He has also made several missteps. More than 20 people died<\/a> during a two-week stretch of freezing weather in New York City, prompting criticism<\/a> from Council Members who said the administration could have done more. Several of his appointees have been slammed over past social media posts<\/a>, and some city leaders expressed outrage<\/a> over the mayor\u2019s proposal to raise property taxes by nearly 10% in his preliminary budget for FY2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mamdani\u2019s moves in Brooklyn\n<\/p>\n Brooklyn is home to the largest number of registered Democrats in New York and a key piece of Mamdani\u2019s electoral victory. The mayor made one of his first in-office stops in the borough on Jan. 1, when he toured<\/a> a derelict apartment building owned by Pinnacle Realty in Prospect Lefferts Gardens.\u00a0<\/p>\n Two days later, the mayor made good on a local campaign promise in Greenpoint, home to one of his strongest voter bases, when he announced his administration would implement<\/a> the full redesign of McGuinness Boulevard.<\/p>\n Council Member Lincoln Restler, who represents nabes from Greenpoint to Boerum Hill, is a longtime supporter of Mamdani, and strongly backed his mayoral campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just a breath of fresh air in New York City government,\u201d Restler said. \u201cHe has brought energy and integrity back to City Hall.\u201d\n<\/p>\n The progressive Council Member said working with former mayor Eric Adams and his administration was \u201cprofoundly challenging.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cThere was corruption, incompetence, non-responsiveness that pervaded the administration,\u201d Restler said. \u201cWe now have a mayor who wants to be responsive to the needs and concerns of our communities, who wants to partner with local elected officials to improve our collective quality of life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Affordability was the cornerstone of Mamdani\u2019s campaign, from a promised rent freeze to universal childcare, and Restler said he\u2019s committed to supporting that agenda.. The mayor has already taken steps toward free \u20182-care<\/a>\u2019 and 3-K<\/a> and on Feb. 18 appointed<\/a> five new members to the Rent Guidelines Board, bringing the fabled rent freeze closer to reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the things I\u2019ve been most excited about are universal childcare and ensuring that young families can get by and incentivizing more young families to stay and raise their kids in Brooklyn,\u201d Restler said. \u201cI\u2019m deeply committed to an affordability agenda more broadly that centers the challenges working families face in our increasingly-expensive city.\u201d<\/p>\n Where Restler feels confident in Mamdani\u2019s abilities and agenda, some aren\u2019t so sure.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u2018I don\u2019t know where he\u2019s been\u2019\n<\/p>\n Robert Comancho, a lifelong Bushwick resident and longtime chair of Brooklyn\u2019s Community Board 4, said the neighborhood has been fighting the same battles \u2014 gentrification, housing affordability, crime \u2014 for decades, through many mayors. He wished the mayor had made more local inroads to start his tenure.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know where he\u2019s been [for] 50 days,\u201d he said. \u201cHe didn\u2019t come to Bushwick, he didn\u2019t see the key players in Bushwick, he didn\u2019t come to our churches in Bushwick, he didn\u2019t see CBOs in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n For decades, Bushwick was a major Hispanic and Latino community, with large populations of Puerto Rican and Dominican immigrants and their families. In recent decades, it has been gentrified significantly<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Since 2000, the neighborhood\u2019s Black and Hispanic populations have plummeted, per the NYU Furman Center<\/a>, while the number of white residents has skyrocketed. Since 2006, median gross rent in the nabe is up nearly 70%, and nearly 80% of residents are paying between 30-50% of their income on rent<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Comancho worried about the neighborhood \u2014 and Brooklyn as a whole \u2014 being painted with a broad brush. Bushwick is very different from other areas, he said, with diverse populations including families who have lived in the area for generations and recent immigrants now fearful of retaliation from the federal government.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said affordability is needed, but feels it\u2019s not clear how the mayor wants to execute his promise, and if it would benefit those most in need in Bushwick. He wanted the mayor to visit each community board and neighborhood to ask about their specific needs.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you say affordable, affordable for who? How?\u201d he said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n He said Bushwick needs more apartment buildings with family-sized units, priced affordably for those families. Many new developments in Brooklyn are catered toward younger people living with friends or roommates, he said, and are too pricey for longtime residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n A City Hall spokesperson pointed to Mamdani\u2019s promise to build 200,000 new affordable homes<\/a> across New York City over the next ten years. The city also said Mamdani\u2019s newly-appointed head of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Dina Levy, is committed to preserving existing stabilized units and ensuring good living conditions as she is to building new units.\u00a0<\/p>\n A bill<\/a> by Brooklyn Council Member Sandy Nurse last year will require that starting in 2027, 50% of newly-constructed units funded by the city are affordable to \u201cvery low-income\u201d households, and at least 30% for \u201cextremely low-income\u201d households \u2014 or households earning $72,900 or less<\/a> for a family of three. Separate legislation introduced by Bronx Council Member Eric Dinowitz would require housing projects funded by the city\u2019s Department of Housing Preservation and Development include 25% two-bedrooms and 15% three-bedrooms \u201cto consider the needs of families and aging adults.\u201d That bill was passed by the Council, but vetoed<\/a> by former mayor Eric Adams at the tail end of his term.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy vision of affordability is not college roommates where we share rooms. My thing is to create an environment where they can come and also our kids,\u201d he said. \u201cA building where there\u2019s three bedrooms where a kid can open their mind and see what it\u2019s like to have a bedroom of their own without the clutter of a shelter just because they can\u2019t afford to live here.