Mamdani and His Wife Move into New York Mayoral Mansion

Mamdani celebrated its latest opening ceremony with a press conference on its new riverside lawn as workers unloaded cardboard boxes filled with houseplants and rolled carpets.

“Today, Rama and I feel fortunate to participate in a ritual that many New Yorkers experience at various meaningful moments in their lives: starting a new chapter by moving to a different part of the city that we call home,” Mamdani said.

Nearly all of the city’s mayors have slept — at least some of the time — in the stately 18th-century, custard-colored house known as Gracie Mansion, which has been designated as the official mayoral residence since 1942.

For Mamdani, the historic home stands in particularly sharp contrast to her previous living quarters: a one-bedroom apartment worth $2,300 a month, without a washer and dryer and prone to flooding due to a burst pipe.

The couple’s new digs, meanwhile, include 11,000 square feet (1,021 square meters) of space, a private chef, ornate ballroom and a patio overlooking the East River. The house also contains the original fireplace where Alexander Hamilton died after his duel with Aaron Burr, and at least one ghost, according to the city’s last mayor, Eric Adams.

Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, appeared aware that the relocation could conflict with his promise to lead “a government that looks and lives like the people it represents,” he said Monday.

He said the decision was made in part to take into account new safety requirements.

Once settled in Gracie Mansion, he said he plans to “open it up to New Yorkers who don’t often visit a place like this.” As for any cosmetic changes, he noted there is “aspirational hope” for installing bidets in bathrooms.

Mamdani spent most of her childhood on the other side of Central Park, in a Manhattan apartment funded by Columbia University, where her father worked as a professor.

While serving in the New York State Legislature, Mamdani lived in Astoria, a diverse and affordable area of ​​Queens; the district was sometimes referred to as the “People’s Republic of Astoria” because of its recent record of electing left-wing representatives, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Before leaving the neighborhood, Mamdani released a statement saying he would miss “the endless Adeni chai, the lively conversations in Spanish, Arabic and other languages, the aromas of seafood and shawarma wafting down the block.”

He’ll likely find less multicultural mixing in the city’s new Upper East Side neighborhood, which is the wealthiest and nearly three-quarters white. Mamdani overwhelmingly won the old Astoria neighborhood, while his opponent, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, won the Upper East Side by double digits.

Neuropsychologist Zoe Cuddy, a longtime Upper East Side resident, said as she walked her Cockapoo in the park next to the mansion that she hoped the new mayor would appreciate the quiet charm of the area, which she likened to “the suburbs of Manhattan.”

And he predicted his friends on the Upper East Side would embrace their new neighbors, too.

“I think we’ll be happy to have him here,” he said.