Mayor Mamdani appeared at the inaugural Bronx Economic Development Summit last week to deliver the keynote address, pledging that his City Hall would “leave neglect behind and lead instead with action and investment” in the Bronx. The two-day event, convened by the nonprofit Our Bronx and the Bronx Economic Development Corporation (BXEDC), drew hundreds of attendees including Borough President Vanessa Gibson, Council Member Pierina Sanchez, Deputy Mayor Julie Su, and Cea Weaver of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.

Mamdani opened his remarks by invoking South Bronx-born photographer Mel Rosenthal, who documented “block after block of blight” in his neighborhood during the 1970s and ’80s. The mayor described federal policy that treated the borough with “benign neglect.” City Hall, he said, pursued what he called “planned shrinkage,” withdrawing critical services. Landlords burned their own buildings during what he called the “arson for profit” era rather than repair them. Rosenthal’s photographs, the mayor said, captured communities that fought for justice then and in the decades since. “It is high time that City Hall matches these efforts,” Mamdani told the room.

Organizers convened the summit to build what they describe as the Bronx’s first-ever Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, now in federally supported draft form. The summit is part of Mamdani’s broader housing and investment agenda across the five boroughs, including public engagement his administration launched last month for 100 percent affordable housing in Bed-Stuy and the $124.7 billion city budget Bushwick Daily covered in May.