Arrayed around the room were posterboards, which not only asked tenants what problems they faced but sought their input on policy proposals brainstormed by staff, like fining landlords who don\u2019t make repairs, making it easier to form tenant unions, or enabling the city to take over buildings when there are serial violations. Placing a sticker by the proposal signaled approval. But in addition, the public could also write their own policy alternatives on Post-It notes. And they did.<\/p>\n
\u201cRequire transparency on who landlords (LLC) are so [we] can hold them accountable,\u201d read one note. Another suggested a crackdown on charging market rates when the unit is rent-stabilized so the landlord could pocket the difference. \u201cSome management companies list vacant apartments and request non-refundable application fees,\u201d a third person wrote. \u201cThey make more money on application fees than collecting rent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople came up with interesting ideas!\u201d said Sam Levine, who runs the city\u2019s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP). \u201cFor policy development, it\u2019s an interactive process. It\u2019s like nothing I\u2019ve done in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last of five Rental Ripoff hearings, one for each borough, was in Staten Island<\/a> this week. \u201cI\u2019m sad they\u2019re over!\u201d Levine said.<\/p>\n Mamdani came to Gracie Mansion on the strength of mass engagement from his supporters, including the 104,400 volunteers who knocked on doors daily during his campaign. His first hundred days in office end today, and his goals for the period have been twofold: show those supporters meaningful progress on their concerns, and expand participation in New York City democracy even more.<\/p>\n The block and tackle of municipal government, like filling 100,000 potholes in 100 days<\/a>, has been one of the basic mechanisms of this effort. Mamdani is confronting many of the city\u2019s biggest daily annoyances, by stopping illegal towing<\/a>, taking down sidewalk sheds<\/a>, and investing in public bathrooms<\/a>. \u201cMamdani is just going down the list of things that have pissed him off while living in NYC and addressing them one by one,\u201d said one X commenter<\/a> (who, granted, is from Texas).<\/p>\n Yet the initiatives go beyond sewer socialism, though Mamdani has invested $108 million<\/a> in improving city sewers. Mamdani\u2019s administration spent countless hours during the transition scouring the existing laws of the city\u2014in our interview, Levine held up a fat book of just the DCWP\u2019s rules\u2014to make progress wherever possible. He\u2019s attempted to reposition New York as a place for fair pricing, honest dealing, and scrupulous businesses.<\/p>\n His administration has heavily publicized all this on social media and through interactive promotions, like a jingle contest<\/a> judged by the Bronx\u2019s own Cardi B to help kick off the historic extension of free child care to two-year-olds. And like the Rental Ripoff hearings, it has brought New Yorkers in to identify problems and be part of the solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our 100 days, we have been relentlessly focused on securing real, immediate wins that people can see and feel,\u201d Mamdani told the Prospect. \u201cTrust is built through results. It\u2019s built when a tenant sees accountability for a landlord who thought they were above the law. It\u2019s built when a worker or a small-business owner no longer has to shoulder the burden of exploitative fees or predatory practices.\u201d<\/p>\n This is designed to build momentum for the fights ahead that will be critical to Mamdani\u2019s success. And they also seek to prove the concept of government as a force in people\u2019s lives\u2014not just as something worth supporting, but worth getting involved in.<\/p>\n This is beginning to pay off politically. Mamdani is most popular among young people, a new Marist poll shows<\/a>, with 60 percent support from New Yorkers ages 18 to 29. Across all ages and party affiliations, his approval rating in the city is 48 percent (other polls have shown that quite a bit higher<\/a>). But asked if they think he\u2019s working hard, the number skyrockets. Seventy-four percent of New York City residents said yes.<\/p>\n THE MAMDANI CAMPAIGN PLATFORM was so ubiquitous and sound bite\u2013friendly that by Election Day most voters could rattle it off: rent freeze, public grocery stores, fast and free buses, no-cost child care. The ideas were laser-focused on reversing or at least softening the national affordability crisis, and retaining working-class residents at risk of getting priced out. The message resonated enough to give New York City its first democratic socialist mayor since David Dinkins by a comfortable margin<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the first hundred days, he has made the most progress on child care. Within a week of Mamdani\u2019s inauguration, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul agreed<\/a> to provide enough funding to make child care free and universal by the end of the mayor\u2019s first term. Building on the universal pre-kindergarten program that Mayor Bill de Blasio established, Mamdani plans to add 2-K and expand 3-K for younger children starting this fall. The first 2,000 free 2-K slots in five school districts will run full-day and year-round, the administration said this week. It also launched a child care pilot inside the Dinkins Municipal Building<\/a> for city workers.