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28wcpandp2_2026-03-08-13-14-47

Welcome back. I'm Tara Rosenblum here at City Hall. Two months in, the question isn't just how Julie Mennon won the Speaker's gavel, it's what she's going to do with it. You have described this as a proactive time for the council, a proactive era. Was it not proactive before and how does your leadership style differ from your predecessor? No, it's not about anyone who had the speakership before. This is really about ways that the city council can put out its own vision, particularly around land use and affordable housing. But I think we now have an opportunity, and in fact I would argue an attendant obligation in this affordability crisis to put out our own. Vision to be partners in tackling the affordability crisis and that means looking in every single district to build affordable housing. So that is why I've put forth this plan around some of the public library sites or community rezonings. We're looking at all of those as well. Your predecessor Adrian Adams is now of course running alongside Governor Hochel, and they formed the first female major party ticket. In state history, and yet we have never seen a female mayor in New York City. Why do you think that that ceiling hasn't been broken? Well, years ago, um, I helped, uh, found something called She Should Run to encourage women to run for office. This is almost two decades ago. That organization has now trained over 12,000 women across the country to run for office. I think one of the things that's incredibly exciting about the city council is that we're. Women majority city council, I think it's great that the governor now has a female, all female ticket, and so that's very exciting for my predecessor Adrian Adams. And now what we are focused on in the council is making sure that additional women get elected in the next cycle for the city council. Right now we have 32 out of 51, uh, are women in the city council. That is historic. Would you ever consider trying to break that ceiling yourself? No, I'm focused on the city council. It's really been a tremendous honor. So let me ask you, you know, New York has had Jewish mayors, Jewish members of Congress, legislators, but never a speaker until now. So as the daughter, as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, what did that moment mean for your family? Did you feel that history when you, when you took the gavel? I did feel that history. I wish my mother and grandmother could have witnessed it. They both no longer are here, but I know that they're here in spirit. It is very significant for me to be the first Jewish speaker. I am the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. My mother and grandmother survived the Holocaust in Hungary and Budapest. My grandfather was killed in the Holocaust just because he happened to be born Jewish, so this is something that is deeply, deeply personal to me. Yes, and I'm wondering because that really is, I think what I find so striking is that you're breaking this barrier at a time when the The Jewish population feel so vulnerable and anti-Semitic hate like you said is hitting record levels right now. So is it a coincidence? How do you interpret the timing, or was your ascension a reaction to what we're seeing out on our city streets? I don't think it's really any of the above. I think at the end of the day to be speaker of the city council, the colleagues elect someone who they want to run the body. And so we have a situation where, yes, there is an enormous rise in Anti-Semitism, but there's also an enormous rise in anti-Asian hate, in Islamophobia, and all different types of hate, which is actually why I appointed the first ever Committee to combat hate to deal with a lot of these different issues. One of the things that we're trying to do with the Committee to Combat Hate is, first of all, on anti-Semitism. I announced a plan back in January, a 5 point plan to attack anti-Semitism. It includes a bill to protect all houses of worship so that congregants can freely go into and. Out of their house of worship without the fear of intimidation or harassment, that bill in no way impacts the First Amendment right to peacefully protest, which is of course sacrosanct and something our country is built on. Let's drill down a little further on the bill that you mentioned specifically about the originally you wanted a 100 ft buffer zone outside the houses of worship, but there was some pushback, and now it's an NYPD response plan. Was that a compromise? And where does it stand now? So the original bill said up to 100 ft, and in conversations with Commissioner Tisch, she made clear that it was important to her to have some flexibility in the size of the perimeter. So we were not looking to circumscribe the exact boundaries. The intent of the legislation again is to ensure that there is not intimidation and harassment for congregants that are entering their house of worship, whether it be a synagogue, a church, a mosque, or any other house of worship. And I know you were just in Brooklyn, um, standing at a playground that had been vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti. What do you feel is the danger when this type of hate becomes so normalized? Well, they, this is a problem. They're happening every single day all around our city. So yes, I was in Brooklyn to go to the playground where 73 swastikas, 73 were etched into slides, playground equipment. It was really horrific. Now I remember when I first became a council member, um, in early 2022, in the first week that I was in the city council, there were two anti-Semitic incidents in my. District that first week alone, so actually the first town hall I had as a member of the city council back in 2022 was on anti-Semitism. We are now seeing anti-Semitic incidents happening all across our city. They're exploding and so we as a city government do have a real responsibility to address that. And I know you've already spent some real time in the Bronx in just a few weeks you were there with the victims. Of a fire not too long ago and you know in the Bronx we have a lot of small businesses that are struggling right now. We've seen far too many restaurants, um, closed in, in, uh, recent months and years, and I know you are pushing a plan that would make outdoor dining permanent year round and there's a lot of business owners celebrating it in Manhattan, but we do have operators in the Bronx who've expressed concern about affording the permit fees and building out the. Structures, what's your response to them? So a couple of things. So we are looking to pass a council member Ressler's bill to make outdoor dining year round. We're also looking at a package of bills to lower the fees on small businesses. I'm a former small business owner. I used to own a restaurant and catering business, so I know how important it is to support restaurants and small businesses economically, which outdoor dining will, but we have to lower the fees. The program is too expensive.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/6fd56088-f708-47d9-a313-7b660bead854/6fd56088-f708-47d9-a313-7b660bead854.transcribe

