{"id":27493,"date":"2025-11-03T22:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T22:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/27493\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T22:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T22:29:09","slug":"hochul-pushes-controversial-nyc-housing-ballot-measures-despite-zohran-mamdanis-silence-on-the-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/27493\/","title":{"rendered":"Hochul pushes controversial NYC housing ballot measures despite Zohran Mamdani’s silence on the issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kathy Hochul came out to support controversial Election Day ballot measures that would boost the New York City mayor\u2019s power over housing \u2014 but ducked questions on Zohran Mamdani\u2019s glaring refusal to take a position<\/a> on the issues.<\/p>\n

Hochul refused to address the lefty Democratic nominee\u2019s silence on ballot question Nos. 2, 3 and 4, which have roiled City Council members who fear losing control over zoning and approval processes for housing developments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to endorse these proposals because I\u2019ve been working the last four years as governor to break down all the barriers to building affordable housing,\u201d Hochul said, while handing out fliers about the proposals to voters on the Upper East Side.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul handed out literature promoting New York City ballot measures two, three and four Monday morning. James Keivom<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m all about taking down the barriers so we can start building so the young people you see here today have a chance of having an affordable future in New York City, starting with their rent,\u201d she said \u2014 ducking the question about Mamdani cowering from taking a public stance.<\/p>\n

The ballot measures were pushed by Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped his re-election bid in September, potentially leaving his successor with newfound powers over housing projects.<\/p>\n

Mamdani \u2014 the democratic socialist Queens assemblyman and favorite to win in Tuesday\u2019s election \u2014 has very noticeably refused to take a stance on the ballot questions, despite making affordability and the housing crisis signature issues of his campaign.<\/p>\n

Backing the measures would put him at odds with progressive allies in the City Council and some powerful unions like 32BJ SEIU, the massive labor group repping property service workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not yet taken a position on those ballot amendment questions,\u201d Mamdani said when pressed by his opponents, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa, during the mayoral election debate two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Zohran Mamdani has conspicuously refused to take a stance on the housing ballot measures, despite the topic being a key part of his affordability agenda. William Farrington<\/p>\n

His campaign didn\u2019t return request for comment Monday.<\/p>\n

Outgoing City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, no relation to the mayor, is urging New Yorkers to vote no<\/a> on the ballot measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur neighborhoods will get less truly affordable housing, less investment, and will be vulnerable to more unwelcome, unwanted gentrification,\u201d she said last month.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani in September. James Keivom<\/p>\n

Hochul also told New Yorkers to vote yes on ballot measure No. 6, which would give her and state lawmakers permission to reschedule mayoral elections so they coincide with presidential years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have parts of our city where it is hard to elect Democrats, period,\u201d Hochul told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to increase the turnout, which happens in gubernatorial and presidential years, which are even years, so, as we\u2019re doing across the state, giving Democrats a fighting chance to be representative, because we know how devastating it has been under Republican control,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Democrats passed and Hochul signed a measure in 2023 to move most local elections outside New York City to even-numbered years. The law is facing a last-ditch challenge by Republicans in federal court after New York\u2019s highest court upheld it unanimously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul came out to support controversial Election Day ballot measures that would boost the New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[446,17353,81,2907,426,57,9,24,63,563,134,136,135,58,82],"class_list":["post-27493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-adrienne-adams","tag-election-day-2025","tag-eric-adams","tag-housing","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-mayoral-election-2025","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27493","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=27493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}