NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch told the city council that Mamdani’s pet project the Department of Community Safety — which would create a new department solely to deal with mental health calls — would not be funded by cutting NYPD overtime, as the mayor had advocated on the campaign trail.
The commish also announced a panel looking at overhauling police recruiting by removing unnecessary barriers.
A pro-Israel activist criticized Orthodox Jewish leaders for meeting with Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The activist expressed dismay that the leaders met with Mamdani, who later accused Israeli Jews of committing genocide in Gaza. The activist called the meeting “Jewish betrayal” and accused the leaders of being “easily bought.” Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, is under fire for resurfaced social media posts from her teenage years and early 20s. The posts allegedly celebrated Palestinian terrorists, including a plane hijacker. This comes after previous reports of her liking a pro-Hamas Instagram post and another claiming Hamas rapes were a “mass hoax.”Orthodox Jewish leaders ripped for going easy on Israel-bashing NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani: 'Easily bought'
By Craig McCarthy 
NYC's first lady Rama Duwaji celebrated Palestinian terrorists in resurfaced social media posts: report
By Anna Young 
She’s burning over The Bronx.
A miffed NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch got into a fiery exchange Wednesday with progressive City Councilman Oswald Feliz (D-Bronx) over rising shootings in the Boogie Down.
Feliz ticked off Tisch as he repeatedly pressed her over why the number of shooting victims rose 35% in the borough while crime citywide has stayed flat — momentarily derailing an otherwise sedate budget hearing for the nation’s largest police force.
Tisch argued the increase seen so far this year was a statistical blip, because it came on the heels of the Bronx’s record-breaking reduction in gun violence in 2025.
“I will not have the work of the members of the NYPD mischaracterized,” she snapped.
Subway ridership still trails pre-COVID pandemic levels — by a whopping 25% — even as transit officials rush to credit congestion pricing for getting New Yorkers back on the public transportation system.
A recent report from the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA (PCAC), finds that New Yorkers took nearly 1.3 billion subway trips in 2025, about 7.7% more than in 2024.
But subway ridership still remains at only about 75% of pre-pandemic levels, leaving a sizable gap in the system’s recovery.
Mayor Mamdani announced Wednesday afternoon that Gregory Anderson, a nearly decade long veteran of New York's Strongest, will be the department's next head honcho.
Anderson served in various leadership roles across the department and managed initiatives like waste containerization and universal curbside composting.
He most recently served as Deputy Director Of State Operations for Gov. Kathy Hochul, helping support the management of over 70 state agencies.
"As Commissioner, Gregory will carry forward the transformative projects he helped build, from waste containerization and curbside composting to commercial waste reform," the mayor said in a statement.
The sanitation department oversees nearly 10,000 employees who collect 24 million pounds of waste across the Big Apple every day.
ALBANY — EPA Administrator and former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin ripped Gov. Kathy Hochul for refusing President Trump’s request that she open up the Empire State to natural gas fracking.
Hochul told reporters Wednesday that she rebuffed a direct request from the president that New York reverse its ban and allow drilling for natural gas in large untapped upstate deposits.
"It is so incredibly stupid that New York bans natural gas extraction. Albany is run by some of the nation’s dumbest politicians who proudly deny state residents the massive revenue, extensive jobs and increased energy,” Zeldin, a former Long Island Republican congressman, posted on X.
The state Legislature and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo codified an executive order in 2021 effectively banning fracking.
“No,” Hochul said asked by reporters in the state capitol following an unrelated event if she was considering Trump’s request.
Hochul said earlier this month that she “had concerns” but wouldn’t be revisiting the issue, even as she pushes efforts to drive up energy generation from wind, solar and nuclear.
"I have had concerns about fracking. I know there's a lot of interest in it from some circles, but I believe that we have plentiful supply,” she said.
The spat comes as Hochul is preparing to pitch delaying and rejiggering the state’s climate law – likely setting up a major fight with state lawmakers.
Reversing the state's ban would likely require approval from the legislature, which is vehemently opposed to fracking.
The Big Apple is ending its crackdown on e-bike drivers for blowing stop signs or illegally zipping along city sidewalks, Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration announced Wednesday.
Starting next Friday, March 27, the NYPD will no longer issue criminal summonses to e-bikers and cyclists for traffic offenses, according to City Hall.
Instead, two-wheeler traffic violations will be handled with civil summonses.
"By ending criminal summonses for low-level traffic offenses, we’re ensuring cyclists and e-bike riders — including those who deliver our food and groceries — are treated like others on the road,” Mamdani said in a statement.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has repeatedly defended the crackdown, including after City Council members claimed the ticket blitz could lead to immigrant drivers losing their licenses or possibly being deported.
