{"id":350146,"date":"2026-09-18T11:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T11:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350146\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T11:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T11:50:08","slug":"more-potholes-filled-but-slower-ambulances-nycs-latest-government-performance-report-shows-a-mixed-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350146\/","title":{"rendered":"More potholes filled, but slower ambulances: NYC\u2019s latest government performance report shows a mixed picture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a>\u2019s administration is touting more pothole repairs, increased affordable housing production and falling crime as evidence that its focus on the nuts and bolts of city government is paying off.<\/p>\n

But the same sprawling performance report released Thursday shows some core services moving in the opposite direction, with New Yorkers waiting longer for ambulances, streetlight repairs and some basic government services than they did a year earlier.<\/p>\n

City Hall published the fiscal year 2026 Mayor\u2019s Management Report<\/a> under the banner that Mamdani\u2019s \u201cpothole politics\u201d are working, pointing to a 27% increase in pothole repairs, a 20% rise in affordable housing completions and major felony crime falling more than 2%. Murders declined about 20%, and shooting incidents dropped more than 16%, according to the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s Mayor\u2019s Management Report shows what happens when City Hall puts those priorities into action,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement. \u201cWe are making housing affordable, connecting more young people with jobs, putting more money back into the pockets of working families, filling more potholes and delivering the essential services New Yorkers deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the report is not exactly a report card for Mamdani, who took office halfway through the fiscal year.\n<\/p>\n

The 544-page document covers July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, six months under former Mayor Eric Adams<\/a> and six months under Mamdani. The Mayor\u2019s Office of Operations itself describes the report as a \u201cbaseline\u201d for the new administration and a starting point for measuring its progress going forward.<\/p>\n

The Citizens Budget Commission<\/a> likewise cautioned against treating the MMR as a Mamdani report card, calling it \u201chardly\u201d one because of the split fiscal year. The nonpartisan fiscal watchdog has also long argued<\/a> that the document emphasizes how much work agencies perform \u2014 calls answered, cases handled or services delivered \u2014 more than the quality, efficiency and impact of those services.<\/p>\n

In an early review of 20 key indicators, CBC found 11 moved in the expected direction, six moved in the opposite direction and three were little changed from the prior year.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNot surprisingly, this manifests as a mixed picture, showing what is working and where the Administration should focus,\u201d CBC said in a written assessment shared with amNewYork.\n<\/p>\n

Work in progress<\/p>\n

That distinction between how much government does and how well it performs is apparent in several measures that worsened over the past year. FDNY ambulance response times, for example, deteriorated sharply even as the number of medical emergencies declined slightly.<\/p>\n

The end-to-end average response time for an ambulance to a life-threatening medical emergency rose from 11 minutes, 21 seconds in fiscal 2025 to 13 minutes, 9 seconds in fiscal 2026 \u2014 one minute and 48 seconds longer. Meanwhile, the combined dispatch-and-travel time for ambulances and fire companies increased from 7:45 to 9:13, well above the department\u2019s six-minute target.<\/p>\n

FDNY attributed the slowdown in part to declining EMS staffing and fewer ambulances. Average ambulance in-service hours fell 5%, while 11 hospital-operated ambulances left the 911 system during the year.<\/p>\n

Police response times also worsened. The NYPD\u2019s end-to-end response time to critical crimes in progress increased from 9 minutes, 10 seconds to 9 minutes, 38 seconds, which CBC said was the highest level since fiscal 2013.<\/p>\n

At the same time, quality-of-life summonses increased 13%, from 196,102 to 220,802. CBC said that, to the extent summonses reflect active enforcement efforts, the increase showed the NYPD continued to address public safety and disorder concerns. The group added that increased enforcement should be paired with training and oversight to ensure summonses are appropriate and fair.<\/p>\n

Transportation presents another example. City Hall highlighted 229,000 potholes repaired, up 27%, including 185,788 on local streets and 43,577 on arterial highways. But the average time it took DOT to close a pothole repair doubled from 1.99 days to four days. The figure remained within the agency\u2019s five-day target.<\/p>\n

CBC noted that the 185,788 potholes repaired on local streets was the second-highest total since fiscal 2019, when the city repaired just over 196,000.\n<\/p>\n

Streetlight repairs fared worse. The average repair time increased from 5.3 days to 8.5 days, its highest level in 15 years, according to the MMR. DOT took first action on broken streetlights within 10 days 75.5% of the time, down from 94% the previous year and the lowest rate recorded since the measure began in fiscal 2008. The agency cited weather-related outages, equipment failures, utility coordination and more complicated repairs.<\/p>\n

Housing results were also mixed. City Hall said affordable housing completions climbed 20% to 26,971 homes, the most in five years. But the median time to complete applicant approvals for an affordable housing lottery project increased 12%, from 210 to 236 days.<\/p>\n

The share of lottery projects where approvals were completed within six months dropped from 41% to 26%. HPD said the longer waits may be tied to larger projects and a record number of units being leased up.<\/p>\n

CBC identified that slowdown as one of several housing measures moving in the wrong direction.\n<\/p>\n

Among families with children in the shelter system, exits to permanent housing fell 11%, from 12,336 to 10,941, while their average shelter stay increased from 372 to 415 days.\n<\/p>\n

There were signs of improvement elsewhere in the shelter system. CBC found that single-adult exits to permanent housing increased 7%, to 10,540, while the average daily shelter census declined about 1.5%. The average monthly CityFHEPS subsidy, meanwhile, increased more than 9%, from $1,908 to $2,087 as rents continued to rise citywide.<\/p>\n

Some basic customer-service measures also slipped. The average wait at an HRA office rose from 81 minutes, 25 seconds to 97 minutes, 3 seconds, well above the agency\u2019s 60-minute target. The share of calls answered within 30 seconds fell from 14.1% to 8.3%. HRA said its callback system means customers do not have to stay on the line and attributed longer visits in part to federal policy changes.<\/p>\n

Building momentum<\/p>\n

The report also recorded gains across several measures.\n<\/p>\n

Average child care voucher enrollment rose more than 20%, from 91,227 to nearly 110,000 children, while infant and toddler enrollment increased nearly 17%, from 6,378 to 7,449. CBC described both as measures of service utilization, while noting that 3-K enrollment declined 2.3% to 43,678.<\/p>\n

Recreation-center membership reached a 15-year high and tree planting increased 61% to roughly 55,000. City Hall also highlighted bus-lane installation more than doubling, from 5.5 to 12 miles.\n<\/p>\n

The number of people in assisted outpatient mental health treatment increased from 2,828 to 3,052, while low-income households facing eviction or homelessness that received Housing Court legal services rose from 37,463 to 38,661.<\/p>\n

The administration also highlighted a nearly tenfold increase in workers entitled to restitution, from 7,531 to 73,817. But the MMR shows that three large settlements involving Starbucks, Uber and Getir accounted for roughly 88% of the workers and 92% of the restitution dollars reported for the year.<\/p>\n

CBC said the broader issue is whether the city uses the MMR not simply to publish thousands of statistics, but to identify problems and hold agencies accountable for improving them.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Mayor\u2019s focus on excellence in City government, the Administration would be wise to reform \u2014 then use \u2014 the MMR to manage the City moving forward, focusing on progress, impact and efficiency,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n

In the report\u2019s foreword, Mamdani pledged to use the data to improve city services. \u201cWe will use this data to drive improvement, make it easier for New Yorkers to get the services they deserve and build a government that earns their trust by delivering every single day,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s administration is touting more pothole repairs, increased affordable housing production and falling crime as evidence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22925,130679,130802,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-350146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-mayors-management-report","tag-mmr","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350146","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=350146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}