New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has signed just one bill in 10 months while nearly 100 others sat unsigned on his desk, and City Hall sources say his team is too busy chasing social media content to do the basic work of governing.

The Post reported that every other City Council-passed bill under Mamdani’s watch has become law the passive way: “returned unsigned.” If the mayor neither signs nor vetoes a bill, it automatically takes effect after four weeks.

That is not how recent mayors handled the same stretch of a term. Eric Adams had signed 30 laws by this point. Bill de Blasio had signed 47. Mike Bloomberg had signed 28. Mamdani has signed one.

The lone signature came in August, on a law allowing year-round outdoor dining on city sidewalks. Everything else has been left to expire into law without his name on it.

Bills sit while the cameras roll

City Hall sources describe a mayor’s office that treats governing as optional and content as the main event. One person who often works with City Hall put it bluntly.

“The mayor and his team are obsessed with becoming a content farm, often delaying or can-kicking boring governmental meetings so the mayor and his staff can hold pitch sessions for social media videos.”

The same source added that Mamdani “gets pitched comedy sketches more than Lorne Michaels,” and that “there are lots of laughs, and there is very little work.”

A former City Hall staffer offered a shorter verdict: “It’s easier to govern by TikTok than to actually perform the duties of the job.”

Mamdani, who turned 35 on a recent Sunday, appears in numerous TikTok videos a day. Two sketches on a Monday. Two on a Saturday. Two on a Thursday. The volume is constant. The bill-signing calendar is not.

Another City Hall insider called the pattern lazy on two fronts, refusing to take a stand, and failing to run the basic machinery of briefings, hearings, and signature ceremonies.

“It’s lazy in two ways, one is you are not taking a stand, easier to do nothing than figure out where you stand on something. And lazy from a practical perspective, you can’t focus City Hall staff to hold the hearings, draft the briefings and execute the bill signings.”

Even his own agenda bills went unsigned

Mayors often use the “returned unsigned” route to protest a bill they dislike or to dodge a fight they know they will lose. Mamdani has used it on measures that match his own priorities.

A bill requiring sanctuary rules that bar ICE to be posted at schools and city-owned buildings was introduced in February. It was tied to socialist ally Council member Alexa Aviles. The Council passed it overwhelmingly. When the June window came for a signature, Mamdani left it alone. Four weeks later it took effect without him.

In July, more bills sat waiting: wellness checks on elderly New Yorkers when temperatures rise above 95 degrees, an expansion of free childcare programs from a key Mamdani initiative, and a rent-assistance program. None received a signature.

Those gaps land alongside other delivery problems already on the record, including shortfalls on childcare and affordable housing pledges flagged in his first management report.

Former City Council member Diana Ayala said the unsigned pile sends a strange signal, especially when the mayor is not actually opposing the bills.

“It is a little bit weird. It gives the impression that enough attention is being paid or they disagree, but they don’t. I haven’t seen anything he’s disagreed.”

Ayala added that many of the measures are his own side’s projects: “Those are his initiatives.” She said a signature “would be nice to elevate their initiatives” and “shows goodwill and that they are in alignment on specific issues.”

A former Bloomberg staffer offered a simpler theory for why the pen stays holstered: “They haven’t found a way to make this into compelling social media content.”

Foreign sound bites over local signatures

While those bills waited in July, Mamdani found time for a different kind of message. He called Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal” and said he had looked into every avenue for New York City police to arrest him.

That is the priority stack on display: international rhetoric and daily sketches first, routine mayoral paperwork last. City Hall did not respond to a request for comment on the signing record.

The same administration has poured energy into high-profile progressive fights, from joining sanctuary cities to block a Trump public charge rule to defending expansive local experiments that draw heavy pushback.

Voters also keep hearing about big-ticket city ventures such as a $70 million city-run grocery plan that has already attracted lawsuits and expert warnings. Signing Council bills is quieter work. It does not trend. It still has to get done.

Governing is not a pitch meeting

Automatic enactment means the laws still take effect. What disappears is accountability. A signature says the mayor owns the policy. Silence says the office would rather not be tied to the boring parts of the job.

Rent policy, housing, and business rules still move through the same City Hall whether or not the mayor wants the photo. Even a procedural win on a landlord rent-freeze lawsuit does not replace the basic duty to process the Council’s work in public and on time.

Critics of Mamdani’s wider program have warned that ideology without execution is a dead end. Investor Bill Ackman has said Mamdani’s socialist agenda risks disaster for New York City. A desk full of unsigned bills does not reassure anyone waiting on competent administration.

Ten months in, the comparison is no longer abstract. Adams, de Blasio, and Bloomberg each put dozens of signatures on the record by this stage. Mamdani has one outdoor-dining signing and a content calendar packed with sketches.

New Yorkers can live with a mayor who likes a camera. They cannot afford a City Hall that treats the actual job as the thing that gets in the way.