“This is not a war on e-bikes, this is a response to very real concerns that are widely held across virtually every borough, every New Yorker in this city,” Tisch said last year during a council hearing when pressed by Mamdani comrade Tiffany Caban.
Tisch went as far as to pen an op-ed in The Post in support of the blitz, launched under Mamdani's predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams.
"When vehicle drivers fail to respond to a traffic summons, their licenses can be suspended," she wrote, "but e-bikes do not require any license, so their operators can simply ignore a traffic summons with virtually no meaningful repercussions.
"Now, we’re closing that loophole by issuing c-summonses —the only real option available under the law to hold reckless e-bike operators accountable."
Notably, Tisch was not quoted in the press release, which came from City Hall, not the NYPD.
Flaming trash on the tracks turned the morning commute into a nightmare on Wednesday, with multiple subway lines snarled around Times Square.
In the heart of rush hour, fire crews were called to the Times Sq/West 42nd Street stop just before 8 am for a rubbish fire on the tracks and spent nearly an hour firefighting before declaring the all clear around an hour later, according to FDNY.
Riders across Manhattan and Brooklyn were left stewing on crowded platforms and crawling trains as delays rippled along the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, A, B, C, D and E lines.
ALBANY – Gov. Kathy Hochul is begging wealthy New Yorkers who fled the city to come back and continue padding the Empire State’s lavish public handouts.
Hochul made the case against caving to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s demands that she hike income taxes -- by saying she not only wants fat cats to stay in the city, but also clawing at those who have moved to states with better business climates like Florida.
“Maybe the first step should be go down to Palm Beach and see who we can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded,” the Democratic governor said at a forum hosted by Politico last week.
"I have to look at the fact that we are in competition with other states who have less of a tax burden on their corporations and their individuals,” she said.
Hochul has made this pitch in recent weeks as Mamdani and his “tax the rich” crew of lefty lawmakers demand she further jack up income taxes to help pay for Hizzoner's Democratic socialist wishlist and the $5.4 billion budget gap he claims the city faces.
But even Hochul – who is negotiating her own massively bloated $263 billion budget proposal – admitted she’s been cashing in on New Yorkers’ income taxes to buoy state finances for years.
"We have to be smart about this, but we can fund what we want to fund with what we already are taking in,” bragged Hochul, who faces re-election in November.
The state had been facing a multi-billion dollar budget gap that was largely patched after a great year on Wall Street caused bonuses to shoot up 25% over last year, according to Hochul’s budget office.
Mayor Mamdani announced a new online website to help homeowners set up an Adams-era initiative for New Yorkers to build backyard cottages.
Backyard cottages or granny flats are small units on a homeowners property that can be legally rented out. The program also covers basement apartments or attics that are up to code.
The website features a guidebook and cost estimating tools to help homeowners as the window reopens for the Plus One Ancillary Dwelling Units program, the technical name for backyard cottages.
The 2024 initiative provides up to $395,000 in grants to help build and convert these units to code.
The new online tool also lists 11 pre-approved ADU plans from the Department of Buildings to try and speed up the process.
“One of the solutions to the housing crisis can be found in our backyards, our attics, or our basements – in an Ancillary Dwelling Unit. That's why our administration is making it easier and more affordable to build an ADU through a library of pre-approved plans and new financing options,” Mamdani said in a statement.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced the convening of a new panel on applicant hiring while testifying in front of the city council Wednesday.
The panel, which Tisch explained would explore how to remove unnecessary barriers to hiring police officers, will consist of internal and external experts, including law enforcement, academia, and the members of the community.
“The goal is straightforward: remove unnecessary barriers, bring greater transparency to decisions, and make sure qualified candidates are not being pushed away by the system itself,” Tisch told the council at the a preliminary budget hearing.
Those named to the panel include NYPD Chief of Patrol Phil Rivera, NYPD commanding officer of the Community Affairs Bureau, Assistant Chief Victoria Perry, New York City Council member and former public safety chair, Youssef Salaam, Danielle Outlaw, the former commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department and Ian Adams and Scott Mourtgos both professors of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Wednesday that Zohran Mamdani's campaign pledge to create an agency that will solely handle mental health calls will not come at the expense of the NYPD.
Testifying before the New York City Council, the top cop told lawmakers the police budget will not be slashed to cover the cost of the Department of Community Safety.
Hizzoner claimed on the trail that he would fund the brand-new department, which he estimated at $1 billion annually, by cutting the entirety of the NYPD overtime.
Mamdani had yet to spell out any plans for how he would create the agency or how it would respond to calls for people in emotional distress.
Funding was not included in his preliminary budget.
Tisch said during the budget hearing that there have been discussions about "what the calls will look like."
