Like a rat peeking its head out of a mound of dirt at City Hall to watch Mayor Zohran Mamdani's inauguration, we're back with our weekly politics newsletter—this time, we're focused on our new mayor's first 100 days.
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Jadakiss Has Entered the Inauguration Chat
In his inaugural speech as mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani threatened "any billionaire or oligarch who thinks they can buy our democracy," quoted Jadakiss in a vow to always be "outside," and promised that he would govern "expansively and audaciously."
"We may not always succeed," Mayor Mamdani said, his voice echoing down the Canyon of Heroes into the ears of the tens of thousands of New Yorkers who stood in sub-zero temperatures for hours so they could cheer him on in person. "But never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try."
Unlike Mamdani's November election night speech, which was a soaring lesson in grassroots politics aimed at squirmy centrist Democrats and the president of the United States, Thursday's address seemed geared to reassure New Yorkers that in addition to his ambitious promises of making buses fast and free, providing universal child care, and freezing the rent, he is also animated by doing what all good mayors do best: run this messy town competently, compassionately, and without scandal.
"For too long, we have turned to the private sector for greatness, while accepting mediocrity from those who serve the public," Mamdani said. "In a city where the mere names of our streets are associated with the innovation of the industries that call them home, we will make the words ‘City Hall' synonymous with both resolve and results."
The man who felt the sting of those words most, Eric Adams, spent much of the afternoon listening to how much of a disappointment his administration was. Adams, who was seated on the dais next to former Mayor Bill de Blasio and his (now separated) wife Chirlane McCray, took most of these blows stoically, though when Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez praised New Yorkers for choosing "historic, ambitious leadership in response to untenable and unprecedented times," and when newly sworn-in Comptroller Mark Levine talked about needing "a better City government," Adams shook his head.