When Mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrated his first 100 days in front of an adoring crowd of supporters at a music venue in Maspeth, Queens he reminded everyone of his commitment to democratic socialism and ticked off some of his administration’s early achievements: more bike lanes and bus lanes, millions of dollars in stolen wages recovered, thousands of apartment repairs mandated, corporate scams of consumers reversed.

“The worth of an ideology can only be judged by its delivery,” Mamdani said.

In this month’s issue, The Indypendent’s Renee Feltz takes a deep dive into one of New York City’s perennial problems—garbage—that Mamdani has made a top priority. The mayor has his work cut out for him. 8.5 million New Yorkers living in the most densely packed city in the US produce 24 million pounds per day in residential waste and almost as much in commercial waste. It’s been a rat’s paradise, but that’s beginning to change.

New York City Council passed a package of laws in 2023 that drew on the experiences of other major cities in the world. Former Mayor Eric Adams expressed support for the effort but progress quickly sputtered out. Cut to Mamdani who has leapt at the chance to transform how the city’s trash is handled and has set hard deadlines for getting the job done.

He won’t have to go it alone. As you will see, there’s myriad neighborhood activists, policy advocates, community board members, elected officials as well as the small acts of countless New Yorkers that are also driving this transformation.

For our can-do mayor, solving the city’s garbage mess is a part of a larger omnicause—demonstrating that the left can govern effectively and improve the lives of working people. Hence his emphasis on “pothole politics.” Succeeding at this is a pre-condition for building public support for more ambitious initiatives he may try to advance in the future.

Mamdani is stymied in many ways. The governor is far more powerful than the mayor. The NYPD is a government within a government that largely operates by its own rules. Mamdani faces a $5 billion deficit he inherited from his predecessor. The governor doesn’t want to increase taxes on the rich. The City Council doesn’t want to increase taxes on property owners. The bond market doesn’t want the city’s rainy day fund to be tapped to cover the defi cit. How he avoids being cornered into being an austerity mayor who presides cuts to essential public services remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Mamdani keeps finding ways to use the power he does have to advance his vision of an activist government that serves the common good. In one small example, the mayor recently appeared at a minor league baseball stadium in Staten Island with Gov. Kathy Hochul in tow. He announced the city would make large public spaces available in each of the five boroughs for free watch parties for soccer fans during the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, the most popular sporting event on the planet. This doesn’t solve the budget crisis, but Hizzoner continues picking up wins that embody his socialist ideals that most politicians aren’t primed to see.

An ardent soccer fan, Mamdani also knows a few things about moving the goalposts. The $6 billion he once sought for his universal childcare initiative paid for by a permanent increase in taxes on the rich became a $1.2 billion partial expansion paid for by Hochul dipping into the state’s reserves. This support could expire in two years if Gov. Hochul changes her mind. The Department of Community Safety that was going to provide innovative alternatives to traditional policing has become a much smaller Mayor’s Office of Community Safety. Faster bus service is in the works across the city. However, the free part of “fast and free buses” will have to wait until there is more money available.

As far as Mamdani is concerned, a win is a win no matter how large or small—an advance to be built on in the future and a victory to be claimed in the present as a reminder of what a government on the side of the people can do. With almost four and quite possibly eight years left in office, he can play the long game while steadily working to shift the political environment more in his favor.