Mamdani spends 100 days as mayor of New York City

NEW YORK (AP) — In his first 100 days in office, New York City Mayor Zahran Mamdani has ruled with star power unusual in politics.

Crowds of supporters show up at his press conferences. Basic municipal services have become filled with new excitement. Celebrities help him promote his agenda.

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In the process, he managed to score some notable early victories. He has reached a détente — at least for now — with President Donald Trump, a mercurial leader with a penchant for celebrities.

But as Mamdani, a Democrat, marks an early milestone in his mayoralty, it remains to be seen whether he will be able to leverage his fame to advance the progressive policy proposals that propelled him into office.

Although he is not without his harsh critics, many of whom still view his past criticisms of the police department and Israel as major problems, the mayor has managed to allay fears among at least some skeptics.

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“It’s still early days, but so far, so good,” said Jay Jacobs, chairman of the state Democratic Party, who made waves for not endorsing Mamdani during the election. “We may not agree on everything philosophically, but it gets the job done.”

“Work hard and fast like a New Yorker.”

As the mayor approaches his 100th day — a longstanding benchmark by which to judge an administration’s inaugural vision — his team has moved to highlight the administration’s commitment to the day-to-day responsibilities of the job.

While many of these duties are typical of his local office — picking up trash, plowing snow, filling potholes — the 34-year-old mayor has relied on his talent for creating viral content to drive interest and awareness of government programs.

As a storm battered the city this winter, Mamdani’s calls on social media for more snow plows helped hire thousands of new snow plows. Another social media announcement the mayor made this winter, this time about the city’s emergency alert system, brought in more than 50,000 new subscribers to the program within a week, his office said.

Along with New York Liberty star Natasha Cloud of the WNBA, Mamdani announced a bracket contest where people can vote on small fixes they want the mayor to personally come and fix in their neighborhoods. Within a few weeks, more than 21,000 votes had been cast.

In order to promote his program to foster 2-year-olds, Mamdani enlisted Cardi B to help judge a song competition that will determine the show’s theme song.

“The challenge we have set for ourselves is to work as hard and as fast as New Yorkers do,” Mamdani told reporters on his 99th day in office this week.

However, celebrity status can also lead to backlash. During the extreme cold snap, his surprise appearance on the “Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” was viewed by some as insensitive at a time when the death toll of homeless New Yorkers was rising rapidly.

“There’s a lot of design and profiling,” said Curtis Sliwa, a Republican who ran against Mamdani during last year’s election, pointing to longstanding problems with street homelessness, public housing and infrastructure.

However, Saliwa, who attacked Mamdani during the election campaign but recently appeared in a comedy skit with the city mayor during the annual City Hall press corps roast, appears to give Mamdani some credit, even if it comes with a caveat.

“We just had Eric Adams, the braggart guy who celebrated at the crack of dawn, and now we have a guy who looks like he has a normal work schedule,” Saliwa said, referring to the city’s former mayor. He added: “So having Zahran as an alternative, I think that for many people, even if they disagree with him, there is some stability.”

Budget problems

Mamdani also trained his large audience on another routine reality of city management: budgeting.

Earlier this year, Mamdani held an unusually sharp press conference at City Hall about the city’s huge budget gap, saying either the state would have to raise taxes on the wealthy or it would have to raise local property taxes to balance the budget.

The mayor’s public theatrics were widely seen as a strategy to pressure New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to approve a millionaires’ tax, a key priority for Mamdani and his base. Hochul, a moderate Democrat up for re-election this year, has strongly opposed such a measure.

After the City Council released a separate budget proposal that found different ways to bridge the gap, Mamdani criticized the plan and released a video calling out Council Speaker Julie Menin, leading some of his supporters to attack the speaker online.

The city’s budget issues, which have yet to be resolved, could pose a major hurdle for Mamdani as he pursues his agenda.

Mamdani has a “very difficult” budget process ahead of him, but the mayor’s communications experience could help him navigate this rough terrain, said Andrew Wren, chairman of the fiscally conservative Citizens Budget Committee.

“What we saw was that he brought his newer strategies and tools to communications but to a very practical, old-school problem,” Ren said. “When he uses his communication skills to get people to invest more, improve government performance, and help New Yorkers with the trade-offs that need to be made, it will be a great win.”

He remains a star among supporters

On the night of Mamdani’s election, hundreds crowded the streets, some spontaneously, waiting to catch a glimpse of the mayor-elect as he left. The departing campaign aides were cheered, by name, after midnight. One attendee likened the street party to Beatlemania.

“I feel like I’m at a presidential inauguration,” said Medhavi Agnihotri, a 25-year-old technology consultant. “This is the first time in a while that I feel this hopeful.”

His star power has not seemed to diminish since then among some factions.

Outside City Hall, New Yorkers and tourists frequently stop to take selfies and peer through the iron gates in search of the city’s mayor.

This week, on the mayor’s 97th day in office, a large crowd gathered in the lobby of Manhattan’s crowded Bellevue Hospital, watching Mamdani announce that the city would begin sending some seriously medically ill people to the hospital from the city’s notorious Riker’s Island prison.

He entered to cheers and applause from the large group, many of whom appeared to be hospital workers who held up their cell phones to record videos of the mayor speaking. Dozens more watched from a set of elevated walkways.

One man, Ricardo Granados, a 67-year-old retiree, was on his way to take his son to a medical appointment but stopped to see what all the noise was about. He seemed happy when he learned that Mamdani would appear, saying that he had met Mamdani previously when Mamdani was campaigning in the Granados neighborhood.

“I really like him. I think he’s going to make a real difference,” Granados said. “He wants to know who needs what and wants help.”

Associated Press writer Jake Offenhartz contributed to this story.