New York
Mamdani’s First 100 Days as NYC Mayor: A Timeline
Jan. 1 Day 1
Mr. Mamdani took the oath of office at a midnight ceremony in the abandoned City Hall subway station, surrounded by family. On New Year’s Day, he was sworn in by Senator Bernie Sanders on the City Hall steps, in front of masses of rosy-cheeked New Yorkers bundled against the cold, cheering under a flurry of confetti.
Jan. 2 Day 2
On his second day in office, he created an Office of Mass Engagement, a reflection of the way an army of volunteers aided his mayoral campaign, with more than 100,000 people knocking on three million doors and making 4.5 million calls to talk to voters. He put the office in the hands of Tascha Van Auken, who served as Mr. Mamdani’s campaign field director and previously worked for former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign
Jan. 3 Day 3
Mr. Mamdani called President Trump to criticize the strikes in Venezuela, after New Yorkers awoke to the startling news that the U.S. military had seized Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro.
Jan. 4 Day 4
Mr. Mamdani, who had promised to help people with bad landlords, announced a series of “rental rip-off” hearings, where renters from every borough could come and meet with city officials to talk about their landlord headaches. Standing in a building on Sedgwick Avenue credited with being the birthplace of hip-hop, the mayor unveiled a series of moves aimed at supporting tenants — a key political class that makes up nearly 70 percent of New Yorkers, and a group that Mr. Mamdani strategically tapped into as he was running for mayor.
Jan. 5 Day 5
Mr. Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s relationship was still looking tenuous at the start of his term. But the two looked chummy when they came together to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the embattled congestion pricing program, which had come under attack from President Trump.
Jan. 5 Day 5
Mr. Mamdani announced that he would pause sweeps of homeless encampments, while he re-evaluated the way they were conducted under his predecessor, Eric Adams. Before taking office, he had been a critic of heavy-handed approaches to serving the city’s homeless population.
Jan. 6 Day 6
Mr. Mamdani tested out a favorite phrase — “no issue too small” — as he stood surrounded by workers in hard hats and paved over “the bump,” a notorious pit at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge.
Jan. 7 Day 7
Mr. Mamdani hosted a “new media” briefing, touring influencers around City Hall. It was a friendly audience for the mayor, with one beauty influencer offering Mr. Mamdani a sentiment he’s unlikely to hear from the traditional press corps: “I have had so much fun making content for you.”
Jan. 8 Day 8
The mayor stood together with Ms. Hochul to announce a plan to expand child care options for nearly 100,000 young children. Affordable child care was a centerpiece of Mr. Mamdani’s campaign to ease the burden of heavy expenses that so many New Yorkers face.
Jan. 10 Day 10
Mr. Mamdani announced he would commit $4 million to install at least two dozen modular toilets across the five boroughs. When the mayor talked about “sewer socialism” during his run for office, few knew that he would take the term literally.
Jan. 12 Day 12
On a cold Monday morning, the mayor moved on up from Astoria, Queens, to the Upper East Side, home to Gracie Mansion, the official mayoral residence. Reflecting on his home in Astoria, Mr. Mamdani said he and his wife, Rama Duwaji, would miss the Adeni chai and smell of shawarma on his old block.
Jan. 13 Day 13
Mr. Mamdani made his first return to Albany since taking office. The trip in a motorcade, surrounded by aides, was a capsule of the transformation he had undergone in one head-spinning year. When he’d driven up to Albany as a state assemblyman, he used to ride shotgun with a colleague and sing show tunes.
Jan. 16 Day 16
One of the mayor’s first acts to help renters was to have the city intervene in the bankruptcy case of a large landlord, Pinnacle, which was facing thousands of complaints from tenants across the city. But a federal judge ruled that Pinnacle’s sale of 5,000 apartments to Summit Realty, another landlord facing complaints, could proceed over the city’s objections, an early challenge to the mayor’s efforts to help renters.
Jan. 25 Day 25
As snow fell, Mr. Mamdani blitzed local news, sent out plows to clear streets and disappointed children by announcing there would be virtual school, though he told everyone they could pelt him with snowballs. For every mayor of New York City, snowstorms serve as a major test. The 1969 blizzard became known as the “Lindsay snowstorm” because it paralyzed the city, and voters blamed the mayor, John Lindsay. So Mr. Mamdani knew that his response to the oncoming storm would be closely watched.
Jan. 27 Day 27
A bitter cold snap that followed the snowstorm proved a greater challenge. The death count from the freezing weather rose to at least 10 people by Jan. 27. The Mamdani administration sent outreach workers scouring the streets for people exposed to the elements, scrambling to bring vulnerable people indoors.
