New York City Council Speaker Eyes Override of Mamdani’s Buffer School Zone Veto

The speaker of the New York City Council, Julie Menin, may try for an override of Mayor Mamdani’s Friday veto of a bill that would create buffer zones around schools to protect them from disruptive protests, legislation introduced in response to an unruly demonstration outside a historic Manhattan synagogue last November.“I will be obviously speaking with my colleagues. I think this bill is an important bill. It was part of our five-point plan to combat antisemitism,” Ms. Menin told WPIX-11 News, noting that she and the mayor “agreed to disagree” on the substance of the legislation. “The bill passed 30-19 so a majority of colleagues supported the bill,” she said.Mr. Mamdani’s decision to veto the bill, which calls for the New York Police Department to create “security perimeters” around educational institutions during protests, drew the strongest rebuke yet from leading Jewish organizations after earlier backlash from city rabbis over the then-mayor-elect’s comments about the protests.Eleven Jewish groups released a statement expressing that they were “deeply disappointed” by the decision. “At a time when Jewish and other communities across our city are facing heightened threats, this legislation represented a crucial step toward ensuring that every school and community institution can be better protected,” the groups wrote. “Measures like these importantly safeguard institutions against real and growing threats while maintaining people’s right to protest.”The statement was signed by some of the country’s most influential Jewish organizations, including the UJA-Federation, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the New York Board of Rabbis, and others.The groups added that “actions speak louder than words” and that “this veto is a profound failure of City Hall to demonstrate to all New Yorkers that our safety is a priority.”Mr. Mamdani announced the veto in a video posted to social media Friday morning. He argued that the bill’s definition of an educational institution was too broad and could be used to impede the rights of “workers protesting ICE, or college students demanding their school divest from fossil fuels or demonstrating in support of Palestinian rights.”“Nearly a dozen unions have raised the alarm about its impact on their ability to organize,” he said. “That is why I am vetoing this legislation.”After his statement, Ms. Menin issued her own response rejecting the mayor’s reasoning. “This bill simply requires the NYPD to clearly outline how it will ensure safe access when there are threats of obstruction or physical injury, while fully protecting First Amendment rights,” she said, adding, “Ensuring students can enter and exit their schools without fear of harassment or intimidation should not be controversial.” The 30-19 vote with one abstention leaves the legislation short of a 34-vote veto-proof majority. With a special election scheduled Tuesday, which is shaping up as a proxy fight between Ms. Menin and Mr. Mamdani, an override could become easier or harder to achieve. The former chief of staff to the previous holder seat, Carl Wilson, who is backed by Ms. Menin, told news outlet City and State New York that he would support an override. Two other candidates, including Mr. Mamdani’s preference, former gubernatorial aide Lindsey Boylan, and Layla Law-Gisiko both said that they would support the mayor’s veto. While the schools protection vote was vetoed, Mr. Mamdani announced that he would sign a veto-proof companion measure offering the same protections to houses of worship, even though he said he objected to the bill’s “framing of all protest as a security concern.”The houses-of-worship bill was championed by Ms. Menin in response to a surge in demonstrations outside city synagogues. Though she had initially sought a 100-foot buffer zone, the final measure instead compels the NYPD to establish within 45 days a protocol for protecting religious sites from obstruction, injury, intimidation, and interference during protests.The protest that inspired the antisemitism package saw keffiyeh-clad demonstrators shouting menacing slogans like “Death to the IDF”; “We don’t want no Zionists here”; and “From New York to Gaza, globalize the intifada.” Mr. Mamdani declined to outright condemn their actions, instead suggesting that the target of the protest — an event which promoted Jewish immigration to Israel — was “in violation of international law.”The five Republicans on the council supported the legislation. Republican Jewish Coalition called it “no surprise” that Mr. Mamdani’s “first veto as mayor of the city of New York serves to accommodate vile antisemitic protests.” The group’s spokesman added: “Jewish New Yorkers are under siege and facing real threats. Where are the so-called Democrat leaders? Where is Chuck Schumer? Where is Hakeem Jeffries? They’re nowhere to be found, because they are petrified of Mamdani’s radical Islamo-leftist base.”

New York City Council Speaker Eyes Override of Mamdani’s Buffer School Zone Veto

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