Rome Mayor Gualtieri and New York Mayor Mamdani meet on housing and municipal services

Bilateral talks at City Hall

Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri met New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for private talks at City Hall during the Urban 20 Mayors Summit 2026. Gualtieri became the first Italian political representative hosted privately by Mamdani since the New York mayor took office. The meeting took place on Friday evening as part of a three-day summit that brought together leaders from more than 35 international metropolises, including Paris, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Mexico City, Copenhagen, and Jakarta. The Urban 20 forum functions to channel the priorities and policy demands of large urban areas directly to national leaders ahead of the G20 summit. During the opening sessions in New York, participating mayors presented a joint action plan demanding that central governments grant municipal authorities expanded legal powers and increased financial resources to manage local crises.

Rome and New York are two large metropolises, and it is positive that there is dialogue and collaboration, not only between us but also among other mayors.

Housing policies and urban models

Housing policy formed the central focus of the bilateral discussions between the two municipal administrations. Both leaders addressed the rising cost of living in global cities, with particular attention to housing shortages, escalating energy prices, and the difficulties residents face in accessing basic services. Gualtieri pointed out that local governments are compelled to test innovative measures against climate change, social integration challenges, and rising utility bills, even when central governments fail to offer support and leave municipalities with constrained administrative tools. Mamdani examined Rome's 15-minute city urban planning model alongside its municipal co-housing experiments. In exchange, Gualtieri analyzed the large-scale housing construction plan initiated by Mamdani, noting that practical municipal policies deliver immediate outcomes for urban residents without ideological constraints.

We discussed housing a great deal, housing policies to ensure this right that is threatened today by very difficult housing affordability.

Infrastructure inspection and institutional history

Following their discussions at City Hall, Gualtieri and Mamdani conducted a joint site visit to a New York municipal wastewater treatment facility, representing one of the city's key public investment projects. During their meeting, Gualtieri presented Mamdani with a framed photograph from July 1946 showing former New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia receiving the Capitoline Wolf in Rome. La Guardia serves as a significant administrative reference for Mamdani. In response to inquiries regarding a potential reciprocal visit to the Italian capital, Gualtieri confirmed that Mamdani has temporarily suspended foreign travel to focus his full administrative attention on governing New York.

Expanding direct municipal cooperation

The bilateral discussions established plans to deepen administrative ties between Rome and New York. In May 2026, the two cities initiated formal cooperation through a memorandum of understanding signed between Rome's Municipio I and the borough of Manhattan, which addressed tourism management, public space revitalization, and old quarter preservation. While that initial agreement was negotiated through remote video messages, the New York summit provided the first opportunity for direct personal meetings between the two mayors. Gualtieri and Mamdani agreed to explore further bilateral collaboration in cultural affairs and public infrastructure investment, expanding the scope of cooperation from individual municipal districts to full city-level administrative partnerships.