Title: The 'People's Republic' of Astoria

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Amina Serna: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. I'm Amina Serna filling in for Brian today. He may have just made the move across the East River to Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side, but Mayor Zohran Mamdani made his name in politics in the Queens neighborhood of Astoria. He's by no means the only Democratic socialist who's represented Astoria in local and statewide elected office in recent years. There's also City Council Member Tiffany Caban, State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, and of course, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Some commentators have started calling this part of Northwest Queens the People's Republic of Astoria. Political analyst Michael Lange, who's been a guest on the show, has dubbed it part of New York City's so called Commie Corridor, stretching through Astoria, Long Island City, and into parts of Brooklyn. How did that happen? How did one neighborhood come to elect Democratic socialists at every level of government?

Naaman Zhou is a member of The New Yorker's editorial staff, and he recently reported a piece called How Did Astoria Become So Socialist? He talked with longtime residents, campaign volunteers, immigrants and organizers about what's changed and what hasn't, and he joins us now. Hi, Naaman, welcome to WNYC.

Naaman Zhou: Hi, Amina. Thanks for having me.

Amina Serna: Listeners, we want to hear from you too, especially if you live in Astoria. Does the Commie Corridor label fit you? How about The People's Republic of Astoria? Why or why not? 212-433-WNYC. That's 212-433-9692. You can also text that number. All right, so when people hear The People's Republic of Astoria, what does that actually mean on the ground? How unusual is Astoria's recent electoral record compared to the rest of the city?

Naaman Zhou: Right, yes. As you were saying, basically I feel the Zohran mayoral wave has really put Astoria on the map. I feel like before that, you thought of it as this relatively quiet suburban neighborhood, maybe well known for having nice restaurants and a nice neighbourhood feel, but Astoria is really unique in that it is the only place in New York, and maybe in America, where they have a Democratic socialist elected to every office that they have in the neighborhood. As you said, the City councilwoman is a member of DSA, the state senator is a member of DSA, and Mamdani and AOC are as well.

The interesting thing that I found when reporting this piece, and Michael, who you mentioned, said this to me a lot, is that Astoria is not actually the most left leaning neighborhood in terms of voting patterns. It's more a case of how did these elected officials all come through at the same time.

Amina Serna: Was Astoria always a fertile ground for this kind of politics in your reporting? How far back do you go to find the roots of left politics here, and how much of what we're seeing now is genuinely new?

Naaman Zhou: Right? I had this dream when I started looking into this article that I would find some long running vein of socialism in Astoria, and I would maybe meet some long standing socialists who'd lived there for generations, but most of the story does start with the Bernie Sanders campaign of 2016. I met a few local socialist activists who'd lived there for many years, but they all told me that Astoria was not a particularly political place and it wasn't a particularly socialist place before then. There's a lot of the story basically starts with demographic change.

People who live in New York, this is something that maybe they would have noticed over the past 10 years. Astoria is a place where the cost of living is relatively cheap, and it started to attract a kind of resident who cared about that. Maybe everyone I talked to gave a different date, but you can date it to the mid 2010s. Then this aligned with this nationwide movement where socialist politicians who were already strong on the cost of living started to run on that. When you talk to longtime residents, they say that in the 2010s or so, the demographics of the neighborhood started to change. It attracted a kind of person who cared about the cost of living and cared about social issues, and this electoral success of DSA started around 2015 and then onto now.

Amina Serna: Let's go to a caller, Andrew in Astoria. You're on WNYC. Hi, Andrew.

Andrew: Hey, good morning. Yes, I'm 38. I was born and grew up in Astoria. I still live in Astoria, just basically different parts around Astoria Park. I remember Mamdani campaigning in 2020 and being like, oh, like, look at this young guy. This is really cool. I voted for Mamdani. I can't speak to exactly why the majority of New Yorkers voted for him, but I would say that I've been able to stay in Astoria precisely because of what your guest is talking about. It is relatively affordable. It's still along the river, so it has that cachet. Great cafes, very, very culturally diverse.

Yes, and it's funny, because when I was growing up, nobody knew about Astoria, and then as I was contemplating moving out, around 20 years old, that's when all my friends started moving here. That was quite the shock, and I was like, yes, Astoria is actually really cool. I'm going to stay here. I remember when I was little, it was just like a lot of Greek people, and that's predominantly what it was, but it's just become really diverse, and I think working people, diverse working people tend to care about the same stuff and that's what Mamdani ran on.

