To little surprise, Julie Menin of Manhattan was elected Speaker of the City Council on Wednesday during the session’s first meeting of the year. She had secured enough support among her council colleagues just before Thanksgiving to earn the title in January.
Next to the mayor, the City Council speaker is arguably the most influential citywide politician in the Big Apple. Menin will direct the legislative agenda and work closely with the Mamdani administration on hammering out a budget in June.
For the past four years, the speaker and mayor had an incredibly fractious relationship. Adrienne Adams, the progressive Queens speaker, and Eric Adams (no relation), the moderate Brooklyn mayor, clashed numerous times on issues from police procedure to affordable housing and cooperation with ICE.
Worse, over the last several years, then-Mayor Adams created charter revision commissions to push through reforms via ballot referendums that the City Council likely would not have approved. Then-Speaker Adams seethed and charged that the mayor had essentially usurped the legislative branch of city government.
Such an acrimonious relationship need not exist between the new speaker and the new mayor. Menin and Zohran Mamdani are moderate and socialist, respectively, but in politics, ideology isn’t everything. If they put ideology on the back burner, indeed, their relationship may be a very productive one from which all New Yorkers will benefit.
It starts and ends with a commitment to address the biggest issue facing New York today: affordability.
Menin and the mayor must find common ground on lowering housing costs and finding other ways to help the average New Yorker get a break in an era of rising expenses.
They must also act with prudence in addressing the city’s budget, already $118 billion and with a projected budget gap next year of up to $8 billion. Filling this hole will require cooperation and strategic thinking while avoiding the temptation to embrace extreme actions from tax or fee increases to cuts to schools, police, fire and other essential services.
And Menin and Mamdani must stand together as one voice of support for all New Yorkers, regardless of background, with a deep and unbreakable commitment to combating hatred wherever it arises, and celebrating our great diversity. This unity is more essential than ever before, especially for the city’s immigrant community.
We wish Speaker Menin and Mayor Mamdani the best of luck in their collaboration, and hope that they will always prioritize the city’s interests above all else.
