What Mamdani’s First Moves Tell Us
Early hires, a centrist counter-strategy, the emerging fights over welfare policy, policing and schools. Plus billionaires, and bodega cats.
This week brings the first real look at who will run the city and how Mamdani’s agenda might take shape. We track the early appointments and rumored contenders, examine MI’s case for a new centrist party, and look at what a welfare expansion could mean.
Plus: why the NYPD is less vulnerable than critics might suggest, why the school system can’t keep shrinking enrollment without restructuring, whether billionaires will leave, and — bodega cats.
Transition Tracker
We are starting to find out who will run the city day to day, and be in charge of implementing Mamdani’s campaign promises. So far, Mamdani has announced two key appointments: Dean Fuleihan will serve as first deputy mayor and Elle Bisgaard-Church will serve as Mamdani’s chief of staff.
Dean Fuleihan
Fuleihan, 74, has spent more than 40 years in city and state government and is widely regarded as one of New York’s most experienced budget officials, known for navigating the city’s financial and labor systems and for his knowledge of Albany’s fiscal processes. He spent three decades in the New York State Assembly, including 16 years as a senior adviser to Speaker Sheldon Silver and as the chamber’s chief staff negotiator for the state budget.
In 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio named Fuleihan Budget Director, where he oversaw a $92 billion budget and helped establish Universal Pre-K. He later became First Deputy Mayor (2017–2021), supervising the city’s budget, labor, education, and criminal-justice portfolios through the pandemic period.
“5 Things to Know About Dean Fuleihan” (City & State)
Can Mamdani Deliver? “Yes! It’s an Unqualified Yes!” Fuleihan tells The Nation.
Mamdani Appoints Budget Guru Dean Fuleihan as First Deputy Mayor (Bloomberg)
Biography page on the CUNY Institute for State & Local Governance site.
Elle Bisgaard-Church
Elle Bisgaard-Church, 34, previously worked as Mamdani’s chief of staff in the New York State Assembly, where she helped advance the taxi-driver debt relief, the free-bus pilot program, and opposition to a proposed fracked-gas plant in Queens. She’s a DSA member with political roots in Mamdani’s new New York Left.
As campaign manager for Mamdani’s 2025 mayoral bid, Bisgaard-Church oversaw day-to-day operations and helped develop policy ideas including for the proposed Department of Community Safety. She holds dual master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and the London School of Economics.
“How Elle Bisgaard-Church Became Zohran Mamdani’s Most Trusted Adviser” (City & State)
“Profile: Elle Bisgaard-Church, New York’s Newest Kingmaker” in the Observer (UK)
The Transition Team
The Mamdani transition team’s co-chairs have quite a bit more experience in government than his inner circle. They’re Grace Bonilla of United Way, Lina Khan, former chair of the Federal Trade Commission — who is looking to use New York law to regulate businesses in novel ways, including apparently lowering ballpark hot dog prices, Maria Torres-Springer, Bill de Blasio’s well-regarded former first deputy mayor, and Melanie Hartzog, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget under de Blasio, who heads the New York Foundling.
Rumors
Mamdani’s team is reportedly eyeing Ryan Russo, Nivardo Lopez, and Ben Furnas for the position of Transportation Commissioner, The New York Daily News reports.
Why New York City Centrists Need Their Own Party
“Mamdani’s victory—and the broader progressive takeover of New York City’s government—isn’t really the result of a socialist revolution in public opinion. Rather, it represents a concerted political effort on the part of the progressives, combined with the complacency of the city’s moderates” MI’s Charles Fain Lehman writes. “The left, through groups like the DSA and WFP, staged an insurgency and won. If the center wants to retake the city, it needs to play the same game—and win.”
A new moderate party could play the same role for centrists that the WFP has played for the left: generating energy behind its candidates and leveraging New York’s permissive election laws to gain real influence. One ready-made option is the long-dormant Liberal Party, which endorsed Cuomo in 2025. If that can’t be reclaimed, moderates could simply create a new vehicle — imagine a 2029 mayoral candidate running on a “Prosperity Party” line, he argues. Read full story.
