In his social media-driven campaign, Mayor Zohran Mamdani promised to remake city government. Fifty days in as of Thursday, he has made some early inroads — but now he finds himself dealing with the part of the job every New York mayor knows: a multibillion-dollar budget gap, hard calls on homelessness, and a push for more funding from Albany.
Mamdani was sworn in just after midnight on New Year’s Day, becoming the first Muslim and first South Asian mayor in New York City’s history and promising to pursue an aggressive economic program to make the city more affordable. He brought in a large influx of left-wing colleagues, including many alums of the de Blasio administration. Some quickly became subjects of controversy for past offensive posts, including one staffer whose comments were deemed antisemitic.
