After Hours with Jamie Rubin: A Vital City Podcast

New York might be next in a growing line of states adopting millionaire taxes — and the same old fear comes with it: tax the rich too hard and they'll leave, taking their businesses and their tax revenue with them. Cristobal Young, an economic sociologist at Cornell, has spent over twenty years testing that fear against actual IRS data, going back to New Jersey's first millionaire tax fight in 2004. His finding, consistently: millionaires barely move at all, and when they do, it's rarely for tax reasons. Jamie talks with Young about why a wealth tax on people like Elon Musk might be worth the administrative headache and why — twenty years in — the deepest driver of where people live still isn't the tax code. For more solutions-oriented thinking on urban life, visit the Vital City website at https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/

New York City just released its first-ever Urban Forest Plan — a legally mandated, decade-by-decade roadmap to get the city's tree canopy from 23% to 30% by 2040. Jamie talks with Adam Lubinsky, a partner at W X Y architecture + urban design, who helped build the plan from the ground up. They cover why preserving old trees matters as much as planting new ones, why the only property type where canopy has been shrinking is one- and two-family homes, and why one-third of the city's urban forest sits on private land that nobody's currently watching. https://report.urbanforestplan.nyc/NYC-Urban-Forest-Plan-2026.pdf For more solutions-oriented thinking on urban life, visit the Vital City website at https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/

Grand visions win elections, but functional governance is what keeps a city running. In this season premiere of "After Hours,"Jamie Rubin and Vital City founder Liz Glazer dig into a pragmatic to-do list for the new Mamdani administration: 11 tangible fixes for the first 100 days, the first installment of Vital City's new "Just Fix It" project. They discuss why unsexy improvements — like dismantling some of the city's 350 miles of scaffolding, turning on more outdoor lights to reduce crime, and clearing out the "spaghetti" of obsolete commissions — are critical to restoring New Yorkers’ faith in government. As Liz argues, there is no public policy without turning government gears that make it happen. For more solutions-oriented thinking on urban life, visit the Vital City website at https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/.

Jamie and Leila Bozorg, Executive Director For Housing and Secretary of the Charter Review Commission, analyze the ballot measure results: what it all means for building new housing stock in New York, why New Yorkers voted against "number six," and how these ballot measures will help Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani fulfill his affordable housing dreams. For more solutions-oriented thinking on urban life, visit the Vital City website at https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/.

In 2019 the storied violence at Riker's Island was on its way to being a thing of the past. Fast forward to today: not only is the jail still in full swing, but the violence, mismanagement and deaths at Rikers are perhaps worse than ever. The mayoral election is just two weeks away, and both Cuomo and Mamdani have shared their vision for the future of Rikers. Jamie talks to Liz Glazer, founder of Vital City, justice advisor under Mayor Bill DeBlasio and former federal prosecutor, to understand how we got here and what the Riker's might look like under a new administration. For more solutions-oriented thinking on urban life, visit the Vital City website at https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/.

For the past few weeks, rumors have surrounded Mayor Eric Adams and his potential resignation. Is he going to leave office early? Will he work for the Trump administration? Can his voter base really keep Mamdani from becoming the mayor of New York? Jamie and award-winning journalist and Executive Director of Citizens Union Grace Rauh pick apart these rumors and examine what this race says about the state of democracy in NYC. For more solutions-oriented thinking on urban life, visit the Vital City website at https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/.

As debates rage on over how to make housing production cheaper, Cara Eckholm — formerly of Sidewalk Labs, modular growth company Nabr, and Cornell Tech — has her eyes on modular. Cara, who now runs the urban consultancy Eckholm Studios, sits down with Jamie to discuss what New York should do to — and what pitfalls we should avoid — to build good homes faster. For more solutions-oriented thinking on urban life, visit the Vital City website at https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/.

You couldn't have missed it — on Tuesday, June 25, state assembly member Zohran Mamdani won the New York primary, beating favored contender and former governor Andrew Cuomo by 12 points. Everyone and their mother has an explanation for what happened and what a Mamdani mayoral administration would look like. But none have quite the perspective of Bradley Tusk, political strategist and founder of Tusk Strategies. Prior to his current role, Bradley served as deputy governor of Illinois, campaign manager for Michael Bloomberg, and communications director for Chuck Schumer. Jamie and Bradley sit down to recap the race and share why they think Zohran Mamdani could succeed as mayor. For more solutions-oriented thinking on urban life, visit the Vital City website at https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/.

Harvard economist Ed Glaeser and Yale Law School state and local government law professor David Schleicher don’t always agree when it comes to New York politics, but on this mayoral election they do: among the 11 candidates in the crowded field, they insist, most aren’t saying much of anything. Jamie, Ed and David run down this cycle’s policy platforms — the most overplayed, the worst, and, somewhere in the mix, the ones that might just have a shot at doing a lot of good for New York City. Harvard economist Ed Glaeser and Yale Law School state and local government law professor David Schleicher don’t always agree when it comes to New York politics, but on this mayoral election they do: among the 11 candidates in the crowded field, they insist, most aren’t saying much of anything. Jamie, Ed and David run down this cycle’s policy platforms — the most overplayed, the worst, and, somewhere in the mix, the ones that might just have a shot at doing a lot of good for New York City. For more solutions-oriented thinking on urban life, visit the Vital City website at https://www.vitalcitynyc.org/.