Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. Well, 2026 is starting a lot like 2025 ended. Take a weekend off from following the news, turn off your news org notifications for a couple of days, and it's like you were Rip Van Winkle after being asleep for 20 years. By now, you know the US invaded and says it is running Venezuela, but do you know that during his first four days in office, Mayor Mamdani established what he calls an Office of Mass Engagement and announced the creation of what he calls rental ripoff hearings? Have you wondered what he might say to members of New York's Venezuelan community, many of whom might like Trump's removal of Maduro? Did you know the mayor personally called President Trump to object to the Venezuela action? He told reporters this about that.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: I called the President and spoke with him directly to register my opposition to this act, and to make clear that it was an opposition based on being opposed to a pursuit of regime change, to the violation of federal international law, and a desire to see that be consistent each and every day.

Brian Lehrer: Later in the hour, we will discuss Trump-Venezuela and its many ramifications, including that Trump threw yet another woman politician who supported him under the bus when it came his time to support her. First, the Mayor Zohran Mamdani-era day five. With me now, Juan Manuel Benítez, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism professor, member of the opinion leader group called the New York Editorial Board, host of the podcast Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know, and former host of Pura Política, the politics show on Spanish language NY1 Noticias.

Josh Greenman, managing editor of the New York City public affairs journal Vital City. Vital City has an article that he led the authoring of called Just Fix It: 11 Governance Improvements the Mamdani Administration Can Tackle in the First 100 Days. He is also a member of that group of journalists, the New York Editorial Board.

Josh, Juan Manuel, always great to have both of you. Welcome back to WNYC, and Happy New Year.

Josh Greenman: Thank you.

Juan Manuel Benítez: Happy New Year to you too, Brian. Hi, Josh.

Josh Greenman: Hi, Juan Manuel.

Brian Lehrer: Juan Manuel, I'm just going to go right there. With your years of covering New York's Venezuelan community on NY1 Noticias in particular, give everyone else a sense of who that community is, and your best guest about how people in it feel about Trump seizing Maduro and saying the United States is going to run Venezuela for a while.

Juan Manuel Benítez: Brian, right now, the Venezuelan community is conflicted. Not only New York City, where we have a lot of Venezuelans for a long time, but also recently in the last few years, many Venezuelans moved to New York City, and they are part of our communities and our workforce, but also all over the world. We have millions of Venezuelans that left the country because of the Chávez-Maduro regime in the last 25 years, including in the city of Madrid, where I am right now.

We've seen demonstrations of support, of enthusiasm after that arrest/kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro that we saw on Saturday. Venezuelans feel happy that he's out, that he is no longer in power, but at the same time, they are also acknowledging the fact that they know that the US doesn't have the best interest of the Venezuelans in mind. It's the best interests of America. That right now, Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro's vice president, is the one heading the government. The system stays, and the system is going to be in place until whether we see a transition, a transition that seems a little complicated at this point, and that the US is taking in a way that is going to be longer in time than many had expected.

Brian Lehrer: Josh, you heard the clip of Mamdani. What's your best sense as to why he got involved at all as a mayor and a brand-new mayor and called the President on a foreign affairs matter?

Josh Greenman: Well, his campaign, of course, was marked by a fair amount of talk about foreign affairs, mainly about Gaza, which I think he puts a little bit of pressure on him to be, as he said, consistent in talking about international law and things like that, so he's not only someone who speaks out when it comes to the Palestinian-Israeli situation. That I think is part of it.

I think also he's an avatar for progressives across the country. He's an important voice. He knows that he's an important voice for progressives across America, even though his campaign was built on and his mandate is primarily about improving affordability in New York City. He can't be completely silent on things that everyone else is thinking about and upset about across the country.

Brian Lehrer: Right, but Juan Manuel, I imagine Mayor Mamdani does not want to be associated with Maduro, right? Because people on the right are already pointing, have always pointed, since Mamdani became a big public figure, to a dictatorship and failed economy like Venezuela, and say, see, that's what socialism gets you. Of course, there are dictators on the right with failed governments too. Democratic socialism aspires to be much different from Maduro, we should say, but is Mamdani trying to support Maduro in some way because it's a socialist government, or how do you see that?

