Not much longer than a year ago, a New York state assemblyman from Astoria, Queens took to the streets of his constituency. He held a cardboard sign with the words “Let’s talk elections” scrawled across the front, and did just that: speaking with the citizens of New York City, young and old, across races and genders, to find out what they wanted for the future of the country. The little-known mayoral candidate, at the time far behind Democratic Primary frontrunners and polling at less than one percent, surveyed the political landscape and began formulating his plan to serve the needs of the New Yorkers he spoke with. Having completed his meteoric rise with an election victory, that former assemblyman earned the right to put his plan into action. In his first four weeks, Mayor Zohran Mamdani faces a very difficult but achievable battle to fulfill the promises made to his constituents.
Mamdani, a self-described Democratic Socialist, hinged his campaign on affordability, but pushback by city bureaucracy has thus far proven bothersome for the upstart mayor. His first campaign promise, to freeze rent for nearly one million New Yorkers, has been burdened by governmental red tape. Mamdani cannot simply make the declaration on his own: he must submit an appeal to the independent Rent Guidelines Board, which analyzes markets and demand for housing units to determine what landlords can charge for rent-controlled apartments. But the decision-making process of this board is historically tedious, with its nine regents often holding up the mayor’s preferred expedited pace to ensure a proper decision is made. Four members of the board were appointed by former mayor Eric Adams, whose connections to real estate lobbying made him averse to rent freezes. Mamdani will have to convince the regents to accept his plan for a 0% rent increase before the lease renewal period opens on October 1st of this year.
Directing the government with the most municipal employees of any U.S. city, Mamdani was bound to face bureaucratic setbacks. Not to be deterred, he has sought to lessen pressure on the housing market in the only other way possible: building more homes. On January 19, Mamdani committed to advancing the New York City Housing Authority’s (or NYCHA’s) Just Home program, which would build 83 new units for formerly incarcerated individuals in an underutilized building on the Bronx Hospital grounds. While just a drop in the bucket when measured against the thousands of New Yorkers seeking homes or rent relief, this pilot program represents the direction that Mamdani’s administration wants to take to tackle rising housing costs. With the elimination of restrictive zoning laws and the funding of union labor with taxpayer dollars, both initiatives the mayor has supported, apartments within city limits would become more abundant and affordable for the city’s residents. However, Mamdani’s plan, while fun to idealize, might be harder to apply in the real world. His outline for building 200,000 new apartments with $100 billion of investment over ten years relies on taxes that haven’t been levied, the alteration of zoning laws that the city assembly has yet to examine, and tens of thousands of hours of union labor that might be impossible to find. Past mayors like Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio quickly failed with their transformative housing plans, and critics fear that Mamdani may also be taking on more than he can handle with his ambitious proposal.
Other plans are on shaky ground, with doubters at the state and federal levels, but seem in prime positions to prove their importance. Congestion pricing, toll on all cars and trucks entering Lower and Midtown Manhattan below 60th Street, began under the Adams administration in an attempt to declutter crowded center city streets and provide toll money for the struggling Metropolitan Transportation Authority. President Trump opposed the program, citing its shift in preferred transportation methods from private vehicles to public transit. He vowed to effectively kill it by preventing the MTA from installing electronic plate readers on federally owned roads like the Lincoln Tunnel. However, a suit from the MTA led to a temporary stay of President Trump’s demands, meaning congestion pricing was in place for 2025. Mamdani will have to convince President Trump to either drop his demands to end the program, which the mayor supports, or defeat him in federal court. Another battle rages in the court of public opinion, as many drivers are frustrated with the $9 fee to cross into Midtown, but other public transit users are satisfied with service improvements thanks to the program’s $550 million in revenue in 2025. With the court case unlikely to be resolved anytime soon, it appears that congestion pricing is here to stay, though the ultimate verdict could signal a rift between the Trump administration and the mayor of the president’s former home. Should the courts side with Mamdani, Trump might retaliate by cancelling federal funding for other projects, such as the new Amtrak tunnel under the Hudson River. courts side with Trump, Mamdani will have to find a less invasive way to find funds for the MTA or ignore the issue entirely.
Meanwhile, Mamdani’s state-level deals proceed with cautious optimism from Democratic radicals and moderates. Affordable child care was a key talking point for Mamdani on the campaign trail. By teaming up with New York Governor Kathy Hochul and the state legislature in Albany, he has secured a commitment to fund universal childcare for children two years old or younger in the city. This pilot program received a two year guarantee, while insiders and watchdogs gauge its efficacy. But cost is a glaring issue: Hochul has pledged to back her commitment with $110 million in state funds for new childcare centers, funding she will have to win from a state legislature that is friendly but not completely captivated with her ideas. The high cost might deter stingy legislators fearing cost overruns, especially representatives from above the lower five counties who will not directly benefit from the spending. Assemblymen from Upstate New York will hold up the passage of this spending to secure similar investment into their own constituencies, adding costs to next year’s budget. But so long as Mamdani has a friend in Albany, programs like this have a high chance of success.
The gigantic bureaucracy of New York City makes progress within a month–or even a year–of inauguration difficult for most new mayors. Most of Mamdani’s accomplishments thus far have been ribbon-cuttings, town halls, Instagram posts, or declarations of grand, expensive projects built in his socialist image that are unlikely to pay dividends until a few years in the future. What’s more important is the relationships Mamdani makes with Albany and Washington in his first few months on the job. He seems to have overcome an icy start with Hochul to secure her support for his childcare project, and depending on the results of his foray into the battle for congestion pricing, he could either draw the fury of Trump or convince the president to turn a blind eye to his liberal machinations. Some goals, like Mamdani’s housing commitment, could take years to accomplish, but recent developments demonstrate the mayor’s commitment to his talking points. The former assemblyman from Queens has grown from afterthought to political heavyweight in a matter of months, but his constituents will have to wait to see when–and if–his reforms can properly take effect. . At present, Mamdani is doing all he can to deliver the promises that got him elected by the city he has lived in and represented for years. His full vision is yet to come.
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