New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji began moving into the official mayoral residence on Monday, leaving behind their leaky, one-bedroom apartment in Queens for a fully staffed mansion in Manhattan.
As workers unloaded cardboard boxes stuffed with houseplants and rolled up carpets, Mamdani marked the latest inaugural rite of passage with a press conference on his new riverfront lawn.
“Today, Rama and I feel lucky to participate in a ritual that so many New Yorkers have experienced at various meaningful moments in their lives: Beginning a new chapter, by moving to a different part of the city that we call home,” Mamdani said.
Nearly all of the city’s mayors have slept — at least sometimes — in the stately, custard-colored 18th century home, known as Gracie Mansion, since its 1942 designation as the official mayoral residence.
For Mamdani, the historic house stands in particularly sharp contrast to his previous living quarters: a $2,300 per month one bedroom apartment that lacked a washer and dryer, and was prone to flooding from a busted pipe.
The couple’s new digs, meanwhile, boast 11,000 square feet (1,021 square meters) of space, a private chef, ornate ballroom and a veranda overlooking the East River. The home also features the original fireplace upon which Alexander Hamilton died following 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, appeared aware that the relocation might seem at odds with his pledge to lead a “government that looks and lives like the people it represents.”
The decision was made in part to account for new security requirements, he said.
Once settled at Gracie Mansion, he said he plans on “opening it up to New Yorkers who are not often the ones who get to visit such a place as this.” As for any cosmetic changes, he described an “aspirational hope” of installing bidets in the bathrooms.
Mamdani spent most of his childhood on the other side of Central Park, in a Manhattan apartment subsidized by Columbia University, where his father works as a professor.
While serving in New York’s state Legislature, Mamdani lived in Astoria, a diverse and affordable section of Queens, sometimes referred to as “the People’s Republic of Astoria” for its recent record of electing left-wing representatives, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Before leaving the neighborhood, Mamdani released a statement saying he would miss the “endless Adeni chai, the spirited conversations in Spanish, Arabic and every language in between, the aromas of seafood and shawarma drifting down the block.”
He will likely find less multicultural crosstalk in his new Upper East Side neighborhood, which is among the city’s richest and nearly three-quarters white. And while Mamdani won his former neighborhood of Astoria overwhelmingly, his opponent, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, won the Upper East Side by double digits.
As she walked her cockapoo in a park abutting the mansion, Zoe Cuddy, a neuropsychologist and longtime Upper East Sider, said she hoped the new mayor would come to appreciate the quiet charms of the area, which she likened to “the suburbs of Manhattan.”
And she predicted that her fellow Upper East Siders would, in turn, embrace their newest neighbor.
“I think we’ll grow to be happy to have him here,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.