Since August 30, the Mamdani administration:
… fixed “Crashland”, an infamous street hazard in Downtown Brooklyn. The small but dangerous bike lane gap was created by Eric Adams’ administration to appease a real estate developer. Watch a 1-minute video explainer.
… published a plan to combat racial injustice: the NYC Racial Equity Plan. The framework includes goals to cut Black maternal mortality, shrink the jail population, and close disparities in public transit access.
… recorded the safest summer ever. The city had fewer shootings, shooting victims, and murders from June through August than in any previous year. Murders are down over 24% year to date, with the sharpest declines in the Bronx.
… approved year-round outdoor dining. Mayor Mamdani signed a Council bill into law, ending the costly Adams-era requirement that businesses tear down their outdoor dining setups every winter.
… signed two new executive orders. Mayor Mamdani said, “‘Never Forget’ is not a slogan. It is a commitment that we must carry forward through action” as he established a Day of Remembrance and Service for 9/11, and a new group to strengthen emergency preparedness. See all his executive orders here.
… demanded the release of counterterrorism funding. Mayor Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul urged the Trump administration to release security grant money owed to the city, warning that the delay leaves the NYPD and state security agencies short on resources for protecting New Yorkers.
… announced a school AI moratorium. Mayor Mamdani announced a one-year pause on student-facing generative AI for kids through eighth grade, around 600,000 students. Companion chatbots are banned in all grades and high schoolers get supervised pilot programs and AI literacy lessons.
… launched a major street redesign. The city says its comprehensive infrastructure project on Manhattan’s 116th Street will deliver 2.5 miles of bus lanes, protected bike lanes, and 35,000 square feet of pedestrian space.
Smear of the Week
The smear: The New York Post claimed the Mamdani administration is using taxpayer money to fund a “200-strong influencer army,” while illegally communicating with them through the encrypted messaging app Signal.
Where it gets worse: City Hall disputed the reporting, so the Post turned on Emilia Rowland, Mamdani’s new media director, with personal insults and false claims about her family. Rowland responded with a thread dismantling the paper’s lies.
The reality: The administration shares updates in a Signal group with social media creators — some of whom are supportive of the mayor, none of whom are paid for their coverage.
Signal use doesn’t break the city’s record retention laws, and the app’s feature of auto-deleting messages now exists on nearly every chat platform. Deleting messages can be a violation, and City Hall said it took corrective action after an isolated incident of a staffer doing so.
The taxpayer money claim is false too. Creators are spending their own resources to amplify the administration's progress, not to chase a paycheck — they believe in the city's leadership and the movement behind it. But principle is a motive that New York Post “journalists” may struggle to grasp.
Strip out the false claims and there’s no story left — which is why the Post went after the person who pointed that out.
Fair Criticism
Childcare providers went unpaid. Many owners of early childhood centers said they were forced to take out personal loans, or dip into savings, because city funding they were owed never arrived. Mayor Mamdani called the delays unacceptable and pledged $43 million to fix procurement — but some providers had already been carrying the cost for weeks.
The AI moratorium may not go far enough. Fairplay and the AI Moratorium for NYC Schools coalition — parents and educators who spent a year campaigning for the pause — called Mamdani’s moratorium a step in the right direction, but said it carries too many exceptions, runs too short, and skips racial bias and environmental impacts. They want a two-year pause.
Progress Tracker: Mamdani at 8 Months
Zohran Mamdani made a lot of big promises on the campaign trail. Eight months in, here’s where he stands on ten of his biggest pledges — from freezing the rent to taxing the rich.
Mamdani Bulletin is an independent project the administration.
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