James F. Gennaro

NYC Council Member, 24th District, Queens. Former NYS Deputy Commissioner for NYC Sustainability and Resiliency (2014-2020). Former NYC Councilman (2002-2013).

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

Yesterday, New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Mayor Zohran Mamdani struck a deal to ban New York City’s iconic horse carriage industry. However, absolutely no immediate arrangements were made to ensure the humane rehoming of approximately 180 carriage horses, the transition of all industry workers to other gainful employment, or fair compensation for the owners of the 68 horse carriage medallions based on the current fair-market value of their medallions, carriages, and other industry infrastructure.

The Speaker's staff engaged in two token meetings with carriage industry representatives on these matters – at which no proposals were made by the Council to the industry for it to consider nor were the suggestions made by the industry given any serious consideration. The industry knows it is being abolished by this bill, but it knows nothing of its fate. Will their horses be humanely re-homed? Will they be given offers of gainful employment on a par with what they have now? Will the medallion owners be fairly compensated? No one knows. And that is an abomination.

This is unfair. This is deception. This is abdication.

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

For members of the media - I am at New York City Hall NOW and available for interviews regarding the horse carriage ban. Please email my comms director, Natalia Trapani, at [email protected]

[New York City Council @NYCCouncil]

Twenty-five years after September 11, 2001, we remember the thousands of lives taken, honor the survivors, and stand with the families who have never stopped grieving.

We carry their memories with us, along with the strength of a city that came together when it mattered most.

Today and always, we will #NeverForget.

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

Mayor Mamdani announced an 18-member Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary and claimed it would be ‘truly reflective of New York City.’ Not a single Jewish attorney, former judge, or legal professional was named to that committee.

Jewish bar associations from Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan have already called this out in writing. They are right. Jews make up roughly one in 10 New Yorkers and a far larger share of the city’s legal profession. The notion that zero qualified Jewish candidates could be found is not credible.

This committee will help select the judges who sit in Family Court, Criminal Court, and Civil Court. These include the very courts that handle hate-crime cases, custody disputes, and the daily administration of justice in a city that has seen a sustained surge in antisemitic attacks. Excluding the Jewish community from that process is not diversity. It is erasure.

City Hall’s stated defense -- that the Mayor has previously appointed some Jewish judges and that one particular retired justice was rejected from consideration for appointment to the panel for other reasons -- does not speak to this central fact: when the mayor had a free hand to name an entire new judicial committee, he produced a panel with no Jews on it. That is the record.

This exclusion does not stand alone. It is merely the latest manifestation of the metastatic antisemitism that the Mayor has cultivated in City Hall and, by extension, throughout the city. From branding pro-Israel advocates ‘monsters,’ to his antisemitic mindset that treats Jewish concerns as matters of no concern, to this latest act of institutional exclusion, the pattern is unmistakable.

New York City is home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel. Jewish New Yorkers have every right to expect their mayor to treat them as full and equal partners in the life of this city. The Mayor claims he is interested in inclusion, but his words and actions undeniably demonstrate the opposite.

Real leadership does not consist of assembling panels that erase an entire community and then claiming the result is ‘representative.’ That is rank bigotry. Leadership consists of protecting the safety, dignity, and equal standing of every New Yorker.

I will continue to speak plainly against Mamdani's antisemitism as it continues to metastasize. Doing so may become a full-time job, but every instance has to be called out. To not do so is to accept a baseline tolerance of that which cannot be tolerated. I will not be gaslit. And, in this instance, I will not accept a standard under which Jewish New Yorkers are systematically sidelined from the very bodies that shape our courts, the rendering of justice, and the future of our city."

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s continuing fixation on arresting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he sets foot in New York for the United Nations General Assembly is not serious governance. It is political theater dressed up as a moral cause for his political base. And the hypocrisy is staggering.

While the Mayor and his team obsess over an International Criminal Court warrant that the United States does not recognize and that no local official has the power to enforce, his administration has shown a disturbing eagerness to engage the Islamic Republic of Iran. A senior official in the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs scheduled a meeting with Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations. Only after the State Department intervened was the meeting canceled. That is the regime whose security forces have slaughtered their own citizens in the streets. Most recently in the brutal crackdown on nationwide protests, where credible reports put the death toll in the thousands, including women, children, and peaceful demonstrators. This is the same regime that systematically executes political prisoners, tortures dissenters, and treats half its population as second-class under compulsory veiling laws enforced with violence.

