NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Rezoning Plan for Midtown Moves to City Council for Vote, New York State’s Consumer Protection Bills, and Mamdani’s Campaign Targets Muslim and South Asian New Yorkers

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

A major rezoning of Midtown Manhattan is moving forward after the City Planning Commission approved it. Plus, legislators watered down consumer protection bills before leaving Albany for the year. And finally, progressive candidate Zohran Mamdani’s campaign has been aggressively courting Muslim and South Asian New Yorkers.

A rezoning plan for Midtown Manhattan moves to the city council for a vote. New York's consumer protection bills and Mamdani's campaign targets Muslim and South Asian New Yorkers. From WMYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jinnay Pierre. A major rezoning of Midtown Manhattan is moving forward after the city planning commission approved it. The rezoning calls for nearly 10,000 new homes, including about 3,000 deemed affordable in South Midtown. The area covers 40 square blocks from 23rd to 40th streets and 5th to 8th avenues. Commission Chair Dan Garadnik says the plan is a game changer for the neighborhood,

which currently consists of mostly commercial space. It's hard to believe that in an area this central, with a housing crisis this dire, that if someone wanted to build housing here, the city's own rules would prevent it. He says the rezoning will unlock economic opportunities and, public space improvements while maintaining commercial and manufacturing uses. The plan now heads to the City Council for a final hearing and vote this summer. New York lawmakers are leaving Albany for the year. Among the flurry of last-minute activity, legislators watered down consumer protection bills. WMYC's Jimmy Vilkine has more. A comprehensive overhaul to live-event ticketing laws is on hold for now

after pushback from Stubhub and other resellers. Assembly member Ron Kim wrote a bill to cap fees and restrict scalping. Instead of taking it up, legislators simply extended the current law. Obviously, it's disappointing. Another bill was drafted to help consumers sue companies that rip them off. Business lobbyists wintered it down. The Attorney General will get more power, but everyday people won't. Consumer lawyer Ariana Lindermeyer says the bill needs to be bolder. It is not meeting the need of the time. Attorney General Tish James says that legislation is a good step forward. The campaign for Zoran Mamdani is making a strong showing in New York City's mayor race. After the break, we look into the campaign's approach to Muslim and South Asian voters in the

city. Stay close. Early voting in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor is underway, and progressive Zoran Mamdani has been making a strong showing. If elected, Mamdani would be the first Muslim and first South Asian to become the city's mayor. As WMYC's Arun Vanikapal reports, Mamdani's campaign has been aggressively courting Muslim and South Asian New Yorkers. Arun says one of the ways Mamdani is doing that is through a Hindi language Instagram video filled with Bollywood references. Here's what it sounds like. Now, it's almost entirely in Hindi and Urdu with a smattering of English words thrown in and subtitles, of course.

There are clips from legendary Bollywood movies starring Indian superstar Amita Bucchan. With Mamdani himself playing off lines of dialogue, tweaking them occasionally for a comic effect, but also using them to make political message that New Yorkers are struggling to afford Roti, Capadau, or Macan. Meaning bread, clothes, and shelter. I asked Mamdani about this,

and he said he's just trying to inject some levity into his campaign. These are some of the films, some of the songs, some of the pieces of dialogue that I have grown up with, and ones that many South Asians have grown up with. And they are also in many ways related to the crisis at hand of affordability. Arun has talked with several South Asian New Yorkers and says Mamdani's ad is really resonating with members of the community. It's been part of living room conversations and chats on family WhatsApp groups. But at the same time, Mamdani and his supporters cite many instances in which the mayoral candidate has been racialized by his opponents.

A room called last week's mayoral debate a perfect example. You saw Andrew Cuomo repeatedly mispronounce Mamdani's name. He called him Mandani, Mandami. I asked Mamdani about this. It's something that is all too familiar for immigrants across this city and this country. The most basic respect being denied to you and the name that you have been given, the one that you were proud of, instead being attempted to be reduced to an act of mockery. and in correcting his pronunciation of my name,

I was also seeking to show him that the very New Yorkers, he has denied that dignity are ones who will not wait for him any longer. Additionally, a political group funded by DoorDash and former mayor Michael Bloomberg has run opposition ads in which Mamdani is shown in the Qura, South Asian clothing, with the words radical

and dangerous filling the screen. And that's drawn criticism from South Asian and Muslim New Yorkers who say this can foment a certain anti-Shan anti-immigrant anti-Muslim narrative that's already been lodged in many people's brands, and it's dangerous. When it comes to outreach, there are efforts happening across the city on behalf of South Asian voters. One group called Drumbeats has endorsed Mamdani in the mayor's race. Volunteers of the Queen's-based group have knocked on more than 3,000 Punjabi household doors, plus another thousand

Nepali doors, and they've called over 10,000 people in the Bangladeshi community. Meanwhile, Arun says the Muslim Democratic Club in New York has thousands of volunteers canvassing the city. Now, one may think that all of this outreach could make a difference at the polls. After all, there are about 750,000 Muslim New Yorkers and 450,000 South Asians in New York City. But Arun says one question remains unanswered. One of the big questions is whether this campaign will actually activate New Yorkers who've been otherwise ignored or just haven't engaged with the process. Raj Goyle is a co-founder of the political group, Indian American Impact. He has no affiliation with this campaign.

He told me he's been reviewing the city's voter registration roles, hasn't seen a noticeable uptick in clearly South Asian names, sort of Zoran bump, as it were. However, just from observing as a political expert, it looks like their strategy is really to activate low propensity voters and get people who are already on the roles and say, hey, here is one of your own and you should go out and vote for this guy and that could have some impact.

And Democratic strategist, Tripp Yang says Asians as a whole are really fast-growing community, the fastest in the city, but they're largely ignored by campaigns and that it really needs a top-tier candidate to change the dominant culture. He thinks the significance of this campaign extends well beyond whether or not Zoran Mamdani wins, that it could force other political candidates in the years to come to take the concerns of these communities seriously and to genuinely engage with them in ways they normally do not. That's WMYC's Arun Vanacapal. Quick note before we go, we're taking the day off Thursday to observe June 10th.

That means we're dropping only one episode instead of the usual three. No worries, though. We'll be back on our regular schedule Friday. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.