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The Urbanist
Breaking ground or breaking promises? New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first 100 days in office
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- [00:12]
Mazin Siddhamid
He came in with pretty broad support and excitement and the general mood in New York has remained quite high.
- [00:20]
Andrew Tuck
How is New York's groundbreaking new leader fared in his first 100 days in the mayor's office? This is the urbanist monocle's programme all about the cities we live in. I'm your host, Andrew Tuck. This week we unpack some of the campaign promises that led New Yorkers to choose Zoran Mamdani as their new mayor and how those big ambitions have panned out so far, from housing and affordability to small businesses and transit. Our correspondents and guests will mark Mayor Mamdani's report card and look ahead to his first full term. Plus, we get an impression of how immigrant communities in the city have reacted to the recent change in City hall, too. That's all ahead right here on the Urbanist. With me, Andrew Tuck. 100 days is a fairly short time frame to do something like paint your spare bedroom, let alone paint a city in your image, especially one as nuanced and unwieldy as New York. This time frame is nonetheless important to residents and reporters alike in order to measure how well an elected official is faring in their new role. New York's newest mayor, Zoran Mamdani, took office on 1 January. A democratic socialist who was elected on a platform of free transport, rent freezes and support for universal childcare and small businesses. Born in Uganda to parents of Indian descent, he. He is also a groundbreaking mayor when it comes to demographics, being New York City's first Muslim and first Asian American mayor. On today's program, we'll look at some of the campaign promises Mayor Mamdani made and how they are progressing just over three months into his tenure. And if there was an overarching theme of his candidacy, affordability was it with housing and rental prices at the heart of that rallying cry? So how has the housing situation in New York changed? Monocle's Henry Reece Sheridan sent us this report.
- [02:25]
Henry Reece Sheridan
For decades, Republicans and Democrats have pandered to American homeowners for a simple reason. People who own their own homes tend to vote at higher rates than those who don't. But when Zoran Mamdani kicked off his campaign to become mayor of New York City, he flipped the script on its head, banking on a direct and loud appeal to the 69% of New Yorkers who rent their homes as opposed to owning them. The two main promises he made were to reduce the cost of housing by building 200,000 new affordable homes over 10 years and to freeze Rents on apartments controlled by the city. These policies won the support of many voters and played a major part in getting Mamdani into office. The cost of housing is by far the single biggest expense most New Yorkers face. More than half of the city's renters spend over 30% of their income on rent and a third spend over 50% of their income on housing. Mamdani's alignment with renters is both natural and credible. He himself is the leaseholder on a rent stabilised one bedroom apartment in the Astoria neighbourhood of Queens and is the first renter to be elected mayor of New York City since Ed Koch, who won the office in 1977. In his first hundred days in office, Mamdani has already taken steps towards his most ambitious housing goal of creating 200,000 new affordable homes. The most significant so far came in late March with the announcement of the Neighborhood Builders Fast Track policy, which makes it easier for affordable homes to be built on land owned by the city.
- [03:50]
Mazin Siddhamid
And we're all here together today for an announcement where we launch the Neighborhood Builders Fast Track. What does that mean?
- [04:00]
David Stevens
Because I know it doesn't explain itself.
- [04:03]
Mazin Siddhamid
What this means is that we are creating a pre qualified roster of developers and in doing so we are going to cut down on pre development time for new projects from 18 months to 10 months.
