The Zohran Age
Inauguration Day
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I was extremely cold standing outside for the Zohran Mamdani mayoral inauguration; too cold, perhaps, for proper reflection. On New Year’s Eve, at least, I was warmer, having bolted a party at a Spanish restaurant to make the midnight swearing in beneath City Hall, in an abandoned subway station that’s only open to guided tours and can be glanced at as the 6 train swings around to head back uptown. Mamdani disembarked with his wife, parents, and aides, arriving four minutes before midnight and grinning behind the podium as he was told he could not be sworn in until 12:01. He bantered with one reporter about new year’s resolutions, and chuckled when the reporter told him he wanted to do more pull-ups. Attorney General Letitia James, at the proper time, swore him in and there he was: Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani. The new era was upon us, one that would have been, one year earlier, democratic socialist fan fiction. Mamdani paid $9, cash, to the city clerk. He bounded up the stairs to leave. The media had to wait for a special 6 train, dutifully boarded, and rolled onward into the early morning.
There are times a little voice, like a tom-tom drum, pounds inside of me—this is history, this is history, this is history. I am not sure if the voice is helpful. Remaining within moments is not my strong suit, given how past and future-oriented I am. I am, too often, either plotting ahead or delving into long ago times, turning over the aged moments in my brain. I did my very best to appreciate the hyperreality of the last twenty-four hours. There is joy, of course, and triumph, if I try in my studious way to hold myself apart from factions, even when one faction is headed by a famous friend. What I can say, refreshingly, is that Mamdani, in my interactions with him over the last month, is no different than he was when I met him at the close of 2017. The old self remains. Mass fame hasn’t swallowed it whole. You don’t feel he has transcended you. He has no imperial affect, no hint of condescension. To me, he is still the guy hustling up his morning order at the Bay Ridge Bagel Boy or seizing my Hyundai Elantra to shuttle canvassers about or sitting in a folding chair, late at night, wondering whether we’ve actually found enough positive IDs on the doors in Marine Park and Gerritsen Beach. I picture him in t-shirts and kurtas. The suit and tie is still a visual adjustment.
What kind of mayor will Mamdani be? One can guess. I can guess. He reminded his inauguration audience, on the steps of City Hall, he is a democratic socialist who is pro-Palestine. He underscored that Bernie Sanders is his political north star. He delivered an unabashedly populist address, promising to uplift working-class New York: the taxi drivers, the halal cart workers, the home health aides. His major administration hires, thus far, have been relatively cautious, and should reassure those who assumed he was a dangerous radical bent on the unraveling of New York. Many of his picks are conventional: well-regarded veterans of the Biden and de Blasio administrations, left-leaning bureaucrats who will know where to find the paper clips. One misfire, an appointments director who had tweeted out anti-Semitic messages in her late teens and early twenties, was promptly forced to resign. Knowing Mamdani personally, I can attest that he will be extremely focused on delivering as much as he can as quickly as he can. He will want, in the first six months, to take significant steps towards universal childcare, free buses, and a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments. He will try to stand up his Department of Community Safety, pairing mental health professionals with police. He will renew mayoral control of the public schools while trying to incorporate, as much as possible, more parental input. And he will find out whether he can govern with a much more conservative police commissioner. On the politics front, I expect him to offer endorsements for any candidates that DSA first endorses. He is still cadre.
The task of governing New York City, though, is so challenging because the variables are manifold and unknown.