<\/p>\n \u201cTo those who think that the promises of a campaign cannot survive once confronted with the realities of government, today is your answer,\u201d Mamdani told reporters at the January announcement.<\/p>\n Progress has been slower on other fronts. A rental freeze for the next four years is up to the Rent Guidelines Board, which the previous mayor Eric Adams unsuccessfully tried to stock with his own appointees. That board, with six members handpicked by Mamdani<\/a>, began meeting in March<\/a> to collect testimony from renters and landlords. The economic conditions of both must be taken into account before a final decision is made sometime in May or June. There\u2019s been little talk about the grocery store pilot since the mayor entered office, outside of a stunt <\/a>by the gambling website backed by President Trump\u2019s son, which set up a \u201cfree\u201d grocery store. Mamdani responded<\/a> with the ClickHole meme: \u201cHeartbreaking: The worst person you know just made a great point.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani has also been hobbled by the $5.4 billion budgetary hole Adams left him, a problem that will endure over the next two fiscal years. The stagnant national economic picture, with its continued high inflation, isn\u2019t helping; the city lost nearly 20,000 jobs in 2025. Though these are legacy issues not caused by Mamdani, they have led to persistent calls for \u201ceconomic development,\u201d which in the minds of the city\u2019s establishment<\/a> always means tax breaks for corporations rather than creating conditions to attract workers and businesses, like offering free child care.<\/p>\n To deal with the budget gap, let alone promises like free buses, Mamdani identified areas<\/a> where the city was overpaying for everything from office supplies to consultants from McKinsey, wringing out savings by making government more efficient and less beholden to middlemen. But there\u2019s no ultimate solution without higher taxes or cuts in services. The latter flies in the face of Mamdani\u2019s campaign promises (though he\u2019s identified a few cuts<\/a>), and tax changes in New York City are mostly contingent on lawmakers in Albany. One of the few things Mamdani can control is local property taxes, which he has said would have to go up significantly<\/a> if he can\u2019t get Albany to tax the rich and give New York City a fairer share of the money residents already send to the state.<\/p>\n The state legislature submitted a proposal to tax the rich<\/a>, but Hochul has been reluctant to commit to it, expressing concern about billionaire flight<\/a> eroding the tax base, a fear that for years has been repeatedly<\/a> debunked<\/a>. Meanwhile, City Council Speaker Julie Menin, a relatively centrist Upper East Sider, countered Mamdani\u2019s initial budget proposal with a plan<\/a> that envisions no new revenues, cuts agency resources, and engages in a variety of gimmicks like double-counting revenue already realized and exaggerating savings, as Mamdani said in a blistering response<\/a>. \u201cAny proposal that claims we can close this gap without significant new revenue is unrealistic,\u201d he said in the statement.<\/p>\n Waiting in the wings of this two-front fight is Mamdani\u2019s army of supporters and allied groups, including the Democratic Socialists of America and Our Time<\/a>, a grassroots organization available to call lawmakers, canvass neighborhoods, and push for the mayor\u2019s agenda. So far, they have not done a full-court press<\/a> on Albany amid negotiations, though they have sent 1,500 tax-the-rich supporters<\/a> to the Capitol to pressure Hochul. Nor have they strong-armed Menin, though Mamdani\u2019s social media condemnations<\/a> of the Menin budget response drew a big audience. But the Mamdani base looms over the debate, ready and eager to act.<\/p>\n Preparing the ground for that possibility means keeping the public engaged in the promise of activist government, providing proof that if revenues do arrive, they will be spent well and for the benefit of the broad mass of New Yorkers. That\u2019s where Mamdani\u2019s strategy of delivering early, meaningful results comes in.<\/p>\n SNOWSTORM RESPONSE HAS TRIPPED UP more than one mayor around the country and in New York City. De Blasio was criticized heavily for failing to clear roads<\/a> during a snowstorm early in his first term in 2014 and deciding not to close schools<\/a> for a second storm. Winter weather blew in to test Mamdani shortly after his inauguration as well. It was not a uniform success and even led to tragedy: At least 20 unhoused people died<\/a> during a legendary January deep freeze, with many feeling like not enough was done to protect those on the streets.