By the way—have you been listening to the Hell Gate Podcast? Our most popular episode ever was last week's episode reacting to Zohran Mamdani's primary day win. You can listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Throughout the Democratic mayoral primary, candidates floated bold ideas for the future of the city: Zohran Mamdani pitched universal child care; Zellnor Myrie laid out a plan for free after-school; Brad Lander wanted more money for lawyers helping immigrants; and Adrienne Adams wanted to expand Sunday services at libraries across the city.
In Friday's $115.9 billion budget deal between City Council speaker Adrienne Adams (who currently sits in fourth place in the Democratic primary, before tomorrow's ranked-choice voting tabulations), and Eric Adams (who sat out the Democratic primary), some of those ideas came to fruition, even before any of the candidates running for mayor could take office.
As part of the budget deal, the City would fund $10 million for a pilot program that would provide hundreds of low-income families with child care for children aged two and under. There's an additional $17 million for libraries that will bring Sunday service to 10 additional, unspecified branches across the city. There's also a $755 million plan for after-school programs for kindergarten through fifth grade, which would add 20,000 new seats over the next three school years, and bring the total number of students served by universal after-school across the city to 184,000. And there's $41.9 million in free legal assistance to immigrants facing deportation, plus an additional $12.5 million for attorneys for unaccompanied minors facing deportation, who often struggle through their immigration proceedings alone.