Juan Manuel Benítez: I do not think that Mayor Mamdani wants to be associated with Maduro or with his regime in Venezuela. At the same time, because of what Josh was saying, he has a strong view, a different view of the world that maybe we're not used to when it comes to New York City mayors or even US elected officials. We saw candidate Mamdani very forcefully defend Gaza and basically criticize harshly Israel for many, many months. However [crosstalk]--

Brian Lehrer: Right, but this isn't Gaza. This has nothing to do with Israel, but go ahead.

Juan Manuel Benítez: Correct, but what I'm trying to say is that no matter what his international view or policy view is right now, he is not candidate Mamdani anymore. Now he's Mayor Mamdani, and I do not think New Yorkers care that much about what the mayor of New York City wants when it comes to international order. I think in this case is more now New Yorkers are going to judge Mamdani based on his management of the city, of the city problems. That's why I also think Mayor Mamdani said that he called the President, he kept that call brief and that was it.

Josh Greenman: Yes, Brian, I think you're definitely right, though, that, yes, there is going to be a test here going forward. He can't get bogged down- Mamdani can't get bogged down every two days, every three days in responding to some national, international event. He has to primarily be focused on New York City's problems, New York City's challenges. I think he knows that. I think this was an extraordinary thing that happened, and that's why he probably felt the need to say something.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Now, listeners, if any Venezuelans or Venezuelan Americans happen to be listening right now, you will get first priority on the phones. Do you support the arrest of the Maduros, the invasion, the liberation, the kidnapping, however you see it, and the US plans for that country? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Call or text. Anyone else may call with questions or comments about anything from Mayor Mamdani's first few days in office here on day five. We're going to talk about other things too. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

Josh, what kind of challenge does it pose for the new mayor, if any, that the Maduros are being held for trial here in New York?

Josh Greenman: It poses a bit of a challenge. I think it makes it-- probably gives him additional permission to comment on it, that it is happening in his backyard. Federal authorities have taken this extraordinary action and are holding this individual, these individuals in New York City. I don't know beyond that. He's not responsible for the federal justice system, so I don't think it really is anything that he's going to be held accountable for in any specific sense.

Brian Lehrer: Juan Manuel, before we move on to some other things, do you think Mamdani, who talks about wanting to be the mayor of all the people, he was very eloquent about that in his inaugural address and listed so many different kinds of communities, different kinds of people with different backgrounds, different neighborhoods; do you think Mamdani and most Venezuelan New Yorkers are on the same page, or what might they want from him with respect to the situation? Assuming many people still have people back there, people down there or connections or interests, what might that community want from him or from the city government, if anything in particular, right now?

Juan Manuel Benítez: I do not think they are asking for a lot from the mayor when it comes to this issue. I've been talking to a couple of Venezuelan friends in New York City about their take on what happened, and they say, listen, Mamdani, his opinion doesn't matter that much. They are just happy that Maduro is out. At the same time, very conflicted because of the way it was done, and how now the US is sending a signal to every country in the region that says, well, we're going to come in and take your leader out if we don't like that person and if that person is working against the interests of the United States.

Brian Lehrer: Let's take a phone call on this before we go on to some other things. Sandra in Queens. Is Sandra ready? Can I go to Sandra? There we go. Sandra in Queens, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Sandra: Hi, how are you? I just found your radio station randomly while I'm driving, so I'm glad to hear that we're talking about important things. Yes, no, I just wanted to kind of point out that being pro rule of law and pro international law doesn't necessarily mean that you agree with Maduro, but I think we have to distinguish the fact that we are not allowed to just pick up a leader of a sovereign nation and kidnap them. We wouldn't allow it here. I'm not a fan of our current president, but if another country came in and kidnapped our president, I would say it's not okay. If it's not good for the goose, it's not good for the gander.

Brian Lehrer: There we go.

Sandra: I think it's okay for him to say that.

Brian Lehrer: Sandra, glad you found our station and made your voice heard. Keep calling us. We appreciate it. We're going to get more explicitly into that in our second segment. This is our conversation about Mamdani's first five days. This is not what we expected to be talking about, but obviously there are some New York overtones here with Mamdani getting involved or at least making a comment and calling the President, and we're going to talk about other things. Then our next segment with a Venezuela expert is going to be more explicitly about what the US is doing there and the fate of the American people.

