New Metropolis Council Speaker Julie Menin after being elected to the publish within the Metropolis Council on Jan. 7, 2026.
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
To little shock, Julie Menin of Manhattan was elected Speaker of the Metropolis Council on Wednesday through the session’s first assembly of the 12 months. She had secured sufficient help amongst her council colleagues simply earlier than Thanksgiving to earn the title in January.
Subsequent to the mayor, the Metropolis Council speaker is arguably probably the most influential citywide politician within the Large Apple. Menin will direct the legislative agenda and work intently with the Mamdani administration on hammering out a price range in June.
For the previous 4 years, the speaker and mayor had an extremely fractious relationship. Adrienne Adams, the progressive Queens speaker, and Eric Adams (no relation), the reasonable Brooklyn mayor, clashed quite a few occasions on points from police process to inexpensive housing and cooperation with ICE.
Worse, over the past a number of years, then-Mayor Adams created constitution revision commissions to push by means of reforms through poll referendums that the Metropolis Council doubtless wouldn’t have authorised. Then-Speaker Adams seethed and charged that the mayor had primarily usurped the legislative department of metropolis authorities.
Such an acrimonious relationship needn’t exist between the brand new speaker and the brand new mayor. Menin and Zohran Mamdani are reasonable and socialist, respectively, however in politics, ideology isn’t every part. In the event that they put ideology on the again burner, certainly, their relationship could also be a really productive one from which all New Yorkers will profit.
It begins and ends with a dedication to handle the largest problem going through New York immediately: affordability.
Menin and the mayor should discover widespread floor on decreasing housing prices and discovering different methods to assist the common New Yorker get a break in an period of rising bills.
They need to additionally act with prudence in addressing town’s price range, already $118 billion and with a projected price range hole subsequent 12 months of as much as $8 billion. Filling this gap would require cooperation and strategic considering whereas avoiding the temptation to embrace excessive actions from tax or payment will increase to cuts to colleges, police, hearth and different important providers.
And Menin and Mamdani should stand collectively as one voice of help for all New Yorkers, no matter background, with a deep and unbreakable dedication to combating hatred wherever it arises, and celebrating our nice variety. This unity is extra important than ever earlier than, particularly for town’s immigrant group.
We want Speaker Menin and Mayor Mamdani one of the best of luck of their collaboration, and hope that they are going to all the time prioritize town’s pursuits above all else.
