NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Zohran Mamdani Appoints Top Deputies, Elizabeth Street Garden in Limbo and The Meaning Behind the Mayor Elect’s Music

Episode Date: November 10, 2025

New York City Mayor elect Zohran Mamdani has named his top deputies, including former de Blasio official Dean Fuleihan as first deputy mayor and longtime aide Elle Bisgaard Church as chief of staff. Meanwhile, the fate of Little Italy’s Elizabeth Street Garden remains uncertain as Mamdani signals plans to revive an affordable housing project there. Plus, WNYC’s Arun Venugopal looks at how moments from Mamdani’s victory speech, including his choice of a Bollywood anthem, reflect his South Asian heritage and message of unapologetic identity.

New York City Mayor-elect Zeran Mamdani appoints his top deputies. The Elizabeth Street Garden is in limbo and the meaning behind the mayor-elect's music. From WMYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Junae Pierre. New York City Mayor-elect Zeran Mamdani is appointing his two top deputies at City Hall. Dean Fulahan will be his first deputy mayor or second-in-command. Fulahan, who held that position in Bill de Blasio's administration, says the incoming administration wants to hit the ground running in January. It will be a dedicated, effective team implementing the serious agenda of addressing affordability in New York.

The announcement comes less than a week after Mamdani won the election and unveiled his City Hall transition team. He says he's considering keeping appointees of Mayor Eric Adams if they've performed well in their jobs. Mumdani is also appointing El Bisgaard Church as his chief of staff. She's been his closest campaign advisor and his chief of staff in the State Assembly. A controversial Bitcoin operation will continue in the Finger Lakes. State environmental regulators and crypto mining company Greenwich Generation have come to an agreement after years of litigation and denials. Greenwich operates a gas-fired power plant to fuel its 20,000 computer farm non-stop. In the agreement, Greenwich says it will cut its carbon dioxide pollution by 2030 in compliance with the state climate law.

By the end of the week, the Finger Lakes Crypto Miners will resubmit its air permit application. After a 45-day public review period, the facility will receive a new air permit. Over the summer, current New York City Mayor Eric Adams halted plans to evict Little Italy's popular Elizabeth Street Garden to build affordable. housing for formerly homeless seniors. But the gardens operators are again holding their breath, now that Mayor Alex Zeramam Dani says he wants to move forward with a development plan. Legal expert Andrew Scherer says the city should be able to find a solution that makes everyone happy.

The city like New York should be able to figure out ways to have both, you know, to have valuable open space and also to build the necessary housing for elderly. and low-income people. The garden is on city-owned land and used to be closed to the public. Coming up, moments from Mayor-elect Zeram Mamdani's victory speech have gone viral since election night,

like that song he chose to play at the very end. We'll learn more about Mamdani's music selection after the break. moments from mayor elects the Ramam Dani's victory speech have gone viral since election night. Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you. Turn the volume up. He threw some political shade and reiterated his promises of change in affordability for all New Yorkers, to lots of big cheers throughout the night.

New York will remain a city of immigrants. a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant. Mumdani, who is Muslim and was born in Uganda to Indian parents, has embraced his ethnic and religious identity throughout his campaign. If you were paying attention to the end of his speech, you might have heard the music, which was taken from a Bollywood blockbuster. WMYC's Arun Vanekapal says this musical choice was just one of the many

the Mumdani campaign made to indicate that he is unapologetically South Asian. The music is pulled from a movie called Doom. It's from 2004, so a little more than 20 years ago, was followed by Doom 2, and you guessed it, Doom 3. The third Doom movie, spelled D-H-O-O-O-M, was the best. biggest grossing Indian movie of all time when it came out in 2013. And not only is this song from it a banger, the basic meaning of the chorus is to make a big noise. A local DJ Ashu Rao has closely followed the election and says this makes the song especially resonant. I think it was showing that we're not going to cower, we're going to be loud, we're going to

fight back. And I think that's very important during this time, especially what we've been through with ice raids and the economy and the racism and the transphobia and all the policies that are put in place. Arun says using this song as the literal closing note of his campaign is just one example of many where Mamdani dug deep into his South Asian culture. He had ads in Hindi and in Bangla. He ate with his hands. He didn't shy away from that.

The way politicians eat gets a weird amount of scrutiny during campaigns. Like if they eat pizza with a knife and a fork. But for Mamdani, it was about not using a knife and a fork this time. Just a couple weeks before the election, Andrew Cuomo's campaign released an AI-generated ads suggesting that some of Mamdani's biggest supporters were criminals, drug dealers, abusers, shoplifters, all AI-generated, with Mamdani smiling while eating with his hands.

It is important to know that this particular custom, eating rice and other dishes with one's hand, And this is something that's very common among Indians, but it's repeatedly come under attack, especially in recent times. You know, there was a congressman from Texas, Brandon Gill took aim at Mamdani, writing on X. Civilized people in America don't eat like this. If you refuse to adopt Western customs, go back to the third world. So there is a lot at stake. What we're seeing so far is that Mamdani has no intention of backing down.

And he says, this is my culture. He's owning it. That's WMYC's Arun Venigapal. Before we go, some news for the art lovers out there. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is offering a new way for people to visit some of its art. The museum says for the first time, members of the public will be able to see its famous temple of Dendur and Oceanic collection through virtual reality, either with personal VR headsets or on the museum's website.

The free virtual visits feature original storytelling and high, resolution 3D scans. The museum says they were designed by its curators in collaboration with Atopia. That's a platform for immersive art and culture. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back with one episode tomorrow for Veterans Day. Thank you.