Let's see. Do we have another one on this? Not that I see. Okay, we'll come back to some more Mamdani-Venezuela-related calls, New York City-Venezuela-related calls, if we have any, but Venezuela is certainly not the first topic we thought we would be discussing with respect to Mayor Mamdani to start his first business week in office. Let's go on to other things. On Friday, he announced something called the Office of Mass Engagement. Here he is on that.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Too often, engagement is fragmented or symbolic. Too often, people are asked for input, but never see how it shapes outcomes.

Brian Lehrer: Juan Manuel, what's your understanding of what the Office of Mass Engagement is supposed to do?

Juan Manuel Benítez: I do believe that what the Mamdani administration wants to do with this office is to engage New Yorkers not just during election time, but also throughout his first term or second term, if there's one. I do believe that many of us that are passionate about politics and policy and are passionate about New York City, we are always extremely disappointed that New Yorkers participate in public life very randomly and they do not turn out to vote in large numbers, traditionally. Not in the case of the last election like we saw in New York City with Mamdani's victory.

However, I do believe that at the end of the day, it's really hard to keep people engaged. There's also some sort of sense that New Yorkers have that once they elect a leader, they believe that that person should be running the show. Obviously, they would like to participate in many different ways, but keeping them engaged on a regular basis, I don't think it's going to be that easy and to engage them in the day-to-day decisions of city government.

Brian Lehrer: Right. Just want to acknowledge, now we're getting some texts coming in on New York and Venezuela. One listener writes, "Wasn't Mamdani specifically asked about this at an unrelated event? Otherwise, not sure we would have heard much about it." A lot of people writing in to say things like this text, "What Trump has done in Venezuela is wrong. This is the latest version of actions the US has taken in Haiti, Grenada, and Panama." We'll get way into that in our second segment.

Josh, going back for a minute to Mamdani and Trump. I actually don't know if the listener is right. Maybe the listener is right. Like, Mamdani didn't bring this up. He was specifically asked about this at an unrelated event. You could tell me if you know, one way or another, if that's true, but journalists have also noted that he avoided saying Trump's name in the criticism. He said he called the President. He wouldn't say Trump, like that was somehow soft-pedaling his criticism of Trump because Trump and he had that friendly meeting and friendly news conference after their meeting. Also, that Mamdani refused to characterize what Trump said in response to him when he said he called Trump to express his opposition to the military action. Anything there that's relevant for you to comment on?

Josh Greenman: Well, I do think that he said it in response to a question. I also know that City Hall did put it out, I think, as a little release. To me, this is a little bit of splitting hairs. He's responding. That is a meaningful thing for a mayor of New York City to respond about a national, international event, criticize the president directly. Whether or not you say the name Trump, he is clearly involving himself, and I think he'll continue to do so when it feels to him like it's an important topic, but like I said, there's a real balance. He can't get bogged down on a weekly basis in international affairs or in criticizing the president, and he can't make those criticisms look gratuitous. I think he's made clear that he's not going to stay silent when things offend what he sees as basic principle, but he can't be involved in carping on a regular basis.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, another text [crosstalk]--

Juan Manuel Benítez: At the same time, Brian, like Josh was saying, very quickly, so he did put a statement, the City Hall and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, on Saturday related to this. In that statement, Mamdani said that unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violation of federal and international law. At the same time, he also said that his focus is in the safety of every New Yorker and also Venezuelans, so that his administration was focused on that specific matter.

Brian Lehrer: A text says, "Mamdani had to say something about Maduro. One, there are many Venezuelans living in New York City who could be at risk if Trump uses this arrest as a reason to change their immigration status. Two, Maduro is being held in New York City." On the immigration status, Juan Manuel, we will hear in that second segment a clip of Secretary of State Marco Rubio talking about the flood of immigration out of Venezuela over the period of the last several years. People will remember it was Venezuelans more than anyone else coming at the height of the large-scale migration of asylum-seekers into the US and winding up in New York City, among other places, during the early Biden administration. That's of relevance to them, and it's a contradiction for the Trump administration, at very least, saying, oh, it's not okay, it's not safe for people, and there's no economy for people to be in Venezuela, but we don't want so many Venezuelans here.

