Having just checked off the first 100 days of his administration leading America’s largest city, New York’s mayor told a roaring crowd of supporters, city workers and political allies his administration has already delivered evidence a democratic socialist can, in fact, govern.
“I know there are many who use ‘socialist’ as a dirty word, something to be ashamed of,” Mamdani said Sunday night. “They can try all they want, but we will not be ashamed of using government to fight for the many, not simply the few.”
Mamdani also announced a series of new administration proposals aimed at expanding the city’s fast bus lanes, increasing garbage containerization – a move to end New York’s notorious garbage bag piles on city sidewalks – and launching the city’s first government subsidized grocery store in East Harlem, with the explicit purpose to bring prices down.
Sunday’s rally had all the standard elements of Mamdani political events: highly produced video montages, campaign slogan signs and a crush of influencers and young supporters. There was also a cameo by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who joined Mamdani on stage halfway through his speech, praising him for “providing hope and inspiration” to people across the country.
Since making history as the city’s first Muslim mayor and the youngest in a generation, Mamdani has surprised some of his toughest critics, even as some remain skeptical the 34-year-old has what it takes to successfully run a complicated city like New York.
The past four months have showcased a constant and difficult balancing act for Mamdani: maintaining public safety while protecting civil liberties as well as responding to concerns about antisemitism, including concerns about social media posts his wife, Rama Duwaji, liked that were sharply critical of Israel.
Large residential buildings in West Harlem are now required to put trash in large bins on the street instead of in piles on the curb.Flo Ngala/The New York Times/Redux
A March terror attack targeting a protest outside Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, intensified scrutiny from his critics and tested the Mamdani’s ability to project control, reassure affected communities and unify a city with sharply differing views on policing, protest and hate incidents. Mamdani noted the city’s crime rate continues to hit record lows despite an uptick in hate crimes reported in the past month.
Mamdani has so far staved off the federal intervention many predicted would happen were he to be elected. Since taking office, he has met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office and spoken to him by phone to express his opposition to the president’s geopolitical decisions. The mayor, who has said he still considers Trump to be a fascist, has pitched the Queens-born president on a massive federal affordable housing investment that would help counter the city’s housing crisis.
The celebratory rally Sunday evening was a callback of sorts to Mamdani’s inauguration day speech, in which he doubled down on his democratic socialist identity, committing to governing like one and vowing to not shy away from his ideas for fear of being deemed too radical.
“As I said on that freezing January afternoon to more than 8 ½ million New Yorkers, ‘We will make no apology for what we believe. I was elected as a democratic socialist, and I will govern as a democratic socialist.’ Tonight, I want to talk about what we’ve done. Not to congratulate ourselves, but as a reminder of what is possible. With what we’ve accomplished in 14 weeks, imagine what we can do together in four years.”
Mamdani was elected last November on promises to tackle the city’s affordability crisis, create universal free child care, make city buses free and freeze rent for a million rent-stabilized tenants across the city.
While his signature proposals have not yet fully come into fruition, he notched a major victory in the first two weeks of his mayoralty by securing $1.2 billion in funding in partnership with Gov. Kathy Hochul to help expand the city’s 3-K program and set up free child care for two-year-olds for the first time in the city’s history.
When asked about his core campaign proposals, the mayor and his senior aides often say he has laid the groundwork for much of his core agenda and reference a wide swath of policy announcements, legal action and new initiatives they say will contribute to closing the affordability gap and help improve New Yorkers’ daily lives.
Still, Mamdani has acknowledged the difficulty of quickly enacting some of his proposals and at times has been forced to compromise. The administration is focused on launching a free bus pilot program and expanding fast lanes after plans to make citywide service free stalled. The promised rent freeze must wait until the Rent Guidelines Board takes a vote in the summer. In the meantime, Mamdani has stacked the board with appointees who share his views to freeze rent.
The city is facing a significant structural budget gap estimated at roughly $5 billion, which sets up both a fiscal and political challenge for Mamdani. He will have to wrestle with the gap while trying to avoid cutbacks on the public services he has sought to highlight.
During Sunday’s rally, Mamdani struck a defiant tone, referencing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in casting the budget gap as the fault of inefficient administrations before him.
“I have thought often of the Margaret Thatcher quote, ‘The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.’ If anything, my friends, it seems that you eventually need a socialist to clean up the mess,” Mamdani said.
The City Council, led by Speaker Julie Menin will negotiate a final deal with the mayor that they plan to announce jointly in the summer. In the meantime, Menin has emerged as Mamdani’s most reliable foil, as he proposes solutions that would require drawing down on the city’s reserves or cutting spending and she seeks to prevent cuts.
There have also been stumbles along the way. Mamdani has largely backed away from a controversial proposal to raise property taxes – the only taxes a mayor can raise unilaterally – after pitching it as a last resort option to help close the budget gap. Mamdani’s proposal, which he said would need to be taken seriously if the governor and state legislature did not agree to increase taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents, was widely rejected by the City Council, including several of his allies who warned the increase would disproportionally affect the same working-class New Yorkers Mamdani sought to appeal to during the campaign.
Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York, speaks at the rally marking 100 days on Sunday in Queens.Camara Porter/Starface Photo/COVER/AP
Sunday’s rally, held at the Knockdown Center, a concert venue in Queens, highlighted the work of public employees who deliver essential services around the clock and sometimes go unnoticed. It’s a focus Mamdani has sought to keep during the past 100 days, holding public events nearly every day of the week to highlight his administration’s proposals – both big and small – to improve delivery of city services and New Yorkers’ quality of life.
What has come across as a long municipal works checklist in the past few weeks is not an accident. Mamdani’s senior aides say the strategy is a nod to “sewer socialism” – a reference to the early 20th century American socialist movement that took hold in Milwaukee and focused on improving the lives of working-class people by enhancing delivery of essential government services, public works, sanitation and public health.
So far, New Yorkers appear optimistic. A public survey conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion found 48 percent of New Yorkers polled approve of Mamdani’s job performance so far, while 30 percent disapproved and 23 percent said they remained unsure about how to rate it.
The survey, released days before Mamdani marked his 100th day in office, showed a majority – 55 percent – said they have a favorable view of the mayor while 33 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion. Overall, New Yorkers said they were feeling positive about Mamdani’s leadership and the direction of the city: 56 percent said the city was moving in the right direction.
The mayor, who also spoke about sewer socialism on the campaign trail, has proposed building more public restrooms across the city. He personally helped clean up snow when two major storms blanketed the city, paved over a widely hated bump on the Williamsburg Bridge’s bike path, initiated bus lane projects along some of the city’s most clogged arteries and directed his administration to take down scaffolding at dozens of public housing developments.
Mamdani donned a reflective vest on top of his white button-down and joined a group of sanitation workers to clean up an illegal dumping site in the Bronx last week. He also wore a headset and sat at a 311 cubicle, fielding calls from New Yorkers who dial the non-emergency line every day to report issues around the city. Days later, he picked up a metal shovel and a hard hat and poured concrete over a gaping pothole to mark the city’s progress in filling 100,000 potholes.
“This is pothole politics — our 2026 answer to sewer socialism — where government is not too busy, not too self-important, not too mired in paperwork to fix the problems of this city, no matter their size,” Mamdani said.
In his first four months in office, Mamdani has kept a pace reminiscent of his campaign – keeping a promise to New Yorkers to make himself seen and heard, saying they should expect to see him on city streets, riding its public transportation and even making himself available for the occasional aggrieved resident who may want to give him a piece of their mind.
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