\u201d<\/p>\n Comancho and his wife own their home, he said, and live on a fixed income. Their daughter lives downstairs with her child, and he and his wife help with childcare. Regular costs of living, like mortgage and utilities, take up most of his monthly income, Comanche said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re 50 cents away from being homeless. And I busted my ass all my life, waited until I felt comfortable to retire, and nothing. You can\u2019t live here,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is what [Mamdani] needs to hear, our man that just got here.\u201d<\/p>\n Small but impactful\u00a0\n<\/p>\n On the other end of the borough, in Coney Island, resident and Community Board 13 member Maxim Ibadov said Mamdani hadn\u2019t been much of a presence during the campaign, and was glad to see the mayor make his first visit last week to announce the official launch of the Coney Island BID<\/a>.<\/p>\n The BID had been in the works for some time before Mamdani took office \u2013 and has proved controversial among locals, Ibadov said \u2014 but they were glad to see him spending time in the neighborhood and working with local politicians, including newly-elected Council Member Kayla Santosuosso.<\/p>\n Despite a slow start in southern Brooklyn, Ibadov said they are encouraged by the start of Mamdani\u2019s tenure. They were thrilled when he moved to fix the infamous bump at the end of the Manhattan Bridge, which disrupted bike rides for thousands of cyclists, including Ibadov.<\/p>\n \u201cHim doing something that small that is so impactful is incredible,\u201d they said. \u201cI appreciate anybody who is doing stuff, and not afraid to get out there and be in front of the cameras and be on social media,\u201d they said. \u201cI\u2019m a drag queen, I\u2019m not above vanity. As a drag queen who does a lot of activism, I know that I need to show up and show face and let people know something is happening. You\u2019ve gotta use your platform and your visibility.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But they were also cheered by the mayor\u2019s larger actions, especially taking action against ICE agents in New York City to defend immigrant New Yorkers. An immigrant themself, Ibadov said they would like to see Mamdani expand his focus on affordability to support the city\u2019s large, deep-rooted immigrant communities.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s already a big exodus of New Yorkers, like, multigenerational, specifically from ethnic groups, who are moving out of New York City because it doesn\u2019t feel like the city they grew up with and also because it\u2019s becoming so expensive,\u201d Ibadov said.<\/p>\n They want to see more support in place for New Yorkers who want to buy their homes, rather than just renting them. May immigrants moved to the city to pursue the \u201cAmerican Dream,\u201d Ibadov said, and they\u2019ve always seen that dream as meaning \u201ceverybody can buy a home, buy a car, put money into education for their kids \u2026 enjoy the promises of the American middle class.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCall me naive, call me a patriot, but I kind of believe in the American Dream a little bit,\u201d they said. \u201cSo I want that to come to New Yorkers. So I\u2019ll be watching.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Some bumps in the road\u2019\n<\/p>\n The new mayor has also hit a few snags with local Brooklyn politicians.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been some early bumps with how the mayor and his team have approached endorsements in different races,\u201d Restler said. \u201cBut I hope that that doesn\u2019t overshadow the critical work of governing and delivering for our shared constituents.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani last month endorsed<\/a> Democratic Socialist Claire Valdez in the race to replace Nydia Vel\u00e1zquez in Congressional District 7. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso is running in the same race, and received immediate endorsements<\/a> from a number of local leaders, including Restler and Brooklyn council members Sandy Nurse, Crystal Hudson and Jennifer Guti\u00e9rrez.\u00a0<\/p>\n Vel\u00e1zquez herself endorsed Reynoso, and seemed to critique Mamdani\u2019s decision to back Valdez.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cHoneymoons are short, and people need to pay attention to the work at hand,\u201d she told the New York Times<\/a>, when asked if she had any advice for the new mayor. She added that Mamdani\u2019s involvement in Congressional primaries could sow divisions in the party.\u00a0<\/p>\n The mayor drew some local ire this month, when he announced he would not<\/a> expand the city\u2019s rental assistance voucher program CityFHEPS as he had promised during his campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement, Council Member Crystal Hudson said she was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d by the reversal.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe Council passed this expansion to meet the scale of our housing and homelessness crisis, and it was upheld in court, CityFHEPS is one of the most effective tools we have to prevent homelessness and keep families in their homes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n![\"mamdani](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/DSC_6413.jpg\")
Mamdani announced on his third day in office that the city will implement the full, originally-planned redesign of McGuinness Boulevard. File photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n![\"mamdani](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/DSC_8037.webp.jpeg\")
Mamdani, backed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, has announced a small, paid-for program to start this year. File photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n![\"mamdani](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/55017378242_abe49364d4_k.webp.jpeg\")
Mamdani visited a Prospect Lefferts Gardens apartment building to tour units and sign housing-related executive orders on his first day in office. File photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n![\"construction](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/88-throop-ave-williamsburg-sept-2022-abs-2-scaled-1.webp.jpeg\")
Workers prep a city-owned site in Williamsburg for construction in 2022. File photo by Susan De Vries<\/p>\n![\"mamdani](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/C004_0D6A7856_20260215_Erica-Price.jpg\")
Mamdani made his first mayoral visit to Coney Island last week. Photo by Erica Price<\/p>\n![\"crystal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/55089115244_570c48e56c_k.jpg\")
Some local pols, including Council Member Crystal Hudson, have criticized Mamdani\u2019s CityFHEPS decision.Photo courtesy of John McCarten\/NYC Council Media Unit<\/p>\n