- [04:19]
Henry Reece Sheridan
Mamdani's determination to build and his willingness to slash red tape to do so has led him to court unlikely allies. In late February, Mamdani made a surprise trip to Washington to meet President Trump. He brought with him a mock up of a front page of the New York Daily News, the city's largest tabloid, with the headline Trump to City, let's Build printed in bold capitals above a portrait of the President. Shortly after the meeting, Mamdani posted a picture of him standing alongside a beaming Trump, who was holding the prop behind the presidential desk in the Oval Office. In a deadpan caption, Mamdani wrote that he was looking forward to building more housing in New York City. Despite his strategic ideological flexibility, Mamdani's ambition to build 200,000 units of housing still faces massive challenges. The most fundamental is money. To realise the plan, the city will need to borrow an additional $70 billion over the next decade, on top of the roughly 25 billion already committed to affordable housing in the city's existing capital plan. This would push the city well past its legal debt ceiling and require the approval of New York's governor and state legislature in Albany, where at least some lawmakers are likely to balk given the additional debt service it would impose on an already strained budget. At the federal level, the picture is no easier. The Trump administration's proposed budget cuts rental assistance by 40%, and the administration has withheld $18 billion in federal transit funding for the city, a reminder of just how precarious the relationship between Trump and his home city remains, notwithstanding the Oval Office photo opportunity. In the shorter term, Mamdani has committed to a freeze on rents. In practice, this means that rents will not go up on the roughly 1 million apartments in the city that are rent stabilised, that is whose price is set annually by the Rent Guidelines Board, a nine member body appointed by the mayor. About one million of New York City's three and a half million housing units are rent stabilised, providing homes to some two and a half million people, nearly 30% of the city's population. Under Mamdani's predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams, the board approved four consecutive annual rent increases, totalling 12% over his time in office. A freeze will obviously come as a relief to the city's renters, but the landlords who own rent stabilised apartments worry that the measure could push them into insolvency. Since 2020, expenses for owners of rent stabilised apartments have risen by 22% while rents haven't kept up, growing by roughly 11%. 10% of rent regulated buildings already report operating costs equal to or higher than their rental income, meaning they are close to the edge of tax foreclosure. Landlord groups also point to the tens of thousands of apartments they say are standing empty across the city, so called ghost apartments that owners say aren't worth investing capital in because the rents are too low to cover renovation costs. Tenant advocates dispute the scale of the problem, and the true number of such apartments is genuinely contested. But it speaks to a real tension at the heart of Mamdani's housing agenda. Policies designed to protect the renters who are already housed may make it harder to get new apartments onto the market. The Rent Guidelines Board is scheduled to take a preliminary vote in May, with a final decision in June. Any changes would apply to leases taking effect between October 2026 and September 2027. The decision is likely to set the template for the city's approach to rent controlled apartments for as long as Mamdani is in office and the consequences will resonate beyond New York. The conditions that renters face here, wages that haven't kept pace with housing costs, home ownership that feels permanently out of reach and a political class that that has historically been more attentive to those who own than to those who rent are felt in cities across America. Mamdani's bet is that those conditions also represent a political opportunity and that New York City is the place to prove it.
- [08:24]
Andrew Tuck
My thanks there to Henry Reece Sheridan for his report. Next up, we turn to the small businesses of New York. Mayor Mamdani was regularly seen visiting the bodegas of his city during his campaign for that now famous sandwich order.
- [08:39]
Mazin Siddhamid
Habibi, could I get an egg and
- [08:40]
David Stevens
cheese on a roll with jalapeno? One Zoran special coming up.
- [08:44]
Andrew Tuck
Supporting small businesses like the ones that served his favorite breakfast sandwich was another of his pillars that he pitched to citizens. But how has life changed for the everyday store owner? Monocle's Anita Riota, a former New York resident and business reporter, joins me now to discuss this.
- [09:02]
Anita Riota
An ex resident New Yorker, you know much about the city and when people hear you speaking, they'll believe that as well. I believe. Let' to start with, what were the promises made to the electorates about supporting small businesses in New York by the mayor?
- [09:18]
Anita Riota (continued or colleague)
Well, as listeners will remember, Mamdani, when he was running for mayor, his whole message, his whole campaign was about affordability. And while maybe headlines were grabbed more so by childcare improvements and free buses, small business affordability and making sure that people that wanted to create a business were supported by the city were also really foundational to his message to New Yorkers. But what he really focused in on was that he wanted to cut fines for small businesses if they had infracted regulation by half, speed up permitting and make sure that there were more online resources available. A lot of times it's you have to go file this document in person or spend hours on the phone, which is obviously restrictive to people trying to set up their own business. He said he will invest in these types of resources 500% more and that he will appoint a Mom and Pop czar to ensure that all of these other policies that he has implemented will actually be used by the population. And actually, you know, I think one of the first ways I interacted with Mamdani when he was on the campaign trail was he had a really viral video of talking to halal cart owners and saying to them, you know, how much was it to apply for your permit? And it's staggering numbers. And so this really blew up and became a main policy point for him almost immediately.
