Post #4753

Mamdani: to Reshape New York in a Way It Becomes a Muslim City Mamdani vowed to “reinvent” New York City in a speech on his first day as mayor, promising “a new era” for America’s largest city and an ambitious start to his term of office. The 34-year-old political star and democratic socialist, who a year ago was a virtually unknown state assemblyman, is the city’s first Muslim mayor, the first of south Asian descent and the first to be born in Africa. He is also the first to be sworn in using the Qur’an. Mamdani said a “moment like this comes rarely and rarer still is it that the people themselves whose hands are upon the levers of change”. Mamdani did not shy away from his socialist politics. “I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist. I will not abandon my principles for fear of being called radical,” he said to loud cheers from the gathered crowd. He ended by saying: “The work has only just begun.” Hours after the ceremony, Mamdani revoked all executive orders issued by Adams after 26 September 2024, when the former mayor was indicted on federal corruption charges, later dropped by the Trump administration. The overturned orders include a directive last month that prohibited mayoral appointees and staff “from boycotting and disinvesting from Israel and protecting New Yorkers’ rights to free exercise of religion without harassment at houses of worship”. Mamdani later said he planned to reissue certain orders​, including the Office to Combat Antisemitism​ that Adams created in May last year. It was the second of a two-part ceremony after Mamdani was sworn in at midnight on Thursday in a disused subway station, where he was flanked by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, and his wife, Rama Duwaji, a 28-year-old animator and illustrator. On the steps of city hall on a bitterly cold January day, Mamdani was introduced by the Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist ally who is edging toward a run for the White House in 2028. Mamdani now begins one of the most unrelenting jobs in American politics as one of the country’s closest-watched politicians, whose platform promises free childcare, free buses, a rent freeze for about 1m households, and a pilot of city-run grocery stores. But the estimated $10bn cost of providing those services may be hard to find. Mamdani has vowed to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and increase corporate taxes. But as a vassal city of the state government in Albany, he will need the legislative support of Governor Kathy Hochul, who running for re-election next year. The extent of those sensitivities became apparent during Mamdani’s transition when his director of appointments, Cat da Costa, stepped down after tweets came to light in which she had described Jewish people as “money hungry” and called a train in Far Rockaway the “Jew train”. Mamdani’s transition team called the error “an unacceptable oversight in the vetting process [that] does not meet the mayor-elect’s standards for this transition or the incoming administration”. Mamdani has also sought to smooth over the tensions by persuading the city’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, to remain in her position, avoiding the appearance of losing Jewish police chief as well a measure of continuity to tense issue of policing. New York mayors are typically judged on their ability to provide basic services – trash collection, curbing the city’s infestation of rats, fixing potholes and getting the subways to run smoothly. Before ending his term as mayor on Wednesday, Eric Adams touted his administration’s anti-crime efforts, which he credited for historically low numbers of homicides and shootings. There were 301 homicides in the city in 2025, 79 less than in 2024. #mamdani#newYork#muslim#city 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