Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Appears on Clay Cane Show (Pre-Taped), Urban View, Sirius XM (Channel 126)
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Well, I think, first and foremost, it's a pleasure to be here. And it's nice to actually get to meet you in person. Because a lot of times, you know, it's remote, it's virtual. And this, to me, is part of what it means to actually go out into the city that you serve and make sure that you're reaching out to the New Yorkers who you serve, because so often City government has comported itself in a manner where you're just kind of happy to pretend that everybody knows what you're doing, and that you know best. And the truth is that the best leadership comes from listening to New Yorkers; and listening to where New Yorkers are getting their news, where New Yorkers are reflecting on their lives, and frankly there are no better places to come than here.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think that the first step is a recognition that you have to earn people's support; nobody owes you their support. And with that has to come a little bit of humility. The first question that was often asked of me when I was introducing myself in the mayoral primary was, “Who?” Because most New Yorkers had never heard of me, and why would they have? I was a State Assembly member representing Astoria in Long Island City, and I was going out to a church in Southeast Queens, and I was speaking to them in a race where they had heard of a number of other candidates either for months, years, sometimes even for decades. And introducing myself, sometimes it meant taking those early steps again and again, but always understanding that you have to prove why people should believe. And yes, a lot of people talk about affordability, and it affects everyone across New York City — we also know it doesn't affect everyone in the same way. In the nation's most expensive city, right here in New York City, the median household wealth of a Black family is less than $3,000. We have seen over the last few decades 200,000 Black New Yorkers pushed out of this city. And so, when you are coming up against that history, you also have to understand why people might be skeptical of someone saying that things could be different; because people have said it for quite a long time, people have not delivered it for almost that same period of time. And so, now what I see as the opportunity of governing is the opportunity to earn that trust. And I never begrudge someone that they may not have it on day one. It's my job to earn it on day two, day three and every day after that.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, there are a lot of caricatures of New Yorkers. We know them. Some of us, we revel in them. We're in a rush, we're rude, we're always going somewhere. There's another part of it where people say that a lot of us have left hope behind; that it's something that we might have had in the past, but we can't find in the present or in the future. One thing that has surprised me is how willing New Yorkers are to believe if you give them a reason. And that reason doesn't always have to be the biggest thing you can think of. That reason can sometimes be the pothole on their block. Now, I remember going to Rochdale Village in the final days of the campaign and to the transition before I was in office as the mayor, and an older woman in the back of the crowd put her hand up, and she asked me, “Will you honor the promise that was made to me?” I’m thinking, I wonder how big this promise is, you know, who said what, when, how much is this going to cost? I asked her, could you tell me a little bit more? She said it was a promise that there would be a speed bump, and it hasn't happened for decades. And I bring that up as an example that when people lose their trust that government can do the smallest things, that's when they lose their ability to believe that it could do the biggest things. And one small thing that I'm proud of is, you know, right next to City Hall, we have the Municipal Building. It was renamed after our city's first Black mayor, David Dinkins, who is an icon to me and to so many others— Who was a Democratic Socialist. He was the first one. I walk in that path. And there's been a little bit of a secret almost amongst city workers, city bureaucrats, city politicians, that if you want a really great view of New York City, go up to the cupola of the municipal building. And I had heard this from a few people. And one idea that came up in a conversation with the team was, why not make this a place where every New Yorker can go? In a time when it feels like everything costs more and more money, what if we had beauty as a public good in the name of David Dinkins? And so, one thing that we did was we put in the money to refurbish that cupola and make it a place where any New Yorker can go for free to see a view of the city that rivals even that of the Empire State Building.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think you definitely develop an appreciation of the kind of pressures that people are functioning under, especially the pressures around those that you love. And I think it was Toni Morrison that said the function of racism is distraction, and you are constantly faced with this choice. When you face this barrage of xenophobia, of racism, it’s: do you want to grant it your time? Or do you want to focus on the work that you came here to do? And it's not going to always be the same answer, but when you look at President Obama, when you look at Vice President Harris, you also see them having to make that decision in real time every single day. And every moment that you have to face that decision is a moment you could have spent doing the work that you came there to do. And it’s truly been a pleasure to be in conversation with President Obama, to have spoken to Vice President Harris, and to recognize all that came before. Because in that recognition you also have a better understanding of all the work that still needs to be done to come next.