- [10:40]
Anita Riota
Well, we can't ignore the title mom and Pop Tsar. It's such a great title. What is the role of the czar?
- [10:47]
Anita Riota (continued or colleague)
So essentially the mom and Pop Czar is meant to cut red tape for small business owners. There's something like 6,000 rules and regulations for small businesses in New York City. Imagine you are trying to start a business, secure funding, interact with your community, and then you have to be abreast of 6,000 regulations. So trying to streamline those, trying to make sure that there are special permits for small businesses that are different than those that apply to their larger peers. And also something that he has said is that he wants to be a fix, not fine administration. So that if you are trying to streamline these regulations, if a business makes a mistake or doesn't submit the right permit or, you know, has infracted a rule, try to work with them to fix and get them to comply rather than immediately charge these quite high fines oftentimes.
- [11:42]
Anita Riota
And you need to unpack for us the culture of the bodega, because even when you go to Manhattan, even wealthy parts of Manhattan, there's often a corner store that's run by a family. There's a whole culture that we don't see, maybe in kind of even in central London.
- [11:57]
Anita Riota (continued or colleague)
Absolutely. I would say the bodega is a cultural pillar of New York and really a cultural pillar that we should fight to keep. Because you do see in New York, like a lot of other cities, the disappearance of these stores that give the city so much of its personality. And then it becomes, you know, a chain bakery or something, some cold personality less place. But the bodega is, you know, you'll get anything from your ibuprofen to a hot sandwich. There's always a cat somehow. There's always a bodega cat. I don't know if it's the owner's cat, if the cat runs the bodega, if it comes, you know, with the structure. And it really is, you know, when I was a teenager, you have your bodega, you know, the person running it, it just builds an actual neighborhood feel. In a city that's so big, you need these touch, you need your bodega, your deli, your place. If not, you just get lost in a sea of sameness. So I think that actually creating places that feel unique to each neighborhood, that allow for personality to be brought back into the city is really foundational.
- [13:03]
Anita Riota
And so the mom and pop tsar will be looking after these people as well, I take it. And we have an appointee as well, Delia Wusi. Do we know much about her?
- [13:11]
Anita Riota (continued or colleague)
So Delia Wusi was just recently nominated. She was most recently the director of the Business Outreach Center Network in Brooklyn. She focused a lot on women led businesses and making sure that they were getting the same opportunities as anyone else trying to start a business. The Mamdani administration has also said that they want to focus on making sure that immigrants and women and people of color who have struggled more often in the past to have, you know, the opportunity to launch a business. These new plans are also geared towards them, but something that Delia Wusi will be tasked with immediately. All agencies that are under her or that work in this business arena have 90 days where possible to eliminate as many initial business fees as they can find. So in 90 days from her appointment or when she takes office, rather, they will have 90 days to make sure that they are sifting through all the fees that a small business has to go through and are actually just immediately trying to eliminate something. And I think that that's quite a good faith way to start her new role.
- [14:16]
Anita Riota
And just finally tell us the New York Future Fund, which is another promise. What's this about?
- [14:21]
Anita Riota (continued or colleague)
The New York Future Fund is a loan program and it's designed to expand access to affordable financing for everyone, but especially the community's immigrant, minority and women owned businesses. The administration is trying to lower borrowing costs pretty significantly. The minimum loan amount used to be $100,000 and now it's 25,000 DOL. They've reduced interest rates, they're trying to make repayment terms more flexible and they've expanded which these small businesses are that are eligible to benefit from all of these things. So they are ambitious. But there do seem to be accountability elements in place immediately to try to make sure that these things actually take off.
- [15:07]
Anita Riota
And just tell us finally, when you used to go to your bodega, what was in your bodega bag?
- [15:11]
Anita Riota (continued or colleague)
My bodega order, I have to admit, is most often a hungover bodega order. So I think the perfect hungover bodega order is a bacon, egg and cheese on a sesame bagel, toasted ketchup, hot sauce on the side and a Snapple peach. And also if you can, bonus points if you can go back in time and get the Snapple glass bottle that gave you that excellent pop when you opened it. The plastic one, not as good.
