NYC NOW - 100 Days Into Mayor Mamdani’s Term: How Has He Done?

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

In his first 100 days, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has tried to turn big progressive promises into policy while managing the day to day demands of running New York City. Political scientist Dr. Christina Greer joins us to break down the mayor’s early wins, his “pothole politics” approach, and where he has already had to compromise. Plus, what the city’s $5.4 billion budget deficit could mean for his plans for free buses, child care, and more. -Got any questions, comments or story ideas? Send us a message at [e-mail]

From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jenae Pierre. New York City Mayor Zora Mamdani has hit 100 days on the job. On today's episode, we explore the campaign promises he's been able to deliver and other plans he's had to compromise on. But before we get into that, here's what's happening in our region. Union leaders are focused on building support for organized labor across the city. unions gathered over the weekend in Midtown Manhattan

for a rally headlined by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Mayor Mumdani also spoke. Francisco Gashay is a special education teacher representing the United Federation of Teachers. She spoke about concerns with Tier 6, the state's public employee pension system. I'm a special ed teacher, and so the burnout is actually real,

especially here in District 75, which is where I work with students with severe needs. And so just having the option to be able to retire with dignity at a decent age. Tier 6 was created in 2012, and union leaders say it provides lower benefits than earlier pension tiers. The rally also marked the launch of Union Now,

a national effort to support organizing campaigns and increase union membership. City Hall and NYPD officials traveled to Columbus, Ohio, last week to study a protest policing model built on conversation instead of force. The trip is part of Mayor Mum, Donny's push to overhaul the NYPD's strategic response group. That's the union that handles both counterterrorism and occasional protests.

The protest unit in Columbus has become a national model. It puts dialogue officers at the front line instead of tactical units. Russell Assan is an Ohio State professor who studied the Columbus model. He says police there drove the change themselves. Any kind of change that is top-down is sort of resisted. NYPD officials say they're also putting an emphasis on dialogue over confrontation, with the strategic response group hanging back during protests unless things get out of hand. After several spring fakeouts, New Yorkers are ready for the real thing,

but this week's weather may be too real for some of us. Either way, get ready for some heat. Forecasters say temperatures will be unseasonably warm, plus it'll be pretty windy too, with wind speeds hitting 30 miles per hour, or more. Tuesday's highs will be around 80 degrees. Meteorologists say temperatures this week will peak at around 86 degrees on Wednesday when there's also a chance of showers. Put away your coats and grab that portable fan you might just need it. From universal child care to pothole politics, Mayor Zoramam Dani has taken it all on during his first 100 days in office. We'll get into that

after a quick break. Welcome back. On January 1st, Zoroamam Dhani took the oath of office as New York City's 112th mayor. He's the first Muslim and Asian American to ever hold the job. And at 34 years old, the youngest in over a century. Here is what we stand for, my friends. He stepped into City Hall with promises to freeze rent. We are going to freeze the rent for more than two million rent-stabilized tenants. Provide universal child care.

At no cost to parents. Make every city bus free to ride. Eliminate the fair on every single bus line. And open city-owned grocery stores in every borough. In his 100th day address on Sunday, Mayor Mumdani announced that the first of these stores will open next year. We are building a brand new store on city-owned land, currently sitting empty in East Harlem.

The mayor emphasized his commitment to Democratic socialism and that his governing isn't just about sweeping promises. It's all about the basics, too. This is pothole politics. Our 2026 answer to sewer socialism. It's not too busy, not too self-important, not too mired in paperwork, to fix the problems of this city no matter their size. To keep fixing New York City's problems, big and small,

the mayor will first have to navigate a massive $5.4 billion budget deficit. Now that we've hit day 100, I wanted to take a chance to ask questions about how a Democratic socialist is actually governing a place like New York City. To answer that, we'll have to look at Mayor Mumdani's early wins and where he's already had to compromise. Dr. Christina Greer is a political scientist and associate professor at Fordham University.

