This essay is part of a series in which writers reflect on Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration as the mayor of New York City.  Illustration by Stuart Davis In an age when all of planning discourse has been reduced to a choice between YIMBY (“yes in my backyard”) and NIMBY (“not in my backyard”), Zohran Mamdani dodged the binary and offered something different. In his affordable housing plan, he criticized the city’s dependence on neighborhood rezonings, which channel growth toward particular locations, while calling for  more housing development across the board. “For decades,” his campaign wrote, “the City has relied almost entirely on changes to the zoning code to invite and shape private development, with results that can fall short of the promises.” And yet a top bullet point in his plan to address affordable housing production is “Increasing zoned capacity.” One might reasonably ask: How can we increase zoned capacity without neighborhood rezonings? The campaign’s answer is “comprehensive planning,” an alluring and longstanding—if Rorschachian—goal in New York City politics. What would comprehensive planning entail? Mamdani calls for upzoning …