Mamdani promises new era as New York mayor

Zohran Mamdani vowed to "reinvent" New York City in a speech yesterday on his first day as mayor, promising "a new era" for America's largest city and an ambitious start to his term.

- Edward Helmore

The 34-year-old democratic socialist, who a year ago was a virtually unknown state assemblyman, is the city's first Muslim mayor, the 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'an.

Mamdani added that a "moment like this c rarely and rarer still is it that the people themselves whose hands are upon the levers of change.

Mamdani said that in writing his remarks, he had been advised to lower expectations. “I will do no such thing,” he said. “The 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.”

Mamdani did not shy away from his socialist politics. “I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist,” he said to loud cheers from the crowd.

The speech was the second of a two-part ceremony yesterday after he was sworn in at midnight in a disused subway station where he was flanked by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, and his wife, Rama Duwaji, a 28-year-old animator and illustrator.