- [15:37]
Anita Riota
How good is it? I remember when Snapple first came to the UK and that sound. We inherited that sound.
- [15:42]
Anita Riota (continued or colleague)
Come on. You the fact.
- [15:45]
Anita Riota
Anita, thank you so much for coming on the Urbanist.
- [15:51]
Andrew Tuck
Next up, transit. While New York is famous or perhaps infamous for its subway system, Mehrmamdani focused on buses during his campaign, vowed to make riding the bus Free for all. But how has he put those plans into action? And are those changes even likely to come to pass at all? To review the transport situation in the city, Monaco's Mary Holland sent us this report.
- [16:20]
Mary Holland
Among the signature promises Zoran Mamdani made during his campaign, free bus services might have been one of the boldest. It's important to remember that in the US the welfare state barely exists, and anything free seems unimaginable. It's not that the idea didn't resonate with New Yorkers. In a city that's facing a major affordability crisis, where transportation is the second largest cost after housing, making up 14% of household spending, a free bus ride could save people hundreds of dollars a year. And while there have been some cities in the US Such as Kansas City and Boston, that have some routes that have gone fare free, they're significantly smaller urban areas than New York. And fare revenues make up a smaller percentage of the budget. There was also a temporary model closer to home. In 2024, a pilot backed by Mamdani saw the MTA offer free service on five bus lines across the city, one in each borough. It served nearly 50,000 weekday riders, with ridership rising 30% on weekdays and 38% on weekends. Assaults on bus operators dropped by almost 40%. While Mamdani called it a success, the MTA argued the ridership gains were down to existing riders taking the bus more often, not new riders coming on board. For Mamdani, the route to getting to free buses is anything but direct. Of course, implementing this idea has its challenges, namely getting Governor Kathy Hutchell on board. The mta, which runs the vast majority of buses in the city, is a state agency and therefore not under the mayor's control. Another challenge is cost. Bus fares generate around US$600 million a year, money the MTA relies on to pay drivers and maintenance costs. Several months in, free buses are still more of a promise than a policy, with no clear funding strategy in sight. But Brian Fritsch, associate director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the mta, tells us that there has been some movement on making things speedier.
- [18:27]
David Stevens
There has been very little on the free bus side. Most of the effort and momentum that we've seen has come around making buses faster, which actually is the piece that the city has much more control over. The MTA is a state agency and so much more directly responsive to the governor than the mayor, and I think the governor has some reservations about pre buses and losing the revenue that, you know, the MTA relies on. But the One thing that the city has a huge role in is how buses move across the streetscape. So we've seen a lot of activity from the new Department of Transportation Commissioner Flynn and his team speeding up buses and, you know, using the many tools in their toolbox that really the Adams administration had completely ignored for four.
- [19:23]
Mary Holland
There are also existing programs Mamdani could build on that, while not free, would make buses far more affordable. Fare fares is a discount program where riders pay 50% of the standard fare. It has its drawbacks. Currently, only 35% of the population is eligible for it, and the application process is onerous. But Danny Perlstein, the policy and communication director at Riders alliance, explains that reducing fares could be a useful tool during the interim, something that could benefit the subway, too.
- [19:56]
David Stevens
So the city already has the largest low income transit fare discount program in North America. It's called fare fares. Even it is under subscribed.
- [20:05]
Andrew Tuck
Right.
- [20:06]
David Stevens
It could be reaching a lot more people and it could be doing a lot more work. And so what we're trying to do there is expand fare fares for a relatively smaller cost than free buses, but to reach more low income people. So you don't have to have quite as low an income to qualify for the half fare. And what we're hoping is that for the existing eligible population, the very low income people, they would actually get a free fare on the bus and also on the subway. Because right now, sort of a lightning rod or third rail issue around subway fare evasion, not so much around bus fare evasion, which is actually higher, but around turnstile jumping, right, which is very visible and for a lot of people, a signal of disorder and something that people have thought and talked a lot about for a very long time. And so as a result, the MTA is spending over a billion dollars on new turnstiles. The city and the MTA together spend hundreds of millions of dol every year enforcing the subway fare. And so we're hoping that the city and the MTA could recoup some of that and instead invest it in free and reduced fares for more low income New Yorkers, because enforcement itself is a big expense. We're spending a lot of money to squeeze very poor people for a little bit of money. That's a bad policy. Instead, let's invest in fare reductions.
