Free Republic

Follow live updates on New York City politics as Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a record $127 billion budget proposal Tuesday. The eye-popping amount — that one insider called “insanity” — is up around $11 billion from the current year. The socialist city leader’s plan includes a whopping 9.5% proposed property tax hike on New Yorkers, which he claims would be a “last resort” — while allocating another $1.2 billion for migrants. Mamdani, 34, unveiled his preliminary budget from the Blue Room at NYC City Hall this afternoon. Get the latest news, analysis and more from our local politics reporters with...

New Yorkers are embracing a free market. Hundreds of people lined up Thursday for a chance to shop at the city’s “first free grocery store” — launched by Polymarket as it and other prediction betting platforms face increased scrutiny from state regulators. The West Village shop — an apparent nod to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s government-run grocery store pitch — drew more than 400 New Yorkers, who lined up hours ahead of the 2 p.m. opening, eager to fill blue tote bags with no-cost produce, nonperishables and toiletries. “Times are hard. Things are very expensive, so this helps,” said Forest Hills...

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani just signed a defiant executive order to ban ICE from city property. Invoking the Quran and calling federal enforcement an "abuse of power," Mamdani is drawing a line in the sand against the Trump administration.

Exclusive: New York City’s mayor explains why he’s backing New York’s governor in the 2026 election.Zohran Mamdani “The era of empty promises ends.” That’s the vision that drove our mayoral campaign. It’s the foundation of my administration. It’s also what Governor Kathy Hochul said as we celebrated an agreement to deliver universal childcare—one of the largest expansions of the social safety net in our city’s history. It is as consequential a policy victory as our movement has seen in quite some time. A burden of more than $22,500 lifted, the difference between whether or not a family can stay in...

SCOTT JENNINGS: Why are Democrats more committed to demonizing law enforcement than in defending you, law-abiding citizens? And now another clear example from New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani, who recently made a hospital visit, not to see a police officer, but to see the man who stabbed a police officer with a knife. Here's Cut14. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI: And as you said, I spoke with the Chakraborty family, and I visited Jabez in the hospital, and there is, no family should have to endure this kind of pain. JENNINGS: That audio you heard there, that's the...

Eight-foot piles of rat-infested trash are choking the streets around Gracie Mansion — which has gotten white-glove shoveling treatment as Mayor Zohran Mamdani crows he can’t “imagine how it could get better’’ in the city. While Hizzoner’s Upper East Side neighbors are forced to trudge through garbage-plagued roads, roaming rodents and mounds of snow tainted with dog pee a full week after Winter Storm Fern, the sidewalks outside the lefty mayor’s digs on East 88th Street are squeaky clean. “Clean as a whistle for the mayor,” Rivers said. “Look at this side.” “This side” is marred by massive piles of...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is turning to an ex-con to run NYC’s embattled jail system. The socialist pol announced five key appointments to his administration during a Bronx press conference Saturday, most notably Stanley Richards, who will become the first formerly incarcerated person to lead the city’s Department of Correction as commissioner. Richards, who reportedly served jail time in the late 1980s for robbery, previously worked as president of the nonprofit Fortune Society that provides housing and other services for ex-cons. He’s also the DOC’s former deputy commissioner of programs and operations. Mamdani announced Richards’ appointment less than a week after...

The Big Apple is about to take on a new name -- Tent City, or Filth City. Or perhaps Lepto City, after leptospirosis, a bacterial infection increasingly found in homeless encampments. New York's new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is barring the New York Police Department from closing down encampments. Since Mamdani previewed his policy in December, new encampments are emerging in many neighborhoods. The consequences are dire both for vagrants and for the city's viability. Between Friday, when the city was hit with a bone-chilling winter storm, and Sunday night, eight people were found dead outdoors, suggesting they were homeless. Mamdani...

Far-left New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani publicly pouted after the United States captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. U.S. forces snatched Maduro in a daring raid that was announced Saturday by President Donald Trump. “I was briefed this morning on the U.S. military capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, as well as their planned imprisonment in federal custody here in New York City,” Mamdani posted on X. “Unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violation of federal and international law,” he claimed. “This blatant pursuit of regime change doesn’t just affect those...

On the first day of a federal government shutdown, New York City is finding out how expensive its commitment to leftist principles of "diversity, equity, and inclusion" is going to be under President Donald Trump's administration. Russ Vought, the White House Office of Management and Budget director, took to social media on Wednesday to announce the administration has frozen federal funding for two major transportation projects in the Big Apple. And even in New York City, $18 billion is a lot of money. Russ Vought (on X) @russvought Roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects have been put...