After riding the subway to work, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is making an announcement Friday at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. 

The mayor's news conference is underway.  You can watch it live on CBS News New York and in the player on this page.

Mamdani rides subway

Mamdani and his mayoral security detail took the subway from Astoria, Queens, the morning after his high-energy inauguration.

Mamdani focused heavily on improving city transit during his campaign.

He promised to make buses "fast and free," but so far Gov. Kathy Hochul and MTA leaders have not expressed support for the mayor's plan to eliminate bus fares. 

Bolstering tenants' rights

Mamdani took action on his first day in office, signing executive orders that are intended to bolster tenants' rights and jumpstart housing development. 

The mayor announced the orders at a rent-stabilized building in Brooklyn just hours after giving his inauguration speech. 

"We will stand up on behalf of the tenants of this city," Mamdani said. 

The first executive order reestablishes what's called the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants.

Mamdani said it's designed to serve as a central hub to defend renters' rights and push city agencies to respond faster to unsafe or illegal living conditions. 

"If your landlord does not responsibly steward your home, city government will step in. We will make sure that 311 violations are resolved, and we will hold slumlords to account for hazardous and dangerous threats to your well-being," he said. 

Housing push "a double-edged sword"

Mamdani's second executive order creates the LIFT Task Force, short for Land Inventory Fast Track, and aims to review city-owned land for housing development by July 1.

The third order kickstarts the SPEED Task Force — Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development — focused on removing bureaucratic hurdles that slow housing construction across the city. 

Political expert J.C. Polanco called the mayor's push for housing "a double-edged sword." 

"On one end, tenants are happy to have a pro-tenant mayor that is talking about freezing the rend and providing more protections for them. On the other side, is the reality of the shortage we currently have with housing. We have hundreds of thousands of apartments that are sitting vacant because of these archaic laws that make it impossible for small mom-and-pop landlords to rent their apartments," Polanco said. 

In his inauguration speech, Mamdani proclaimed his administration would usher in "a new era" for the city.