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Mamdani names new 'mom-and-pop czar' meant to ease path for small business owners
By
Arya Sundaram
Published Apr 7, 2026
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Erin Lefevre/NurPhoto via Getty Images
By
Arya Sundaram
Published Apr 7, 2026
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to announce Delia Awusi, a former local business adviser, as his new “mom-and-pop” czar to help the city’s smallest businesses, according to City Hall.
The new post, which Mamdani first floated on the campaign trail, is meant to cut red tape for small business owners by helping them navigate the process of getting permits, inspections, and other city services.
The appointment is the latest example of Mamdani’s emphasis on small, working-class business owners like street vendors and bodegas, rather than larger corporate interests.
“For years, small businesses have been pushed aside while corporate giants enjoyed unfettered access to City Hall,” Mamdani said in a statement. “No longer. With Delia Awusi’s appointment, the smallest businesses will be represented at the highest levels of city government.”
Awusi was most recently the director of the Business Outreach Center Network’s Women’s Business Center in Brooklyn and Staten Island, where she said she helped counsel a range of businesses, including child care centers, Zumba studios, coffee shops, and physical therapists under federally-funded programs. At the center, she led workshops and offered counseling services.
“ Small businesses are the flavor of New York City,” Awusi said. “But it is very difficult to run a small mom-and-pop business.”
She said it’s crucial to have someone who is “at City Hall and can advocate and work with the various agencies across the city just to make it easier.”
Awusi said she plans to focus on the city’s family-run and neighborhood businesses doing roughly $1 million to $2 million in business a year. These often include local bodegas, nail salons, home-based child care centers or coffee shops.
Awusi also said she plans to “ take a closer look” at some of the fines and fees faced by small businesses in New York City, such as the cost of permits and inspections from the FDNY and Department of Transportation. She declined to provide specifics about which fees and fines she might target.
Mamdani’s Executive Order 11 issued in January is meant to identify and chip away at fees for small businesses. On the campaign trail, the mayor pledged to cut fines and fees for small businesses by 50%. He also pledged to increase funding for small business support programs by 500%.
Some business leaders have criticized the democratic socialist mayor for being insufficiently supportive of economic development, and for leaving the top post at the Economic Development Corporation — the city's top economic agency — vacant three months into his tenure. Mamdani has said he has yet to find someone who can deliver “economic justice and economic growth hand-in-hand.”
Awusi was among those hired through a new job portal unveiled by Mamdani’s transition committee before his inauguration.
Tagged
economy
new york city
Arya Sundaram
Arya is a reporter covering race and justice. Got a tip? Email: [email protected] or reach Arya on Signal at 512-650-8767.
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