Zohran Mamdani is sworn as mayor of New York City at Old City Hall Station, New York, U.S., Thursday, Jan 1st 2026. Amir Hamja/Pool via REUTERS
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has reportedly reversed a major campaign promise involving “universal daylighting” at intersections across the city.
During his campaign, Mamdani pledged to implement universal daylighting at all 40,000 of the city’s intersections. The plan would have banned parking within roughly 20 feet of every crosswalk in the five boroughs — a sweeping policy aimed at improving visibility and pedestrian safety. If carried out as promised, the change could have affected hundreds of thousands of parking spaces citywide.
That pledge, however, now appears to be on the chopping block. According to recent statements from the mayor’s office, the blanket citywide daylighting policy is no longer planned. Instead of an across‑the‑board mandate, daylighting measures will be considered on a case‑by‑case basis going forward.
This marks a significant retreat from one of Mamdani’s more ambitious promises. The shift suggests that the original plan’s scope, cost, and feasibility concerns — including potential impacts on parking availability and neighborhood pushback — played a role in the decision to scale it back.
As it stands now, the city will evaluate specific intersections individually to determine whether daylighting makes sense at each location, rather than automatically applying the rule to all 40,000 intersections.
The change is already drawing attention from residents and advocates alike, with some praising the more measured approach and others criticizing the reversal of a key campaign commitment.
