The first in a series that needs your input
Zohran Mamdani ran for mayor on a platform of big, transformative ideas, many of them dependent on other layers and levels of government. But as every New Yorker knows, day-to-day life is shaped less by grand visions than by the basic machinery of city government — and too often, that machinery is stuck. While Mamdani’s mayoralty will be a test of his ambitious proposals, it will also be a test of small- and medium-bore management. Just Fix It is Vital City’s contribution to helping him pass that test: a running list of concrete, doable ways to unstick the gears of city government and make it work better for all New Yorkers.
This installment was prepared with the help of Sarah Feinberg. Cara Eckholm and many others provided essential guidance and will continue to inform our work on this project going forward. In the weeks and months ahead, we will continue to surface practical suggestions from people who know the system best — current and former agency staff, nonprofit partners and the everyday New Yorkers who routinely deal with, and often trip up trying to navigate, New York’s bureaucracy.
Send your ideas to justfixit@vitalcitynyc.org; if you wish to remain anonymous, we will honor your request.
1. Know when to (scaf)fold ’em
The problem:
Sidewalk sheds are unsightly and a nuisance in neighborhoods.
The Mamdani administration should:
Ratchet up enforcement and offer new incentives for building owners to complete repairs faster to remove sidewalk sheds.
The fine print:
There are currently more than 8,200 sidewalk sheds covering more than 350 miles of New York City streets; nearly 4,000 have been active for more than a year, nearly 2,000 for more than two years and more than 1,100 for more than three years. While scaffolding has a role to play — assisting in active renovation projects and protecting pedestrians from the possibility of falling construction debris — it’s egregiously overused, and stays up far too long. When so many sidewalks are cast in shadow, it’s ugly, dangerous and dispiriting.
There’s been notable progress of late. The Adams administration’s Get Sheds Down initiative began to address this blight. New local laws will elongate the facade inspection period for some buildings, allow netting in place of sheds and make other important changes. Attractive new shed designs are coming online.
All these are welcome, but the incoming administration must go further. In the first 100 days of his administration, Mayor Mamdani’s team should deploy inspectors to the longest-standing sites — like the 1,120 sheds that have been active for more than three years — and put a plan into place with building owners to remove these structures. Agencies should assist building owners in navigating permitting and exploring technologies such as drone inspections, and the Department of Buildings must aggressively enforce deadlines.
2. Rein in placard abuse
The problem:
Parking placards are routinely abused, creating dangerous situations and effectively announcing that government employees think the rules don’t apply to them.
The Mamdani administration should:
Rationalize the process for granting placards, and deem all unofficial parking placards moot. Declare a no-tolerance policy for placard and parking abuses.
The fine print:
Abuse of parking rules by official vehicles remains rampant. Corridors like Schermerhorn and Tillary Streets in Brooklyn have essentially become illegal parking lots for placard-bearing vehicles, often those associated with the NYPD. Meanwhile, countless placards are used and abused by a range of other officials who may have no good reason to need them. This sends a pernicious signal that people on public payroll can break the law with impunity.
The City should conduct an exhaustive review of all of the placards issued, starting from scratch on justifications and reducing the total number allowed, granting them only for necessary purposes.
Technology can pave the way forward: by transitioning all physical placards to a digital, barcode-based system scannable by any traffic agent. Currently, thousands of unofficial placards, such as easily photocopied laminates, are in circulation. A digital registry would instantly identify invalid permits, allowing the City to tow violators and reclaim the curb for the public.
To address rampant parking abuse by NYPD vehicles, the incoming administration should also take initial steps to move all parking enforcement back to the Department of Transportation.
3. Shed some light on crime
The problem:
New York City’s public spaces are defined by their vibrancy, but after dark, many neighborhoods are marred by “dark zones” where inadequate infrastructure actively discourages civic life and invites criminal activity.
The Mamdani administration should:
Scan the city’s dark places with high crime rates and, working with residents who understand the local landscape, install permanent, high-quality street lighting to foster public activity and deter serious offenses.
