Rule No. 1 at Mamdani’s City Hall: Keep the public in the dark

The arrogant socialists running Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s City Hall believe they can rule by decree and without restraint.

Even as this crew constantly touts its own “transparency,” it’s blatantly stonewalling on basic Freedom of Information Law requests, routinely setting a yawning six-month turnaround even on even mundane matters.

Commissioner Ana Maria Archila of the Mayor’s Office of International Affairs arranged a notorious meeting with Iran’s UN ambassador, which only came to light when the State Department squashed it.

City Journal asked about other meetings Archila may have arranged with America’s avowed enemies; the mayor’s office said it’d take at least six months to comb through the records.

Six months? All it takes is to look at her calendar.

It turns out that six months is the standard timeframe Team Mamdani sets for virtually all FOIL requests, no matter what they are; City Journal’s parent, the Manhattan Institute, is now suing to end the stonewall.

The mayor has “utterly opaque” as his default setting.

Notably, City Hall is also trying to conceal its communications with the Rent Guidelines Board.

Mamdani campaigned vowing to “freeze the rent,” though the law says RGB decisions must be driven by data, not politics.

So when the board froze the rent for two years despite ample data showing buildings’ costs are rising rapidly, inquiring minds asked how it reached that conclusion — especially after one member resigned claiming the fix was in.

Mamdani shrugs his shoulders and assures us the RGB makes up its own mind . . . though he “guaranteed” in his campaign to fire unsympathetic members and replace them with puppets who would do his bidding — which is exactly what happened.

Another lawsuit, brought by a coalition of landlords, is trying to force City Hall to disgorge its back-and-forth with the RGB; state Supreme Court Judge Brendan Lantry this week ordered Mamdani to comply.

Burying legitimate questions, slow-walking responses and hiding behind privilege is how smug bureaucracies hoard information to kneecap potential critics.

It’s totally anti-democratic and gives the lie to Mamdani’s smug pose of openness.

Worse, it shows the mayor’s disdain for the rule of law and basic accountability.

People who insist on governing from the shadows have nothing but contempt for the public they claim to serve.