Iran’s record does not stop at repressing its own people. For years Tehran poured blood and treasure into propping up Bashar al-Assad’s regime as it murdered hundreds of thousands of Syrians. Iranian officers, Revolutionary Guard forces, and proxy militias were essential to that slaughter. The same regime arms and bankrolls Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. These are groups whose charters and actions are explicit about destroying the Jewish state and who deliberately target civilians.

Against this backdrop, the Mayor’s threat to arrest a democratically elected head of government of a U.S. ally is not only selective; it is legally hollow on its face. The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute. Federal law explicitly bars state and local governments from cooperating with the ICC. Sitting heads of state enjoy immunity under long-settled principles of international law recognized by the International Court of Justice. The conduct of foreign relations belongs to the federal government, not City Hall. New York’s own governor has stated plainly that the mayor lacks this power. Legal experts across the spectrum have called the idea baseless. Any attempt would be blocked instantly by federal authority.

That is why this entire episode reinforces what so many New Yorkers already see: performative politics. The Mayor knows he cannot deliver on the arrest. He says as much when pressed, that he will only do what the law allows and will not “write his own laws.” Yet he keeps the threat alive for the cameras and for his political base. At the same time, his administration reaches out to a regime that actually murders its citizens, props up mass killers, and sponsors terrorism. The contrast could not be clearer.

New York City is home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel. Jewish New Yorkers have every right to expect their mayor to reject selective outrage, reject engagement with a regime that chants for their destruction, and reject empty stunts that poison our civic life. Real leadership does not consist of threatening allies while courting their enemies. It consists of protecting the safety, dignity, and equal standing of all New Yorkers.

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

@NYCMayor 's decision to brand AIPAC ‘monsters’ and accuse the organization of using ‘dark money’ to ‘turn us against one another’ in order to preserve a ‘status quo of immorality’ is not criticism of lobbying. It is the open deployment of classic antisemitic conspiracy theories from the office of the Mayor of New York City. Until recently, such hatred emanating directly from any mayor was unthinkable. Under Mayor Mamdani, it has become the new normal.

The Mayor again makes clear what many suspected for a while: he harbors a deep and personal hatred of Jews and of the Jewish state. When he was a political nobody, that hatred could be dismissed as the pathetic and irrelevant rantings of someone with no power. Now that he sits in Gracie Mansion, the same hatred carries the full weight and authority of the Mayor’s office.

Antisemites hate Jews regardless of circumstances. They do not need AIPAC as an excuse. They hate Jews for being Jews. What they do need is permission, normalization, and a sense that their bigotry is socially and politically acceptable. Mayor Mamdani again and again gives them exactly that. In this case he does so by dehumanizing a lobbyist group that is associated with Jews in America as ‘monsters.' He is reviving the oldest tropes about Jewish money and secret control; he has told every antisemite in New York and beyond that their hatred has a friend in City Hall. Notice, he doesn't call on changes from the legislature as it pertains to lobbyists. He simply makes AIPAC the target of all his criticisms because of its association with Jews and the State of Israel.

His refusal to retract these remarks when directly challenged is not courage. It is a confirmation. He had the opportunity to walk it back, to say he misspoke, to clarify that he was not trafficking in antisemitic stereotypes. He chose instead to double down. That choice reveals everything.

It is grotesque hypocrisy for the Mayor to posture as a leader who wishes Jewish New Yorkers well or who governs for all communities fairly and with concern for their safety while simultaneously unleashing the precise rhetoric that has historically preceded violence against Jews. One does not get to demonize groups that people associate with Jews, and then pretend your hands are clean when synagogues are vandalized, Jewish students are harassed, and Jews are attacked on our streets.

New York City is home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel. We will not quietly accept a Mayor who mainstreams antisemitic conspiracy theories and then hides behind the claim that he was only criticizing a ‘lobby.’ That lie is as old as it is dangerous.

I will continue to speak plainly and passionately against antisemitism, whether it comes from the street or from the Mayor’s office. I will not be gaslit. I will not be intimidated. And nobody should pretend that words this reckless and hateful are anything other than what they are. Jewish lives are being imperiled by the Mayor’s antisemitic rhetoric. Any Jewish blood spilled will be on his hands. The Mayor speaks of monsters. It is he who is the monster.

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

Last Thursday, I was delighted to introduce Int. No. 937 in the @NYCCouncil to further study and reform NYC’s iconic horse carriage industry, which has been denied hitching posts and other basic safety measures by those in city government who have thrown in with the “humaniacs” on banning the industry at the expense of the safety of the very horses they pretend to care about. It’s contemptable. This includes the snooty Central Park Conservancy. Horse carriages have been operating in Central Park since the Park’s opening in 1858, mostly for the city’s elite. Now, after 168 years – with zero convictions for animal cruelty by the industry since its founding – @CentralParkNYC has joined the humaniacs in a quest to ban the industry.