Welfare Revival?
“A city can be known as a place where government to a maximum degree takes care of everything everybody needs, or as a beacon of opportunity. There’s no precedent for both,” MI fellow Stephen Eide wrote earlier this week.
Nicole Gelinas and I will be talking to Stephen in our upcoming The Bigger Apple Podcast episode. Sign up here to make sure you don’t miss it.
Under Mamdani, a Welfare Revival Looms
New York’s bad old days were characterized by high crime and high rates of welfare usage. That second problem developed in response to a stagnating local economy coupled with a local culture of leniency towards expansive benefit recipient. Those same conditions now prevail. Therefore, under Zohran Mamdani, and just in time for next year’s 30
Cop Exodus Overstated?
Many of Mamdani’s critics assume that his election will spell disaster for the NYPD — that officers will flee to friendlier jurisdictions, veterans will retire in droves, and crime will surge. But the department is far more resilient than that narrative suggests.
Mid-career officers aren’t likely to leave; “they’re locked in by seniority, pay and benefits, pension timelines, and a basic commitment to the work,” law professor Thomas Hogan writes in City Journal. And New York’s police unions have long shown they’re willing to push back against political overreach.
With more than 30,000 members, the NYPD is a powerful institution in its own right, and it has its own constituency, especially among lower-income New Yorkers who opposed Mamdani and would feel the consequences of any policies seen as soft on crime. Read full story.
Unsustainable Education
New York City’s public schools are on an unsustainable path. Each year, the budget expands and enrollment drops, resulting in higher per-pupil costs. The number of partially filled schools keeps growing, while the DOE fails to adjust budgets according to actual enrollment numbers.
“Mayor-elect Mamdani should plan to reduce the number of public schools,” focusing on under enrolled and underperforming ones, writes MI’s Danyela Souza Egorov. “Gotham has lost nearly 87,000 K-12 students over the last five years; prekindergarten enrollment is down 8 percent this year alone. Downsizing the school system would help the city invest money more effectively while providing appropriate education to the students who remain.” Read full story.
MI at the Movies
Please join the Manhattan Institute on Monday, November 17th for a special screening of “15 DAYS,” a powerful new documentary that examines the devastating truth behind America’s pandemic school closures.
Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion and Q&A featuring director and producer Natalya Murakhver, Manhattan Institute senior fellow John Tierney, community pediatrician Dr. Kristen Walsh, and Garrett Morgan Jr., a student featured in the film. Register here and use the code BIGGERAPPLE at checkout for free entry.
Extra! Extra!
Billionaires Won’t Leave Mamdani’s New York, but Their Employees Might: HENRY (“high-earner-not-rich-yet”) workers form the backbone of New York’s economy and, thanks in large part to remote work, have been increasingly heading for the exits. Mamdani’s policies could accelerate their departure, harming New York along the way. (Cato)
Mayor Adams Announced Additional Funding for 5,000 New NYPD Officers, Bringing Uniform Headcount Up to 40,000 by Fiscal Year 2029. Mayor-elect Mamdani had no plans to hire more officers. (AM New York)
Adams Makes It Harder for Mamdani to Build Over Elizabeth Street Garden. Mayor Eric Adams’s administration is designating the garden as parkland, which could stymie Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in his vow to revive the fight to put affordable housing there. (NYT)
Sen. Gounardes’ Stop Super Speeders Act would require intelligent speed assistance (ISA) technology to be installed in the vehicles of repeatedly-reckless drivers who receive 16+ speed camera tickets in a year, or who accumulate 11+ points on their license in 18 months.
FARE Act, one year later: the broker fee law impact is inconclusive. (The Real Deal)
On Wednesday, a bill was introduced to legalize bodega cats in NYC. (AM New York)