Tuesday, Feb. 10, marks the forty first day of Zohran Mamdani’s time period as mayor. New York News is following Mamdani round his first 100 days in workplace as we intently observe his progress on fulfilling marketing campaign guarantees, appointing key leaders to authorities posts, and managing the town’s funds. Right here’s a abstract of what the mayor did.
New York Metropolis renters can now signal as much as testify on the metropolis’s first-ever Rental Ripoff Hearings, a collection of public boards introduced by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration geared toward gathering tenant experiences with unsafe situations, hidden charges, and different frequent rental complaints.
The hearings, established by means of an government order signed on Jan. 4, will happen in all 5 boroughs between late February and early April.
Metropolis officers say the testimony collected will inform a report, due inside 90 days of the ultimate listening to, outlining potential coverage modifications and enforcement methods to guard tenants and maintain landlords accountable.
In line with the Mayor’s Workplace, renters will be capable to communicate publicly or meet one-on-one with senior metropolis officers, together with management from the Division of Housing Preservation and Improvement, the Division of Client and Employee Safety, and the Division of Buildings.
Tenant affordability: Mamdani says hearings are about constructing coverage proposals
Metropolis officers say the hearings are supposed to collect info, not situation penalties, and that tenant testimony will inform coverage proposals anticipated later this yr.
“You can’t fight for tenants without listening to them first,” Mamdani mentioned in a press release saying the listening to dates. “What tenants share at these hearings won’t lead to empty promises. Their testimony will guide our work and help shape the policies we advance to build a city New Yorkers can afford to call their home.”
Cea Weaver, director of the Mayor’s Workplace to Shield Tenants, mentioned the hearings are supposed to provide renters a direct alternative to explain on a regular basis issues corresponding to unsafe situations and unexplained prices, and to make sure these experiences inform future housing coverage.
Division of Client and Employee Safety Commissioner Sam Levine mentioned the hearings will focus partly on dealer charges, hidden prices, and different practices that drive up housing prices, including that his company plans to make use of tenant testimony to information efforts to make the rental market extra clear and inexpensive.
Some landlord teams, nevertheless, argue the method dangers prioritizing public spectacle over substantive reform.
The New York Condo Affiliation, which represents constructing house owners, characterised the hearings as “show trials” and accused the Mamdani administration of prioritizing political theater over structural options to housing challenges.
CEO Kenny Burgos mentioned renters’ issues must be addressed, however argued that landlords are dealing with monetary strain from excessive taxes, hire laws, and underperforming metropolis businesses.
”That is the type of all present and no substance governing model many have been nervous this administration may turn out to be and in that case it’ll be a disservice to renters and the bankrupt housing they reside in,” Burgos mentioned.
Dates and places
Brooklyn: Thursday, Feb. 26, 5:30–8:30 p.m., Downtown Brooklyn
Queens: Thursday, March 5, 5:30–8:30 p.m., Lengthy Island Metropolis
The Bronx: Wednesday, March 11, 5:30–8:30 p.m., Fordham
Manhattan: Saturday, March 28, 11 a.m.–5 p.m., East Harlem
Staten Island: Tuesday, April 7, 5:30–8:30 p.m., North Shore
Housing: ‘Let them build’ and minimize the purple tape
Mayor Mamdani joined Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday morning to press for sooner housing building and draw consideration to what he referred to as a long time of pointless delays brought on by outdated environmental overview legal guidelines which can be hindering New York Metropolis’s affordability efforts.
On the Main Owen Heart in Brooklyn, Mamdani emphasised the human and financial toll of sluggish challenge approvals, arguing that the town is dropping jobs and alternatives as a result of bureaucratic hurdles are slowing the development of wanted housing.
He cited figures highlighted by the state exhibiting that regulatory purple tape can add as much as $82,000 to the price of constructing a single housing unit in New York Metropolis and lengthen overview timelines by years, a key level within the governor’s ongoing housing agenda.
“When people can’t afford a place to live, they can’t fully participate in their city,” Mamdani mentioned. “Talented employees turn down jobs here. Businesses suffer. Our civic fabric starts to tear away.”