Two days before my bill (and another bill to ban the industry) were introduced, a carriage horse by the name of Deniz was stricken and died while on the job. Ban advocates seized on this tragedy, claiming that Deniz was “worked to death,” which -- due to reforms I instituted in my comprehensive law to reform all aspects of the industry in 2010 (Local Law 10 of 2010) – is impossible.

However, the results of the necropsy (an autopsy for an animal) for Deniz have been released by the Cornell School of Veterinary Medicine. It turns out that the Central Park Conservancy (which manages and operates Central Park) has planted Japanese yew plants around the park. The Japanese yew is extremely toxic to almost all animals. The entire plant -- including the needles, bark, and seeds – contain deadly compounds called taxines, which cause rapid cardiac arrest. THAT is what happened to Deniz – he grazed on a poison plant knowingly planted by the Conservancy. This plant is also deadly to all animal species that live in or frequent the park – squirrels, birds, dogs, cats, etc.

Where is the outrage, animal lovers?? Central Park is a death trap for animals. Does anyone or any so-called animal rights group care about this? I didn’t think so. And to make it worse, the Conservancy had the audacity to issue a statement lecturing the industry that the driver should have prevented the horse from grazing on the Park’s toxic Japanese yew. How about all the dogs and wildlife that frequent or live in the park? How do they know not to eat the Japanese yew? The Conservancy’s position is hubris on top of insanity. What arborist made the call to plant the Japanese yews? Who oversaw that deadly decision?

The carriage horses are just fine. But Central Park is an animal death trap. Animal lovers, let’s all unite and take on a REAL cause like this.

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

I want to congratulate my friend and colleague of more than 35 years, @SecKennedy on the upcoming launch of his new podcast.
I wish him success with this new endeavor and look forward to seeing how it contributes to the broader conversation about improving the health of Americans

[Secretary Kennedy @SecKennedy]

Coming soon—The Secretary Kennedy Podcast.

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

As the longest-serving active Council Member, having served with every Speaker to date, I proudly offer my support for @JulieMenin. She brings experience, respect, fairness, and - most importantly - the ability to lead the Council with one powerful voice rooted in excellence.

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

The Mayor’s Charter Revision Commission has released a preliminary report that, if implemented, would significantly weaken community input in land use decisions. In my video statement, I break down why this matters, and why every New Yorker should be paying attention.

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

Many of my constituents are learning for the first time that @NYCSanitation has just begun enforcing fines for not composting. That does not surprise me given the disastrous rollout of DSNY’s composting program. Read my full statement below:

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

The advice-and-consent process is an essential mechanism for ensuring a nominee has the qualifications for the role. Mayor Adams’ nomination of Randy Mastro significantly strayed from this established process. Read my op-ed in @amNYOpinion

https://t.co/pFvZvZW3Oq

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

Rather than decreasing the buffer, the state should INCREASE the buffer to ensure our communities do not become oversaturated with these drug dens. Reducing this buffer is reckless and dangerous, as one would expect from a "cannabis regulator."

https://t.co/2VVAUFh4wy

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

The Mayor is endeavoring to use his fake Charter Revision Commission to keep NYC voters from voting on advice and consent powers, which is required by law. Read my statement re: @NYCMayor declining to veto the advice and consent bill below -

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

@NYCMayor's Charter Revision Commission is nothing more than a sham to block voters from having their voices heard on the Council’s initiative to make gov't more transparent by making more commissioners subject to Council advice & consent #letthepeoplevote
https://t.co/1Inw97554S

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

Our public library systems are facing $58.3M in proposed budget cuts this year. If these cuts go through, it would be a devastating blow to library-goers in Queens, where so many families rely on our libraries, library programs and weekend service. #NoCutsToLibraries

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

@JustinBrannan @NYCCouncil Hi @JustinBrannan! Right back at you, my brother-friend! It's an honor and a privilege to be your colleague. And, thank you for YOUR tremendous leadership!!

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

Mayor Adams’ restorations in the Executive Budget represent just a fraction of the cuts he made to key programs. NYers deserve better. The city budget must invest in early childhood education, cultural institutions, libraries and more!

https://t.co/BEGGgJOVjd

[James F. Gennaro @JimGennaro]

Chuck Schumer read straight from the Hamas playbook yesterday, proclaiming that he sees Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “obstacle to peace” in the country's war with Hamas, and said it was time for the country to hold new elections. Read my statement below.