- [21:20]
Mary Holland
Now, with free buses, ridership would almost certainly rise, bringing with it demand for more buses, more depot space, more drivers and infrastructure. And there's an outstanding question, who will pay for all of this? While Moudani has yet to roll out any kind of payment plan. It might not only come down to taxpayers.
- [21:39]
David Stevens
It's a very small percentage of some very large budgets. Right. So, you know, it's less than 1% of the city budget, less than half a percent of the state budget. And that money is desired for many other things. Right. We're not blind to that. But at the same time, there are other potential sources of revenue to tab. Obviously, the mayor is very focused on taxing the rich. I think there's also some consideration being given in the city now to charging more for public parking because it's a big giveaway. For example, you know, I parked a car on the street for free. If I parked it in the garage next to the street, It'll cost me $500 a month. And so while that's too steep, you know, I could imagine paying 150 or $200 a month to park on the street. And that's something that could support free buses for all New Yorkers.
- [22:18]
Mary Holland
There may also be an upside beyond the balance sheet. Freeing up money people currently spend on fares could, according to Pearlstein, have a surprising ripple effect.
- [22:27]
David Stevens
I think usage will go up. You know, there's a few different things that we think will happen. One is it will put money back in the pockets of the people who need it most, and they will spend that money in their communities. So it will have an economic multiplier effect in low income communities across the city. It will also put the bus network on a sounder fiscal footing, because right now, if half of people aren't paying their fares, there's a deficit involved and it's harder to provide the bus service than New Yorkers deserve. And the third thing is it will transform how the bus is viewed in the city. Right now, the bus has been an afterthought. One of the very exciting things about Mamdani's campaign and mayoralty is putting the bus front and center in people's minds and remembering that New Yorkers actually depend heavily on the bus. We have the largest bus ridership in North America, even if we have an iconic subway that gets all the attention. And so by making the bus free, we'll actually bring more people on board who might not have got on board just because they didn't know what the fare was or didn't want to think about how to figure it out. But we'll also recruit some more political support for making the bus fast, which, you know, has long been our goal. Right. We have the slowest buses in North America, and yet when the free bus pilot was first enacted in Albany after Mamdani campaigned for it. He got support for the pilot from members of the legislature who had expressed no interest in bus policy before, but they saw the wisdom in lowering costs. And so we're hoping that by tying that all together, we'll end up with a faster bus as well and more political will to do the things on our streets that are sometimes controversial to speed up bus service and save bus riders time.
- [24:02]
Mary Holland
Spotlighting the bus is likely what the city needs. While most people think of New York as a subway city, more New Yorkers ride the bus than the train. They're mostly low income or essential workers who work in sectors such as healthcare and education, who rely heavily on a system that's underfunded and neglected. By acknowledging these issues, then cutting fares, making buses speedier, and hopefully one day free, it will not only put money back in people's pockets, but restore their faith in local government, too.
- [24:42]
Andrew Tuck
And finally today I'm joined by friend of the show Mazin Siddhamid to find out how immigrants are reacting to one of their own now sitting in City Hall. Mazin is the executive director and co founder of Documented, the independent nonprofit newsroom, reporting with and for immigrant communities in New York. Well, Mazin, thank you for joining me. Can we start with the reaction from immigrant communities to Mamdani winning the mayor Royalty?
