Mamdani Hosts City Hall Summit for Social Media Creators, Limits Legacy Press

Mayor Zohran Mamdani invited dozens of social media influencers and digital content creators to New York City Hall on Wednesday for a private tour and a news conference that excluded reporters from legacy outlets such as The New York Post and NY1, though a New York Times media reporter was allowed to observe.

The attendees — 78 people whom City Hall aides said had a combined online reach of roughly 82 million — included food and beauty influencer Layla Taremi, who has 92,000 Instagram followers and later posted a video of herself dancing by the City Hall steps; fitness creator Avelyn Castillo, who said she thought the invite was a scam before booking a flight; and Substack writer Bess Kalb, who posted a delighted selfie and captioned it, "It was fun feeling unbelievably hopeful in a government building." Mr.

Mamdani, whose digital dexterity has been praised as a model for national Democrats, praised creators as "trusted voices in communities across every borough in our city," said, "We need to speak to New Yorkers through every single medium that they see themselves and see the world around them," and snapped what he described as "a very poorly composed selfie" with the crowd.

City Hall aides said the event emphasized creators focused on neighborhoods and lifestyle topics and that additional "new media" events would be held.

Key Topics

Politics, Zohran Mamdani, City Hall, Social Media Creators, Layla Taremi, Avelyn Castillo