Pitfalls and progress: Mamdani reflects on 100 days as New York mayor | Politics News

New York – It is almost 100 days since thousands of fans braved the sweltering cold at City Hall Park to watch the public inauguration of Zohran Mamdani.

As the first Muslim mayor of the world’s richest city, the young Democratic socialist’s victory was historically significant. For many, it was a test of whether a campaign platform built on affordability could really command a financial capital.

Mamdani became a symbol of change for his supporters as he ran for office amid polarized politics, with a message of unity and campaign promises of lower living costs bolstering his support.

“The only real majority in this country and in this city is that of the working class,” Mamdani told Al Jazeera in an interview at City Hall. “And too many working-class New Yorkers, working-class Americans, don’t see themselves and their struggles at the heart of our politics.”

These were his messages about the struggle of the working class this motivated many of his supporters to the polls last year. New Yorkers faced record rents, higher grocery prices and expensive childcare.

Despite his popularity on these issues, not everyone was a fan. Mamdani faced fierce criticism not only from his opponents in the race and Republicans nationwide who accused him of being a communist, but also from those within his own party.

Democratic Congresswoman Laura Gillen called him too “extreme,” while Democratic leaders such as Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries refused to endorse him despite his growing popularity among voters.

Child care and pitfalls

However, his first 100 days have been marked by some major victories, including the fulfillment of one of his signature promises: universal child care.

Now he’s rolling out a plan to add 2,000 seats in day care centers, starting in lower-income neighborhoods, promising to take the burden of expensive child care off New Yorkers’ shoulders.

The victory on child care was for both the mayor and Gov. Kathy Hochul, as they shared a priority that did not require tax increases. Together the two ensured $1.2 billion to finance the venture of the state’s existing revenue streams allocated in the 2026 fiscal year budget.

In June, New Yorkers will be able to apply for places for two-year-olds and offers for places will be announced by August.

“These are the things New Yorkers need because we’re talking about a city of tremendous wealth, the richest city in the richest country in the history of the world, where one in four New Yorkers also lives in poverty,” Mamdani said. “And after housing, it’s childcare costs that push New Yorkers out of the city.”

The mayor also achieved popular success with an effort to fix the city’s potholes. By early April, the city filled 100,000 potholesa milestone reached on Monday.

“One of the reasons we’re focusing so much on filling 100,000 potholes across the city is that it’s symptomatic of a city government that can actually take care of even the smallest tasks in New Yorkers’ lives, to prove that we can be trusted to tackle the biggest problems in their lives as well,” Mamdani said.

But the mayor also investigated the city’s response to brutal blizzards and the limited progress in ongoing state budget negotiations.

“Well, I think every crisis is an opportunity to not only learn about the tools the city has, but to learn about the tools the city needs to have,” he said of the massive snowstorms that hit the city in January and then February. “In the first snowstorm, it became clear that the city did not have a pre-existing plan of how to address this, whether it is the lack of geometric labeling, of bus stops, of sidewalks, of crosswalks.”

The city has launched a new tool to measure the cost of living in New York, taking into account essentials such as food, transportation, taxes and housing. It found that 62 percent of New Yorkers do not earn enough to cover these costs. On average, families fall short by almost $40,000. The burden is highest for communities of color – 77 percent of Hispanic and 65 percent of black New Yorkers cannot cover the cost of living.

“It’s about five million New Yorkers. It’s the most expensive city in the United States of America,” he told Al Jazeera. “And we need to take every tool we have to make it more affordable.”

But not everyone agrees that raising taxes is the way to cut costs.

EJ Mahon, a deputy fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, pointed out that millionaires in New York already face the highest tax burden in decades.

“If there’s one slogan that’s risen to the level of obsession among Mayor Mamdani and other New York progressives, it’s ‘tax the rich.’ But here’s the thing: We’re already taxing the rich,” Mahon said in a video post on the conservative think tank’s website last month. “We are already imposing the highest rates on millionaire earners in more than 40 years, as written into state and city law.”

New Yorker Aria Singer said he worries billionaires will flee the city if taxes are too high.

