Wednesday, Jan. 14, marks the 14th day of Zohran Mamdani’s time period as mayor. New York News is following Mamdani round his first 100 days in workplace as we carefully observe his progress on fulfilling marketing campaign guarantees, appointing key leaders to authorities posts, and managing town’s funds. Right here’s a abstract of what the mayor did right now.
Seven metropolis companies now have 45 days to catalog each charge and penalty, launching a plan that trade teams hope will lastly ease the regulatory burden for small companies throughout the 5 boroughs.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed Government Order 11 on Wednesday, directing companies to stock fines starting from these for frozen dessert permits to these for forgotten inspections, and establish which could possibly be lowered or eradicated.
The order units a 90-day deadline to flag charges that may be minimize through rule-making, 180 days for penalties requiring legislative motion, and a one-year timeline for a report on potential amnesty packages.
“You cannot tell the story of New York without our small businesses. Yet, our City has long made it too hard for these same businesses to open their doors, and to keep them open,” stated Mamdani. “With today’s executive order, we will bring that chapter to an end, instead delivering relief to businesses from the fines and fees that drive up their costs.”
“We’re looking at more than 6,000 regulations that small businesses have to jump through, speaking of refrigerator fees and frozen dessert fees, and then directs them to start to reduce them. And I think what will make this different is that this is not an additional concern of ours. Rather, it is a central concern of our city hall,” he added, throughout a press convention in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, on Jan. 14.
A community of town’s main chambers and trade teams, the 5 Borough Jobs Marketing campaign, praised the transfer on Wednesday, citing sustained engagement with Mamdani on the difficulty earlier than and after his election.
In December, the FBJC — a coalition that features town’s 5 chambers of commerce, the Actual Property Board of New York, and different trade teams — urged the then-mayor-elect to freeze non-safety-related fines and costs throughout his first months in workplace and transfer rapidly to slash penalties dealing with small companies.
Tom Grech, president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce and a co-chair of the FBJC, instructed New York News that the mayor met with all 5 borough chamber leaders as mayor-elect, spending practically an hour discussing regulatory aid and taking detailed suggestions. He stated Wednesday’s govt order “dovetails very well” with these conversations.
“This was one of the things we suggested,” Grech stated, calling the transfer “a great first step.”
Grech stated small companies throughout the 5 boroughs are dealing with mounting pressures past metropolis regulation, together with hovering insurance coverage prices, supply-chain disruptions, and rising utility payments. He described the manager order as a “shot in the arm,” notably for small companies that lack the workers or authorized assets to navigate 1000’s of metropolis guidelines.
Past the manager order, Grech additionally urged the administration to rethink what he described as a “fine first, ask questions later” enforcement tradition, warning that duplicative or unclear penalties can value companies 1000’s of {dollars} a month. Grech stated he hopes town strikes away from counting on fines as a income supply and towards a extra academic, corrective method, with chambers of commerce serving as compliance companions relatively than enforcement targets.
Wanting forward, the FBJC hopes the mayor may even take into account their name for a small enterprise director or “czar” who experiences on to the mayor, as a manner to offer small companies with a stronger advocate inside Metropolis Corridor.
The transfer by Mamdani follows efforts beneath former mayor Eric Adams, whose administration introduced steps in Might 2025 to chop pink tape, together with lowering some fines and updating inspection procedures. Grech described these initiatives as an necessary place to begin, calling Mamdani’s order a part of a broader “continuum,” however stated the brand new administration’s citywide stock and formal timelines might make an effort extra consequential.
When requested about Adams’ effort by reporters, Mamdani stated: The plight of small companies will not be new, neither is the popularity of that plight. What has been lacking, nevertheless, is motion on that concern.”
Common childcare pledge: Open enrollment begins for 3-Okay and Pre-Okay
Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
Recent from Albany, Mayor Zohran Mamdani is driving the momentum of Governor Kathy Hochul’s 2026 State of the State tackle, which aligned carefully along with his marketing campaign promise of common baby care and included a renewed pledge to completely fund the primary two years of a brand new free program for 2-year-olds in New York Metropolis, referred to as 2-Care.
At a toddler care middle in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, on Wednesday, the mayor launched the appliance interval for town’s 3-Okay and pre-Okay packages, which is open via Feb. 27 for kids turning 3 or 4 this yr.
“For many parents eager to return to the workforce, this could be what makes all the difference,” Mamdani stated, noting that non-public baby care can value households greater than $20,000 a yr.
Mamdani acknowledged that 1000’s of 3-Okay seats have gone unfilled in recent times — an issue he attributed to not lack of demand, however to cuts in outreach and promoting beneath the earlier Adams administration.
“That is no accident,” Mamdani stated. “The past administration sought to not only cut funding for the program, but also to cut outreach and advertising about early childhood education as well. The consequences were stark: thousands of empty seats, especially in parts of the city with higher numbers of immigrant and low-income families who stood to benefit the most.”
He stated his administration will take a “full-court press” method over the following six weeks, using TaxiTV, LinkNYC kiosks, digital adverts, and neighborhood-based outreach to make sure households are conscious of the packages.
Metropolis officers stated that functions should not processed on a first-come, first-served foundation and that any household who applies by the Feb. 27 deadline is assured a seat.
Faculties Chancellor Kamar Samuels, who joined Mamdani on the occasion, framed the enrollment push as a matter of fairness and continuity of care, saying households shouldn’t be pressured to decide on between employment and their youngsters’s schooling.
“When we prioritize our youngest,” Samuels stated, “we’re investing in parents and guardians who can pursue their careers and in neighborhoods as they grow stronger, more equitable, and more affordable.”
New York Metropolis Faculties Chancellor Kamar SamuelsPhoto by Lloyd Mitchell
Responding to a reporter’s query about whether or not households will be capable of discover seats near house, Mamdani stated town secured greater than $100 million in state funding particularly to “fix 3-K,” guaranteeing not solely that each applicant receives a seat, however that placements are nearer to the place households dwell and work.
“We are guaranteeing every single parent a seat when they apply,” Mamdani stated. “And we are doing the work to make sure those seats will be far closer than they have been in the past.”
Emmy Liss, director of town’s Baby Care Workplace, stated town’s enrollment estimates are preliminary. When requested in regards to the conflicting figures touted by Gov. Hochul and childcare advocates on the 2-Care program, she stated the present variety of 30,000 relies on previous participation in early childhood packages and knowledge from different cities and international locations with extra accessible childcare.
“We recognize that the estimate that the governor put out, the estimates from advocates, they are all just estimates, until we actually talk to families and ask them what they want and need, which is what we are planning to do next, and then we will scale the program to meet the need as we see it,” Liss stated.
Mamdani took one other jab at his predecessors, saying that having to work off these estimates “is based on the absence of any kind of sustained outreach from City Hall in prior years, and we are making that outreach a focal point of our city government’s focus for the next six weeks.”
Emmy Liss, director of town’s baby care workplace.Picture by Lloyd Mitchell
Mamdani additionally addressed issues from reporters about whether or not immigrant households is perhaps hesitant to enroll amid heightened federal immigration enforcement rhetoric. He stated town would pair enrollment outreach with reminders about New York Metropolis’s sanctuary metropolis protections.
“We’re going to remind New Yorkers not just that they have until Feb. 27 to sign up,” Mamdani stated, “but also of the rights that they have as New Yorkers.” He famous that ICE brokers are barred from coming into faculties or metropolis properties with out a judicial warrant.