Feb. 5 Day 36
In a disappointment to some members of his progressive base, Mr. Mamdani endorsed Ms. Hochul for re-election on Feb. 5, strengthening their alliance but potentially losing leverage in his efforts to persuade her to raise income taxes on the rich.
Feb. 12 Day 43
For all Mr. Mamdani’s sweeping promises while running for office, his administration was quickly marked by a clear willingness to make some compromises. He backtracked on CityFHEPS, one of the largest rental assistance programs in the nation. Mr. Mamdani said he no longer intended to back the growth of the more than $1 billion initiative, because of the competing need to address the city’s budget deficit.
Feb. 12 Day 43
Mr. Mamdani, maestro of the stunt, surprised the city’s romantics by showing up at City Hall to wed couples there, two days before Valentine’s Day.
Feb. 15 Day 46
Mr. Mamdani announced that he was forming a new business improvement district in Coney Island, with a first-year budget of up to $1 million.
Feb. 17 Day 48
Mr. Mamdani presented his preliminary budget, addressing the $5.4 billion hole he has to fill by the time the spending plan takes effect July 1 — a shadow hanging over his ambitious affordability agenda. He warned that property tax rates in New York City might be raised by nearly 10 percent if he could not persuade Ms. Hochul to raise income taxes on high earners.
Feb. 18 Day 49
Emerging from weeks when criticism over his handling of homelessness escalated during the city’s cold snap, Mr. Mamdani announced that he would begin sweeping homeless encampments again. But the sweeps would look different than they did under Mr. Adams, and would be led by the Department of Homeless Services rather than the Police Department.
Feb. 20 Day 51
Mr. Mamdani announced that the city would crack down on employers that might be violating worker protection laws. This enforcement push came days before a new law took effect expanding time off protections for more than five million New Yorkers. Mr. Mamdani and his administration started the enforcement push, sending warning letters to 56,000 companies.
Feb. 23 Day 54
As another snowstorm began, the Sanitation Department went into a full force mobilization: Plows went block to block, 2,600 emergency workers headed out for 12-hour shifts and pay was raised for emergency snow shovelers. A total of 19.7 inches of snow fell in Central Park, placing it in the city’s top 10 storms dating back to 1869 — more than enough to persuade the mayor to declare a full snow day for school children.
Feb. 23 Day 54
A snowball fight was held in Washington Square Park on the afternoon of the blizzard. The event turned chaotic when police officers arrived and were hit with snowballs, which Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch called “disgraceful” and “criminal.” The mayor was less perturbed, suggesting that throwing a snowball should not result in criminal charges. The police later arrested a man in connection with the snowball fight; prosecutors declined to bring assault charges.
Feb. 25 Day 56
Hundreds of protesters, led by groups including the Democratic Socialists of America, gathered in Albany for a rally calling for raising taxes on the rich. Mr. Mamdani skipped the event. He has done a delicate dance since taking office, trying to ensure that the progressive organizers who put him in office feel that their voices are heard, while also working to maintain relationships with power brokers like Ms. Hochul.
Feb. 26 Day 57
In his second meeting with President Trump at the White House, Mr. Mamdani brought a mock cover of The Daily News, a play on the infamous “Ford to City: Drop Dead,” with the new headline: “Trump to City: Let’s Build.” There are few relationships in America as eyebrow-raising, perplexing, amusing and ripe for analysis as the buddy-comedy-ready duo of Mr. Mamdani and President Trump. One is a democratic socialist, the other the Make America Great Again kingpin. Both are also sons of New York City who have mastered the attention age.
March 3 Day 62
Mr. Mamdani announced that he had chosen four areas in New York City in which to begin his child care expansion, with 2,000 seats in the 2-K program set to open up this fall.
March 5 Day 64
The Mamdani administration announced it would close the homeless shelter in the former Bellevue psychiatric hospital, which was well known among many New Yorkers seeking a place to sleep but had also fallen into disrepair.
March 6 Day 65
Mr. Mamdani was questioned about a handful of instances in which his wife, Ms. Duwaji, had liked posts appearing to celebrate Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel, right after Oct. 7, 2023. He declined to criticize the posts or address his wife’s actions, saying that she is “a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my City Hall.”
March 7 Day 66
Chaos arrived on Mr. Mamdani’s doorstep. A far-right provocateur, Jake Lang, was gathering his followers outside Gracie Mansion for a protest called “Stop the Islamic Takeover.” Two men who had expressed support for the Islamic State were arrested after one was seen hurling a homemade bomb into the protest. The device did not detonate, and no one was injured.
