Newsman: New York City’s Mayor -elect Zohran Mamdani was officially sworn in as mayor of New York City early Thursday. Mamdani is the city’s first Muslim mayor, its first of South Asian descent and the first to be born in Africa. At 34, he is also the city’s youngest mayor since the late 19th century. Mamdani officially took office as mayor just after the New Year’s Eve ball dropped in Times Square, in a private ceremony held at the old City Hall subway station, a shuttered relic of the city’s subway. The old City Hall subway station which with its tiled arches, chandeliers and vaulted ceilings, opened in 1904 as a showcase destination among New York’s 28 original subway stations.
The ceremony, held underground at an abandoned showpiece of a subway station by City Hall. The ornate station itself embodied a belief that New York leaders could elevate life for millions of New Yorkers by creating a grand subterranean vascular system. It is, Mr. Mamdani said after midnight, “a testament to the importance of public transit, to the vitality, the health, and the legacy of our city.” Then Mr. Mamdani invited his newly minted transportation commissioner, Michael Flynn, to stand by his side.
Four minutes before midnight, Mr. Mamdani, 34; his wife, Rama Duwaji; and Letitia James, the state attorney general, disembarked from a No. 6 train into the grimy, dimly lit, and yet stunning subway station. They promptly took their places on the steps beneath a dramatic archway emblazoned with the words, “City Hall.” And then they waited, a bit awkwardly, but jovially, for the arrival of the appointed hour.
And finally, after an impromptu countdown to midnight and cries of “Happy New Year,” Mr. Mamdani placed his left hand on two Qurans held by his wife, raised his right hand and recited the oath of office (one Quran belonged to his grandfather, the other belonged to Arturo Schomburg, the Black historian and writer). Ms. James swore in Mr. Mamdani as a smattering of family, allies and reporters looked on.
“Congratulations, Mr. Mayor,” Ms. James said, to cheers.
Mr. Mamdani then signed the oath of office, handed the requisite $9, in cash, to the city clerk, Michael McSweeney, and signed a leather-bound book so the clerk can attest to the validity of his signature on future city documents.
The swearing-in ceremony took all of 10 minutes. The mood was understated, and the crowd intentionally intimate, with roughly 20 people in attendance, including the parents of Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Duwaji.
“He has led people ever since he could, I think, so it doesn’t seem like out of the blue, it seems very much in the river of things,” Mr. Mamdani’s mother, the film director Mira Nair, said after the brief ceremony. “But this was unimaginable, but I think quite beautiful.”
Mr. Mamdani made only limited remarks after his midnight swearing-in. He is expected to be more expansive on Thursday afternoon, when he is likely to embrace a message of hope and possibility for ordinary New Yorkers.
A self-described child of privilege, Mr. Mamdani ran for office vowing to make New York more affordable by establishing universal day care, freezing rent for rent-stabilized apartments and making city buses fast and free.
Mamdani’s yearlong rise from a state lawmaker to international figure, embodying the hopes of New Yorkers and Americans across the country that were enthralled by his journey to becoming the city’s first Muslim and first South Asian mayor.
Mayor Mamdani will now oversee 300,000 employees working in dozens of city agencies — many of those agencies, individually, the largest of their kind in the nation — while attempting to make more affordable a city that 8.5 million people call home and that is subject to economic headwinds beyond his control.