<\/p>\n But emergency response accelerated over time<\/a>. Warming shelters and buses were secured for a major storm in February, warm-weather supplies were distributed, and overdose prevention centers were staffed around the clock. One billion pounds of salt was spread across city streets. And a unique Emergency Snow Shoveler program that has expanded fivefold under Mamdani, from 1,500 to 7,800 members, delivered significant manpower to clear the snow. It was another example of participatory democracy, with neighbors helping neighbors through a weather snafu.<\/p>\n Quality-of-life improvements have been an area of focus in the first hundred days. \u201cWe should be working as hard as New Yorkers have to work, and move at the speed that New Yorkers move at,\u201d said Julie Su, Joe Biden\u2019s former labor secretary and the deputy mayor for economic justice. \u201cWhen government delivers on those day-to-day things, they build trust in government.\u201d<\/p>\n That was evident in the way the city took on the Williamsburg Bump, a notorious hazard for bike riders that Mamdani himself has had to navigate. The bike lane on the Williamsburg Bridge crossing the East River had a large concrete wedge sticking out, initially designed to slow riders down as they headed into the pedestrian path along Delancey Street in Manhattan. But it was inducing accidents and consternation. So on Day 6 of his mayoralty, Mamdani took a Citi Bike, rode to the location, picked up a shovel, and assisted in transforming the bump into a ramp.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this administration there will be no issue too big for us to take on and no issue too small to focus on,\u201d the mayor said on-site after the repair. \u201cWhat you have seen in the last few months is countless New Yorkers reaching out, [saying] that they are tired of biking across this bridge, with an anxiety [about] what will happen at the end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani has been a chronic presence on street crews, joining them this week to fill the city\u2019s 100,000th pothole since Inauguration Day. This fits with an unusual attention to the ground beneath New Yorkers\u2019 feet, and includes a visit to overnight workers who repair the streets and stand ready for emergencies while the rest of the city sleeps. Mamdani\u2019s office has restarted or initiated several bike lane<\/a> and bus lane<\/a> projects, and the city has committed to every eligible school having a slow zone<\/a> of 15 miles per hour. Criminal enforcement for bike traffic violations has been downgraded<\/a> to the same civil fines as for motorists. Bike riders and pedestrians will have their own access to the Brooklyn Bridge<\/a> by June. New scaffolding rules<\/a> intend to loosen requirements for shed coverage and accelerate repairs on publicly owned buildings, making the city more open and less under construction. And the commitment for public bathrooms, including modular units at a fraction of the usual cost, was announced on Day 10<\/a>.<\/p>\n Su explained that these changes flowed from the concerns of the everyday people who live and work in New York City rather than from lobbyists for the powerful. \u201cIt\u2019s about changing who gets to decide what the city prioritizes, and how we measure whether the city is being successful,\u201d she said. And virtually all of these advancements have been paired with a social media video or other creative announcement, a key part of broadcasting the work the city is doing. Mamdani himself took calls<\/a> on the city\u2019s 311 response service last month.<\/p>\n \u201cThe willingness to put things out there so we can hear if it\u2019s working is really important,\u201d Su said. \u201cSo often government happened behind closed doors, with policies dropped on communities instead of built with them. This mayor really believes that if you\u2019re doing the right thing, you should be unafraid to talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n THAT IS WHY SU, LEVINE, AND MAMDANI found themselves at the Prospect Park Zoo on Wednesday, announcing an $875,000 enforcement action<\/a> against HungryPanda, a delivery app popular with immigrant-owned Asian restaurants. The app was charging the restaurants over the city\u2019s cap<\/a> on third-party food delivery service fees, including by mislabeling them as \u201cpromotion deductions.\u201d Nearly 400 restaurants will get restitution, along with a fine on HungryPanda for breaking the law.<\/p>\n It was the second time HungryPanda had been fined in the first hundred days; the first was a $5 million settlement<\/a> for thousands of illegally deactivated delivery workers on several apps. Su said that that enforcement action came directly out of meetings with the Worker\u2019s Justice Project<\/a>, a community organizing group in the city.<\/p>\n Mamdani has fully backed and promoted these actions as an early show of progress. \u201cNew Yorkers have been asked to accept a status quo that doesn\u2019t serve them, where wealthy interests could operate with impunity while working people paid the price. That era is over,\u201d he said. \u201cOur message is straightforward: This city belongs to the people who keep it running.