Today, on Zohran Mamdani's 106th day as mayor of New York City, the mood is still cautious optimism.
Our 34-year-old chief executive's blend of cheery competency and relentless message discipline has kept self-owns to a minimum, and the New York Post starving for substantive hit pieces. (It's Thursday and they're running an anti-Mamdani story that consists exclusively of negative quotes from Republican City Councilmembers, about an event that happened on Sunday? Zzzzz.)
Mamdani has notched significant wins on the childcare and rent freeze fronts, and his in-house PR machine, along with his clout army, have been extremely adept at smoothing over the potholes (literally) that are inherent to a job that demands compromise and moderation.
But there are still many campaign promises that have been left unfulfilled—especially on the policing and public safety front—and a massive budget deficit that could still wipe out many of the mayor's gains by forcing him to make painful cuts to City services. This week, the mayor and the governor have been crowing about their new pied-à-terre tax, pretending as if the fight over the past six months hasn't actually been about raising income taxes on millionaires and corporations.
Amidst all of this, Mayor Mamdani was gracious enough to sit down with Hell Gate for eight minutes on Thursday morning at City Hall. What better way to close out our 100 Days newsletter than with a chat with the man himself?
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Hell Gate: Brown tie, blue suit. Love it.
Mayor Mamdani: Come on! OK [settles into seat]…Remember: I'm a subscriber [laughs].
Are you still just at one sugar-free Red Bull a week? Or have you upped your dosage?
I obviously couldn't drink it during the day during Ramadan. Since then, I've been able to reduce it. I did have one at about 8 a.m. in the morning recently, but I got through the day. Do you have any tips on energy drinks?
I don't like them. I stick to black coffee.
The original energy drink.
Yeah, energy drinks have all those minerals in them—I don't need kidney stones right now.
Well, that's scary.
I read that you and your wife are not going to the Met Gala. Is that true?
That's true.
Traditionally that is seen as a pretty sweet perk of being the mayor of New York City. Why are you skipping it?
I love the Met. I think that it's an incredible museum. I recently saw "The Thomas Crown Affair," which, have you seen it?
Great movie.
Incredible movie. I hadn't seen it before. And I think they're a critical part of the city. My focus is also on affordability and making the most expensive city in the United States affordable, and that's what I'm looking to spend a lot of my time focused on.