Juan Manuel Benítez: I do think that it's an important question for Venezuelans right now waiting on their asylum applications. Tens of thousands arrived in New York City in the last few years, and many of them were hopeful that they were going to be able to build a life in the US or in New York City, and now, like you say, the Trump administration might be telling them, listen, we removed the dictator. We are supervising some sort of transition, regime transition in Venezuela, so now going back to Venezuela is safe and you all should go back. For many of them, this could be life-changing. At this moment, it all depends on how the Trump administration decides to implement these new changes in policy.

Brian Lehrer: Let's see. All right, now we'll move back to the Office of Mass Engagement. Josh, your article in Vital City, Just Fix It: 11 Governance Improvements the Mamdani Administration Can Tackle in the First 100 Days, does that mass engagement office align with anything on your list?

Josh Greenman: Not specifically. We have a lot of granular government fixes, including reining in placard abuse, which is a big, big problem on the streets, on the curbs of New York. Improving lighting in public spaces, which is a big undiscussed way to improve safety, reduce crime in lots of places that are underlit. Appointing a single person, a single commander to oversee the problem of the homeless, who are seriously mentally ill and otherwise face very serious maladies like drug addiction, on the streets and on the subways, and a number of things like that.

I will say one thing about the Office of Mass Engagement, though. There's tension here, right? It sounds wonderful. Everyone wants small-d democracy. At the same time, there are lots of very good things that have been killed by small-d democracy. There are bike lanes, there are homeless shelters that needed to be built. There are small spot rezonings that too much local engagement, in theory, depending on who you listen to, winds up preventing progress. It's well and good to want to hear the voices of New Yorkers. The question then still boils down to who are you listening to and at what volume.

Brian Lehrer: Helen in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Helen, thank you for calling in.

Helen: Yes, thank you, Brian. Yes, I totally approve of everything so far of what our new mayor has been doing. Whether it's to issue-- undoing the last-minute edicts of the previous mayor as it also includes the new definition of antisemitism as being conflated with being anti-Israel, current Israeli government, and forbidding various agencies to boycott Israel on that political basis. I approve of that. I approve of his speaking out now against an illegal act. The war is not declared. There was no United Nations sanction, Security Council sanction of this action. This leader was not threatening our country in any way. This has to do with oil, and it has to do with anti-immigration policies that he's listening to from his two top advisors in his cabinet. The mayor is a political figure of a very important city, and he's--

Brian Lehrer: Whoops, did we lose you? I think we lost Helen in Brooklyn. Helen, I get it. We're going to get into, very specifically, that question of whether this is a war or invasion or arrest, or whatever you want to call it, a military action for oil. Marco Rubio said as much on Meet the Press yesterday. That's the first clip that we'll play when we get to that segment next. What exactly is the US doing this for, and what does oil have to do with it? We're going to discuss that explicitly. Helen, thank you for bringing that up.

Here is a Venezuelan American calling in from Cincinnati. Victor, you're on WNYC. Victor, thank you for calling. Hi there.

Victor: Good morning. Can you hear me, Brian?

Brian Lehrer: I can hear you.

Victor: I just want to point out to your audience that there's a strong connection between Venezuela and the US. I recently got the chance to see What a Wonderful Life over the holidays, and there's a note that George Bailey, he mentioned, I'm going to move to Venezuela, and this is based on the depression. [unintelligible 00:24:26] in the US. We love the US. It takes a crazy man to take another crazy man, unfortunately. I take your comments off the air. Thank you, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: What do you want to happen next, if you can stay with us for that, Victor?

Victor: I moved from Venezuela like 40 years ago. Teddy Roosevelt sent the Navy in 1901-- I don't know when, but it's in the history. It is such important ally. I believe that the US is going to do the right thing for years to come. Then it's an investment, but it's a welcome investment because otherwise it was going to go south. People are eager. My family members are like, they cannot believe it. They are happy. We're happy. So much potential, and it will happen. It will happen. Thank you, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you for your call. We appreciate it. Miles in Queens, you're on WNYC. Hi, Miles.

