Autumn, suddenly, in New York and a sharp breeze whips along West 30th where tourists in scarves and hats pose for photos beside the 4.8m pigeon sculpture on the raised High-Line walk that cuts through 10th, while underneath early voters make their way to The Shed on 11th Avenue.

It’s a week out from the election and the front page of the New York Post laid out the stark task facing the residents of Gotham: “One Week To Save New York”.

It might have been a prop from one of those periodic disaster movies featuring tsunami waves or alien monsters rampaging through the avenues.

But the tabloid was on a full-court press to dissuade the boroughs from electing 34-year-old Zohran Mamdani as the city’s 112th mayor. “Every vote counts to stop socialist takeover,” it warned, adding the ominous rider: “Zohran lies about 9/11 aunt”.

But Mamdani’s ascent towards Tuesday night’s election count, from an obscure state assemblyman who was polling at 1 per cent when he started to campaign in January, seems unassailable. A combination of loquaciousness, photogenic charm, evident sincerity and a manifesto based on universal fairness – a rent freeze; free bus transport; higher taxes for the mega-wealthy – caught the imagination of the majority in a city where just living has become a fiendishly expensive proposition.

He is a Muslim, a democratic socialist and a one-time aspiring rapper who crafted an ingenious campaign based on small donations and volunteers.

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