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Journalism of Courage
NYC mayor election 2025: Zohran Mamdani, 34, was elected on Tuesday night (November 4) as the first Muslim mayor of New York City. The Democratic Party candidate secured 50.4% of the votes, while his rival, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who had contested as an Independent, finished second at 41.6%, while the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, secured 7.1% of the vote.
His victory was accompanied by a string of Democratic successes elsewhere. Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger won the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia, while California approved Proposition 50, which will allow state legislators to redistrict before the midterm elections. Overall, the present election cycle signalled a resurgence of success for the Democratic Party for the first time since Donald Trump was elected President a year ago.
Mamdani’s “intense focus on affordability, mastery of social media and relentlessly infectious optimism about New York galvanized record turnout among young voters and immigrant groups, catapulting him past more seasoned rivals,” The New York Times wrote.
Now that he is the mayor, what are his responsibilities? Here is what to know.
The mayor of the City of New York is the chief executive of the city. His office, located in New York City Hall, enjoys jurisdiction over all five city boroughs — Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.
The New York mayor enjoys tremendous powers, supervising a staff of over 300,000 people, a budget exceeding $120 billion, and a GDP of $1.3 trillion, J C Polanco, a professor at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in the Bronx and a political expert, told CBS News.
“We’re in the top 10 in the world. Considering 1 million kids in our public schools, 10 million people at any given time, 30,000 cops, it’s a lot of power,” he added.
A mayor is typically elected for a term of four years, capped at two consecutive four-year terms, but he may contest again for a third term after a break.
FINANCIAL: The mayor’s primary responsibility is preparing the city’s budget, the largest municipal budget in the US, currently at $112.4 billion, according to the Office of the New York State Comptroller.
His budgetary responsibilities include accounting for revenue sources, such as taxes, and allocating spending. However, the mayor cannot unilaterally approve tax increases and needs the support of the Albany state legislature. To see his proposals through, he would need to lobby aligned lawmakers as well as the state’s governor to get these approved.
The mayor also manages the city’s relationships with federal, state and local governing bodies, and serves as liaison with governmental bodies that deal with pensions, public finance, procurement, and franchises and concessions.
ADMINISTRATIVE: The mayor’s office oversees and administers all city services, police and fire departments, and most public agencies, while enforcing all the relevant city and state laws in New York City.
APPOINTMENTS: The mayor appoints several officials, including the deputy mayors and commissioners in charge of city agencies and departments. His responsibilities are encapsulated in Title 43 of the New York City rules. He also serves ex officio on the boards of several nonprofit organisations, such as the American Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and various public libraries.
LEGISLATIVE: The mayor oversees all legislation signed by the City Council, and can either provide his assent to or otherwise veto it. He may see fit to use executive order at any time to create or abolish bureaus, divisions or positions within the executive office of the mayor as he or she may deem necessary to fulfil mayoral duties.
As mentioned above, the Mayor can neither unilaterally raise taxes nor institute new laws independently, without the approval of the state legislature.
UNIVERSAL CHILDCARE AT NO COST: Mamdani promised free childcare for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years, as well as increasing the wages of childcare workers to bring them at par with public school teachers. He reasoned that childcare has driven New York’s working families out of the city, and adversely impacts mothers who have given up paid jobs for unpaid childcare.
FREE BUSES FOR ALL: Building on a pandemic-era pilot programme he had introduced as an Assemblyman, Mamdani has proposed removing the fares on every city bus. To make these faster, he has proposed building priority lanes, expanding bus queue jump signals, and dedicated loading zones to keep double parkers out of the way.
RENT-FREEZING & AFFORDABLE HOUSING: Mamdani plans to freeze the rent for all rent-stabilised tenants (about 1 million who live in housing where the annual rent increases are limited). He also plans to triple affordable housing in the city by constructing 200,000 new units over the next 10 years.
His proposals also include cracking down on errant landlords and preventing the theft of housing deeds to protect New York’s houseowners.
INCREASING THE MINIMUM WAGE: Mamdani plans to introduce a new local law to increase the minimum hourly wage in New York City to $30 by 2030, with a mechanism to increase this in response to the cost of living and productivity.
CITY-OWNED GROCERY STORES & SMALL BUSINESS PROTECTION: On one hand, Mamdani has proposed creating a network of city-owned grocery stores that will keep prices low by buying and selling items at wholesale prices, centralising warehousing and distribution, and partnering with local neighbourhoods on products and sourcing.
On the other hand, he has proposed protections for small businesses, including bodegas and corner stores, the quintessential New York grocery stores, so that they may remain functional. To this end, he will cut small business fines in half, speed up permitting and make online applications easier, and increase funding for 1:1 small business support by 500 per cent. And he’ll appoint a Mom-and-Pop Czar to make sure it happens.
TAXING THE RICH: Mamdani has proposed to fund proposals like the free and fast buses and universal childcare by increasing the state’s corporate tax rate to match the New Jersey tax rate of 11.5%, which would bring in $5 billion. He also plans to raise income taxes on the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers who earn more than $1 million per year to a flat 2% tax.
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY SAFETY: Mamdani has proposed the creation of the Department of Community Safety to institute proactive measures like citywide mental health programs and crisis response to “prevent violence before it happens by prioritizing solutions which have been consistently shown to improve safety.”
On taxes, other legislation: Mamdani would need the approval of the state legislature before instituting any tax changes or passing legislation. Technically, all legislation must be crafted by the City Council, which he may then approve or veto. Similarly, any mayoral veto can be overridden with the support of two-thirds of the council.
On the housing proposals: Mamdani, as the mayor, would enjoy the sole authority to appoint all members of the Rent Guidelines Board, which oversees the matter of rent-stabilised apartments. However, this does not automatically ensure that all his proposals will be seen through, and each member is required to adhere to the letter of the law, allowing them some autonomy to that effect.
On free buses: As mayor, Mamdani would likely run into major resistance with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Last week, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber questioned why rich people should benefit from the free bus proposal.
“I want to make sure that people of limited income get priority in this discussion, that we’re not just giving a ton of money to people who are riding the 104 on the Upper West Side, where I grew up, the bus on Broadway,” Lieber said.