March 9 Day 68
Mr. Mamdani appeared sober-faced outside his residence on Monday morning, two days after the bomb incident. He stood alongside Ms. Tisch and denounced the attempt at violence while also condemning the “display of bigotry” at the protest. Ms. Tisch said the throwing of the devices was being investigated as an act of “ISIS-inspired terrorism.”
March 11 Day 70
Mr. Mamdani showed up in person at a “rental rip-off” hearing in the Bronx, even meeting with three tenants who had complaints about roaches, broken elevators and safety. He also faced protests from some New Yorkers who live in public housing and reminded the mayor that he is actually New York’s largest landlord.
March 17 Day 76
Mr. Mamdani sought a judge’s approval to stop representing the former mayor, Mr. Adams, in a sexual assault lawsuit that had been filed in 2024. The mayor has tried, throughout his first 100 days in office, to distance himself from his predecessor.
March 17 Day 76
Mr. Mamdani not only marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan, but also gave a speech drawing a parallel between Irish history and the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.
March 19 Day 78
Mr. Mamdani signed an executive order creating an Office of Community Safety, which will begin with just two staff members and a far narrower scope than he had pledged.
March 20 Day 79
Mr. Mamdani infused the holy month of Ramadan with spirit, breaking his fast with different groups every day. He shared iftar meals with firefighters, incarcerated people at Rikers and delivery drivers, as well as stopping at some of his favorite restaurants. For New York’s more than half a million observant Muslims, this year marked a poignant shift, the first time a person who shared their faith was running the city and observing Ramadan at City Hall.
March 24 Day 83
Mr. Mamdani announced settlements with two companies that would provide nearly $2 million to more than 800 fast food and retail workers, including at Dunkin’ and Taco Bell, who had been the victims of “Fair Workweek” violations. A livestream of the announcement also included him eating a Crunchwrap Supreme.
March 25 Day 84
As the Mamdani administration grapples with the looming budget deficit, the mayor gave a quick snapshot of some of the ways the city planned to cut $1.7 billion in spending, including by cutting contracts with consultants and auditing the health care eligibility of dependents. Behind the scenes, the administration quietly identified another $1.3 billion in potential savings from scaling back programs Mr. Mamdani had endorsed on the campaign trail.
March 30 Day 89
Mr. Mamdani attended a Passover Seder at City Winery in Lower Manhattan, seeming unbothered by hecklers as he addressed a crowd that included George Floyd’s brother, Al Franken and Don Lemon, who read the Four Questions.
April 7 Day 97
The Mamdani administration announced the opening of a rest stop for delivery workers, which had been in the works for years but was sped to completion in the first 100 days of the administration.
April 7 Day 97
Mr. Mamdani selected Rebecca Jones Gaston, who as head of child welfare under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. oversaw the expansion of abuse-prevention services for families, to lead the city’s Administration for Children’s Services.
Ms. Jones Gaston previously oversaw child welfare in Maryland and then in Oregon, where she released a “vision for transformation” that stated that “white supremacy and systemic racism are deeply embedded in the history, fabric and institutions of our country, including child welfare systems.”
new video loaded: Protesters Clash with Federal Agents Outside ICE Detention Center in New Jersey
transcript
transcript
Protesters Clash with Federal Agents Outside ICE Detention Center in New Jersey
Protesters and immigration agents clashed outside Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, where activists have gathered for days to denounce conditions inside.
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“Get back!” “Get back, get back, get back, get back, get back!” [chanting] “ICE, ICE has got to go. Hey, hey, ho, ho.” “We’ve heard repeatedly about these horror stories of pregnant women not getting access to care, of people with injuries not being treated. People shouldn’t have to starve themselves to make their dignity known.” “Down, down with the degradation.” “Down, down with the degradation.”
By Christina Kelso
May 28, 2026
How can people possibly afford to live in one of the most expensive cities on the planet? It’s a question New Yorkers hear a lot, often delivered with a mix of awe, pity and confusion.
We surveyed hundreds of New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save. We found that many people — rich, poor or somewhere in between — live life as a series of small calculations that add up to one big question: What makes living in New York worth it?
Ellen Hagan grew up in a small town in Kentucky, and moved to New York City as quickly as she could after she graduated from college. She arrived a few weeks before Sept. 11, and tried to get her bearings in a city turned upside down.
She found a group of fellow young artists and writers who wanted to take advantage of everything they could in the city, on very limited budgets. They went to poetry readings and dance parties, and rented tiny apartments in the East Village.
All the while, Ms. Hagan was diligent about saving money, even when she had very little of it.
