Mamdani News Feed

First Lady Rama Duwaji participation in a Women Sanctuary retreat whose organizers have an anti-Israel social media record lands the same week Mamdani released NYC first citywide antisemitism plan. ADL already called that plan "unacceptable" for missing a single IHRA definition. Expect this to feed the pre-existing antisemitism-plan backlash and the recurring Duwaji-posts arc.

Richmond County (Staten Island) Justice Wayne Ozzi ruled Sept 29 that the city's pied-à-terre tax notices — mailed to owners of homes valued $900K+ — were "arbitrary and capricious, affected by errors of law, and in violation of the recipients' due process rights." The court ordered NYC to remove the current property list from its website, redo the notification process under proper procedure, and mail corrected notices. The Mamdani administration signaled it will seek a stay of the injunction and continue implementing the surcharge while appealing. The suit was brought by Randy Mastro on behalf of three homeowners who argued the 900K+ home public list "doxxed" owners and that Bronx primary residences had been wrongly captured. This is the biggest legal setback yet to Mamdani's signature tax-the-rich revenue play.

Mamdani unveiled the city's first plan to combat antisemitism Sept 29: $6.4M for community-based hate-crime prevention and survivor assistance (JCRC among them), $1M for synagogue and house-of-worship security, $2M to complete the Queens Holocaust Memorial, $2.5M for the Center for New Jewish Culture in Central Brooklyn, expanded field trips to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and LinkNYC campaigns celebrating Jewish New Yorkers. The plan does NOT adopt a single antisemitism definition — Mamdani revoked Adams's IHRA executive order and the strategy references multiple frameworks (IHRA, Jerusalem Declaration, Nexus Document). ADL called the plan "unacceptable" for lacking a formal definition and for not addressing city-contract/pension boycott safeguards; Bend the Arc and Comptroller Brad Lander backed the multi-definition approach. NYC recorded more antisemitic incidents in 2025 than any other US city. Ties to broken hate-crimes promise (Q1 2026 hate crimes +11.7%, 55% anti-Jewish).

First fatality of the September nor'easter — a 56-year-old man was killed by a falling tree while walking through a parking lot in East New York, Brooklyn on Saturday. By Saturday afternoon, NYC had logged 640+ downed-tree service requests concentrated in Queens and Brooklyn. Regional impact: 60,000+ customers without power across NY, NJ, CT, MA, RI, PA. Coastal flooding continued through Sunday morning in Far Rockaway, Howard Beach, and Rockaway Beach. Mamdani's travel advisory (issued Fri Sept 25) remains in effect through Sunday AM. First real weather-response test since the July 6-7 flash flood.

Governor Hochul declared a state of emergency covering NYC, Long Island, and Westchester as the stronger-than-expected early-season nor'easter parked over the region Friday night into Saturday. Mamdani's NYCEM travel advisory issued Sept 24 remains in effect through Sunday morning. NYPD staged in flood-prone precincts; DSNY on flood-debris standby.