Mayor Zohran Mamdani reaches his 50th day in office on Thursday and has already launched some notable initiatives in Queens, despite his administration still being very much in the transition stage.
Within his first week in office, Mamdani announced that the city would be restarting the planning process for the controversial 31st Street redesign in Astoria, which would install protected bike lanes along a mile-long stretch of the corridor between Newtown Avenue and 36th Avenue.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Chereé Buggs had ordered the Department of Transportation to halt those plans in December amid fierce pushback from local businesses, who accused the city of failing to properly engage with the local community about their concerns, including impact on business, emergency access and pedestrian safety.
Supporters of the bike lanes had argued that the redesign would help improve street safety on one of the most dangerous corridors in the borough.
Announcing that the city woud restart the planning process last month, Mamdani said it represented the “fastest path” to delivering “critical safety upgrades” along the corridor. Mamdani, as an Assemblymember representing Astoria in the 36th District, was part of a cohort of elected officials who proposed the Western Queens Street Safety Plan, which included initial plans for the protected bike lanes.
Mamdani addresses NYCHA heating
In Edgemere, meanwhile, Mamdani announced a $38.4 million investment to install electric heat pumps at NYCHA’s Beach 41st Street Houses development in an effort to bring reliable heating to tenants across the city.
The heat pumps, first trialed at NYCHA’s Woodside Houses in 2023, will be installed in all 712 units at the Beach 41st Street development over the coming two years. The pumps will be installed in 10,000 NYCHA units across the city by 2030, Mamdani confirmed when announcing the initiative in Edgemere on Feb. 4.
The mayor has also secured $2.1 million in settlements from A&E Real Estate to address hazardous conditions in 14 buildings across the city, including nine buildings in Queens as part of expanded efforts to protect tenants in New York City.
Mayor faces mixed reviews over handling of cold snap
Mamdani has introduced these initiatives while navigating a brutal cold snap that featured a 13-day streak of temperatures below zero and led to at least 20 deaths. Mamdani faced fierce criticism from some quarters for ending homeless encampment sweeps and involuntary hospitalization for those who refused to come off the streets amid freezing temperatures.
The mayor’s office has noted that it has conducted continuous outreach to the homeless population throughout the cold snap, encouraging more than 1,400 people to enter shelters since Jan. 19 and also reporting 85 involuntary removals since the cold period began. City Hall does not believe that any of the deceased were in contact with outreach workers immediately before their their deaths, according to the New York Times.
The Mamdani Administration further asserted that there is no evidence that any of the 20 individuals were living in homeless encampments at the time of their deaths.
Still, Council Member Joann Ariola, a member of the Council’s Republican Caucus representing District 32, blasted Mamdani over his handling of the cold snap.
“The mayor did nothing to try and get them to come in involuntarily to warming centers,” Ariola said. “There is no merit in not taking in a person who is on the street in sub-zero temperatures and refuses to come in.
“If you don’t want to come in from the cold, that tells me that you are a danger to yourself,” Ariola continued.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, meanwhile, said it was “unacceptable” that 20 people died during the cold snap, adding that Mamdani could have “acted faster” to remove individuals from the streets.
However, Richards credited Mamdani for “acting more aggressively” once he had heard differing opinions. The Borough President also urged Mamdani to come up with a protocol for dealing with future extreme weather events, noting that heat waves in the summer also pose a significant risk to the homeless population.
“I know he’s working on some reforms in that area, on how do we ensure that this doesn’t happen again,” Richards said.
The Mamdani Administration announced Wednesday that it will begin sweeps of homeless encampments but stated that the sweeps represent a new policy rather than the restarting of old policies instituted by Mayor Eric Adams. The sweeps are set to be conducted by the Department of Homeless Services rather than the NYPD, with a view of connecting homeless individuals to permanent resources, City Hall said.
The announcement is also independent of the recent cold snap and has been planned since Jan. 5, a City Hall spokesperson said. Mamdani had pledged to end sweeps of homeless encampments during his mayoral campaign.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning, however, Mamdani said sweeps imposed by the Adams Administration were a “policy failure,” adding that the the new sweeps would differ significantly from the Adam-era sweeps.
Rather than issue a notice to a homeless individual and then conduct a sweep of the encampment seven days later, Mamdani said his adminsistration would be conducting outreach on each of the seven days to ensure that homeless individuals are connected to services.
“Unlike in the prior administration, when the NYPD were being tasked with the work of responding to homeless encampments, we have made the decision to actually have this be a responsibility of the Department of Homeless Services,” Mamdani said Wednesday.
Richards praises Mamdani appointments
Richards did praise Mamdani for some of the appointments he has made since taking office, including the appointment of Elmhurst Hospital CEO Dr. Helen Arteaga as the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services and the appointment of Christina Farrell as the Commissioner of New York City Emergency Management.
Ariola, however, took aim at Mamdani over what she described as controversial appointments that the Mayor has made since taking office, including the appointment of Cea Weaver as the Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.
Ariola criticized Weaver for previously describing home ownership as a “weapon of white supremacy.” She also criticized Mamdani for appointing Ramzi Kassem as his Chief Counsel, pointing to Kassem’s previous support for anti-Israel groups.
“They’re already coming in with a bias,” she said. “These are not the people that we need to be giving advice to the Mayor.”
Mamdani has defended both appointments, describing Weaver as someone who has stood up for tenants across the city.
Richards, meanwhile, credited Mamdani for overseeing one of the safest Januarys on record, with homicides dropping 60% compared to 2025.
“Of course, the men and women of the NYPD get the credit. But if crime had spiked, you would certainly be reading these headlines non-stop,” Richards said.
Richards noted that Mamdani remains in the transition stage of his administration but said the city “continues to function.” He praised Mamdani for navigating complex issues with the White House and safeguarding New York from incidents such as the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal immigration authorities in Minneapolis.
Richards added that ICE remains an issue in New York City but praised Mamdani for ensuring that the city retains its status as a sanctuary city “without losing his values.”
State Sen. John Liu, who endorsed Mamdani ahead of the Democratic primary last June, praised the Mayor for “hitting the ground running” in his first 50 days and appointing a “competent leaderhip team.”
However, Liu called on Mamdani to walk back plans to increase property taxes, which he called a regressive move. Mamdani said Tuesday that he would be forced to raise property taxes by 9.5% as a “last resort” if Gov. Kathy Hochul did not raise income taxes on the wealthy.
Without a tax hike for the wealthy, Mamdani said, he would be forced to raise property taxes to deliver on his agenda and address a looming $5.4 billion deficit in the budget. Both Liu and Richards have called on Mamdani to avoid raising property taxes, stating that it would hurt working-class New Yorkers.
“His partnership with the governor has been constructive and hopefully will lead to balancing the city’s deficit with increases in tax rates on corporations and incomes over $1 million,” Liu said in a statement. “An increase in property taxes, however, would be regressive, and painful for Queens homeowners and tenants alike, and must be avoided.”