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
The occasion spotlighted the continued effort to reform the State Environmental High quality Evaluate Act (SEQRA), which critics say typically delays housing and infrastructure initiatives, even these with minimal environmental influence, by means of prolonged, pricey critiques. The governor’s Let Them Construct agenda, first outlined in January, requires “common‑sense reforms” to SEQRA to cut back delays that damage housing provide and lift prices.
Hochul careworn in a put up‑occasion Q&A that the reforms wouldn’t remove environmental protections, however would streamline critiques for initiatives on beforehand disturbed land and initiatives that communities already assist. She mentioned the modifications are restricted in scope to housing and sure infrastructure, like parks, youngster care amenities, and clear water techniques, and don’t apply to all improvement.
Gov. Hochul speaks to reporters after Tuesday’s press conferencePhoto by Lloyd Mitchell
Annemarie Grey, government director of Open New York—a gaggle advocating for extra housing—echoed Mamdani’s criticism, saying environmental guidelines have too typically been used to dam initiatives by means of lawsuits moderately than shield the atmosphere.
“Just because you can afford a lawyer doesn’t mean you should be able to deny your neighbors the housing they need today,” Grey mentioned, pointing to authorized challenges in Midtown South and the Seaport that slowed housing initiatives and even litigation over rooftop photo voltaic panels.
“Environmental review should serve the environment, not the wealthy,” she added.
Individually, Gov. Hochul was requested about Mayor Mamdani’s absence from the set up Mass for New York’s new Archbishop, Ronald Hicks, on Friday, which drew criticism from some circles.
Houchl, a Catholic herself, mentioned she didn’t view his absence as disrespectful and famous that scheduling conflicts occur.
“I’m sure there’ll be a healthy relationship with the Mayor,” she mentioned.
Immigration: Mayor calls for launch of Palestinian activist from ICE custody
Mayor Mamdani additionally took to social media to name for the discharge of Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian girl detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and lately hospitalized after struggling a seizure at a detention facility in Texas.
“Leqaa Kordia has spent nearly a year in an ICE prison for exercising her First Amendment rights in NYC and speaking out against the ongoing genocide in Palestine,” Mamdani mentioned in a press release. “She was hospitalized after suffering a seizure. Now she’s back in detention. This is cruel and unnecessary. Release Leqaa now.”
Kordia, 33, a resident of Paterson, NJ, was arrested in spring 2024 throughout Columbia College protests. Her case was lately investigated by the NYC Division of Investigation, which discovered {that a} 2025 disclosure of her arrest data to federal brokers didn’t violate metropolis sanctuary legal guidelines, because the request was made within the context of a legal investigation. The NYPD has since tightened its overview procedures for federal requests.
In March 2025, Kordia was taken into ICE custody at a Newark immigration appointment and transferred to the Prairieland Detention Heart in Texas.
In line with a press launch from Muslim Advocates, Kordia was discharged after greater than three days within the hospital, throughout which her household and attorneys have been denied entry and knowledgeable solely not directly by means of a journalist. Authorized representatives say ICE refused repeated requests for updates, at the same time as courtroom deadlines loomed, and that Kordia stays detained on the Prairieland Detention Heart.
“ICE has yet again demonstrated their inhumane cruelty by disconnecting Leqaa from her loved ones and legal representatives during an extremely critical time, all while risking her health and safety,” mentioned Travis Fife of the Texas Civil Rights Mission, which represents Kordia together with Muslim Advocates, CLEAR, Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel, and Boston College College of Legislation’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic.
Her household says she has suffered dizziness, fainting, and poor diet whereas in ICE custody.
Mamdani’s name for Kordia’s launch comes amid broader tensions between NYC’s sanctuary insurance policies and federal immigration enforcement. Final week, the mayor signed an order strengthening native protections and limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities except legally required, which DHS swiftly criticized.
ICE and DHS didn’t reply to requests for remark, however instructed Reuters that Kordia’s ongoing detention is over immigration violations associated to overstaying her expired scholar visa.
