New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s tenure has surpassed 100 days, and he’s reflecting on all he’s accomplished in that span of time.
Mamdani pointed to his election as proof that democratic socialism, the tenet he ran his campaign on, “can flourish anywhere.”
“I think that this is a politics that can flourish anywhere because, frankly, there is only one majority in this country — that’s the working class,” Mamdani said in an interview with CBS News. “And it’s time we have politics that puts them at the heart of what it is that we’re pursuing, and not as part of the appendix.”
Delivering on campaign promises
Mamdani touted a number of his administration’s accomplishments, from “pothole politics” to child care for all.
“Nothing is too big for New York City to take on,” Mamdani said during an event celebrating his first 100 days in office on April 12. “And over the past 14 weeks, we have proved that there is no task too small, either.”
He trumpeted the securing of $1.2 billion for child care and the fixing of 100,000 potholes across the city.
Mamdani also highlighted a new move in conjunction with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to tax secondary homes worth more than $5 million owned by non-New Yorkers. The pied-à-terre tax is expected to generate more than $500 million in revenue per year.
“When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today, we’re taxing the rich,” Mamdani said in a video announcing the new tax.
He added, “It’ll help fund things like free child care, cleaner streets and safer neighborhoods.”
Relationship with Trump
Before the election, President Donald Trump spoke out against Mamdani and endorsed former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent. Trump went so far as to call Mamdani a “communist” and threatened to cut federal funding to New York City if Mamdani won.
Well, he did. And one of his first orders of business was to meet with the president.
Both Trump and Mamdani said the discussion was positive, with the president going as far as to say the two have similar ideas.
“I would feel very, very comfortable being in New York,” Trump said after their November meeting, a little over a week into Mamdani’s tenure. “I really would — especially after the meeting, absolutely.”
Mamdani told CBS News on Thursday that he and Trump are in touch, and that they “are honest, direct about the fact that we have many disagreements.”
“There is one place of agreement that we have, which is that we both love New York City,” he said. “And that’s, I think, something that is at the heart of every conversation we have is how can we make the city better? Because both of us have said publicly that the better the city does, the better we feel.”
More work to be done
While Mamdani touted how much he’s gotten done in a few short months, he also acknowledged there’s plenty left to do.
At last Sunday’s rally, Mamdani announced plans to open a city-owned grocery store in East Harlem. He said the store will be in La Marqueta, a market started by then-New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1936 and is expected to open next year.
It’s expected to cost $30 million, according to The New York Times.
Mamdani also promised to cut down on commute times by expanding bus service into areas of the city where subway stations are few and far between.
He has yet to make progress on his other campaign promises to lower rent and increase taxes to help fund citywide improvements.
And he’s still not even close to reaching his goal of free universal child care for all. However, he did promise to use a chunk of the $1.2 billion granted by Hochul to provide 2,000 free spots for two-year-olds in lower-income communities by fall 2026. He said he hopes to grow that 12,000 children by fall 2027 and to reach “full universality” within four years.