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceFirst, thank you, Queen Hunter, for saying my name, for honoring it with that time. I would say that I'm looking to wreck complacency. And what I mean by that is, there are a lot of questions that you can ask when you're in a position like mine, and the answer will be, “This is just how we do it. This is just how it's been done.” And that's not enough anymore; it's not enough because it hasn't been enough for New Yorkers. And what has been so exciting is seeing the leadership of civil servants. There are more than 300,000 New Yorkers who work for the city. And they go in day in and out, performing, frankly, acts of heroism. You know, recently we had the old Pfizer building, structurally unsound in Midtown. A lot of New Yorkers saw it as they were looking up and wondering what was going to happen to this building, where one of the beams was buckling. There were civil servants who went into that building, not knowing how sound it was, to assess whether it was safe. And I had the privilege of welcoming them to City Hall from the Department of Buildings, from FDNY, and just saying thank you. And to me, what's so exciting is when we push on this, “that's how it's always been.” We have the voice, the efforts, and the initiative of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who've been waiting for the opportunity where they could show how it could be. And that's what's so exciting to me.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWell, first I would say thank you for the question. And I think that what I appreciate about it is its criticism in good faith. And that's what we need more of in our politics. And I think to me, one thing I've appreciated about New York City DSA is that it has been one of the engines behind the creation of a new generation of Black and Brown leadership, the likes [of which] we haven't seen in quite some time. When I look at other elected officials who I ran alongside, you know, I'm thinking about in 2020 it was Jabari Brisport, it was Phara Souffrant Forrest [and] it was Marcela Mitaynes. It was a number of us, and we see in every single cycle more and more of this new generation of leadership that isn't looking to rewrite history, but rather to honor the history that came before. And I'll give you an example: one of my focuses has been universal childcare. Just earlier this week, we announced that we have received more than 5,700 applications for the first 2,000 seats of free childcare for two-year-olds. And in politics, there's always a temptation to describe everything as if it is your own achievement — it is you, you came up with it. The truth is, when we are advocating for childcare, we are also following in the footsteps of Major Owens. The truth is that when we're advocating for a city-run grocery store and tackling food insecurity, we're following the footsteps of Shirley Chisholm, whose initiatives helped to create SNAP and WIC. And you see this time and time again. And so, I'm hopeful of what the future holds. And I also appreciate the questioner, and I'm sorry that they weren't able to be here, because I think that there is a desire to continue to both celebrate that history and showcase its continued applicability to the present challenges.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI would say, especially when it comes to public safety, I've been very clear that we have our police force, we have prisons, we have jails [and] the purpose of these is also to ensure that we are delivering safety and justice hand in hand. And what that means is that New Yorkers need not choose between the two. And I am proud of our police department for their work in delivering the lowest levels of murders and shootings and even the number of shooting victims in recorded history over seven months over this year. And I also want to ensure that this is a city where New Yorkers know that that is not coming at the expense of justice.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceIf you have two socialists in a room, there has to be at least one disagreement. That's what it means.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceFirst of all, thank you for your question and also thank you for the work that you do as a social worker. It is such critically important work now and especially in this city and in this country today. When it comes to Stanley, he is — that's one of the easiest decisions I've made as the mayor of our city. As you alluded to, he's the first formerly incarcerated New Yorker to lead the Department of Corrections. And we are speaking about someone who served time in jail and prison, and then spent years at the Fortune Society looking to help those who also served their time reintegrate back into society. And what I so appreciate about him is that in every conversation I have with him, humanity is at the heart of it. Humanity for those who are serving their time, humanity for those who are working at those facilities and a recognition that it doesn't have to be a choice. And when I have walked through Rikers with him. When I have spoken to him about the necessity of closing Rikers, and we talk about the borough-based jails that would be built, he can sometimes point out to his own along the way. And that is — that is truly a place of leadership that I think only he could occupy. And it is a pleasure to work with him and to look to restore some more humanity to our city in the process.