10/22/2026
Mamdani has signed 1 law in 10 months — because his ‘obsessed’ staff is focused on ‘becoming a content farm’
He had “one” job.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has signed just one bill into law in 10 months since taking office — leaving critics to wonder if the millennial mayor is more interested in social media stardom than his daily government duties.
Mamdani, who turned 35 on Sunday, signed a law allowing year-round outdoor dining on city sidewalks in August — and that’s the only City Council-passed bill he’s put his seal on so far while nearly 100 languish on his desk since January.
Every other bill under the social media-savvy socialist’s administration has become law in a process known as “returned unsigned,” which automatically enacts a bill if the City Council passes it and it sits unsigned without a veto on the mayor’s desk for four weeks.
Hizzoner, meanwhile, regularly appears in numerous cleverly crafted TikTok videos per day — prompting insiders to lament about where his priorities lie.
“The mayor and his team are obsessed with becoming a content farm, often delaying or can-kicking boring governmental meetings so the mayor and his staff can hold pitch sessions for social media videos,” one source who often works with City Hall told The Post.
“The mayor gets pitched comedy sketches more than Lorne Michaels,” the source added. “There are lots of laughs, and there is very little work.”
Mamdani’s signature count is shockingly far behind his last three predecessors — former Mayor Eric Adams had signed 30 laws at the same point in his term, Bill de Blasio had signed 47, and Mike Bloomberg had signed 28.
Although the “returned unsigned” route that’s dominated Mamdani’s term eventually nets laws, it’s far from normal — as mayors typically use it to protest legislation they don’t agree with, or to avoid being associated with an effort they know they won’t beat with a veto.
But Mamdani doesn’t seem to have gotten that memo — as numerous bills he’s left unsigned play perfectly into his progressive agenda, including one overwhelmingly passed by the council that required ICE-barring sanctuary rules be posted at schools and city-owned buildings.
It was introduced in February — a softball, two months into his term — but when the time came for him to sign the bill for socialist ally Alexa Aviles in June, the law was disregarded and left to languish for four weeks before automatically going into effect.
That’s the playbook dozens of bills enacted during Mamdani’s administration have followed — all while he continues to personally appear in his social media clips, including two sketches Monday, two on Saturday and two on Thursday.
Some of those social media hits have made huge headlines, even as valuable legislation sat waiting on his desk for his stamp of approval.
That’s what was happening in July when Mamdani infamously called Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal” and said he’d looked into every avenue for New York City cops to arrest him.
Bills awaiting his signature — and which never got them — when the video was released included one requiring wellness checks on elderly New Yorkers when temperatures rise above 95 degrees, one from a key Mamdani initiative expanding free childcare programs and one creating a rent-assistance program.
Exactly why Mamdani is failing to sign bills of his own interest has left people even inside City Hall puzzled — while others have speculated his allies are probably shaking their heads.
“It is a little bit weird. It gives the impression that enough attention is being paid or they disagree, but they don’t. I haven’t seen anything he’s disagreed,” former City Council member Diana Ayala said. “Those are his initiatives.
“It would be nice to elevate their initiatives,” she said of council members whose bills Mamdani has neglected. “It shows goodwill and that they are in alignment on specific issues.”
Others suggested Mamdani’s snubs were obvious — saying he prefers flashy executive orders and visuals that will play well on social media.
“It’s easier to govern by TikTok than to actually perform the duties of the job,” a former City Hall staffer said.
“They haven’t found a way to make this into compelling social media content,” added a former Bloomberg staffer.
Another City Hall insider called the behavior “lazy government.”
“It’s lazy in two ways — one is you are not taking a stand, easier to do nothing than figure out where you stand on something,” they said. “And lazy from a practical perspective — you can’t focus City Hall staff to hold the hearings, write the briefings and execute the bill signings.”
City Hall did not respond to a request for comment.