“He wants to tax the rich. He doesn’t realize the rich employ people. They employ people. They employ the masses. When you attack the rich, they move out of the state, they move out of the city, so this whole concept that we’re going to help the masses is a bit silly,” Singer told Al Jazeera.

Mamdani’s rise has been fueled by sharply rising rents — about 25 percent on average since 2019 — and political turmoil under former Mayor Eric Adams, who was indicted in September 2024 on bribery and campaign finance charges.

However, many of Mamdani’s other plans depended on raising taxes, which created tension between the mayor and the governor. That tension extends beyond Mamdani’s relationship with the governor, which reflects a long history of friction between the two offices.

The city has limited control over setting its own tax rates. With the exception of property taxes, most are at the mercy of the governor, who will eventually greenlight them.

And using his political capital with the state assembly, of which he was previously a member, will drive much of his agenda, including his free bus proposal. The city’s bus system falls under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), a state agency, not a city agency.

But because of tax-driven decisions, his success or failure will depend on his ability to put political pressure on the governor, according to Adin Lenchner, a political strategist at Carroll Street Campaigns.

“If he can continue to build that (grassroots support), there will be more and more public pressure to actually execute on those priorities,” said Lenchner of the New York-based political consultancy. “It’s going to be an uphill challenge, but I think he’s uniquely positioned to take off.”

However, he emphasized that this is not a given and requires consistent mobilization of supporters. Lenchner said that doesn’t always work. Barack Obama, for example, was unable to maintain his grassroots support, which would have otherwise pressured lawmakers who stood in the way of his political priorities.

“It’s possible that it falls on its face,” Lenchner said.

Locally, Mamdani is focused on housing. The agency that would freeze rents, one of his signature campaign promises, is considering his proposal. However, his plan would regulate rents for only about half of rental apartments. To ease pressure on the rest, his administration is aggressively building more housing across the city, arguing that it will create more competition and lower prices.

Mamdani’s first 100 days come before the midterms, with candidates like him running around the country on policy or approach. Some primaries are already underway, and a record is already on the books in New York City. Over the next six to eight months, candidates will be in a position to point to the city as a good example of what to do, or something they will actively avoid.

“He’s made these issues accessible to New Yorkers and, frankly, to a larger audience across the country, which is why you’re now seeing candidates and elected officials across the country taking similar approaches,” said Democratic strategist Nomiki Konst.

“What Mayor Mamdani has been able to do is use this platform and these strategies to elevate and make accessible the everyday functions of the largest administration in the country.”

Republicans pushed back on the affordability agenda Mamdani ran on. In December, US President Donald Trump called affordability a “hoax” created by Democrats, and only a month later he changed his tune and pushed his own affordability plan.

Identity tests

A spate of xenophobic attacks disproportionately targeting the city’s Jewish and Muslim communities occurred shortly after he came of age.

In late January, a car crashed into a Jewish community center in Brooklyn. In early March, Mamdani was the subject of brazen Islamophobic remarks from a talk radio host who called him a “radical Islam cockroach.”

Just days later, a far-right activist led a rally for far-right, anti-Muslim protesters outside the mayor’s residence, called Gracie Mansion.

In response, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) said that counter-protesters identified as Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi threw an “improvised explosive device”. The Justice Department referred to the incident as an “ISIS-inspired act of terrorism.”

“Violence at a demonstration is never acceptable,” Mamdani said in response to the chaos that unfolded outside his residence. “The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, but it is also reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.”

As the city moves past the 100-day milestone, the blistering cold of his inauguration has been replaced by the heat of running a city that demands results.

Mamdani seems to know that his time as mayor will be measured not only by the number of potholes filled, but by whether his vision for a more affordable New York can withstand the friction of his own politics.

However, the mayor said, filling potholes is a good start.

“I think if you want someone to believe in the promise of a transformative vision of universal childcare, of fast and free buses, you have to first deliver the thing that diminishes their belief on a daily basis,” he said.

“It may not seem like much, but if you drive your car or you ride your bike and you hit the same pothole every day, why would you trust the city government in its ability to deliver something you’ve never seen on that scale, when it can’t even do that?”