Mamdani ran on an ambitious progressive platform, but enacting it faces hurdles in the City Council and state government.

by Eduardo Cuevas
by USA Today
December 31, 2025

NEW YORK − In an impatient city, Zohran Mamdani must act fast when he becomes New York’s next mayor on New Year’s Day.

In City Hall, Mamdani will have a notoriously difficult job, often called the second-hardest after President of the United States.

The 34-year-old democratic socialist made sweeping promises to reshape how New Yorkers live, commute, and even shop to improve affordability in the nation’s largest city. Whether that agenda is enacted and succeeds at improving quality of life will be seen nationwide as a test of progressive governance.

… The “Department of Community Safety” would coordinate alongside the NYPD to respond with social workers in place of police to issues related to mental health or homelessness. The changes are spurred in part by high-profile instances of police responding with force to people in the throes of a mental health crisis.

At the same time, Mamdani has tried to pitch this toward tough-on-crime constituents as freeing police officers to respond to more serious crimes. There appears to be support for that from many officers, at least theoretically, according to Jeffrey Butts, a research professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, part of the City University of New York.

A new department, which would cost an estimated at $1.1 billion, would require City Council approval, along with funding and staffing, Butts said.

“This whole Department of Community Safety, which is not police-based, is incredibly logical,” Butts said. “It’s just difficult to pull off.”

There have been similar models of alternative police responses, seen in Albany, New York; Denver; and until recently, Eugene, Oregon.

In New York, the stakes will be higher.

“The whole country will be watching this. A little less than half would love to see Mamdani fail and mess up everything,” Butts said.

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