Wednesday, March 11, marked the 70th day of Zohran Mamdani’s term as mayor. amNewYork is following Mamdani around his first 100 days in office. We are closely tracking his progress on fulfilling campaign promises, appointing key leaders to government posts, and managing the city’s finances. Here’s a summary of what the mayor did today.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani met with FIFA President Gianni Infantino at City Hall on Wednesday to discuss World Cup preparations in New York City, hours after Infantino held a high-profile meeting with President Donald Trump amid growing geopolitical uncertainty surrounding the tournament.
City Hall described the meeting as part of the city’s ongoing planning for the 2026 tournament, which officials say will bring major economic benefits to the city and region. “Today Mayor Mamdani and FIFA World Cup President Gianni Infantino had a productive meeting to continue preparing for the World Cup,” World Cup Czar Maya Handa said in a statement.
Handa said the tournament is expected to bring more than one million visitors, create more than 26,000 jobs and generate more than $1.7 billion in direct spending for local restaurants, hotels and small businesses.
She said the two also discussed New York’s potential to grow into a top destination for soccer fans and talent, adding that the administration expects to announce new initiatives and fan opportunities soon.
The meeting came as city officials continue to face questions over how prepared New York is for the tournament. At a City Council oversight hearing last month, lawmakers pressed administration officials on transit, housing, security and whether the city could guarantee that public spending tied to the World Cup would support free events for ordinary New Yorkers. Officials said fan activations are planned for Rockefeller Center and Louis Armstrong Stadium, but acknowledged that major elements of the city’s plans are still being worked out
No World Cup matches will be played in New York City itself. MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will host eight matches, including the final on July 19, while New York City is expected to serve as a central hub for fan events, tourism and other tournament activity. The regional host committee has projected $3.3 billion in economic impact and $430 million in tax revenue tied to the event.
FIFA did not respond to requests for comment on the City Hall meeting, while Infantino also did not publicly post about his sit-down with Mamdani at the time of publication. Instead, his Instagram account showed him touring MetLife Stadium, where he wrote that he “felt great emotions” returning to the venue and praised the “excellent care and detail” of the preparations there ahead of the World Cup.
Infantino’s City Hall appearance came hours after his meeting with Trump, after which the FIFA president said the two had discussed the tournament and the “current situation in Iran.” In a statement posted to Instagram early Wednesday, Infantino said Trump had assured him that Iran’s national team would be welcome to compete in the United States, despite escalating tensions as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran continues.
“We all need an event like the FIFA World Cup to bring people together now more than ever, and I sincerely thank the President of the United States for his support, as it shows once again that Football Unites the World,” Infantino wrote. Last year he presented the president with FIFA’s inaugural ‘peace prize.
After Infantino’s post, however, Iran’s sports minister said the country would not participate in the tournament. Iran was not scheduled to play at MetLife Stadium; FIFA had slated its group-stage matches for Los Angeles and Seattle.
Separately, in a report released Wednesday, City Comptroller Mark Levine’s office estimates that the FIFA World Cup is likely to provide only a modest direct tax boost to the city, even as it brings a much larger economic lift to the broader region.
In a report on the city’s preliminary budget, the comptroller’s office estimated that eight World Cup matches in the New York-New Jersey region, including the final at MetLife Stadium, could generate about $34 million in additional NYC sales tax revenue, with a range of roughly $26 million to $44 million.
HOUSING: Mayor hears directly from tenants at ripoff hearing
Mayor Mamdani attended his first “Rental Ripoff Hearing” in the Bronx on Wednesday, joining a series that began last month and pledging that tenants’ stories would help shape the city’s housing recommendations, setting a hard deadline for July.
At Fordham University’s McShane Center, the third stop in a five-borough hearing series launched under one of Mamdani’s first executive orders, the mayor said testimony gathered at the sessions would feed into an early May housing plan and a follow-up July report with “recommendations that are ready to implement.”
He said the July recommendations will include “how to build a more effective 311 response system” for housing complaints. He added that he had spent time answering 311 calls himself that day because he wanted to see both “the incredible work that our 311 workers do” and “the need for our city to improve the system as a whole, so it can respond to the kinds of housing complaints that New Yorkers have.
Mamdani’s appearance marked the first time he had personally attended a hearing, which City Hall has cast as a tenant-input process focused on poor housing conditions, hidden fees, and landlord abuse. The first hearing was held in Downtown Brooklyn on Feb. 27, and the second in Long Island City on March 5, before the series moved to the Bronx on March 11.
Bronx residents registered in advance for Wednesday’s event got three-minute, one-on-one meetings with senior city officials, including Mamdani.
In his remarks, Mamdani pointed to several examples tenants had shared with him directly. He described one woman who said conditions in her home had left her feeling unsafe, another tenant, Myra, who told him her building’s poor heat had forced residents to rely on space heaters and showed him video of a mother carrying her disabled daughter up the stairs during a five-month elevator outage, and a third tenant, Linda, who said her landlord had amassed more than 550 violations while mold had spread so extensively through her apartment that she was living out of bags.
Mamdani also turned to public housing tenants, telling the crowd that testimony should come from “tenants of all kinds of housing,” including NYCHA residents, who he said had long been “dismissed” and “neglected” by city government. He said public housing tenants were welcome at the hearings and promised his administration would work to “rewrite that legacy.” Earlier hearings had drawn protest from NYCHA residents who believed they were not entitled to testify.
APPOINTMENTS: Mamdani taps Mohammad Khan to Campaign Finance Board
Mamdani has appointed Mohammad Khan to a five-year term on the New York City Campaign Finance Board, according to an announcement from the CFB.
Khan will join the five-member board that oversees the city’s campaign finance system, including the public matching funds program and the voter engagement initiative NYC Votes. The appointment is effective immediately.
According to the announcement, Khan was born and raised in Queens and currently serves as political director at MoveOn, the national advocacy group. MoveOn endorsed Mamdani in the 2025 mayoral race.
The agency said he previously worked as a financial institutions examiner with federal banking regulators and has also served as a campaign treasurer, campaign manager, and City Council chief of staff.
“The CFB’s agenda of making our local elections more open, inclusive, and accountable provides immeasurable benefits to New York City’s democracy,” said Khan. “It is an honor to serve as a Board Member of the CFB and support the advancement of this vital mission.”
Campaign Finance Board Executive Director Paul S. Ryan said in a statement that the board helps make city elections “more open and accessible” by enforcing campaign finance rules, increasing transparency, and safeguarding public funds.
Khan replaces Lawrence Moskowitz, who was appointed by former Mayor Bill de Blasio and whose term expired in November 2025. According to the announcement, Khan is the first Campaign Finance Board appointee from the Mamdani administration
