Mamdani’s first report card is out

Response times for ambulances and fire companies increased significantly in New York City last fiscal year, continuing a trend, according to data released Thursday in the Mayor’s Management Report. 

Dispatch and travel time to life-threatening medical emergencies for both increased by one minute and 28 seconds in Fiscal Year 2026 compared to the prior year, growing to 9 minutes and 13 seconds, the new data shows. The increase in response time was particularly egregious for ambulances, increasing 20% from the year prior. 

The New York City Police Department got slower too. Response times to all crimes in progress increased by about 26 seconds, rising to 12 minutes and 30 seconds. Response time to critical crimes in progress increased 6%, to 7 minutes and 15 seconds. 

To address slower response times, the New York City Fire Department has added Paramedic Response Units, which treat more patients, and beefed out the city’s Behavioral Health Emergency Assistance Response Division program, or B-HEARD, to respond to some mental health calls and clear work for other ambulance crews, according to the report. 

All this data comes from the Mayor’s Management Report for Fiscal Year 2026, the annually released document tracking city agency performance. (An initial Preliminary Mayor’s Management Report is also released every year.) This report is the first to include data from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s time in office, but it’s not a complete picture of how the city’s operated since the 34-year-old democratic socialist mayor has taken the reins. The report for Fiscal Year 2026 covers July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 – the last six months of the Adams administration and the first six months of Mamdani’s tenure. As City & State first reported, the Mamdani administration already dropped partial data from the end of Mayor Eric Adams’ last year without any fanfare. 

While the MMR isn’t perfect, it offers the most detailed breakdown of agency performance as Mamdani nears the start of his second year. 

Here are a few of the data markers that caught our attention in the hefty 544-page report. 

13% – The increase in quality-of-life summonses by the NYPD, from 196,102 to 220,802. One driver of that increase was a 16% bump in noise complaints.

229,365 – Potholes filled, up 27% – a strong bump for a mayor looking to coin the term “pothole politics.”

6,954 – The average daily population in city jails, which continued to increase, though only slightly last fiscal year. That’s an ongoing complication in the plan to close Rikers Island and build borough-based jails, designed to hold just over 4,000 people. 

84.7% and 65.8% – The percentage of food stamp and cash assistance applications, respectively, that are being processed by the city on time. The former is down slightly, the latter is up slightly, but way short of the 95% timeliness goal. 

2,546 and 4,742 – The respective number of newly started or preserved city-financed supportive housing units and affordable homes for New Yorkers who were homeless. Both are record highs over the last five years.

880% – The increase in workers who were entitled to restitution under settlements from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, with a 483% increase in the amount of restitution assessed, to $48.7 million. Two of three large settlements driving that growth – with Starbucks and Getir – were secured under the Adams administration.

$966 million – How much the city spent on police overtime, down slightly from last year’s $1.1 billion, albeit still not a huge dent in meeting Mamdani’s order to cut down the NYPD’s overtime spending.

45.5 inches – The sheer volume of snow that spurred the city to sound the alarm for emergency shovelers multiple times last winter. That’s more than the previous four years combined.  

504,811 tons – The amount of salt the city used to tackle the increased snowfall, up 115% from the year prior. That’s way heavier than the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge combined. 

64% – School classes subject to size caps that were at or below those caps in the last school year. That’s an increase from the 46% that met that threshold in the year before. The mayor was lucky to get a two-year extension to comply with the law mandating smaller classes.

55,979 – Trees planted, up 61% from the year prior and the highest number since fiscal year 2016. 

4 – The increase in traffic fatalities, from 214 to 218. 

More than 30% – The vacancy rate for Department of Environmental Protection Police – responsible for protecting the city’s water supply – for most of Fiscal Year 2026. That staffing shortage contributed to a 19% decrease in routine security checks of facilities and a 20% decrease in total violations issued.