Welcome to Mamdani Bulletin’s weekly summary of the administration. This is an independent project, unaffiliated with city government.
What happened in NYC last week?
Justice fast-tracked for suffering tenants — Mayor Mamdani is speeding up housing court for building owners with egregious violations, like those with no heat, hot water, gas, or electricity, or where all elevators are broken. In the most serious cases, a judge will be assigned the same day the case is filed, and landlords must appear in court within five days of being served. Even if they don’t show up, the court can order the repairs at the landlord’s expense.
Renew Crew to rapidly fix playgrounds — The city has convened a team of painters, electricians and plumbers to take on swift repair projects at parks, playgrounds, recreation centers, and sports courts around the city. At the launch, eight-year-old Maxime said, “I recorded a video asking Mayor Mamdani to help get the playground at McKinley Park fixed. It had been closed for almost two years. But guess what? A couple of weeks later, it was fixed!”
Five hit-and-run deaths in two weeks — A nurse walking home from an overnight shift was killed in a Sunset Park crosswalk yesterday, the fifth New Yorker killed by a hit-and-run driver in a fortnight. Days earlier, street safety campaigners held a die-in outside City Hall, demanding that Mamdani take urgent action on traffic safety for cyclists and pedestrian.
The BQE gets a $4 billion rebuild — In 2030, the city will launch a ten-year project to repair a crumbling stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Most of the highway is state-controlled, but the worn and heavily trafficked section beneath the Brooklyn Heights Promenade belongs to the city. The city is declining federal funding to keep control of the design – and, it says, to avoid pressure to widen it.
Queens medians will become stormwater sponges — With support from the state government, New York City will turn concrete medians into planted green infrastructure. The new infrastructure in Queens is expected to capture five million gallons of stormwater a year, preventing flooding.
And more: The city broke ground on a $36m renovation of Eastern Parkway Library • Mamdani expanded free access to Centre 360, the free observation deck atop the Dinkins Municipal Building • The city provided 1,000 discounted U.S. Open tickets to tennis fans • Mamdani explained a widely-misunderstood song lyric from musician Sean Paul
Independent media
Mamdani's BQE Plan Doubles Down on the Failures of the Past — Kevin Duggan of Streetsblog explores why transport advocates wanted the highway phased out rather than rebuilt, and what the plan means for the neighborhoods beneath it:
“The decision to continue to keep car traffic flowing through the heart of the city flies in the face of Mamdani’s pledge to speed up bus trips, one prominent advocate and supporter of the mayor’s transit agenda said.”
The New York Times Sure Wanted Kathy Hochul to Say Something About Zohran Mamdani and Antisemitism — Julianne Escobedo Shepherd of Hell Gate obtained transcript excerpts from the governor's interview with reporter Grace Ashford:
The [New York Times’] evident focus on trying to get the governor on the record to bolster its own editorial framing linking the mayor to antisemitism is itself newsworthy.
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The Mamdani administration is the biggest test of socialism in modern U.S. history. Mamdani Bulletin tracks its progress on Instagram, Threads, and our Policy Tracker.