She's been tracking every single move of this new administration, and she joins me now. Dr. Greer, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me. Absolutely. So let's start with some of the big promises that got candidate Mumdani elected in the first. place. And honestly, you can kind of sum it up with, you know, what we've seen written on those

campaign posters in people's windows or the ones being held up at campaign rallies. I can think of a few freeze the rent, fast and free buses, child care for all. Am I missing any, Doc? Maybe homelessness and city run groceries. Those are two other campaign promises that weren't as prominent as the top three, but definitely circling around. Definitely cheaper groceries and also build affordable. housing. So let's go through them one by one, shall we? Sure. All right. Let's start with a fan favorite or a voter's favorite. Freeze the rent. The mayor has appointed six of the nine members of the Independent Rink Guidelines Board, and the board is scheduled for a preliminary vote on increases

in May with a final vote coming up in June. How important is this board when it comes to this plan? Well, definitely having the mayor appointing. his six individuals is helpful, but he's coming up against a few realities. I mean, the mayor's budget is quite limited in the amount of discretionary money that he has to sort of play around with. And as he opened up the books, he's got a $5.4 billion deficit. So not only is he working with Albany and Washington, D.C., he's also coming up against real world realities of his own city council and Julie Menin in trying to make these progressive policies a reality. And so candidate Momdani and Mayor Momdani are seeing some real harsh realities in a very short span of time.

Yeah, for sure. And that's Julie Menon, the City Council speaker. Let's move on to fast and free buses. Mumdani told Politico recently that he's absolutely committed to making buses free while acknowledging that, you know, it won't happen this year. And it seems like this is easier said than done. Who does the mayor need to actually make this plan happen? I mean, again, Again, he needs to work with not just the MTA, but also his city council. And so the key word here will be compromised. We know that we've seen pilot programs, especially during COVID, but there are sort of three tensions that he has going on.

One, will the buses actually be faster? And so some of the data that's come out is that the buses didn't necessarily improve speeds. Two, whether or not they can be free and the tensions with the deficit and the financials. And then three, is he going to be able to expand bus lines? I mean, we're one of the few municipalities that has to go to Albany with our tin can to ask them to help us with transportation issues. So as we're trying to do something within New York City, the mayor is actually seeing that it's easier said than done in expanding these bus routes and making them free for affordable New Yorkers. We also know that many of these bus routes aren't in neighborhoods where, whether they're high voting neighborhoods.

They're oftentimes in underserved neighborhoods. And so they tend to get pushed to the back burner in many of these policies. and policy discussions. Right. But we know that this is absolutely possible because this is something that happened during the COVID pandemic, right? Absolutely. And as my grandmother said, if we can put a man on the moon, we can figure this out. And so we have done it in a much smaller scale. And so the real question and the tension will be, can we expand it throughout the city and especially in key neighborhoods that he made part of his campaign promises? Let's move on to another favorite campaign promise for many of Mimdani's supporters. That's

That's free child care. The Mundani administration announced 2,000 new two case seats and 1,000 additional 3K slots. This happened early on. This plan was actually announced in January, maybe a week after the inauguration. And it was a big collaboration between Mamdani and Governor Hockel. But I'm wondering, and would you say that this one was easier because he had Governor Hockel's support? Absolutely. I mean, anytime you have not just the support, but also the financial backing of the governor, makes your life exponentially easier. And we know the expansion of 3K and 2K programs helps keep quite a few New Yorkers in the city. You know, we don't want people leaving because they just can't afford child care. I think, though, the mayor is also up against a clock because Governor Hokel is in the middle of a campaign. And she knows that she needs to deliver New York City and Mom Donnie will be a key piece of that puzzle. It looks great for her right now. Obviously, she's got a non-existent primary. But, you know, New York State did have three terms of a Republican governor.

So it's a much more purple state than people like to imagine. Right. So after she crosses the finish line in November, which many assumes she will, her willingness to possibly compromise with this mayor will drastically decrease. Obviously, the campaign phase for Governor Hokel, it behooves her to work very closely with Mom Dani because he has such a widespread support amongst New York City, and we've seen that his supporters turn out to vote in droves. So once Governor Hockel has passed re-election,

I'm not exactly sure how willing she will be to give the mayor some of the policy positions that he's asked for, and he's had some great successes, obviously, with 2K, but we'll see what the financials look like once Kavi Hockel is across her own finish line in November. Yeah, it's interesting that you point that out, And a little later, we'll talk about the importance of that relationship. But let's move on to some other plans that candidate Mumdani had.

