Mamdani to make transit announcement, a day after signing new NYC housing orders

Newly sworn-in Mayor Zohran Mamdani is hitting the ground running.

He is expected to make another major policy announcement on Friday. It comes on the heels of three new housing executive orders he signed on his first day in office.

Mamdani, whose transit pledges, including free busing, were a core part of his campaign, is holding a press conference at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, near Prospect Park and the 2 and 3 trains.

Details on his plans weren’t known early Friday.

The city’s first Muslim mayor marked the first day of his administration by building upon his campaign to freeze the rent with a series of orders that would revitalize the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants and create two new task forces designed to speed up housing construction and increase supply.

“On the day when so many rent payments are due, we will not wait to deliver action,” Mamdani said Thursday evening. “Yes, we know we are fighting for a rent freeze, but that is not the extent of our efforts.”

Cea Weaver, a tenant organizer and housing advocate, was named the director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. The mayor says the office’s primary focus will be to defend tenants’ rights and act “swiftly” to intervene on behalf of those facing illegal conditions.

The second and third orders create the SPEED and LIFT task forces, established to promote the construction of housing on city-owned land and cutting the red tape that can slow down housing construction.

Mamdani’s office released the following descriptions of the new task forces.

• LIFT Task Force (Land Inventory Fast Track) will leverage city-owned land to accelerate housing development, increase supply, and drive down costs. The task force will review city-owned properties and identify sites suitable for housing development no later than July 1, 2026. LIFT will be overseen by Deputy Mayor Leila Bozorg.
• The SPEED Task Force (Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development) will identify and remove bureaucratic and permitting barriers that drive up costs and slow housing construction and lease-up, making it more affordable to build and easier to access housing across New York City. The task force will be overseen by Leila Bozorg, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning, and Julia Kerson, Deputy Mayor of Operations.