38wcpandp3_2026-03-08-13-15-01

Welcome back to our exclusive conversation with Julie Mennon, switching gears now from policy to all things personal. 2 months on the job, describe it in a word. First of all, it's a 24/7 job, but it's a tremendous honor to serve as Speaker. Two months in, Julie Mennon says the job is already moving at full speed between legislation, budget talks, and even ethics reviews. You recently moved quickly after comments that were made by council member Vicky Palladino, social posts that. Many viewed as Islamophobic and you pushed for an ethics review. What message were you hoping to send with that? Well, Hate has no place in New York City and we need to turn the temperature down. So I quickly condemned those remarks because they were Islamophobic and they also can cause a lot of harm and division. Mennon says. In a city that never sleeps, the job of. Speaker doesn't either. There are so many important issues that we need to tackle each and every day for New York City, and so we have been hitting the ground running in terms of our legislation, the budget process, um, our land use process, and so we are very, very busy here. And for Mennon, the demands of the job don't end when she leaves City Hall. You are a mom of 4, which. It is a tremendous job in and of itself. How do you manage it all, and that's got to influence the way you lead every day. Well, being a mom is honestly the greatest honor of my life and it's my most important role. And so it's something that is obviously a tremendous gift for me. I'm an only child and so having a big family and particularly since I've now lost both of my parents, it's. Spending time with my kids is the greatest joy. Mennon and her husband, real estate executive Bruce Mennen, are raising their four children ages 22, 21, 21, and 8 in Yorkville, and she says family remains her center even while running one of the most powerful offices in city government. What do you think they think when they see you? Um, I don't know that they would ever go into politics. I'll tell you that. I think they see it up close and personal. I know that they are proud of me, and I so appreciate that, um, but I'm so proud of them. I mean, honestly, I, that to me is the greatest pride and joy that I have. And do they give you political advice? Oh, absolutely, they give me political advice all the time. I mean, when I, the for the election of Speaker, I talked about that my daughter thought we should pass a law that when you cross the street you should smile at the person. From her family history to her own children's future, Julie Mennon says this moment is about both. Thank you for joining us for this special edition of Power in Politics. I'm Tara Rosenblum.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/9fa62b42-a3f7-41fc-8e16-8b464555a9a7/9fa62b42-a3f7-41fc-8e16-8b464555a9a7.transcribe

Julie Menin, the city's first Jewish City Council speaker spoke with News 12's Tara Rosenblum. 

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Full interview with City Council Speaker Julie Menin

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