And that's build affordable housing and expand rental vouchers program. So former mayor Eric Adams refused to implement laws from 2023 that were aiming to expand eligibility for vouchers. And while on the campaign trail, candidate Mumdani said that if he was elected, he dropped the legal challenges on day one. And guess what? He didn't. And he cited the city's budget deficit there. Where do things stand right now? Well, I mean, with housing, it gets incredibly complicated because now we have a conversation with the federal government as well. And so this is where somehow Mayor Mumdani has, is wowed and enamored the president, who used to call him his little

communist. But when he's gone to Washington, D.C., to talk about several issues. One of the issues that's come up is housing and building housing on existing land. Some of that, the federal government has purview over and it's easier said than done in a campaign phase again to say we're going to build, build, build. We're coming up against tensions with landlords. We're coming up against tensions with property owners and buildings and land that's owned by the city versus the federal government. So the, you know, the Sunnyside Yards in Queens and that development plan, we always have NIMBY issues that come in whenever we, We talk about affordable housing and building, which is not in my backyard, lots of New Yorkers like things in theory, right?

We want to build smaller jails in theory. We want to close Rikers in theory. But where will we put these small jails in our communities? Well, that's where you get tensions with other city council members. The same goes with homeless shelters. Of course, we don't want massive warehouses for unhoused people. But again, what city council member is raising their hand to say, yes, please, give me more. So when we think about mixed-use housing, affordable housing, and that range can go quite large, I think the mayor is on a learning curve to recognize that some of these promises that were made all throughout 2025 are much harder to actually make a reality when he comes up against some real-world microtentions with 51 other city council members, even though the vast majority are within his Democratic Party.

The May's relationships have been the key to his first 100 days. And I want to talk about four key ones. We mentioned briefly Governor Hockel and you just mentioned President Trump. And as I mentioned, his relationship with Albany was key to delivering on free child care. Governor Hockel provided state money for that pilot. How would you describe their relationship that, you know, it may take a turn after Hockel's election in November, but what do you make of it right now? I think right now, you know, it's great. They're both of the Democratic Party. They both need

one another for various reasons. So whether it's transactional or a true genuine friendship in the words of LBJ, does that really matter, right? As long as you were delivering for New York City residents and New York State residents. I do think that the mayor's short period of time, but significant nonetheless, I mean, he's not coming out of city council. He's actually coming out of Albany. So there are certain policy maneuverings that he's had to negotiate while he was in Albany for those short four years. So that actually helps us when the mayor needs to go and work with the governor and work with the state legislature to deliver for New York City residents. I think the larger tension is working with city council members who range in

varying shades of blue within the Democratic Party when he's trying to make some of these policy proposals reality. And can you do a little name dropping for me there within the city council? I know earlier you mentioned Julie Minn and the city council speaker. Well, I think that my analysis starts and ends with her right there. We've seen that she's able to really coalesce quite a few of her colleagues. And so we have, you know, progressive Democratic caucuses. We've got more moderate Democrats.

And we also have aspirational Democrats. And so there's so many people that are thinking about, not just their districts, which obviously is the reason why they're in office. They're also thinking about their lives after city council. There are not a lot of citywide offices that they can run for. They're not a lot of leadership offices. But people are thinking about how their votes and how their behavior will affect them moving on. And Julie Menon has proven already that she's a political force and is essentially campaigned

on being a foil to the mayor, even though they're of the same party, to not just be a rubber stamp. And so we might see a lot more tension between the two of them grow. I would argue that the mayor's larger issues might not necessarily be with Kathy Hogle. They might be with Julie Menon and even members of his own DSA party as he moves more to the center to govern because the vast majority of New Yorkers are not far, far, far left socialist Democrats. Yeah. I want to circle back and talk about his relationship with President Donald Trump. He's met with him twice. The first time they met was briefly after.

after the election. And I guess I can say that that was the start of a bromance there or something. It was not the greeting that I expected for sure. And it seems like Mamdani really has Trump's ear. Would you agree? Well, I mean, Donald Trump is from New York City. He's also from Queens. And he has sort of this attachment to the city,

even though he hasn't lived here in quite some time. But Donald Trump also likes winners. And he's looked at the numbers and he sees the momentum that Momdani can garner. He sees how Mamdani can garner media attention, which matters deeply to the president. And he knows that he's very popular. And so he wants to be with the popular kid. And I think also if anyone's ever spent any time with the mayor, he's a listener. He makes you feel heard and appreciated.

And I think Donald Trump, with his void and his desperate needs for attention, I think Mom Donnie is able to really tap into some of his Achilles' heels in the best of ways and bring it back to New York. So, you know, some of the critiques that Republicans have had, I'm thinking of his fun video that he did with Curtis Sliwa. And it's like part of the magic that is Momdani is that he finds these minor points of commonality and then can slowly but surely expand them to larger points. And with Donald Trump, that's what he did. You know, you may have sort of talked about me during the campaign. You may have called me all types of names, but I'm here. We both love New York.