- [25:08]
Mazin Siddhamid
Mamdani was really elected with a lot of support, I'd say, from immigrant communities. I think that, yeah, we really focus on three major immigrant communities in New York. The Spanish speaking immigrants, Chinese immigrants, and Caribbean immigrants. And while there's nuances across all of those different immigrant communities, I think broadly he enjoyed quite widespread support amongst all of them, really due to his focus on affordability. You know, I think a lot of our immigrant communities actually were quite divided in 2024 in the presidential election. We saw a lot of our readers actually come out and support Trump in the 2024 election because they were really focused on the issue of inflation. People felt like the cost of living had really spiraled out of control. And Mamdani's laser focus on that issue had really garnered pretty widespread support in a lot of areas where the Democratic Party had struggled and lost a lot of support. And really the immigrant labor movement in New York City has been growing over the past 10 years. And Mamdani really allied himself with some of the core parts of that movement and was seen as a real advocate and supporter of some of the core issues that the immigrant labor movement was advocating for. So, yeah, as he came in, he Came in with pretty broad support and excitement. The general mood in New York has remained quite high, you know, from the election. There was quite a lot of jubilation amongst a lot of our readers. But yeah, I'd say that there are kind of two big, broad areas that our communities are really focused on. Immigration enforcement and immigrant labor. So immigration enforcement has been one of the biggest concerns for immigrant New Yorkers over the past year. We did a story just a few months ago about how immigration enforcement has doubled in New York in 2025. You know, there are hundreds of ICE arrests every week. People are afraid to leave their houses. And it has become just a petrifying time for a lot of immigrant communities. Even people's fears of even taking their child to school. So on that front, Mamdani has come out quite forcefully and said that he's really going to try and make New York a city that is safe for immigrant communities. He's created an interagency response team. There has been a real focus on preventing the sharing of any data from the New York City government to the federal government. That's the one area that a local administration can really control. But on a day to day level, if you're an immigrant living in New York, the people that reach out to us via WhatsApp, via WeChat, they're still seeing ICE arrests in their communities. It's something that is very difficult for a local government to do anything on. But rhetorically, the administration has been quite strong on the labor front. You know, a lot of our readers are delivery workers. They're cab drivers, they work in restaurants. They're home health aides that care for the elderly. Mamdani has been delivering a lot more on that front. And I think people have seen some tangible results. But we've reported on some tensions as well. He's strangely been quite opposed to legislation that should provide overtime protection for home health aides, people who care for elderly people, or sick or mentally unwell people in their homes. Oftentimes those are immigrant workers. Mamdani has strangely been opposed to legislation that would protect their overtime hours. And I think a lot of people in the immigrant labor movement have been shocked by that sort of power play. So there are a few areas where I think some people have been surprised. And as I said, at the local level, sometimes it's hard to feel the tangible results when things are happening from the federal government.
- [29:19]
Anita Riota
And just tell me on that, Mazin. Often when people come into power, the first hundred days, you can get a lot done because you don't get too caught up in what your predecessor had promised. You have a kind of clear vision. The problems, they stand out to you. You can see exactly what you need to negotiate and navigate. Is the feeling that his slowness on some of these issues is him just getting caught up in the machinery of governors or because actually he's beginning to change his mind on some of the things that he expressed support for when he was not in office.
- [29:49]
Mazin Siddhamid
I think the general perception has been that there's. I don't know if naivete is too strong of a word, but that he's learning city government as he goes. A lot of the people that he's brought in city government have been people who it's their first time working in city government and they've made some just simple mistakes. I think that a lot of our Spanish speaking readers were upset that the mayor didn't attend an investiture mass that most mayors attend. A lot of our Spanish readers, a Catholic, those types of things. Somebody who has more experience in city government, who is surrounded by people who are in city government would just know to do. But I think this mayor has really struggled at times to play the game or understand the sort of basics of city government that might make it easier for him to enact his agenda. So I don't think there's any sense that he is wavering or changing his mind on certain things. But I think there is a real sense that they're still learning how to operate in City Hall. And I think another thing is that he doesn't come from City Hall. He was previously in the state Assembly. So he doesn't have those types of relationships as he's now working through a very, very contentious budget battle. He doesn't have the types of relationships that maybe previous mayors might have had who are more operators at the city level.
- [31:17]
Anita Riota
If we had a checklist of things that he promised to do or that immigrant communities wanted from their mayor, which are the ones you'd be confident about putting a big tick next to. He wanted to look at stabilization of rents. He wanted to look at greater child support. He wanted to bring in a supermarket system which would provide more affordable food to people who were often at the lower ends of the wage table. Which ones those sorts of things would you put a tick against?