The fine print:
Public safety is often viewed through the lens of enforcement, but enhancing the physical environment offers a powerful, non-punitive alternative. Rigorous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) conducted in New York City public housing found that increasing street lighting led to a 36% reduction in serious crimes such as murder, robbery and aggravated assault. Effective lighting does more than illuminate a sidewalk; it serves as a catalyst for civic life by making residents feel safe enough to occupy public spaces, creating natural surveillance that discourages criminal behavior.
The City has historically relied on tower lights that signal a haphazard, reactionary response. A smarter and more sustainable approach involves strategically investing in permanent fixtures that integrate into the neighborhood fabric. By focusing on these low-cost infrastructure improvements, the administration can reclaim the night for New Yorkers and drive down crime rates by strengthening the bonds of community life on the ground.
4. Appoint a single commander for people in crisis
The problem:
Responsibility for the estimated 4,000 New Yorkers living on the streets and subways — many of whom suffer from serious mental illness or addiction — is currently scattered across a dozen siloed agencies. But because no one “owns” responsibility for this specific population, vulnerable people cycle through a never-ending churn of ERs, jails and shelters, compromising those people and the public space more broadly.
The Mamdani administration should:
Designate a single, high-level authority within City Hall to engage this population, coordinating budgets, data and operations across agencies to ensure every person in crisis is tracked to a stable outcome.
The fine print:
New York City spends billions annually on street homelessness, yet the results are often diffuse and inconsistent because agencies prioritize their own administrative mandates rather than the journey of the individual. A person may be removed from a subway station by the NYPD only to be discharged from a hospital hours later without any connection to the housing or treatment they actually need. This fragmentation creates "cliffs" where the city’s most vulnerable residents are routinely lost in the bureaucratic shuffle.
To break this cycle, the new mayor must establish a unified management hub in City Hall that uses an integrated, by-name data platform to monitor progress for each of these individuals, by name, in real time. This would go a long way not just to coordinating city agencies but also having a single point of contact for the state, which plays a large role in this issue. This leader’s success should be measured by results: housing placements, stabilized health and reduced justice-system involvement. By centering accountability in one office, the administration can ensure that every encounter with a person in distress serves as a gateway to permanent stability.
5. Curb curbside chaos
The problem:
Cars and trucks blocking the bus lane and the curb lane with double parking and deliveries cause congestion throughout the city and create dangerous situations for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians.
The Mamdani administration should:
Expand on the MTA’s Automated Camera Enforcement program, which uses cameras and on-the-ground enforcement to stop double parking and free up the curb lane for traffic.
The fine print:
Congestion in New York is often driven by minor disruptions such as double-parking and blocked lanes that ripple outward to gridlock the entire grid. The incoming administration wants to speed up buses while continuing to drive down traffic fatalities. To meet these goals, the City should prioritize clearing the curb lane through a data-driven approach.
The administration can begin by expanding automated enforcement against the most corrosive violations. Recent state legislation has authorized graduated fines for repeat offenders, providing a powerful tool for deterrence. By combining specific neighborhood toolkits with rigorous enforcement of bus and bike lanes, the City can ensure traffic flows for all New Yorkers.
The expansion of the MTA’s Automated Camera Enforcement (ACE) program on buses offers real promise. These cameras don’t just ticket for bus lane violations; they can now penalize cars double-parked in the lane next to the bus, which often cause the bottleneck. Working with the MTA to roll these cameras out to every bus route in the city could speed the flow of buses and all traffic.
6. Reform city hiring and civil service
The problem:
The outdated NYC civil service program that governs much of city hiring is broken: As of November 2025, there were more than 14,000 vacancies and it can take months to grade civil service entry exams.
The Mamdani administration should:
Dramatically overhaul and streamline the City hiring and civil service system to make it more efficient, which will allow the administration to be better able to attract high-quality talent.
The fine print:
New York City government faces a staffing crisis, with the City Comptroller’s dashboard showing a vacancy rate more than double its pre-pandemic level. The good news is there is enthusiasm to serve; when Mayor-elect Mamdani’s transition team stood up an informal application portal it attracted more than 70,000 resumes in a matter of days.
The bad news? It’s harder than it should be to become a public servant in New York. For civil-service-exempt employees — which describes many of those seeking positions with Mamdani — the process is weighed down by a bureaucratic and budgetary morass.
