Mamdani force the police to leave it alone? See the UK.
No distance is far enough.
@Richard Aubrey: How do you know that isn’t the case now? Even if not, why would Cuomo do it differently? Selective law enforcement is not new for NYC.
the city council of Gotham will likely not put up any resistance, maybe the Russian born one, vernakova (if memory serves) look at the Capital of Airship One, London’s mayor as a guideline, (khan is a more respectable barrister than mamdani, but not by much) we think the Courts, that did nothing to stop the Trump proscriptions, will do anything,
he has said he wants to put principal bowman as superintendent, and check if not remove tisch as police commissioner,
Cuomo has proved unreliable in many respects, see cashless bail, his virtue signaling on abortion, the way he disowned that rather sharp commercial last week
Niketas
Selective law enforcement has been obvious in a number of large cities.
But if the Muslims get that treatment, I think (hope) that the larger society will be less comfortable than if the Favored Group were another bunch.
NYC and the US in general don’t have the drooling submission to Islam which seems to be the case in the UK and other European nations. “ISLAMOPHOBIA!!” won’t have the same impact here, I hope.
Incidentally it’s not as though Mamdani lives the sharia lifestyle or anything like it. Wife doesn’t even cover her hair, far from it. They’re about as Muslim as the Obamas are Christian.