Miles: Hi, everybody. Good morning. My main concern is this revival of the Monroe Doctrine, and I believe it directly implicates New York because if we look at the instability in South America that led to mass migration, that directly impacted the Adams administration and the migration crisis that was happening when southern border states were busing people up to New York City, what would it look like if we have a full-blown Monroe Doctrine and Colombia, Venezuela, all these other countries that are in the crosshairs of US imperialism right now spook the people there? Instability leads to migration, and I believe that directly impacts New York City. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Juan Manuel, on the Office of Mass Engagement that Mayor Mamdani announced, one of the reasons he got elected, I don't have to tell you, was he inspired mass engagement by enough people interested in his vision. Can the mayor keep people engaged to help support his policy agendas in Albany or City Council with a government office? Maybe that makes it a top-down thing, which is different than grassroots activity.

For people who heard our coverage or watched somewhere else the inauguration, there was Bernie Sanders, who swore Mamdani in, saying explicitly-- I don't have the exact words in front of me, but to paraphrase, now you people who voted for him need to stay engaged. He got elected largely because of mass engagement. Now stay engaged. It's going to be your leverage that helps get things through Albany, that helps get things through City Council. They will feel the pressure of voters in large numbers, that mass engagement.

Do you think, once the government is saying, well, we have an Office of Mass Engagement, that that relationship changes? Can they leverage it in a way that, I presume, Mamdani has in mind?

Juan Manuel Benítez: I do believe the first steps in the first few days of his administration, obviously Mamdani is trying to signal where his priorities are and also take some actions symbolically. I do believe that mass engagement and talking directly to New Yorkers was a crucial part of his message and his campaign, and he wants to continue that.

Like I said earlier, I do believe that New Yorkers can stay engaged. There are already many tools in city governance where many New Yorkers donate their time and participate in small-d democracy. Some of them serve on community boards or they work for a specific elected official. At the same time, I think we need to acknowledge that New Yorkers are really- we're really busy individuals. Sometimes when we make an election and when we choose a leader, we're expecting that person to lead and not to be asking us every day what we think about the decisions or trying to gather support for any major decision that he makes on a regular basis.

One thing that I think is important about this office, Brian, though, I would say, is that he's trying to create a stronger link or relationship between city government and all the nonprofit organizations that are many times implementing some of the programs that the city is financing so they can serve New Yorkers and some New Yorkers in poorer neighborhoods better. If that connection is reestablished in a more meaningful way, that would be a great achievement. On the other hand, I think any visionary leader, and many would argue that Mamdani is a visionary leader, is always asking people to stay engaged, and they have a lot of trouble keeping that engagement for many months or for many years after that.

Brian Lehrer: On Office of Mass Engagement, listener writes, "So often, wealth or privilege dictates who has access and agency to engage. I feel the Office of Mass Engagement is a measure to democratize and lower the barrier of entry to civically engage." What comes in the context of an Office of Mass Engagement? Josh, Mamdani then announced a plan for what he calls rental ripoff hearings. Rental ripoff hearings. Do you get who he is inviting to say what about their housing situations?

Josh Greenman: Well, I think it's clear what he's doing on housing. It's a kind of double move, and it's a smart one. He promised in the campaign to freeze the rent for four years. That was a preemptive promise that may very well conflict with the core responsibility of the Rent Guidelines Board, which is to follow the data and do what the data says.

That said, at the same time as he's got this very harsh freeze the rent and rent-stabilized units and go after bad landlords, he's also embracing the abundance agenda. Which is to say, he wants to create a lot more housing at all levels on the pretty well-established theory that the more housing you produce, the less pressure there's going to be on rents and eventually, maybe you can bring rents down. He's going to move very aggressively, I think, on both fronts at the same time, and he has to move equally aggressively on both fronts at the same time to satisfy both pieces of the electorate that got him in.

Brian Lehrer: Juan Manuel, do you have a sense of these rental ripoff hearings, what they could lead to in terms of any policies or enforcement? I think he's inviting people to come-- He hasn't set up these hearings yet. He's announced the intention to set up these hearings and announce the name of what the hearings are going to be. Rental ripoff hearings. Do you have a sense of what that might lead to in terms of policies or enforcement? Maybe he's got something in mind.

