Zohran Mamdani Is From Government, Here To Help
A new series, probably. Also, the answer this week is PANDAS.
It’s hardly news to point out that New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is damn good at social media, like how Fiorello LaGuardia was good at radio and Richard Nixon was terrible at TV. And of course he got where he is by campaigning on making the city more affordable and less of a pain in the ass to live in.
So this week he’s in the news for taking a fairly routine good news story — an over $875,000 settlement with a food delivery app that ripped off small restaurants with high fees — and then using a creative setting for the announcement to get people’s attention.
It’s just good showmanship, really. A city investigation found that the food app “Hungry Panda,” which is primarily used by the city’s Asian immigrant communities, had hidden its overcharges by relabeling them and piling on multiple fees as a single item. That violated the city’s cap on junk fees.
Sure, Mamdani could have announced the consumer victory at a lectern at the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, which did the investigation. Instead, he went to Prospect Park Zoo’s red panda exhibit, because who can resist red pandas?
We’re fairly sure they didn’t actually let him pet the red panda, but who knows, maybe he went mad with power. But probably not.
On top of the $580,000 in restitution Hungry Panda must pay to more than 380 restaurants, many of them owned by immigrants, the company must also pay $294,000 in civil penalties and fees to the city.
In a statement, Mamdani said,
“Too many neighborhood restaurants are already navigating high costs and razor-thin margins. They should not also have to contend with hidden, illegal fees from the apps they rely on to reach customers. This settlement returns money to the businesses that were overcharged and makes clear that New York City will enforce the law to protect small business owners.”
This is actually the second settlement the city has reached with Hungry Panda, which was one of three food delivery companies that settled for $5.1 million in fines, fees, and restitution for violating minimum compensation laws for delivery workers. Hungry Panda, Uber Eats, and Fantuan had to provide back pay for 49,000 delivery workers. In addition, Uber Eats agreed to reinstate as many as 10,000 workers it wrongfully “deactivated” between December 2023 and September 2024.
Mamdani joked that the pandas in the enclosure were “very hungry,” but that unlike the app operators, had no interest in “bamboozling hard-working New Yorkers,” because, you know, they’re happy with just bamboo, which makes up 95 percent of their diet.
In other Mamdani News, the mayor’s office this week released this cool video about the city’s new laws aimed at preventing scaffolding (or sidewalk sheds) from remaining in place more than two years. (Mamdani said a few NYC scaffolds have been making sidewalks unworkable for as long as 16 years.) The video was made with documentary filmmaker John Wilson, whose HBO show “How to With John Wilson” did an episode all about scaffolding in New York. Guess we know what we’ll need to check out on the HBO Max or whatever it is now.
He also invited New Yorkers to submit jingles for universal childcare, to be judged by Cardi B, and spent an evening with government workers on the night shift, highlighting for New Yorkers how government is busting its balls working — for you!
And finally, while Mamdani keeps making the city nicer, former Mayor Eric Adams this week officially became an Albanian. To the best of our knowledge, “becoming Albanian” is not anything like “turning Japanese.”
Adams doesn’t get to pet a panda, either, the end.
[ WABC / New York City Mayor’s Office / NYC Mayor again / Albanian Daily News]
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I'm just in awe of some people..
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑠 𝐴𝑚ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑎 $1.5 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑔𝑖𝑓𝑡 𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟.
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝐴𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑒𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐹𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝐴𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑡 𝑈𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠.
𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝐻. 𝐻𝑜𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑧, 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑠𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑓, 𝑗𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑛 2023 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑟, 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑅𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑒𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦, 𝑅𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑖𝑖.
“𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑎 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑝𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟, 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑛-𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙. 𝑆𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑠 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑟,” 𝑇𝑢𝑐𝑘 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡. “𝑇𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑧𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝐶𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒. 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑑. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑜 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑢𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑒.”
I like this Mamdani fellow quite a lot.