We both want to build in New York. We both want what's best for New Yorkers. We want them to make money. We want rich people to stay. We want, you know, all of these things. Even though Mamdani is quite a few other issues that are the antithesis of what Donald Trump believes in, when he has gone to Washington, D.C., he stays on message and he's very disciplined to bring it back to New York City and away from personal politics and areas that the two of them just fundamentally will never agree on.

Yeah. Then there's also this relationship that Mayor Mumdani has with NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Katish. Before he was even in office, Mamdani announced that he'd be keeping her on from the Adams administration. How important was that decision early on? I think it's an incredibly important decision. Obviously, many of his far-left supporters did not like that choice, but for a lot of moderate Democrats, of which there are many in this city, it made them feel at ease that he wasn't going to come in and be a quote-unquote radical Democrat. And so Jessica Tisch has not just respect within the NYPD, but obviously also within the business and economic community, which sort of

assuaged some of the concerns that that community had. She had been in the job. And so even though there's going to be a lot of turnover, there was a certain level of continuity that a lot of people felt very comfortable with, with seeing Jessica Titish still at the helm. And don't forget, we had, what, three commissioners before Jessica Titish. So that level of instability with the country's largest paramilitary force made a lot of folks very nervous. And we didn't, we had a lot of folks very nervous. And we know with the larger economic downturns that we're seeing because of the federal policies based on Donald Trump, there is a certain level of concern that people have when economics are tight, crime tends to go up. And so having her as a consistent force who will not always agree with

the mayor, and he's been very clear about that, but she made a lot of folks in the very beginning feel much more comfortable with the concept of a mayor, Mom Donnie. Let's stick with the NYPD for a second. We're still seeing the strategic response group in action. That's the specialized unit designed for counterterrorism. They are deployed for riots and protests and major incidents. And Mayor Mumdani is signaling openness to the NYPD continuing to use the gang database, despite his campaign promise to abolish it. What do you make of these promises not come into fruition?

I think that this is a classic case of a candidate meeting the governance phase and seeing that it's easier said than done. And I think that it's going to make a large swath of New Yorkers very uncomfortable with what seems to be a moderate to conservative bent when it comes to this particular issue. But the mayor, again, is saying, as the leader of 8.5 plus million people, I have to think about what makes all of them safer.

And so if that's the route that he's going, he also has to recognize that many people are going to see that either A is a betrayal or B, a walkback, whatever it may be, because I think a lot of New Yorkers are going to want a lot more detail as to not just what the policy is, but his rationale behind keeping it. Yeah, yeah. The last relationship I'd like to talk about is probably the most important one, and that's his relationship with the public. Momdani is a millennial, and we certainly know that he uses social media like one, right? He uses these well-produced, fun-to-watch videos to share information in emergency situations like the snowstorm or the blizzard we had earlier this year, but also to share the administration's wins, like pothole repairs.

Right. It's not just videos for videos sake. They actually all have a policy slant to them. So in the campaign, the video that I loved was make halal cart $8 again. Yes, it's about halal cart that so many of us love and enjoy. But it was really a larger conversation. about economics and the tension that we feel whenever we're spending money and the costs that small business owners have to pass on to their loyal customers because they're just trying to make ends meet. So I do think that these videos, albeit fun, and some people are just like, ugh, you know, what is the point of them? They're disseminating information, but also they're actually educating the public about quite a bit. And, you know, 8,000 potholes in one day, it's low-hanging fruit, but people still want to see their government in action. Right. I mean, It also is trying to get people involved in their own government and what government can do for you.

And also educating people where they are. Meeting people where they are and helping them understand this is the role of government. These minor things that make your life much better, right? A few potholes trust and believe when I've had a car. It's like fixing a tire because of a pothole is actually a much more expensive endeavor. So having my government do something on the front. And so I don't have to deal with the cost of the back end makes a huge difference. But at the same time, some demographics feel.

left out, you know, of his messaging. And I'm thinking specifically of black New Yorkers here. Can you describe the tension between Mamdani and New York City's black residents? When it comes to black New Yorkers, I mean, I write about this. I talk about it all the time. I mean, Mamdani did not come into the primary with a significant black base. That's not where he's from. That's not who you represented. He's also a millennial with no deep ties to the black community. So his support now, and based on, Afia Attenza, who was his political director, who's now his commissioner for economic and racial justice. But I mean, she did a lot of the heavy lifting, introducing him to communities across

all five boroughs and not just churches, but small groups to make sure they understood where the points of commonality are when it comes to a lot of his policy positions. So there's work that has been done, but obviously there's a lot more work that needs to be done because part of its age and part of it, he's not from, you know, he didn't represent a predominantly black community. And there are particular issues that black homeowners have that he has to be cognizant of. Obviously, he's making strides with hiring Renita Francois as his deputy mayor. My critique was, you know, do you think you can govern New York City without a black deputy mayor giving you advice on certain issues that will specifically and disproportionately affect black New Yorkers?

