{"id":262555,"date":"2026-01-02T01:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T01:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/262555\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T01:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T01:00:08","slug":"zohran-mamdani-promises-new-era-for-new-york-city-in-first-speech-as-mayor-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/262555\/","title":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani promises \u2018new era\u2019 for New York City in first speech as mayor \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zohran Mamdani<\/a> vowed to \u201creinvent\u201d New York City in a speech on his first day as mayor, promising \u201ca new era\u201d for America\u2019s largest city and an ambitious start to his term of office.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old political star and democratic socialist, who a year ago was a virtually unknown state assemblyman, is the city\u2019s first Muslim mayor, first of south Asian descent and the first to be born in Africa. He is also the first to be sworn in using the Qur\u2019an.<\/p>\n

Mr Mamdani said a \u201cmoment like this comes rarely and rarer still is it that the people themselves whose hands are upon the levers of change\u201d.<\/p>\n

The mayor said that in writing his remarks, he was advised to lower expectations. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will do no such thing,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only expectation I seek to reset is that of small expectations. Beginning today we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed, but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani did not shy away from his socialist politics. \u201cI was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist. I will not abandon my principles for fear of being called radical,\u201d he said to loud cheers from the gathered crowd.<\/p>\n

He ended by saying: \u201cThe work has only just begun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The speech was the second of a two-part ceremony after he was sworn in at midnight local time on Thursday in a disused subway station where he was flanked by New York attorney general Letitia James and his wife, Rama Duwaji, a 28 year-old animator and illustrator.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Who is Zohran Mamdani?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

On the steps of city hall on a bitterly cold January day, the newly elected mayor was introduced by the Bronx Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a>, a democratic socialist ally who is edging toward a run for the White House in 2028.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have chosen courage over fear. We have chosen prosperity for the many over spoils for the few,\u201d Ms Ocasio-Cortez said in her remarks. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have chosen to make a new future for all of us, we have chosen a mayor who is relentlessly dedicated to make life not just possible but aspirational for working people … we have chosen that over the distractions of bigotry and the barbarism of extreme inequality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Mamdani was then formally sworn in by the Vermont independent senator Bernie Sanders<\/a>, another political ally who in many ways laid the groundwork for Mr Mamdani\u2019s affordability agenda with his run for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2016.<\/p>\n

That effort, widely seen to have been undone by allies of former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton<\/a> within the party\u2019s national political organisation, has now borne fruit and with it the underlying political message of affordability, code for economic rights.<\/p>\n

Mr Sanders said in his address to the crowd that Mr Mamdani was taking power \u201cat a time when we are seeing too much hatred, too much divisive and too much injustice\u201d and called for \u201cgovernment that works for all, not just the wealthy and the few\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said Mr Mamdani had taken on the Democrat and Republican establishments, \u201cthe president of the United States and some enormously wealthy oligarchs and you defeated them in the biggest political upset in modern American history\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Mamdani now begins one of the most unrelenting jobs in American politics as one of the country\u2019s closest-watched politicians whose platform promises free childcare, free buses, a rent freeze for about one million households and a pilot of city-run grocery stores.<\/p>\n

But the estimated $10 billion (\u20ac8.5 billion) cost of providing those services may be hard to find. Mr Mamdani has vowed to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and increase corporate taxes. But as a vassal city of the state government in Albany, he will need the legislative support of Governor Kathy Hochul, who running for re-election next year.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll also have to deal with Donald Trump<\/a>, who has labelled the new mayor a \u201ccommunist\u201d and threatened to withhold federal funding from the city. But a friendly meeting between the outer borough New Yorkers last month, where they bonded over building more housing in the city, surprised many expecting a political firework show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want him to do a great job and will help him do a great job,\u201d Mr Trump said.<\/p>\n

Mr Mamdani also faces scepticism from some Jewish New Yorkers alarmed by his criticisms of Israel\u2019s<\/a> government and failure to emphatically distance himself from the phrase \u201cfrom the river to the sea\u201d, though Mr Mamdani has said he will no longer use it.<\/p>\n

The extent of those sensitivities became apparent during Mr Mamdani\u2019s transition when his director of appointments, Cat da Costa, stepped down after tweets came to light in which she had described Jewish people as \u201cmoney hungry\u201d and called a train in Far Rockaway the \u201cJew train\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Mamdani\u2019s transition team called the error \u201can unacceptable oversight in the vetting process does not meet the mayor-elect\u2019s standards for this transition or the incoming administration\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Mr Mamdani has also sought to smooth over the tensions by persuading the city\u2019s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, to remain in her position, avoiding the appearance of losing Jewish police chief as well a measure of continuity to tense issue of policing in the city.<\/p>\n

New York mayors are typically judged on their ability to provide basic services \u2013 rubbish collection, curbing the city\u2019s infestation of rats, fixing potholes and getting the subways to run smoothly.<\/p>\n

Before ending his term as mayor on Wednesday, Eric Adams touted his administration\u2019s anti-crime efforts, which he credited for historically low numbers of homicides and shootings. There were 301 homicides in the city in 2025, 79 fewer than in 2024.<\/p>\n

Mr Adams said the New York police department had taken 25,000 illegal guns off city streets over the past four years and drive-by shootings had declined by 55 per cent.<\/p>\n

Mr Mamdani and Ms Duwaji will now give up their one-bedroom, rent-stabilised apartment in Astoria, Queens, to take up residence in the stately mayoral residence of Gracie Mansion, built in 1799, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Last month, Mr Adams warned Mr Mamdani that the mansion is haunted. \u201cIt\u2019s a friendly ghost, as long as you\u2019re doing right by the city,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t become right by the city, he turns into a poltergeist.\u201d \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani vowed to \u201creinvent\u201d New York City in a speech on his first day as mayor, promising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[89692,115331,9,10,356,13,14,6,71,11,12,15,16,969,5,7,8,65,66,67,47005],"class_list":{"0":"post-262555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","9":"tag-bernie-sanders","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-breakingnews","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-new-york-city","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories","25":"tag-world","26":"tag-world-news","27":"tag-worldnews","28":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115822803225198302","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}