“I didn’t know what I was saving for, but I knew I wasn’t going to have a job that would give me a pension,” she said. “I wanted to make enough money to live the New York existence I was dreaming of.”
Twenty-five years later, Ms. Hagan and her husband, David Flores, whom she started dating in her early years in New York, have much more money than they used to. Still, they feel more anxious about money than they hoped they would at this point in their lives.
The couple both work at DreamYard, a Bronx arts nonprofit. Last year, they made $178,135 there collectively, with Ms. Hagan, 47, directing the poetry and theater programs, and Mr. Flores, also 47, serving as the head of visual art and design.
They typically bring in another $40,000 to $60,000 a year through their freelance work. Mr. Flores is an adjunct professor, a photographer and a filmmaker, and Ms. Hagan teaches at a graduate writing program and writes books and poetry. They try to set aside about 15 percent of their income each year to grow their savings.
The couple live in Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan with their two daughters, who are 12 and 15.
Homeownership Doesn’t Solve Everything
As a young couple, Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores lived in a 400-square-foot East Village rental. When their rent started to tick up, Ms. Hagan began looking for a place to buy, seeing homeownership as a buoy that would all but guarantee a secure financial life in New York.
Sixteen years ago, the couple found a perfect apartment in Washington Heights and scrambled to cobble together a down payment. They pooled their savings to put a 15 percent down payment on the $335,000 home. Once they closed, they were left with only a few hundred dollars in savings, but were thrilled and relieved.
“I had this sense that when you buy, you’re set in New York City,” Ms. Hagan said.
The reality, she has found, is more complicated.
The couple’s mortgage payment is $1,300 a month, and their maintenance fees keep rising, partially as a result of a new local law that requires increased inspections and repairs for buildings. Local Law 11 boosted their maintenance by $462 a month, at least temporarily, to about $1,900 total. And when the building’s management installed a new security system, each unit had to chip in $95 a month for three months.
Ms. Hagan loves the apartment, but she worries that they may eventually be priced out of their neighborhood.
“This building isn’t going to be for us at some point,” she said. “This feels like, uh oh, they’re imagining people who have much higher incomes than we do.”
Keeping the Kids Busy
Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores, who each maintain packed calendars, have encouraged their daughters to adopt the same approach to city living.
“I’m definitely a proponent of, let’s fill your schedule and see what you love,” Ms. Hagan said.
The girls’ public school offers free debate and band classes before and after school, and they’ll appear this spring in the school’s productions of “Annie” and “The Addams Family.”
The girls are also enrolled in a free theater academy at the People’s Theatre and writing workshops at Uptown Stories, which has a pay-what-you-can system. Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores typically pay the full tuition, which is $800 for each 12-week session, and donate about $2,500 a year to the organizations their daughters are part of.
The couple’s older daughter, Araceli, who wants to be both a writer and a doctor, is enrolled in a medical training program for middle and high school students. She made $2,500 for completing an internship at a cardiothoracic intensive care unit last summer.
Their younger daughter, Miriam, is going to a Y.M.C.A. camp this summer, which costs $2,600 for two weeks.
Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores spent about $500 total on holiday gifts for both girls, and the couple doles out their daughters’ weekly allowances in two installments: $25 on Mondays and $25 on Fridays.
They shook their heads when Miriam, who is known as the most stylish member of the family, came home one day wearing a Dr Pepper T-shirt she’d bought at Target.
“We were like, ‘What are you doing with your money?’” Ms. Hagan said.
The Fun Stuff
The extra income from the couple’s freelance work allows the family to splurge on theater, vacations, books and memberships at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Sometimes, Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores work together. A few years ago, they sold a young adult novel called “Tell Me Every Lie” they had co-written for a $35,000 advance, some of which went to their agent.
Every little bit helps. The family is spending a weekend on Long Beach Island in New Jersey this summer, which will cost about $3,500. That price tag includes a hotel room big enough for four.
The family typically travels twice a year to Kentucky, where both Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores are from, and where the couple co-owns a home in Louisville with Mr. Flores’s parents. They put $40,000 down and spend about $12,000 annually on expenses related to the home.
The family was hoping to travel to the Philippines this year, where Mr. Flores’s father is from, but they realized it could cost as much as $15,000. The trip is now on hold indefinitely.
They spend about $700 a month on groceries from nearby supermarkets, and occasionally order grocery deliveries from FreshDirect.
Every Wednesday, when the girls come home late from theater class, someone picks up dinner at the nearby halal truck or the Dominican restaurant Malecon, which usually runs about $60.
