New York — New York City Mayor Zahran Mamdani and his wife, Rama Dawaji, began moving into the mayor’s official residence on Monday, leaving behind their one-bedroom apartment in Queens for a fully equipped mansion in Manhattan.
As workers unloaded cardboard boxes stuffed with houseplants and rolled up rugs, Mamdani marked The latest inaugural rite of passage With a press conference in his new garden overlooking the river.
“Today, Rama and I feel fortunate to participate in a ritual that many New Yorkers experience at different meaningful moments in their lives: starting a new chapter, by moving to a different part of the city that we call home,” Mamdani said.
Almost all of the city’s mayors have fallen asleep, at least sometimes — in the stately, custard-colored 18th-century home known as Gracie Mansion since its designation in 1942 as the mayor’s official residence.
For Mamdani, the historic home stands in particularly sharp contrast to his previous living quarters: a one-bedroom apartment worth $2,300 a month, which had no washer and dryer, and was prone to flooding due to a broken pipe.
Meanwhile, the couple’s new digs feature 11,000 square feet (1,021 square metres), a private chef, an ornate ballroom and a balcony overlooking the East River. The house also contains the original fireplace on which Alexander Hamilton died after his duel with Aaron Burr, and according to the city’s last mayor, Eric Adams, At least one ghost.
In his remarks Monday, Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, seemed aware that the transfer might seem at odds with his pledge to lead “a government that looks and lives like the people it represents.”
He added that the decision was made partly to take into account new security requirements.
Once he’s settled in at Gracie Mansion, he said he plans to “open it up to New Yorkers who don’t often get to visit a place like this.” Regarding any cosmetic changes, he described the “ambitious hope” of installing a bidet in the bathrooms.
Mamdani spent most of his childhood across Central Park, in a Manhattan apartment subsidized by Columbia University, where his father is a professor.
While serving in the New York State Legislature, Mamdani lived in Astoria, a diverse and affordable section of Queens, sometimes referred to as the “People’s Republic of Astoria” because of his recent record of electing representatives of the left, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Before leaving the neighborhood, Mamdani issued a statement saying he would miss “the endless Adani tea, the lively conversations in Spanish, Arabic and every language in between, and the smell of seafood and shawarma drifting through the area.”
He is likely to find less cross-cultural conversation in his new neighborhood on the Upper East Side, which is one of the city’s wealthiest and has about three-quarters white residents. While Mamdani won the former Astoria neighborhood by a landslide, his challenger, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, He won the Upper East Side In double numbers.
As she walked through a park adjacent to the mansion, Zoe Cody, a neuropsychologist and longtime Upper East Sider, said she hoped the new mayor would appreciate the quiet charm of the area, which she likened to “the suburbs of Manhattan.”
She predicted that her fellow Upper East Side residents would in turn embrace their new neighbor.
“I think we’ll be happy to have him here,” she said.