Juan Manuel Benítez: Well, the first thing after the hearings, the city would like to have a report and a summary of the findings. I'm sure we're going to see a lot of tenants complaining about their landlords in the city, many of them rightfully so. They're going to talk about how many of them maybe they are paying hidden fees that they shouldn't be paying from the landlords. At the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if what Mayor Mamdani wants to do is to create some leverage, listening to all these tenants all over the city, create some leverage to really push for those more drastic measures of reducing the rent or freezing the rent for rent-stabilized apartments, and also to create more housing or more livable housing all over the city.

He might be trying to get both things at the same time. I'm not sure whether the city needs more ideas on how to make rent better or living better if you're a renter, a tenant in New York City, but I do think that he's trying to, once again, signal to the public, I'm here to listen to you, and let's create some leverage so we can push forward our agenda.

Josh Greenman: He's got to be careful because not every high rent is a result of a rapacious landlord. There certainly are rapacious landlords out there, but there are also structural problems, as Mamdani himself clearly understands, with the housing market in New York that has led to high rents. To suggest that every high rent is a result of some kind of terrible landlord sitting in a dark room scheming how to create a ripoff is [crosstalk]--

Brian Lehrer: In fairness, that's not what he's suggesting, right? He wants to hear about those that he might consider rental rip offs, and if there are either enforcement actions against individual landlords or structural things at the policy level that might help to address those landlords who are engaging in rental ripoff, right?

Josh Greenman: Exactly. Just spotlight the ones that are potential violations of law or that, I suppose, make the case for stronger legislation or regulation.

Brian Lehrer: All right. We're going to take a break, and afterwards we'll go down more of Josh Greenman and Vital City's list of 11 governance improvements the Mamdani administration can make in the first 100 days. Then we're going to bring on a journalist who has long covered Venezuela, who can talk about what the Trump administration is doing there and the ramifications for Americans and Venezuelans alike. Stay with us.

Brian Lehrer on WNYC, as we continue with Juan Manuel Benítez, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism professor, member of the opinion leader group called the New York Editorial Board, host of the podcast Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know, and former host of Pura Política, the politics show on Spanish language NY1 Noticias; and Josh Greenman, managing editor of the New York City public affairs journal Vital City. He's also a member of that journalist group, the New York Editorial Board, and a lead author of Vital City's article called Just Fix It: 11 Governance Improvements the Mamdani Administration Can Tackle in the First 100 Days.

Let's go down some of those. Josh, as a segue from the Office of Mass Engagement we were just discussing, listener writes, "The Office of Mass Engagement is what many of us have asked for when communicating with Mamdani over the years. Unlike the usual, which is the politicians get elected and disappear from the community. Our City Council is one example of this. For over two years, we've been asking to have our streetlight fixed and still nothing. I can't wait to communicate with this office now." That's interesting, Josh, right? If we thought that that text might have wound up in something more broadly political, like lower the rent or bring affordability in some kind of large way, it ended up with the streetlight didn't get fixed.

That brings me to your number one-- this isn't necessarily in order of importance, but your number one on the list of 11 governance improvements the Mamdani administration can tackle in the first 100 days. Number one, know when to (scaf)fold ’em. Where do scaffolds fit into the big picture of the big issues that we're talking about?

Josh Greenman: Well, it's powerfully symbolic. You walk around the city, you see these sheds—sidewalk sheds is their technical term—on so many buildings. They are depressing to look at, and they make the streets, the sidewalks darker at night often, and they're just a blight. They feel like blight, and they make people feel like their neighborhoods aren't really appreciated, and they tamp down spirits, and many of them up for year and year and year after year. We have a figure in the piece that says that there are 1,120 sheds that have been active for more than three years, and we say that those sheds ought to get very focused attention by the new administration, and the ones that don't need to still be up should be very, very swiftly taken down.

I will just say for context, the important thing here is Mamdani has laid out some very, very big, ambitious plans. We're not saying those are great plans or bad plans in this piece. The point is that the way that most New Yorkers feel their government, interact with their government day to day is in the smaller gears of government and how those turn or don't turn for them. Like that gentleman who said he wants the Office of Mass Engagement to fix the streetlight, this is how most New Yorkers feel. They want their government, the basics to work well. They also want the big things to happen, in many cases, but they really just want the basics to work well, first and foremost.