So I think that there's going to be a learning curve for sure. But I'm very excited about the hires that he's made a mixture of the old guard and the new guard because what we can't have is a bunch of leadership that's from, you know, the Dinkins Koch beam and Lindsay era without passing a baton to people who actually need to learn how city government works so we can have a future in the next, you know, five, ten, twenty plus years who understand how the levers of power work when it comes to city hall and beyond. Yeah. How does Mayor Mumdani's first 100, days compared to past mayors, you know, in terms of success and failure? Well, I think, you know, the hundred days is such an arbitrary number. I mean, it's a good

sort of marker just to make sure, I guess, they're still on the job. I mean, I sort of see it as, you know, when I have to do like a mid-semester evaluation. I think, one, I think a lot of New Yorkers are excited because he's trying, right? And they're seeing that he's doing these small things to make their lives better. I think there's some missteps, you know, essentially saying I'm going to raise taxes on homeowners, which would, again, just be. partially, in fact, Black New Yorkers, that's a misstep. I think his hiring has been fantastic, again, mixing some old guard and some fresh ideas. But, you know, this is someone who doesn't come from city government. This is someone who hasn't been an executive. He wasn't citywide

elected. He is young, to be very honest. But I think, you know, I'm trying to lean towards optimism since the federal government has so many people stressed out, which is, you know, we've got someone with boundless energy who's making sure that he's not just the mayor for Manhattan and six neighborhoods in Brooklyn. He's actually going, you know, I think it behooves us to think about electing non-manhattan and Brooklyn mayors sometimes because he's thinking about Queens. He's actually thinking about the Bronx. He's thinking about Staten Island, even if so many voters in Staten Island didn't vote for him. He still is very clear, I'm the mayor for all five boroughs. And so having someone who can walk from the tip of Manhattan all the way down,

or, you know, spend his first 100 days walking through the streets of New York, a la John Lindsay, I think makes a lot of people feel a lot more comfortable knowing that they've got a mayor who sees them, especially since so many people in New York feel unseen on the federal government. For sure. You know, Dr. Greer, I totally agree with you. You know, the first 100 days are often about setting a tone, but the next 100 days are almost always about math. And we're heading straight into a massive budget battle with the city council and a June deadline to plug up that $5.4 billion budget deficit. As we look toward the summer, what's the one specific headline that you're watching for to see if Momdani can make the numbers actually match the message? Yeah, well, I mean, it's always we want to make sure crime stays down and we know that summer is, you know, a hotbed of sometimes really terrible things that can have to. in a city. I think trying to get New Yorkers employed, right? Some of these job numbers are not

where they could and should be, but making sure, you know, youth employment or summer camps, things that he's been working on and he's announcing, you know, he had that video with him and the beach towel. Like, it's, you know, it's time to start applying for summer jobs and thinking about summer. It's not too early. Making sure that young people have some place to go, which obviously takes a strain off of parents. So I'll be looking at that and how we close this deficit. Obviously, again, they not have tons of discretionary funds. So, you know, is it doing what Eric Adams had to do, which is closed libraries, which never makes people happy? Is it expanding parks the best you can to make sure New Yorkers feel safe to even use parks? Like, how is he going to

use this next 100 days? But it's also campaign season for Kathy Hokel. So this is the time to make sure that they work together and in conjunction to get as much out of Albany as possible and also the federal government. You know, Donald Trump's polling numbers are in the toilet. So he needs some wins too. So it might actually work in New York's favor for New York to sort of come out on top because the president needs to show that he's doing something. And he needs to make some people happy. So we'll see how that shakes out. Yeah, we'll be watching closely. That's for sure. That's Dr. Christina Greer, political scientist and associate professor at Fordham University. Thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me. Thanks for listening to NYC now. A quick heads up. On April 20th, WNYC will be talking with Mayor Mumdani at the Greenspace. It's already a packed house. But you can sign up for the live stream at WNYC.org slash mayor. The event starts at 7 p.m. Thanks again for joining us.

I'm Jenae Pierre. See you next time.