Even more difficult to navigate are the rules that govern thousands of rank-and-file government employees who get their jobs through New York’s civil service system: an outdated, arcane set of rules, codified in state law, that advantages insiders and effectively disincentivizes talented candidates. To even participate in this system, an applicant must sit for a test (typically offered less than once a year), then wait months for results, then sit on a hiring list for months or even years. Not surprisingly, by the time promising candidates receive a job offer, they have long since moved on to other opportunities.
Even though the system is written into law, the city administration can take strong steps to modernize it. The new mayor should issue an executive order directing immediate fixes. The Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) should move to offer every exam more frequently and significantly reduce the seven-month average wait time for exam results. Simultaneously, the administration must deploy immediate administrative fixes supported by reports from the comptroller and the 5Boro Institute, plan to add exempt titles, and modernize the technology for civil service exams and recruitment. And the mayor should set the stage for a long-term fix by convening a panel of experts to publish findings and recommendations for legislative overhaul within 100 days.
7. Harness the potential of AI
The problem:
AI is underused by City government. Bureaucratic rules remain a maze, and government service delivery is far too inefficient. Emerging tools can answer questions — and help government find solutions.
The Mamdani administration should:
Invite the private sector to compete to build an AI tool that delivers clear, government-verified answers to a wide range of questions, while aggressively exploring ways to use AI (with human oversight) to do the work of government more efficiently.
The fine print:
Over the last few years, the use of AI has exploded. While this technology is still in its infancy, it is clear that it is here to stay. Private citizens have repeatedly shown how to harness existing data streams to serve the public better. New York City government needs to catch up.
The Mamdani administration should move rapidly on two fronts. First, use AI to answer questions. Whether a tenant is checking building requirements (“What kind of lighting is my landlord required to provide in my building lobby?”) or a citizen is looking for the latest city-subsidized affordable apartments in their area, they should be able to easily and swiftly get accurate, actionable responses in plain language. In 2023, the Adams administration launched a chatbot that often gave bad or even illegal guidance — a clear misfire. It’s time for a well-thought-out take two.
Simultaneously, the Mamdani administration should pioneer uses of AI within city government to improve government efficiency and service delivery. This might include aggregating complaint data to pinpoint and address citywide and neighborhood-specific trends, analyzing city-run CCTV feeds to better manage streets and using big data to flag potential corruption in agency spending as early as possible. Combining, mining and analyzing city data, AI can help design better bus routes, plan street work and more.
The City could further this work by beginning to digitize millions of documents that aren’t currently digitized — but it need not wait. There is ample electronic data to crunch in order to make human decision-making more rapid and precise.
8. Retool the budget office
The problem:
The Office of Management and Budget plays an outsized role in city government, but it’s usually as the penny counter and the Bureau of No. It needs to be a more proactive partner in efficient service delivery.
The Mamdani administration should:
Put the M back in OMB, directing the office to modernize and advance its analytical capabilities to improve efficiency of government service delivery.
The fine print:
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in City Hall exerts immense influence over the City’s ability to function. OMB not only oversees the City’s budget, creates the City’s economic forecast and predicts the impact of tax policies; it also has the power to decide which projects get funded and why. However, it often operates siloed in its role as a fiscal gatekeeper — as the Bureau of No — rather than a strategic partner.
At a time when the next mayor brings big ambitions to expand the role of government with limited resources, the office will need to be much more operations- and execution-minded, moving to find efficiencies and savings that actually service delivery.
OMB has access to a vast amount of financial and performance data. It should embrace technological tools and data analytics, including those nested in the City’s Office of Technology and Innovation, to develop new strategies and publish their findings for agencies and New Yorkers alike to learn from.
And understanding whether city priorities were smartly and sufficiently funded shouldn’t require an accounting degree or a translation service. OMB should democratize its reporting, allowing both insiders and the public to understand where all the dollars really go. A simple question like “How much does DSNY spend on new garbage bins annually?” should have a simple, findable answer. A reformed OMB would publish this data in an interactive, searchable dashboard, empowering the public, City Council and journalists. Such transparency and data sharing would signal a fundamental culture shift.
