Everyone covered Mayor Mamdani’s 100th-day lovefest on Sunday, but, frankly, there’s nothing wrong with taking stock at various milestones, the first 100 days being the most-famous (and most-meaningless) of them all.
Yes, the mayor looked back at his first three-plus months in office – and everyone covered the whole “pothole Socialism” thing (NYDN positively; the Post negatively; the Times, Timesian; and Gothamist) – but the mayor’s speech was actually a look forward. And his press office was good enough to dole out some scoops before Hizzoner opened his mouth:
– We got the scoop that the mayor would fully commit to waste containerization (Waste Dive also looked into this). – Gothamist got an unfleshed-out promise that the Department of Transportation will speed up buses by 20 percent along 45 major corridors across the five boroughs. But we don’t know what corridors yet. – And the Times learned that the first city-owned grocery story (a major Mamdani promise) will be at La Marqueta in Harlem. (The Post followed.) – And in other 100 days coverage, The City looked at whether Mayor Mamdani is taming the NYPD … or vice-versa. – Even Variety, the Hollywood house organ, got into the act with a 100th-day story about filmmaker John Wilson interviewing Hizzoner about scaffolding.
And can we put to rest the whole “pothole Socialism” thing? Everyone (DOT) seems to be obsessed with the idea that Lefty Mamdani wouldn’t do the dirty work of government because he’s a “Socialist.” In fact, he’s really just a standard-issue European liberal. So can we just move on?
Besides, we at Streetsblog still have a list of plenty of unfinished business … but there’s still four years minus 100 days to get it done:
In other news:
– The Times got the scoop on the biggest project of the next 100 days: Fixing Grand Army Plaza. – Last-minute meeting notice! There’s a virtual meeting on the design of the Eastern Queens Greenway. – Repairs have been completed at the Beach 116th Street station. (QNS) – The driver of a Citi Bike van – with an unusually high number of moving violations on it – struck and critically injured a senior in The Bronx. (NYDN) – The Times looked at the very rare, non-problem of kids stealing subway cars. – There’s only one Times Square ball drop, and it’s on Dec. 31. (NY Post) – It’s funny to see the right wing establishment on Staten Island complaining about a slight decrease in the number of cops on The Rock – yet not say a word about the reckless driving being done by cops working for Inspector Eric Waldhelm at the 120th Precinct, as I reported twice this month. (NY Post)
