From the time that he was sworn into office on Jan. 1, Mayor Mamdani has been tallying the number of “Days of a New Era” counting up to Day 100.
Having reached his milestone, we don’t sense much of a new era. But we do see evidence of a classic political turnaround where campaign promises start to wither as he comes to grips with running a city of more than 8 million souls
In this case, the flipping isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The new mayor appears to be gravitating in some areas toward more common-sense policies, abandoning unworkable pledges that helped him win the election. In other arenas, Mamdani continues to hold onto doctrinaire positions that he should reevaluate as he launches into the balance of his four years.
On education, Mamdani did a 180 on mayoral control of the public schools hours before his term began. He has also realized the problem of implementing the state’s wrongheaded mandates on reducing class size and is asking for more time, another good move. Also on the upside is that his wanting to dump the gifted and talented classes for the youngest kids has been put on abeyance.
On policing, the Strategic Response Group and gang database are still effective tools of the NYPD, despite Mamdani on the stump claiming that he would abolish them and continuing to criticize the SRG. The commissioner, not the Civilian Complaint Review Board, still has final say over officer discipline, which is different than candidate Mamdani wanted.
Replacing the NYPD on mental health calls with a new Department of Community Safety is another arena where the practicality seems to have trumped the promise. His first step in this area was creating a tiny office in City Hall which mostly seems to be just a rejiggering of the B-HEARD teams that go back to the de Blasio administration. Dedicating more resources to deal with the mentally ill is desperately needed, not demonizing cops who often walk into volatile and dangerous situations.
After more than a dozen died outside during the cold, Mamdani reversed his policy of ending sweeps of homeless encampments. The City Council’s budget-busting plan to expand CityFHEPS housing vouchers was a top notch idea to Mamdani when he was running for office. Now that he’s on the inside and has to balance a budget, he is in court to stop the Council, just like Eric Adams did.
That said, there are still critical areas where Mamdani is holding fast to positions that we feel are wrong for New York.
The first is taxes. Mamdani is still pushing Albany to approve higher taxes on the top earners and corporations. The mayor also made a big blunder in his play for more cash in the state budget by threatening to push for a 9.5% property taxes hike. New York City’s bounce back from COVID has been impressive and higher taxes are not the answer. The Council is wisely pressing to save on the spending side instead. The mayor should listen.
The other is Mamdani’s stance on Israel. As we’ve said before, denying Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state strikes at the heart of the identity of many Jewish New Yorkers and bolsters those who are more interested in hating Jews than in finding a peaceful solution to the crisis. It is one thing to advocate for the Palestinian right to self-determination and against the Netanyahu government — as many American Jews and Israelis do. It’s another entirely to outright reject a belief held dear by many of those in the city he leads.
During his run, when faced with a question he didn’t like, Mamdani would glibly say that “that’s not part of this campaign,” which focused relentlessly on a rent freeze for stabilized tenants, universal child care, free buses and city-run grocery stores.
But a mayor has to do much more than that short list, as Mamdani has found out during the past 100 days. With his reversals, he has made a handful of moves in the correct direction. He needs to keep going.