Build universal child care as Mamdani vowed to do |
Luisa wakes up before the sun rises in the Bronx. She’s checking the day’s schedule: an infant arriving at 6 a.m., a toddler who will stay until 7:30 p.m., a preschooler whose mother picks him up after finishing her hospital shift. Luisa knows every family’s routines, their favorite toys, the foods their children can’t eat, who needs a nap early, and whose grandmother calls on WhatsApp every afternoon.
This is what home-based child care looks like in New York City: intimate, personal, flexible, and absolutely essential. And yet, as the city prepares to build a universal child care system, it is the form of care most at risk of being overlooked.
Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor because he spoke to the people who make New York work: the halal cart vendors, bus drivers, delivery workers, home health aides, elder caregivers, sanitation workers, and bodega owners. He promised a city where they can afford to stay, raise their children, and thrive. If he wants to deliver on that vision, the path forward begins with the kind of care workers like Luisa provide.
Across the five boroughs, more than