9. Clean the clutter
The problem:
Year after year, executives and legislators create their own smattering of new offices, boards, working groups and reports. Administrations rarely do the hard work of decluttering the bureaucracy — leading to inevitable redundancies, inefficiency and waste.
The Mamdani administration should:
Rationalize the many interagencies and offices and streamline their functions. Then continue the work to eliminate unnecessary reports, boards and redundant staffing.
The fine print:
Over the generations, New York City’s government has grown by accretion, with successive administrations adding offices, staff and mandates that now clutter the organizational chart with overlapping functions. All told, government has more than 120 agencies and offices. To name one recent, ironic example: The Adams administration named a Chief Efficiency Officer with a small staff. The office ran into other competing management offices and ultimately never presented any findings to the public. In the end, it appears it did little more than add a new box on an org chart.
It’s not that nobody’s tried to streamline government. Every administration reorganizes the government in their image, and Mamdani will do the same. But he should pair this with an intelligent reexamination of the new offices created under previous administrations.
As a part of the initial executive order organizing the government, the incoming administration should announce a 100-day process to identify redundant, overlapping and vestigial boards, commissions and reporting requirements — and then lay out a process to rationalize them. This may mean, for starters, collapsing the stray commissions, boards and offices into the most relevant related agency.
10. Let the sunshine in
The problem:
The public has the right to know how the mayor and his team are conducting the city’s business — and transparency is a tonic for creeping cynicism in government.
The Mamdani administration should:
Set a new bar by becoming the most transparent mayoral administration in history. Release a comprehensive daily schedule, push out information quickly, turn around FOIL requests in days not weeks and make leaders available for regular engagement and questions — on any and all topics.
The fine print:
The mayor-elect has promised a new day for transparency and public service in New York. To demonstrate to the public that the administration has nothing to hide, his administration should land on the side of transparency over secrecy on all issues.
Schedules for the mayor and deputy mayors should be released on a routine basis. Lists of all visitors invited to City Hall or to the mayor’s residence — including lobbyists, government officials and members of the public — should be released as well. The mayor should hold frequent press conferences in which members of the media are allowed to ask questions about whatever topic they choose.
The administration should also take a hard outlook at improving the NYC Open Data portal. While thousands of datasets are available, they are often difficult to find or search. By centering Open Data in its tech platform — and helping guide the public and researchers to better access this information — the administration can broaden accountability and improve the workings of government.
The administration should proactively release datasets that are frequently sought under Freedom of Information Law — such as police disciplinary records or detailed budget modification codes — treating the press as a partner in accountability.
11. Open more doors to affordable housing
The problem:
The process to help move New Yorkers into permanent housing is time-consuming, confusing and redundant, keeping people in shelter longer than necessary and costing the city money.
The Mamdani administration should:
Streamline the process to obtain CityFHEPS vouchers.
The fine print:
CityFHEPS vouchers — which stands for City Fighting Homelessness and Eviction Prevention Supplement — are one of the primary tools the City uses to help pay for people to move out of homeless shelters and into permanent housing, covering a substantial portion of monthly rent. These payments — which go as high as $2,600 per month for a family of one or $3,000 for a family of four — are sizable, but they are more cost-effective and lead to better social outcomes than prolonging stays in shelter.
Yet today, obtaining and making use of such a voucher requires navigating a bureaucratic labyrinth of more than 100 distinct steps, a crushing administrative burden detailed in Council reports and City Comptroller audits. This forces homeless New Yorkers to navigate a maze of “shopping letters,” unit searches and redundant “pre-clearance” reviews, often requiring the same documents to be submitted multiple times. Compounding this friction, the nonprofit providers tasked with helping these clients lack access to shelter censuses and have no authority to approve leases, effectively acting as powerless intermediaries.
The mayor can torpedo this administrative blockade through executive action. The administration should immediately abolish the separate “pre-clearance” review in favor of a concurrent timeline and enforce a strict 48-hour rule for apartment inspections to ensure the City operates at market speed. Crucially, the City should grant trusted nonprofits the power of “presumptive eligibility” — allowing them to sign leases and house tenants immediately while verification happens in the background — and direct the Office of Technology and Innovation to launch a unified digital portal to finally end the era of lost PDFs.