New Non-Partisan Organization Chaired by 2025 Mayoral Candidate and Veteran Attorney Jim Walden Will Champion a Safe, Affordable City for All
NEW YORK, NY — NYC Common Sense today launched as an independent, non-partisan watchdog organization dedicated to ensuring New Yorkers have the information they need to evaluate City Hall’s initiatives and championing data-driven policies that can produce real results.
The organization is chaired by Jim Walden, a nationally recognized trial lawyer, former federal prosecutor, and 2025 independent mayoral candidate.
NYC Common Sense will monitor the administration’s record on a variety of issues, from public safety and housing to economic opportunity and government transparency, using every tool at its disposal – including litigation when warranted – to ensure that City Hall delivers for every New Yorker.
“New Yorkers deserve a government built on effectiveness and accountability — not ideology and political theater,” said Walden. “NYC Common Sense will apply that standard to our leaders every single day. We will follow the budget, track the promises, and make sure the broad middle of New York’s electorate is not drowned out by the loudest voices at the extremes of either side.”
The launch comes just over four months into Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s tenure. In that short time, City Hall:
- Backed off on its pledge to create free buses.
- Plans to spend more than $70 million in public funds on city-run grocery stores that will squeeze out existing markets, including $30 million on a single store slated to open during the next mayoral campaign in 2029.
- Reversed a campaign promise to expand the housing voucher program CityFHEPS.
- Proposed phasing out programs for gifted and talented kids.
- Decriminalized e-bike enforcement in the face of rising fatalities and injuries.
- Rejected the addition of 5,000 officers to the significantly understaffed NYPD.
- Vetoed a bill that would protect students from intimidation and harassment when entering or exiting school.
- Vilified business owners who create jobs and generate millions in revenue, sparking a potential economic exodus from the city that would cut into the city’s tax base.
- Misused millions in taxpayer dollars to fund new, politically motivated efforts like Organize NYC and the Office of Mass Engagement, while cutting services and programs New Yorkers need.
NYC Common Sense is an independent, non-partisan organization focused on awareness and education. It was born of the belief that a sound, results-oriented and apolitical approach is the best way to keep the streets and subways safe, drive down housing costs by encouraging the development of more affordable units, help small businesses thrive, and keep City Hall operating in a fair and transparent manner.
NYC Common Sense initially will focus on:
- Public Safety: Tracking the administration’s record on policing, providing support and adequate resources to first responders, transit safety, and crime.
- Housing & Affordability: Following what’s getting built, what’s being blocked, and how housing policy impacts renters, homeowners, and small landlords.
- Jobs & the Economy: Documenting how the administration’s policies are impacting businesses of all sizes, employers, and the tax base that funds essential services.
- Honest, Transparent Government: Monitoring open-records compliance, conflicts of interest, and the gap between campaign promises and administration delivery.
The organization is donor-supported and independent of any political party or candidate committee.
ABOUT JIM WALDEN
Jim Walden is a nationally recognized trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor who has spent his career holding powerful institutions accountable. Across his more than 30-year career in private practice, Jim has built one of New York City’s premier litigation boutiques while taking on some of the city’s most consequential challenges, including forcing the Department of Education to protect bullied schoolchildren, securing lead inspections for tens of thousands of NYCHA tenants and, through that effort, securing $250 million in emergency repairs for over 400,000 NYCHA residents, stopping illegal parkland transfers in Manhattan and Brooklyn, successfully challenging gerrymandered district maps, and restoring food assistance to thousands of impoverished New Yorkers. Previously, Jim served as a federal prosecutor, during which he convicted more than 100 members and associates of the Mafia for violent crimes, crippling those organizations.
CONTACT
info@nyccommonsense.com