- Zohran Mamdani, socialist mayor of NYC, announced 50 policy changes to reduce bureaucratic burdens on small businesses, including eliminating redundant permits and reducing fees.
- Reforms include ending separate licenses for bodegas selling outside goods, removing frozen dessert permits for restaurants, and extending barber shop permit renewals to three years.
- An executive order expands the NYC Best program to assign case workers to 180,000 small businesses, helping them navigate city bureaucracy.
- Small business owners, like Dawn Kelly, praised the reforms as serious and effective, noting improvements such as offering food-handling courses at multiple locations.
- The reforms counter right-wing caricatures of Mamdani as anti-business, with even libertarian outlets acknowledging his pro-small business deregulation efforts.
- Mamdani's approach, described as consistent with democratic socialism by experts, aims to make government work better for small businesses rather than large corporations.
- Despite challenges like high business closure rates, Mamdani's reforms focus on tangible actions that improve lives, resonating with small business owners.