Amina Serna: Andrew, thank you so much for your call. Naaman, what was coming up for you as you were listening to Andrew?

Naaman Zhou: Yes, thanks for that, Andrew. Yes, Andrew really reminds me of a lot of the people I spoke to. I spoke to this DSA member called Stylianos Karolidis, who similarly grew up in Astoria, didn't really think of it as a political socialist hotbed, but then moved out and then decided to move back once he saw the AOC campaign and the rise of DSA there.

I think it's interesting, which is so as I was saying, it's important to clarify what I mean when I say that it is extremely socialist. It's not necessarily the neighborhood with the most DSA members. It's not necessarily even a neighborhood that voted-- is the most safe, like, pro Mamdani neighborhood. Parts of Ridgewood and Bushwick actually voted for Mamdani more, but it is the place where routinely at elections, and specifically Democratic primaries, these DSA candidates win. I tried to ask myself, is there something about Astoria that makes that possible? I think Andrew hit on this, which is that, if you've ever been to Astoria, I find it to be an extremely cohesive neighborhood. It's just really nice, and people who live there, I think, know their neighbors a bit more. It's extremely walkable. People have a identity of living in Astoria. As we know from the Mamdani campaign, in person, organizing, and door knocking is incredibly, maybe surprisingly, powerful, and Astoria is a great place for that.

Amina Serna: Astoria's also had a long immigrant history, including Greek, Middle Eastern and South Asian communities. In your reporting, how did people's backgrounds shape how they understood or maybe reacted to the word socialism itself?

Naaman Zhou: Right, exactly. Most of the immigrant population in Astoria used to be Greek. Again, when I was reporting this out, I was really hoping to find this Greek history of socialism. I met a lot of amazing activists who had been involved in socialist politics in Greece and then moved here, but they really stressed to me that they considered themselves to be in the minority. They would say the majority of the immigrant population and the population in Astoria, as we were saying, pre-2010s would be Democrats and maybe Conservative Democrats, but among the immigrants who are there, from their experience in European politics, they have experience of socialist and far left governments.

Some of what I found fascinating is there are still younger Greek immigrants who come to Astoria and they grew up through the Eurozone crisis, so they have experience with Syriza, which is this left wing Greek party. For immigrant groups who come to America, a lot of them told me that they're not as scared of the word socialist as maybe people who grew up in America were. Yes.

Amina Serna: Let's talk about the term Commie Corridor. As we said a few times now, Michael Lange helped popularize it as as a kind of shorthand for understanding the political geography of the city alongside labels like Archie Bunker descendants and the capitalist corridor. In your view, is Commie Corridor a useful way to describe what's happening or does it miss important distinctions on the ground?

Naaman Zhou: I love Commie Corridor. I love Michael. Michael was, I think, the first person I spoke to for this article. I think, yes, and Michael would be the first one to tell you that Commie Corridor, while extremely useful, exactly, is not the most nuanced phrase, and it's very useful though, I think, to describe the broad area. The nuance that I would say Commie Corridor misses out on for Astoria is as, again, Michael kept telling me, Astoria is not necessarily the most left wing spot on the Commie Corridor. I think given its centrality with Ocasio-Cortez and now Mamdani, it's the most cohesive place. It's just, it's a great example of a neighborhood where for 10 years now, this group, DSA, has been organizing in the neighborhood.

Amina Serna: Here's a text. "I've lived in Astoria for 12 years. I find the PR of Astoria label to apply to a very small segment of the population here, mainly the newer residents, AKA transplants/gentrifiers, and which often overlaps with the cycling community. Fact is, Astoria remains very largely old school/conservative mindset with a continued increase of--" Oh, excuse me, just lost it. "With the continued increase of luxury apartment building developments and the influx of more educated liberal resident, there is more tension between the old schoolers and the newbies." In the end, a lot of different constituents reflected here how you. How unique is Astoria really?

Naaman Zhou: The text actually hits the nail on the head, which is that, yes, Astoria, there is a bit of divide between the newer residents, who are maybe more open to socialist politics, and the existing residents, but it's a great example of primary politics breaking through that. Astoria is unique in that it has-- The newer residents are more-- The new arrivals are more open to socialist politics and new candidates compared to other parts of Brooklyn. Sorry, other parts of Brooklyn and other parts of Queens. Yes, if you talk to people who live there, they'll point out that it's a case of good organization in the primaries that have resulted in a lot of socialist politicians being then able to win in the general.

Amina Serna: Naaman Zhou is member of The New Yorker's editorial staff. Stay tuned for All Of It.

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