\u201d<\/p>\n Levine, who came from the Federal Trade Commission under Joe Biden, has been encouraged by Mamdani\u2019s direct presence in these and other enforcement announcements. \u201cThese lawsuits shouldn\u2019t be confined to blog posts written by law firms,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel I have the mayor\u2019s full backing, with no fear that some lobbyist will cut a side deal.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, publicizing the cases is part of the enforcement process itself, Levine explained. \u201cAs a law enforcer I feel strongly, we\u2019re never going to be able to sue every company. You need to send a message that if you do break the law and get caught, you will have to pay everyone back and a penalty.\u201d High-profile announcements can help establish a deterrent that keeps every company inside the bounds of the law, in other words.<\/p>\n One of the mayor\u2019s first executive orders took on hidden and deceptive junk fees<\/a>. A Bronx-area tow operator named Instant Recovery Corp. was sued<\/a> for overcharges and demands of cash to relinquish vehicles. Tax preparation this year was free throughout the city<\/a> for anyone earning below the median earnings level, freeing them from the claws of TurboTax and H&R Block. And fast-food workers who were given unfair schedules at Dunkin\u2019 and Taco Bell franchises were given $1.8 million in compensation<\/a>, with the franchisee paying added fines. The announcement, part of a series of actions that returned $8.5 million in stolen wages<\/a>, was made while partaking in a fast-food feast<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the other side, Mamdani has taken significant steps to make life easier for New York\u2019s many small-business owners and entrepreneurs. He directed agencies<\/a> to take a full inventory of fees imposed on small businesses and work to reduce them. He established a new Office of Street Vendor Services<\/a> to help with their unique needs.<\/p>\n Su explained that these kinds of measures are part of an economic growth strategy that goes beyond business tax breaks. And she adds cracking down on dishonest businesses while letting honest ones flourish as part of that. \u201cThere\u2019s been some sense that if you want the economy to grow you don\u2019t enforce the law,\u201d she said. \u201cWe reject that wholesale.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of this push to position government on the side of workers, tenants, consumers, and small business came out of a transition push to scour the city\u2019s rulebook for ways to make progress quickly. Lina Khan, the former Federal Trade Commission chair and a co-chair of Mamdani\u2019s transition team, helped lead that effort. \u201cHe\u2019s governing with both real urgency and focus on using the full set of tools and authorities at his disposal,\u201d Khan told the Prospect. \u201cHe\u2019s relentlessly focused on tackling concrete pain points in people\u2019s daily lives, and modeling how government can be effective and efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n But the administration has also used existing powers to create new tools. Just yesterday, New York became the first city to propose a \u201cclick to cancel\u201d rule<\/a> to make it as easy to close a subscription as it is to open one. That\u2019s one of the many ways New York City has been enlisted into service as a substitute for the federal government. The FTC under Khan issued a rule making subscription cancellations simpler and eliminating traps in 2023, but it was stymied by legal challenges, and then the Trump administration delayed implementation<\/a>, allowing it to be killed.<\/p>\n \u201cNo city has ever done this,\u201d Levine said. But the DCWP looked at its authorities and found that it could use its ability to prohibit unconscionable practices. \u201cTrapping people in subscriptions is an unconscionable practice, so let\u2019s do it,\u201d he said. When the FTC finalized the rule, it took two years; Mamdani\u2019s administration completed the proposed rule in the first hundred days, and after a 30-day comment period, it will be tweaked based on public feedback and become law.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re moving at the kind of speed that I think people don\u2019t expect from government,\u201d Levine said. \u201cWe are charged by this mayor to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n IN THE HOURS AHEAD OF THE LAST Rental Ripoff hearing, Cea Weaver, director of the Mayor\u2019s Office to Protect Tenants, reflected on what New Yorkers had told her during Mamdani\u2019s first hundred days.<\/p>\n A nationally recognized tenant organizer and housing advocate, Weaver organized the hearings, which brought together residents and more than a dozen city agencies to provide answers to renters and hear ideas for what more the city could do. She wanted to understand the priorities of renters, who compose 69 percent of the city\u2019s population, rather than just assume them. In addition to the posterboards asking for ideas, there were also ones asking renters to rank which issues were the most important to them. Topping the list were strengthening the ability to lawfully withhold rent to compel landlords to make repairs; more aggressively collecting fines and fees from the worst offenders; making it easier to know when an inspector is coming after a renter calls for help; and combating ICE-related harassment and other forms of landlord retaliation.