Wednesday, March 4, marked the 63rd day of Zohran Mamdani’s term as mayor. amNewYork is following Mamdani around his first 100 days in office. We are closely tracking his progress on fulfilling campaign promises, appointing key leaders to government posts, and managing the city’s finances. Here’s a summary of what the mayor did today.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday defended his administration’s decision to exclude Staten Island from the first phase of the city’s new “2K” child care program, saying the borough’s single school district makes a rapid rollout more difficult than in other parts of the city.
Speaking during a tour of neighborhoods slated to receive the first 2,000 free seats for 2-year-olds this fall, Mamdani said the administration prioritized areas that showed both high need and readiness to scale quickly.
“One of the key things we wanted to do is not only identify the need in these neighborhoods, but also the readiness to be able to deliver it to an entire school district,” Mamdani told reporters in Canarsie, Brooklyn, on Wednesday afternoon.
Civic and political leaders on Staten Island — the only borough Mamdani lost in last year’s mayoral election — were frustrated following Tuesday’s announcement on the 2k rollout, with Borough President Vito Fossella accusing the city of ‘dropping the ball,’ calling it a reminder that the borough’s children are “too often forgotten.”
State Senator Jessica Scarcella-Spanton also expressed concern, emphasizing the critical role of programs like universal 2-K for parents and children navigating the costly, often inaccessible world of early education. She called the exclusion “a disservice to every child and every hardworking parent” in Staten Island and urged city officials to reconsider and adjust the rollout plan.
Unlike other boroughs, which are divided into multiple school districts, Staten Island has a single district covering the entire borough. Launching boroughwide in just a few months would have strained provider capacity and risked undermining the program’s stability, he said.
“We don’t want to set this program up in a way that it won’t be durable or sustainable,” Mamdani explained. “We want it to be a long-lasting program.”
The first 2,000 seats will be spread across four boroughs — upper Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens — within select school districts identified for both need and provider capacity. City officials said the seats will not be divided evenly. Instead, allocations will vary based on the projected number of eligible families in each district and the availability of licensed providers able to expand quickly.
“These are not equally sized parts of the city,” said Emmy Liss, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Child Care and Early Childhood Education. She noted that final seat counts will be tied to anticipated demand and confirmed provider participation. The city plans to release more detailed breakdowns before the family application period opens later this year.
The seats will be offered through a mix of existing center-based programs and home-based providers. Officials said the city was able to secure commitments for the initial 2,000 spots without constructing new facilities, following a recent request for information that gauged interest and capacity among providers — including some that have not contracted with the city in recent years.
Staten Island is expected to be included next year, when the city plans to expand from 2,000 seats to 12,000 seats citywide. By the end of his first term, Mamdani said, every 2-year-old whose family wants a seat would have access to one.
The 2K rollout is backed by $1.2 billion in state funding secured in partnership with Gov. Kathy Hochul, including more than $100 million to stabilize the city’s troubled 3K program.
Childcare advocates praised the administration’s early steps in the path toward universal childcare, but urged the mayor to follow though on his promises of equity in future expansions.
“We’ve always said that achieving universal child care can’t be flipped on like a light switch but must be rolled out thoughtfully, with the needs of both providers and parents at the center,” Rebecca Bailin, executive director at New Yorkers United for Childcare, said, praising the Mamdani administration for aligning its plan with the 2-Care implementation blueprint her group released last year.
“Launching 2,000 2-K seats in the first months of a new administration, while guaranteeing free 3-K and Pre-K for families across the city, is a major improvement over the past four years, when families with 3-year-olds weren’t sure they would get a seat, and some didn’t even know they were eligible to apply because of funding cuts,” said Bailin. “As the city expands the program to 12,000 free seats for 2-year-olds next year, Staten Island must be included. We’re encouraged that the city is prioritizing neighborhoods with the greatest need, while also recognizing that child care costs strain families at every income level. Retaining working- and middle-class New Yorkers has to be a priority, and universal child care will go a long way toward making that possible.”
Islamophobia: Right-wing host apologizes after outcry
Billionaire supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis, owner and CEO of WABC, issued a public apology on Wednesday following Islamophobic remarks made about Mayor Mamdani on the station earlier this week.
In a recorded on-air statement, Catsimatidis said the station supports open political debate but does not condone personal attacks.
“We believe open conversation is important to talk radio in our country, but personal attacks on individuals is not acceptable at WABC,” Catsimatidis said. “Disagree with policies, disagree with opinions — that is fine. That is what talk radio is all about.”
The apology followed comments on Monday by right-wing host Sid Rosenberg, who acknowledged on air Wednesday that he had offended the mayor and others. Rosenberg had referred to Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, as a “Radical Islam cockroach” and a “jihadist” in a social media post directed at former President Donald Trump following his Oval Office meeting with Mamdani last week.
The remarks drew swift condemnation from elected officials and advocacy groups, who described them as dehumanizing and unacceptable.
“I was compelled to send out a tweet that was ill thought,” Rosenberg said Wednesday. “So I made my apology to the mayor this morning. I was sincere about it — him and anybody else I may have offended. And I meant it.”
Rosenberg added that while he would continue to criticize elected officials’ policies, he recognized that he had crossed a line.
“I’m still Sid,” he said. “But every now and then you got to step back and say, ‘Okay, maybe this time…’”
amNewYork is awaiting a response from City Hall on the apology. At a separate media briefing in Queens, the mayor told WABC-TV correspondent N.J. Burkett that he did not hear from Rosenberg directly, and only heard about it on social media.
Mamdani added that “time will tell how sincere of an apology it is.”
New hire: Mamdani taps think tank leader who backed higher taxes for senior budget role
Mamdani is tapping the head of a prominent New York economic policy think tank for a senior budget role in city government, bringing into the administration a policy leader whose organization has backed the mayor’s push for higher taxes on wealthy residents and corporations.
Nathan Gusdorf, executive director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, will leave the organization to become deputy director of policy, planning, and delivery at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, according to an announcement on Wednesday.
The Fiscal Policy Institute said Gusdorf will depart immediately to join the mayor’s budget office. Emily Eisner, the group’s chief economist, will serve as acting executive director while its board oversees a leadership transition.
Gusdorf joined the institute in March 2022 and oversaw a period of growth in staffing and visibility, according to the nonprofit research group, which focuses on tax policy, state finances, and economic inequality in New York.
During his tenure, the institute became a prominent voice in debates over New York’s fiscal policy and high-earner taxes. Its researchers published analyses challenging claims that wealthy residents were leaving the state because of higher taxes — an argument often referred to by policymakers as “millionaire tax flight.” The group says that New York’s top one percent of earners move out of state less frequently than the rest of the income groups.
Earlier this year, Gusdorf also publicly supported Mamdani’s approach to addressing the city’s budget challenges. In a February statement responding to the mayor’s preliminary budget proposal, he said the city’s projected $5.4 billion budget gap should be addressed through additional state aid and progressive tax increases rather than major spending cuts.
“The budget crisis should be solved through the economically preferable paths of additional state aid and progressive tax increases,” Gusdorf said in the statement, arguing that higher taxes on top earners and profitable businesses would be less harmful than across-the-board property tax increases or deep reductions in city services.
Mamdani has until early June to finalize the city budget, while the deadline for the New York State budget, which Mamdani is currently lobbying to include “tax the rich” measures to help close the city’s deficit, is due on April.1
Gov. Kathy Hochul has so far pushed back against taking such measures, and did not include tax hikes in her $260 billion executive budget. Politico reported Tuesday, however, that Democrats in Albany are set to challenge Hochul and will officially introduce a plan to raise income taxes on high-earning New Yorkers next week.
