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News 12 Staff

38LIpandp2_2026-03-08-13-08-21

Welcome back. She's the first Jewish city council speaker in New York history, taking the gavel at a time when many in the Jewish community feel unsafe in their own neighborhoods. Our Tara Rosenblum sat down with City council Speaker, Julie Mennon. Thank you again for joining us. Thanks for having me. So you won the speakership unanimously and earlier than any other modern speaker, so clearly inevitability like that, um, you know, it's not an accident. So tell us, how did you lock this down so decisively? Well, first of all, I really want to thank my colleagues because we have incredible colleagues in the city council who I've worked with for the last 4 years for the returning. Colleagues and then a whole set of new colleagues who have recently joined the city council and so we've all worked together for many, many years and we have shared goals really trying to legislate uh to improve the lives of New Yorkers. We're focused on affordability issues we're focused on building more affordable housing. We're focused on small businesses and so in dialogue with council members who urged me to run for speaker, it's really been a. Honor and it's an honor to serve in this role. 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. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in the city. It is exploding unfortunately. Currently, hate crimes, 53% of them are anti. Semitic crimes and yet the Jewish population is approximately 10% of the New York City population, so we really see that disproportionate element. And so being the first Jewish speaker at this pivotal time for the Jewish community is deeply important to me. I think what I find so striking is that you're breaking this barrier at a time when the Jewish population feels 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, in 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. Part of it is a rhetoric, quite frankly, that we're seeing across the country. When the temperature is turned up on the rhetoric, it does fuel more hatred, and we need to bring that temperature and rhetoric down. It is very significant. 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 of 5%. 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. But what is not allowed is a right to intimidate and harass congregants going into any house of worship. And we have other legislation that protects, uh, schools, protects religious schools. Um, also we're doing a program to give more funding to the Museum of Jewish Heritage to fund a program I started about two years ago that brings in every public school 8th grade student to the permanent Holocaust exhibition. Because studies are showing that 34% of young people believe the Holocaust is a myth or is exaggerated, 34%, it's truly shocking, and I firmly believe that the best antidote to hate is really education. We have so much more in common than we do apart, and it's so leaning into those commonalities and trying to bring the rhetoric and the temperature down. So when do you expect this all to move legislatively? We have tremendous support in favor of the. Package of legislation so we will be moving it quickly. 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 that's what the legislation does at the same time, the legislation also combats other types of hate, whether it be Islamophobia, whether it be hate against anti-Asian hate, LGBTQ hate, anti-black hate, all different types of hate. And so these pieces of legislation, I think, are something we all can agree on. One of the pieces of legislation actually establishes a hotline for the city to report hate crimes, because one of the things that we've really learned is when, when people experience a hate crime, oftentimes they're afraid to report it or they don't even know how to report it. Do you call 311? Do you call 911? And we know that hate. Crimes are actually underreported so by having this dedicated hotline that hopefully will mean that more New Yorkers will report this when this happens and it also helps us to have that data to inform the actions that we're taking as city government so be honest, do you see yourself as a partner to the mayor or a check to the mayor? Oh, I don't think it's either it's. Actually, I view my job as making sure that the city council is operating at the highest levels, that we're putting forward legislative priorities, that we're negotiating the budget. There will be areas of agreement with the mayor, and there will be areas of disagreement with the area. We are a separate coequal branch of government, and you can watch Tara's full interview with Julie Mannon right now on our YouTube page.

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38LIpandp3_2026-03-08-13-08-35

Back. Republican state lawmakers are pushing a legislation package that they say would lower costs for first-time homebuyers. State Senator Patricia Canzanieri Fitzpatrick of Malvern says the plan is designed to create a pathway for people who can't afford to stay here. The legislative package includes a first-time homebuyer property tax credit, a 3-year freeze on property taxes, and measures aimed at lowering construction costs. The Republican minority is also pushing to repeal the state's all-electric requirement for new buildings. An all-electric home is going to cost about $2,000,000 to $30,000 more than a traditional gas heated home, and that's something that we're trying to make sure that, uh, as I said, we do it with a common sense approach. We all want to protect our environment. We all want to make sure that we are friendly to the environment, but we need to do it in a way that's not pricing us out of the market. And the senator will be on this show next week. Meantime, the Hokel administration announced in November that it would indefinitely delay the All Electric Buildings Act, drawing the ire of environmentalists who support the landmark climate law. Watch News 12 Tuesdays and Thursdays starting at 5:00 a.m. for more of our taxing Long Island series. A plan to build a bridge across the Long Island Sound is picking up steam. Sound familiar? Yep, there's a new plan on this now. A Connecticut developer is urging state lawmakers there to seriously consider this proposal. The company wants to build a 14 mile bridge from I-95 in Westport to the Sunken Meadow Parkway. The group and other supporters testified ahead of the Connecticut State Commerce Committee. They're pushing for a study to explore the idea, one they say will drastically reduce traffic in both states. I think that if we have a bridge or a tunnel, you're going to see a situation where people that who would otherwise go to LaGuardia or Kennedy, who want to avoid the traffic would, if they couldn't get a flight out of Islip, they'd come over the bridge, they could get a flight out of Tweed, New Haven. The bridge would cost $50 billion to build. It would include a rail deck as well. A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration's latest attempt to stop congestion pricing. That ruling says the US Department of Transportation cannot unilaterally, unilaterally rescind approval of the program. The Trump administration tried to revoke approval when it took effect last year, saying the tolls are bad for business and commuters. The MTA sued to. Keep the tolls in place. It says it's reduced traffic and generated more than $550 million for transit upkeep and repairs. The USDOT says it is reviewing his options now for an appeal. Back and forth we go. That's all the time we have this week. We'll see you again right here next week for another edition of News Twelve's Power in Politics. I'm Rich Barrabi. Thanks for watching.

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Democratic Nassau Legislator Viviana Russell and an in-depth interview with new NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin. 

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