Welcome to the second edition of “Speaker’s Corner” — my monthly update on the work of the City Council and the issues shaping our city.
Since my last column, we’ve been working on a wide range of issues (including negotiating the City’s FY27 budget, which I’ll have more to say about in the months ahead). Today, I want to focus on something especially urgent: protecting New Yorkers from hate while safeguarding our constitutional rights.
One of my first decisions as Speaker was to take definitive action on this issue. Within two weeks, we formed a new City Council Committee to Combat Hate. And my reasoning was simple: hate crimes have skyrocketed in recent years. In 2024, anti-Muslim hate crimes experienced a terrifying 69% increase. And in 2025, the number of reported incidents that targeted Jews was greater than any other group combined.
In January alone, there was an average of one antisemitic incident a day across the five boroughs. That’s not a New York I recognize. It isn’t a New York anyone else does, either.
Behind those numbers are real New Yorkers. Families walking to services at their local synagogue or mosque; children on their way to school or the playground; neighbors going about their daily lives. Some are afraid, some are still fearless. But all are aware of that the environment has changed.
As New Yorkers, we can’t just condemn rhetoric and wring our hands over the bad data. We need to take action.
Last week, the committee had its first hearing on a package of bills focused on confronting the dangerous rise of hate – because no one should be targeted for which faith they practice, what they look like, or where they come from. We went to work, ensuring critical investments in security infrastructure and Holocaust education, as well as discussing legislation surrounding the safe access of New Yorkers to both houses of worship and schools.
The core of the legislation is simple: it requires the NYPD to establish clear guidelines for when buffer zones may be necessary near entrances and exits of religious sites and schools. These plans would be designed to ensure people can safely enter and exit, while fully protecting the First Amendment rights of peaceful protesters.
Let me be clear: this legislation does not ban protests. It does not create new crimes. And it does not establish automatic fixed protest zones.
New York has always been a city of protest and free expression. From the suffrage movement to civil rights to Stonewall, the five boroughs has been a bastion of freedom for not just our country, but the entire world.
Our ability as New Yorkers to freely speak our minds is central to what makes us the greatest city on the planet. Those first amendment rights are sacrosanct, and we will protect them. But protest cannot become harassment – and free speech cannot become intimidation.
However, when demonstrators outside Park East Synagogue and Kew Gardens Yeshiva shouted, “We need to make them scared,” they crossed that line and engaged in harassing behavior. No one should be made to feel afraid to pray, to attend school, or to walk into their house of worship.
That same principle applies everywhere: a mosque in Queens, a church in the Bronx, a synagogue in Manhattan, a yeshiva in Brooklyn, a Catholic school on Staten Island. New Yorkers of every faith deserve both safety and freedom.
Our approach to ensure both is balanced and constitutional. If a protest risks blocking entrances or creating unsafe conditions, the NYPD must publish a plan that protects safe access while preserving peaceful assembly. It delivers transparency, accountability, and security for everyone.
At a time when our democracy feels more fragile, when global conflicts can heighten tensions here at home, and when division too often dominates our politics, New Yorkers deserve stability, clarity, and trust in their institutions.
That’s our job as your City Council.
New York is strongest when we stand up for each other. That means confronting hate, defending constitutional rights, and ensuring that every person in this city can live their life without fear.
Julie Menin is the Speaker of the New York City Council.