<\/p>\n Su also cited multiple groups she has engaged directly to hear their ideas for setting policy, including taxi drivers at airports, deliveristas, bodega owners, and more. \u201cThere should be pressure on those of us in government to radically rethink what is possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n At the first hearing in Brooklyn, one tenant wanted Weaver to fix her issue immediately. When Weaver explained that the hearing was to gather thoughts to inform future policies and offer available city services, the woman sat back in frustration. The mayor and his staff act like activists, she said, but this hearing is \u201cmore of the same.\u201d<\/p>\n The interaction reflected one of the struggles Mamdani has faced in his first hundred days, as he creates new ways for New Yorkers to participate in their own government, an idea that politicians at any level rarely put into action. \u201cSome people are certainly expecting a traditional hearing where we\u2019re sitting on the dais and listening, and to me that\u2019s a much less meaningful experience,\u201d Weaver said in an interview. The goal, she said, is to move away from a model where New Yorkers play no part in determining their collective fate. The best way to protect everyone\u2019s rights is to make sure \u201cwe are in a fighting posture.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI really believe that our broader housing goals to preserve and invest in deeply affordable housing and improve material concerns \u2026 will work better if tenants are organized,\u201d Weaver said. A city code inspector can act more swiftly if they have a tenant contact, for example, and the city can take faster legal action if renters in a single building are working together.<\/p>\n City officials like herself can also be more responsive to residents\u2019 needs when they know specifically what those needs are. The hearings highlighted new issues not yet covered by regulation or contemplated in law, such as the shift to electric heat, a major new expense for New Yorkers, who are used to oil- or gas-powered heat that\u2019s included in the cost of rent.<\/p>\n Again and again, Weaver returned to her main points, an aspect of Mamdani\u2019s administration from the beginning of his campaign for mayor. Message discipline is core to all his staff, who bring conversations back to their policy positions, a hallmark of all good organizers.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that people take away from these hearings that the most protected tenant is an empowered tenant who can talk to their neighbors about their rights,\u201d she said, adding that the philosophy of participation is also reflected in Mamdani\u2019s Office of Mass Engagement, which she called not just a nice-to-have initiative. Greater civic participation and greater equity go hand in hand, a claim that\u2019s backed<\/a> by years<\/a> of research<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important thing,\u201d Weaver said, \u201cis that in this administration, Mayor Mamdani is on your side.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROOKLYN, NEW YORK \u2013 It was the first Rental Ripoff hearing and people were pissed. Set up by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5287,15095,21097,2907,5865,426,9,24,55,54,56,87,24626,2990,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-191994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-child-care","9":"tag-cities-communities","10":"tag-health-social-policy","11":"tag-housing","12":"tag-infrastructure","13":"tag-kathy-hochul","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-city-news","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-rental-housing","21":"tag-small-business","22":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Dayen-Mamdani-staffers-010125.jpg\")
Sam Levine speaks to the press after being appointed by New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as the incoming commissioner of the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Credit: Derek French\/SOPA Images\/Sipa USA via AP Images<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775815215_560_image.jpeg\")
Credit: Whitney Curry Wimbish<\/p>\n![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Dayen-Wimbish-NYC-Mamdani-2.jpg\")
Mayor Mamdani lent a hand, joining Department of Transportation workers to fix the street bump near the Williamsburg Bridge, January 6, 2026. Credit: Yuki Iwamura\/AP Photo<\/p>\n![\"Zohran](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Dayen-Wimbish-NYC-Mamdani-3.jpg\")
Mayor Mamdani and DCWP Commissioner Sam Levine held a press conference to announce more than $5 million in worker restitution and penalties secured from major restaurant delivery app companies, January 30, 2026. Credit: Katie Godowski\/MediaPunch\/IPX<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Dayen-Wimbish-NYC-Mamdani-4.jpeg\")
Credit: NYC Mayor\u2019s Office<\/p>\n