Dinner out as a family of four can easily cost $200, so Ms. Hagan and Mr. Flores typically eat at restaurants just once or twice a month. The other night, the whole family was hungry and craved Italian food from a favorite upscale spot nearby.
They balked, and walked around the corner to a diner instead. The meal was $120, all in.
We are talking to New Yorkers about how they spend, splurge and save.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, a Democrat who has clashed with the Trump administration over immigration policies, joined protests outside a detention center in Newark on Monday in support of detainees participating in a hunger strike.
Ms. Sherrill heard from family members of detainees, who have complained about rotten and spoiled food and inadequate medical care at Delaney Hall. Dozens of protesters waved signs, banged on drums, and chanted “Free Them All!” The governor told the crowd she had requested access but was denied.
“No matter what your immigration status is, you shouldn’t be treated with anything less than dignity in this country,” said Ms. Sherrill, who was dressed in a T-shirt, jeans, and blue-gray jacket on the Memorial Day holiday. At one point, she rested her hand on the shoulder of a crying relative and smoothed the hair of an upset child.
After the governor left, the scene worsened outside the detention facility. A tense standoff erupted between Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and protesters who blocked an entrance; the agents responded by firing pepper balls and spray at the protesters. Senator Andy Kim, who was trying to de-escalate the situation, was among those affected.
On Monday, the governor and other elected officials, including Mayor Ras J. Baraka of Newark, appeared outside Delaney Hall amid growing concerns over the hunger strike, which started on Friday inside the gray, cinder-block building enclosed by a high chain link fence topped with razor wire.
Immigration advocates have rallied outside Delaney Hall since Friday. Detainees said they would go on a hunger and labor strike while calling for an investigation of the detention center and its operations and for Ms. Sherrill to visit to discuss protections from ICE. Hundreds of detainees were participating, one protester told Ms. Sherrill.
The governor said in a statement on Sunday that she had contacted ICE to gain access to the detention center and was working to monitor the situation and “do what’s necessary to ensure humane conditions.”
At Monday’s protest, some protesters shouted in Ms. Sherrill’s face to criticize her for not showing up earlier in the weekend, like other elected officials had.
Representative Rob Menendez of New Jersey had arrived at 8 p.m. on Sunday and stayed all night until he was allowed into the center on Monday morning. Mr. Menendez said that he had spoken to some of the detainees inside Delaney Hall, including a young woman who just wanted to go to her high school graduation, a pregnant woman who was trying to get medical care, and a man who showed him a carton of milk that had gone rancid.
“I heard just desperation from so many people in there,” Mr. Menendez said afterward.
Angela Martinez told Ms. Sherrill that her cousin, Bolivar Bueno, 65, has diabetes and that she hasn’t been able to speak to him to make sure he is getting medication. “We don’t know what’s going on,” she told the governor.
Afterward, Ms. Martinez said, “I want for her to help me out.”
Ms. Sherrill left after about an hour, around 11:30 a.m., as some demonstrators jeered at her. Her security had to clear the road of a couple people who tried to stop her S.U.V. from leaving.
A few hours later, a convoy of ICE vehicles approached another entrance on the south side of Delaney Hall. Protesters, who had rallied at the north entrance in the morning, ran over to sit down in front of the vehicles. Many said they feared that the detainees on hunger strike inside would be transferred to other facilities.
ICE agents — most of whom were wearing face masks — pushed and shoved the protesters out of the way, even dragging one young man by a kaffiyeh around his neck. As the protesters chanted “Trump Has To Go,” they linked arms and faced the ICE agents.
The standoff prevented anyone from leaving through the south entrance. Soon after, a military-style vehicle moved toward that entrance, with a man on top holding a firearm pointed at demonstrators.
Senator Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, who had been allowed inside Delaney Hall, came out during the confrontation and walked over to support the protesters. Soon afterward, the ICE agents and military vehicles backed away from the entrance and slightly retreated toward to the detention center, but the standoff continued.
“They provoked it, they brought that tank over,” Mr. Kim said. “It’s getting worse and worse here.”
The senator said he was working to “de-escalate” the standoff through negotiations with federal officials and would push for families to be allowed to visit detainees as early as Tuesday. “I’m going to keep at it,” he said.
Not long after, the standoff escalated with ICE agents using pepper balls and mace on the crowd.
It’s not the first time Delaney Hall has faced protests. In June 2025, four men escaped from the detention center after days of unrest over meager and sporadic meals and overcrowding that forced some detainees to sleep on the floor. Detainees had smashed windows, doors and security cameras.
And Mr. Baraka, the Newark mayor, was arrested in May 2025 during a clash with federal agents outside its gates last year.
Dakota Santiago contributed reporting.
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