New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin laid out an ambitious agenda for 2026, putting affordable housing, universal childcare, and health care costs at the center of her priorities for the year.
Menin, who represents the Fifth Council District in Manhattan, covers Lenox Hill, Yorkville, Carnegie Hill, and Roosevelt Island. She took the speakership at the start of this year and has wasted no time setting targets.
“In my first year as Speaker, I’m focused on building a City Council that works with the determination and urgency that New Yorkers deserve,” Menin said in a PoliticsNY interview published Monday.
Affordability is driving everything. Menin said the Council must be “proactive and bold” on building affordable housing, lowering health care costs, and getting universal childcare across the finish line. She also wants to rein in no-bid contracts and find budget savings without cutting essential services, a balancing act that will define negotiations with the mayor’s office this spring.
The Council’s track record matters here. During Menin’s first two terms as a member, before she became Speaker, the Council passed her bills to advance universal childcare, ease burdens on small businesses, and create an Office of Healthcare Accountability. Those wins give her a credible base to push harder from the speaker’s chair.
Constituents on the East Side won’t be left behind, Menin said. Her district office handles a wide range of casework. It connects residents to city agencies, free legal services, and neighborhood problem-solving. The concerns people bring in have shaped her legislative agenda directly, pushing her toward increased public safety resources, street cleanliness improvements, rat mitigation, and stronger pedestrian and bicycle safety measures.
She offered a concrete example of how district work and citywide policy can run together. The Council recently announced a new Pre-K site on the Upper East Side, an idea Menin said she and Community Board 8 had championed for years. The site delivers on universal childcare at the local level while mirroring what the Council is pushing for across all five boroughs. That’s the model she’s working from.
“My district office remains staffed with hardworking liaisons and I’m still heavily involved in district affairs,” Menin said.
Older adults came up directly in the Q&A. AARP New York City, which sponsored the interview series, asked Menin whether she’d commit to raising the percentage of the overall city budget going to NYC Aging, also known as DFTA, so that older New Yorkers can age with dignity in their communities.
Menin didn’t dodge it.
She didn’t give a specific number.
But she said older adults will “continue to be a priority” as she enters budget conversations. “I have been a proud advocate for our older adults,” she said. Advocates tracking the city’s aging services budget will be watching to see whether that commitment translates into hard dollars when the Council votes on the final spending plan.
The speakership carries weight beyond passing bills. The New York City Council approves land-use applications that determine where and how much housing gets built in every neighborhood, and it negotiates the city budget directly with the mayor’s office. Both functions put Menin at the table on decisions that touch millions of New Yorkers every day. On the housing side, the affordability crisis has pushed land-use decisions to the front of the political conversation across the city, and Menin’s willingness to approve applications that add density will matter as much as any legislation she sponsors.
Budget negotiations this spring will be the first real test. Menin wants savings and fiscal accountability through tighter controls on no-bid contracts, but she’s also committed to protecting essential services in communities that can’t absorb cuts. Threading that needle with Mayor Adams’s office won’t be easy, particularly as the city faces continued fiscal pressure from reduced federal support in several program areas.
From the South Bronx to the Upper East Side, the concerns driving residents to their local council offices tend to look alike: housing costs, childcare access, neighborhood safety, clean streets, and reliable services for aging parents and grandparents. Menin’s stated priorities map directly onto those concerns, and the question for 2026 is whether the Council can move fast enough to meet them. Menin said she’s bringing urgency to the job, and her district office, her legislative record, and her budget positioning will all serve as the measure of that claim in the months ahead.