Brian Lehrer: Going further down the list, and we're not going to have time to linger on all of them, but that was number one. Number two, rein in placard abuse. We'll let that one speak for itself. Number three, shed some light on crime, and I know you mean light literally. Number four, appoint a single commander for people in chaos. Number five, curb curbside chaos. Cars and trucks blocking the bus lane and the curb lane with double parking. Number six, reform city hiring and civil service. Seven, harness the potential of AI, which you say is underused by city government. Eight, retool the budget office. Number nine, clean the clutter, meaning too many bureaucratic agencies in City Hall. Do some thinning out. 11, open more doors to affordable housing. Maybe you should have put that one number one because it's such a big issue, obviously, that everybody's concerned about in the city. What, in terms of what you were writing, do you have in mind in terms of for how Mamdani can open more doors to affordable housing?

Josh Greenman: Well, that was about the CityFHEPS voucher and how many steps it takes to actually apply it. It's more than 100 steps, incredibly bureaucratic, very, very difficult, and we just want those gears to turn better. We want people to be able to more quickly get into housing when they get thousands of dollars from the taxpayers to stay in their current home rather than get evicted. Right now, the process is just much, much, much too complicated.

I will say this is-- First of all, it's not priority list. It's not that the number 1 is more important than number 11. This is just a list of 11 items. The other thing, it's very preliminary. We're launching a project here. We want to hear from New Yorkers. We want to hear from people who've worked in government or even who currently work in government. If they don't want their names attached, they don't have to attach their names. We want good ideas about how to improve daily governance, and we have an email address set up to receive those ideas. It's justfixit@vitalcitynyc.org. Anyone listening, if you've got an idea about a regulation that needs to change, about a practice that just is counterproductive, let us know and we'll look into it and we'll consider it in future installments.

Brian Lehrer: Listener writes, "With all this discussion about affordable housing, how can New York City continue to give 20 to 25-year property tax abatements to so-called buyers of ultraluxe residences in Billionaires' Row?" Anything on that, Josh?

Josh Greenman: Good question. The property tax is a mess in so many ways, and we've run pieces at Vital City about this, including one from Martha Stark in a recent issue on housing. It is unfair. It is impossible to understand. The classes, nobody can make sense of why a co-op is taxed at a certain rate and another co-op at another rate and a condo at a certain rate and a single-family at a different rate depending on where you are and how the circuit breakers work in neighborhoods where values are growing very quickly.

All of it does desperately need a cleanup. Dean Fuleihan, who's the first deputy mayor for Mamdani, and Mamdani have suggested that they really do want to clean up the property tax system, which would include abatements like that if you found your way to a comprehensive fix. That's certainly something that would be welcome. It's very, very tricky politically and fiscally because you don't want to lose revenue as you do this.

Brian Lehrer: Listener writes, "Scaffolding is more than a nuisance. It's also an affordable housing issue. The facade work and inspections that Local Law 11 requires cost owners and cooperatives millions of dollars, which leads to higher housing costs for everyone." That opens another can of worms that we don't have time to get into in this segment, but pro and con Local Law 11 and the number of inspections or interval, how many years between inspections that are required.

The one more I'll come back to before we're out of time in this segment. Your number three, shed some light on crime, and you're talking about actual luminescence, that kind of light, right?

Josh Greenman: That's right. As Liz Glazer, who was criminal justice advisor for de Blasio, has pointed out and has served a number of different roles in criminal justice over the years, you can actually reduce serious crime substantially by lighting underlit areas of the city. It sounds hard to believe for some people, but it's a simple fix, a low-cost fix that doesn't involve police, that simply lets people use their neighborhoods, use their streets and their sidewalks more actively, and that then leads to more eyes on the street, fewer dark corners and more safety. It would be a very, very wise thing for there to be a systematic analysis by the administration of where there are dark patches of the city that can be better lit, and where that might help make people more safe.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Josh Greenman from Vital City, thank you, Juan Manuel Benítez from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism these days and his podcast Juan Manuel Benítez Wants to Know, for starting us off here on the fifth day of the Mamdani administration. Thank you both very much.

Juan Manuel Benítez: Thank you, Brian.

Josh Greenman: Thank you. Great pleasure.

 

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