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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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Less than three months into his term as New York City's mayor, Zohran Mamdani faces expected challenges while also being urged into action by unpredictable tragedies.
The 34-year-old Democratic Socialist is looking at an uphill battle to pass his proposed budget plan, which the New York City Council has pitted against its own. Meanwhile, the fatal shooting of a baby in Brooklyn earlier this week has shaken the city, with Mamdani saying, "We cannot accept this violence as normal."
Why It Matters
Mamdani's victory in the New York City mayoral race last year signaled a new trend within the Democratic Party, suggesting that candidates focused on the working class and promising solutions to their most pressing problems—housing affordability and rampant child care costs—can win over voters.
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As the youngest New York City mayor since 1892 and the city's first Asian American, Muslim and Democratic Socialist mayor, Mamdani has been under heavy scrutiny since even before he took office. In the age of President Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again movement, Mamdani's success in the role could offer a blueprint for a Democratic Party hoping to sway more voters in upcoming elections.
A Budgetary Disconnect Between the Mayor and City Council
After pledging in January to tell a "new story" of New York City, Mamdani immediately faced the challenge of keeping his ambitious campaign promises—including making buses free, freezing rent for rent-controlled housing units and making child care free for New Yorkers.
Mamdani has taken significant steps to help parents struggling with higher child care costs. Last month, the mayor chose four areas of New York City to kick-start his push to provide free child care for 2-year-olds as part of the 2-K program announced with New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
While Mamdani and Hochul have shown a united front to deliver free child care to New Yorkers, their working partnership has begun to show some cracks when put in front of the megalopolis' proposed budget, which has also put the mayor against another Democratic leader in the state, City Council Speaker Julie Menin.
In February, Mamdani unveiled a preliminary budget for the next fiscal year, which begins in July, framed around closing over the next two years a projected $5.4 billion budget gap that his administration said it inherited from former Mayor Eric Adams.
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To balance the books, the mayor has proposed that the state raise income taxes on New Yorkers earning more than $1 million a year and increase corporate taxes. If this does not happen, he laid out another path: raising citywide property taxes by 9.5 percent, the first such increase since the early 2000s.
This hike, which would not require state approval, is expected to generate an estimated $3.7 billion in annual revenue.
Mamdani's proposal has not been warmly received by New York politicians. Hochul has publicly spoken out against raising taxes on New York's ultrawealthy, and the New York City Council has also harshly criticized his budget plan, releasing a $127 billion alternate budget plan this week.
That plan would not raise property taxes, as suggested by Mamdani, but resolve the budget shortfall issue with a mix of reestimated revenues, savings and creative new funding sources. That includes renting out vaults under the Brooklyn Bridge, a measure that could generate $17 million annually, according to the City Council.
"We cannot in good conscience fund the City's needs on the backs of homeowners or renters, by digging into emergency reserves, or by cutting essential programs," Menin, a moderate Democrat, said in a news release.
"Our response offers a clear alternative to taking those steps, puts the City back on stable footing and invests directly in New Yorkers," she continued.
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Mamdani's Transportation Department has shut down the idea of renting out the Brooklyn Bridge's secret vaults, with a representative telling the New York Post that the department opposed the idea "for security reasons," and that the rooms were already a "necessary storage area for vehicles critical to maintaining our bridge infrastructure."
In a video published online, Mamdani criticized Menin's proposal. "If her proposal was adopted, it would result in slashing billions of dollars from agency budgets, and working New Yorkers would pay the price," he said.
The City Council responded on social media, saying the mayor's statements were "untrue."
"It may be April Fools' Day, but the Council wasn't kidding when we said NO CUTS to any services or staff," the council wrote.
The state budget was initially due on Wednesday, but lawmakers have extended the deadline to April 7. Hochul and state lawmakers are expected to finalize New York's spending plan prior to that date.
Making New York City Safer
After a stray bullet struck and killed an infant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Wednesday, Mamdani called the incident "a devastating reminder of how much more work has to be done to combat gun violence across this city."
The child, 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore, was in a stroller and out with her parents when a man riding on the back of a motorbike opened fire. A suspect is in police custody in connection with the shooting, but authorities have not released his identity nor disclosed any information about who the intended target of the shooting may have been.
"We cannot accept this as normal in our city," Mamdani said during a news conference on Wednesday. "We cannot be numb to this pain."
Compared to other large cities in the U.S., New York City has a relatively low number of gun violence incidents. Last year, according to city authorities, New York had its safest year for gun violence ever, an achievement Mamdani credited to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
In 2025, New York City recorded 688 shooting incidents, down from 904 in 2024. In December, there were 35 shooting incidents in the city—the fewest shootings in any single month in recorded history, according to authorities.
"This work, however, is not done," the mayor said in January. "Together with Police Commissioner Tisch and Governor Kathy Hochul, we will continue to drive down crime—addressing the needs of New Yorkers and working with our officers to deliver public safety."
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