Mamdani Takes Office as New York Mayor, Launches Housing Push on Day One

Overview

• He was sworn in at midnight at the Old City Hall subway station on two Qurans and later held a public ceremony at City Hall led ceremonially by Bernie Sanders with remarks by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
• After the public inauguration, he signed decrees to revive the Mayor’s Office for Tenant Protection and to create two task forces, LIFT and SPEED, to identify sites and cut red tape for new housing.
• He said the tenant office will immediately intervene in the Pinnacle Realty bankruptcy cases after citing thousands of violations tied to the landlord, and he signed the orders at a Pinnacle-owned building.
• Transition estimates put the cost of his priorities—rent freeze, universal childcare, and free rapid-bus service—near $7 billion annually, with aides signaling higher taxes on millionaires as a funding route.
• Large crowds braved subzero temperatures for the ceremony as supporters chanted for taxing the rich, while Republicans cast him as a radical and prior Trump threats to limit federal funds loomed over federal–city relations.