The fight over “buffer zone” legislation in New York City entered a new phase on Wednesday, weeks after Mayor Zohran Mamdani vetoed a bill allowing police to limit protests around “educational facilities.”
Mamdani and other detractors of the initial, highly contested bill said that it would chill free speech, particularly affecting pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. Its proponents said they would try to flip enough members of the City Council to override Mamdani’s veto.
Now, they may have reached a compromise: On Wednesday, City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced a revised version of the bill that excludes colleges and universities from the educational facilities subject to protest limits.
In an interview, Council Member Eric Dinowitz, who introduced the legislation Mamdani vetoed, said the new bill’s language was “slightly tweaked” so it could get “more broad support” from city lawmakers.
“There were some members who were uncomfortable with the ‘educational facility’ piece, so we targeted it towards early childhood centers, pre-K and K-to-12 schools,” Dinowitz said about the new version, called the Schools Safe Access bill.
Otherwise, Dinowitz said, the function of the legislation is “exactly the same as the old bill.”
Dinowitz said he is the new bill’s co-lead sponsor along with Elsie Encarnacion, who represents East Harlem and parts of the Bronx on the City Council. Encarnacion’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A number of progressives had voiced concerns about the “educational facilities” bill, called Intro 175-B, citing concerns about free speech on college campuses. Columbia University had been the epicenter of student pro-Palestinian protests across the country in 2024.
NYC Council members Inna Vernikov (right) and Eric Dinowitz (left), Sept. 6, 2023. Vernikov and Dinowitz are the co-chairs of the council’s new antisemitism task force. (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Intro 175-B was introduced as part of a package in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests outside synagogues hosting Israeli real estate events that included the promotion of West Bank settlements. A handful of similar protests have taken place in recent weeks, including a second one outside Park East Synagogue.
After Mamdani vetoed Intro 175-B, speculation mounted over whether Menin would try to get four additional votes from the council to override the veto, or alter the legislation to win over some skeptical lawmakers.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Menin said the effort had, in fact, reached the threshold for overriding Mamdani’s veto, but decided instead to broaden support by introducing the newly worded bill.
“We not only listened to these members’ concerns, but we heard them and now we’re choosing to address them rather than dismiss them,” Menin said.
Menin did not name which City Council members were ready to flip from their initial opposition of the bill to then overriding Mamdani’s veto. (One would have been Carl Wilson, who campaigned alongside Menin saying he would vote to override before winning a special election last month.)
Opponents of the original bill celebrated that the Council did not vote to override it — and threatened a battle against the new bill.
Audrey Sasson, executive director of left-wing group Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, wrote in a statement that the group is “proud that our organizing is successfully preventing the Speaker’s effort to force 175B through, and we’re committed to making sure no future versions of this legislation become law.”
Anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace wrote that it will “continue to fight back against any bill that chills dissent, which is sacred to our Jewish tradition.”
A spokesperson for Mamdani said the mayor would first need to review the bill before commenting.
“The Mamdani administration has not seen the specific legislative language, and we look forward to reviewing it,” said spokesperson Sam Raskin. “The Mayor believes New York City must remain a place where students can access their schools safely as well as exercise their constitutional right to protest.”
The new bill, and the expectation that it will be likelier to pass, was a welcome development for a number of “buffer zone” legislation supporters.
A group of 20 community organizations thanked Menin and the City Council for amending the language to strengthen its support. Among the signatories were the JCCs of Staten Island and Kings Bay, Progressives for Israel, Hannah Senesh Community Day School, ActJew, Brooklyn Bridgebuilders and Jewish Parent Alliance in Schools.
Daniel Rosenthal, UJA-Federation of New York’s VP for government relations, celebrated the announcement on X.
“Let’s goooo,” Rosenthal wrote. “Thank you @SpeakerMenin for your continued leadership on this.”
Dinowitz said there’s no exact timeline on when the bill will officially be introduced, but he said things will move “hopefully very quickly.”
Asked if he would seek further legislation that addresses college campuses, Dinowitz said, “I think the protection of our students and the protection of our fundamental rights go hand in hand. And this bill starts us on a path to doing that.”
He continued, “There are a lot of steps we need to do to protect our children. It never was just about buffer zones, but that was part of the formula. But we need to make sure we are addressing any form of harassment, intimidation, from all angles.”
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