Mamdani’s first 10 days: getting things done despite right’s dystopian fantasies | Zohran Mamdani

Right-wing politicians and the media issued serious warnings about Zohran Mamdani.

According to some, the election of a democratic socialist will cause crime to increase and freedom to decrease, causing the rich to flee the city and, so to speak, a conservative think tank“Collapse, dependence and political repression” in the style of “Venezuela” and “Cuba”.

The reality of Mamdani’s first few days in office was quite different; The 34-year-old has made progress on campaign promises such as housing and rent while also carrying out minor municipal repairs, avoiding turning the city into a forewarned dystopian nightmare.

After the opening ceremony on New Year’s Eve thousands of As more New Yorkers braved the sub-zero temperatures, Mamdani quickly began working to dismantle perhaps the most ambitious mayoral agenda in modern history.

The issue of affordable housing has been the backbone of Mamdani’s campaign, and on his first day in office he created two working groups aimed at creating new development: one that will examine city-owned land to see if it is suitable for construction, and the other aimed to “identify and remove bureaucratic and permitting hurdles” that slow home construction.

The new mayor also announced a number of notable announcements: “Rent robbery” Hearings where tenants can testify about their living conditions in order to take action against negligent landlords. Later that week, Mamdani published: administrative order It gave officials 45 days to bring the city’s homeless shelters into compliance with health and safety rules and similarly ordered officials to come up with a plan to improve conditions in New York prisons, including ending solitary confinement.

A remarkable development for those who said that Mamdani would be blocked by New York governor Kathy Hochul was that this duo published a plan on Thursday. free child care For two-year-olds in New York.

“A great victory for the people of New York,” cheered the New York Democratic Socialists of America, which helped elect Mamdani. “A big moment for parents” in question Advocacy group New Yorkers United for Child Care.

These were all measures that Mamdani had promised during his year-long campaign, so it really shouldn’t have come as a surprise. However, they faced background rumblings from the right.

While Fox News complained that “Mamdani is siding with tenants” in response to a plan to crack down on New York’s worst landlords, the right-wing New York Post also voiced its objection to the rent robbery hearings: quote the head of a landlord lobby group – not a particularly sympathetic figure.

Mamdani also came under fire for objecting to the United States attacking Venezuela to capture its president; The mayor called it “an act of war and a violation of federal and international law” and was criticized by the right after Wednesday’s announcement of ICE’s killing of Renee Nicole Good.

The Post was a constant critic, as it was during Mamdani’s campaign. The Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid appeared to have misjudged the mood when it criticized Mamdani and Hochul’s childcare plan.

“Universal child care isn’t a win for ‘affordability’; it’s an expensive, taxpayer-heavy pastime that doubles as a treat for crooks,” the Post exclaimed. an editorial On Monday – completely ignoring the polls This shows that two-thirds of New York voters support not only the idea of ​​free child care, but also the possibility of paying for it by increasing taxes on the rich.

Elsewhere, Mamdani is carrying out small but significant corrections. Thousands of people bike across the Williamsburg Bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn every day, but for years cyclists have been forced to negotiate a skatepark-like incline at the exit from Manhattan.

Calls to repair the ramp had been unheard for years, but on Tuesday Mamdani appeared on the Manhattan side of the bridge. with a team consisting of a shovel and a department of transport workersand the aggressive slope was transformed into a nice, gentle slope.

Even the New York Post couldn’t find anything bad to say about it.