- [31:45]
Mazin Siddhamid
I say the Universal 2K could be really transformative for low wage New York, honestly, for people across all different classes and wages that has received support from Albany. And I think you can pretty confidently put a tick against that happening. There's a pilot that will launch this year in a few communities, specifically communities with a lot of immigrants and low wage workers. That's beginning this year. That's already in action. Will it get to the point where he promised, which is, you know, any babies from 6 months old will have access to free childcare? That I'm not sure of, but you can definitely say there will be some sort of additional support. I think the additional areas that you mentioned, we still require a great deal of support from Albany in New York City. And that relationship, how he navigates that relationship to enact his agenda will be really the litmus test of how successful he's able to be.
- [32:49]
Anita Riota
One of the most fascinating things about when we spoke last time was this more complicated relationship with immigrant communities and the president, Mr. Trump. And we always imagine that everybody's on the left. If you're a new migrant, you're fighting for your rights. But actually many people are quite conservative, as you said. Many Hispanic people are very religious, for example. What's been the way that immigrant communities have observed absorbed his relationship with the president? Because we've seen the two men side by side on several occasions where you get the impression that they kind of have a begrudging respect almost for each other. And I wondered how that played in communities where they're at the same time seeing ICE agents, as you say, wandering around, maybe taking parents on their way to school.
- [33:30]
Mazin Siddhamid
Honestly, complete shock. I think that is the reaction that we've seen from a lot of New Yorkers and particularly our immigrant New Yorkers. So I think when we were speaking to immigrant communities last year who supported Mamdani, the one caveat and concern around for Mandani is that it will place New York in the crosshairs for a Minneapolis style escalation that while everybody was, was really excited about the prospect of some of the things that Mamdani wanted to deliver on and the fresh energy that he would potentially bring, people were concerned that he would become a foil for Trump and that, you know, New York would become another place that Trump would use to, you know, distract against other things that were happening at the federal level and punish the city for voting for Mamdani. So I think the initial relationship that they've been able to to build over these past few months has been a complete shock to people and has somewhat alleviated some of those concerns that New York City was on, on the brink of a CBP deployment similar to what we saw in Minneapolis. And I think that has relieved a lot of our immigrant communities. Now, I don't think Anyone thinks that this is going to be in perpetuity or that this can't change. But I think in the short term, that has been a huge source of relief. Despite the fact that ICE arrests are continuing, ICE is buying up warehouses around New York State with the anticipation of arresting more people and being able to detain more people. So nobody is under the impression that there will be no more ICE arrests. But I think that their relationship has been received in the sense that it might protect New York from being a target.
- [35:14]
Anita Riota
Well, finally, the tradition of the first hundred days is such an American construct, I believe, from the days of Roosevelt. But what's the hopes for your readers for the immigrant communities in New York for the next many more days from 101 on?
- [35:28]
Mazin Siddhamid
I think that immigrant New Yorkers today are living under intense fear. There is a feeling that you can't leave your house at times, that businesses and immigrant neighbors. We've done a number of stories about immigrant neighborhoods who are economically really struggling because they just can't get any foot traffic. People don't want to go out and walk around the neighborhood and frequent the businesses that they have previously. So I think over the next few years, folks are really looking to Mandani to find ways to protect the city, really re energize the city and create safer environments for people to go to work and have access to support and services that they need. And I think it's going to be really difficult for Mamdani to deliver on. As we've seen, the local government has very little control over federal immigration enforcement. So how they address that challenge is going to be really telling. And whether or not immigrant New Yorkers will start to blame Mandani and turn on him for the actions of the Trump administration will really be interesting to watch over these next few years.
- [36:39]
Andrew Tuck
Mazen Sid Ahmed from Documented. Thank you so much. And that's all for this week's episode of the Urbanist. You can follow us for new editions of the show every week. And you can subscribe to Monocle magazine for reports on all things design, architecture and urbanism, too. Just visit monocle.com the Urbanist is produced and edited by David Stevens. I'm Andrew Tuck. Goodbye and thank you for listening. City lovers.
- [37:14]
Mary Holland
Sam.