‘We will not wait’: Mamdani kicks off housing plans after inaugural party

New York, United States – Sprawling crowds, a seven-block-long enactment and chants to “tax the rich” successful the world’s wealthiest metropolis marked Zohran Mamdani’s nationalist inauguration arsenic New York City politician connected Thursday, arsenic the metropolis welcomed a caller twelvemonth with a caller leadership.

Political inaugurations are usually much stolid affairs. But, arsenic helium had successful his run for the mayoralty, Mamdani flipped the publication with his swearing-in events.

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In enactment one, conscionable aft midnight, arsenic the shot dropped successful Times Square to ringing successful 2026, Mamdani took the oath of bureau successful a tiny ceremonial connected the steps of the landmark New York City Hall subway station.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James administered the oath arsenic Mamdani stood beside his wife, Rama Duwaji, connected a staircase wrong the transit hub, which has not been utilized for rider work since 1945. He utilized a historic Quran borrowed from the New York Public Library for his swearing in, and a 2nd 1 that belonged to his grandfather.

The nationalist solemnisation arrived later, connected New Year’s Day, erstwhile Mamdani repeated the oath connected the steps of City Hall earlier a assemblage that spilled crossed the surrounding plaza and into the streets. Despite the blistering cold, tens of thousands of supporters streamed into Lower Manhattan to ticker the caller politician – on with the city’s comptroller, Mark Levine, and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams – formally presume office.

National governmental heavyweights, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, flanked the city’s caller enactment and delivered speeches outlining the progressive movement’s governing ambitions successful New York and the nationalist reverberations the contention has already sent to lawmakers crossed the country.

“The astir important acquisition that tin beryllium learned contiguous is that erstwhile moving radical stand, erstwhile they don’t fto them [the ultra-wealthy] disagreement america up, determination is thing that we cannot accomplish,” Sanders said earlier swearing successful Mamdani.

While guests and the property gathered wrong the City Hall grounds, the metropolis staged a seven-block-long nationalist artifact enactment – a caller twist connected the traditionally ticketed inauguration format. In summation to a closed lawsuit capped astatine a fewer 1000 attendees, anyone consenting to RSVP and endure the frigid aerial and blustering winds aft a nighttime of snowfall could effort their luck astatine getting in.

And galore did, bundled New Yorkers shuffled done information checkpoints, hoping to glimpse the swearing-in of a 34-year-old antiauthoritarian socialist present charged with running the largest city successful the United States, streaming connected ample monitors stationed passim the surrounding country extracurricular City Hall.

Some supporters told Al Jazeera they waited successful enactment for hours, and galore ne'er made it done the checkpoints successful time. While crowds cheered and horns blasted successful solidarity from a distance, a fistful of protesters lingered down constabulary barricades.

The artifact enactment successful and of itself was symbolic successful its effort to scope much New Yorkers who person usually been near retired of the governmental process, Democratic strategist Nomiki Konst told Al Jazeera.

“It was a mode of opening up thing that hasn’t been accessible for anybody, you know, that wasn’t portion of the interior ellipse of New York authorities and media,” Konst told Al Jazeera.

“It was an accidental to springiness backmost to the radical who helped him get into office.”

New Yorkers gathered successful a first-of-its-kind inauguration unfastened to the wide nationalist [Andy Hirschfeld]

A connection of unity and affordability

Mamdani, Williams and Levine spoke astir unity for each New Yorkers, delivering remarks successful English, Spanish, Hebrew and Greek, and appearing alongside religion leaders of several antithetic faiths, including Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

“We person 3 swearings-in. One by a person utilizing a Quran, 1 by a person utilizing a Christian Bible, and 1 utilizing a Hebrew Bible. I americium arrogant to unrecorded successful a metropolis wherever this is possible,” Levine said aft taking the oath of office.

Mamdani echoed that sentiment.

“We volition gully this metropolis person together. We volition regenerate the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism. If our run demonstrated that the radical of New York yearn for solidarity, past fto this authorities foster it,” Mamdani said successful his address.

“We volition present thing little arsenic we enactment each time to marque this metropolis beryllium to much of its radical than it did the time before.”

But the halfway message, voiced repeatedly by Mamdani, Levine, Williams, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, was the aforesaid 1 that defined the campaign: that the ultra affluent should wage higher taxes.

“Demanding that the affluent and ample corporations commencement paying their just stock of taxes is not radical. It is precisely the close happening to do,” Sanders said, arsenic supporters chanted, “Tax the rich.”

One of Mamdani’s halfway promises was to rise the firm taxation complaint successful New York City from 7.25 percent to 11.5 percent, equivalent to that of neighbouring New Jersey, arsenic good arsenic a 2 percent summation successful taxes connected those who marque much than $1m a year. Any taxation program would request the support of the politician to determination forward.

“This question came retired of eight-and-a-half cardinal somewheres – taxi cab depots and Amazon warehouses, DSA [Democratic Socialists of America] meetings and curbside domino games. The powers that beryllium had looked distant from these places for rather immoderate clip – if they’d known astir them astatine each – truthful they dismissed them arsenic nowhere. But successful our city, wherever each country of these 5 boroughs holds power, determination is nary obscurity and determination is nary no one,” Mamdani said.

Housing argumentation has been cardinal to that affordability connection for Mamdani. One of his signature run promises was to frost the rent connected the city’s rental stabilised apartments, which correspond astir fractional of the city’s rental lodging stock.

“Those successful rent-stabilised homes volition nary longer dread the latest rent hike – due to the fact that we volition frost the rent,” Mamdani said successful his remarks.

Only hours later, Mamdani introduced a slate of enforcement orders each aimed astatine housing.

“On the archetypal time of this caller administration, connected the time erstwhile truthful galore rent payments are due, we volition not hold to present action,” Mamdani said astatine a quality conference.

He announced 3 enforcement orders wrong a rent-stabilised gathering successful Brooklyn, including the instauration of 2 caller metropolis task forces connected lodging policy: 1 to instrumentality inventory of city-owned onshore that could beryllium utilized for housing, and different to place ways to spur development.

“The lodging situation is astatine the centre of our affordability crisis. There are a fig of things we are going to beryllium focused on: protecting tenants, going aft atrocious landlords, and gathering much housing. A immense portion of however we get retired of our lodging situation is to physique much affordable lodging crossed the city,” Leila Bozorg, the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning, told Al Jazeera connected the steps of City Hall hours earlier announcing the caller policies.

“These are argumentation decisions we tin code if we person the governmental volition and if we enactment the resources down it. And that is what helium [Mamdani] is committed to doing.”