New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Monday night that he will call on New York Governor Kathy Hochul to sign a more expansive data center moratorium bill into law.

Speaking on stage at the AI Now Institute and More Perfect Union’s “People’s AI Assembly,” actress and advocate Ilana Glazer asked the New York City mayor if he would push Gov. Hochul to sign the “Responsible Data Center Development Act,” which passed New York state legislation earlier this year; Mamdani responded with a simple and resolute “yes.”

Shortly after the bill in question passed, Hochul established a similar moratorium on data center projects by executive order, making New York the first state to impose a data center moratorium as the anti-data center movement gains steam nationwide. The resolution Mamdani said he is backing would expand and codify the existing moratorium that Gov. Hochul issued, which pauses new data center projects that consume more than 50 megawatts of power until the Department of Public Service completes a review of the environmental impact of mega data center projects. The proposed moratorium would lower the threshold by pausing projects consuming more than 20 megawatts, while requiring data centers using more than 5 megawatts to meet renewable energy and labor standards. Supporters of the bill also worry that Hochul’s executive order could be “modified or rescinded by future administrations.”

Numerous surveys find that anti-AI and specifically anti-data-center sentiments have grown nationwide over the past year. This collective anxiety over AI development was palpable on Monday night at the “People’s AI Assembly,” where the entry line at New York City’s Webster Hall wrapped comfortably around the block.

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