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceFirst, I want to say thank you for being an artist in this city. [Crosstalk.] You know, I talk about affordability a lot. Sometimes it is taken as if it is somehow separate from an agenda around the arts. And one of the things we have to ensure is that art is a part of life for everyone. And one of the key ways you do that is to ensure that artists can afford to live in this city. Because if you become such an expensive city that art becomes a luxury good, then you are depriving yourself of the magic of what art is. And I don't want this to be a city where people come and go to museums to learn about what New York City once was. I want the city to be a living, breathing testament to what it looks like when art can flourish. And I’m proud we have a new commissioner at DCLA, and she comes from that world of how to integrate art into more of our lives. I will actually follow up with her on the specificity of the question around freelance artists and Housing Connect, because in my conversations also with our Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning, we've talked about the need to change Housing Connect because we have heard a number of frustrations from New Yorkers, and frustrations are an opportunity to do better. So, on both of those, I would love if we could actually get your number at the end of this, and we can follow up on that. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI love this question. First, I have to ask, what did you do for the city? Oh my god. Well, I just have to say thank you, because before I was the mayor, before I was an Assembly member, I was a foreclosure and prevention housing counselor. And I used to work with working and middle-class New Yorkers who owned their homes and who were in danger of foreclosure. They were negotiating with a bank on how to get back into compliance with that mortgage, how to get out of delinquency. And HRA would be a place that I would go because there was the prospect sometimes of those families getting a one-shot deal, getting back on their feet. And I can't tell you how transformative it was for a family to know that there was actually a way out of that pain and that despair. And obviously now as the mayor, it is a real point of pride to see the work that HRA workers do on a daily basis. To your question around rent and housing, we know this is the most expensive city in the United States of America, and we know that the preeminent crisis when it comes to cost is housing. So, there are a few things. The first is we want to and will build more affordable housing in the next 10 years than any mayor has in the last few decades. We've talked about 200,000 new affordable homes. Doing that alongside preserving 200,000 existing affordable homes and all of this while we build out the strongest tenant protections in the United States of America. And the reason these things are important to go together is the longer you spend in New York, the more you will have the feeling when you see construction in your neighborhood asking, “Is that for me? Or is that somebody else? And am I going to be able to stay?” And the importance of making sure that the city is building affordable housing is that New Yorkers can know that there's room for them in that future as well. They're not just a part of the past. And we have to build more housing to keep up with the demand in the city. We also have to make sure that tenants have their rights and those rights are enforced. Because I've met tenants who have shown me the kind of, you know, negligence that their landlords have made into a business model that is frankly unacceptable. On the first day of my administration, I went to an apartment building owned by a real estate group, and a mother showed me her apartment. She showed me the level of rust in her bathroom. Right outside of her bathroom were two of her kids, one of them in their early 20s. And I asked her, “How long has it been like this?” And she pointed at her kid, and she said, “Before he was born.” People have had to accept that, and they shouldn't have to any longer.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceLook, I think one is we have to catch up with demand, and what that means is you have to increase supply across the city. The other is we also have to ensure that we're holding everyone accountable because what we've seen is there are real estate portfolios that rack up so many different violations and tenants wait for so long that they feel like there's never going to be a recourse. And I mean, I'm talking about a level of violation where there was a beehive found in the wall of one of these buildings, right, and if you do not address violations, it breeds impunity, and so what I'm so excited by is we can do all these things at the same time. Sometimes people have been told you either have to choose between protecting tenants' rights and building more housing; we're saying, it’s time to do it all.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI love the way you phrased this question because it speaks to the fact that what we used to think of as money that would be enough to build a good life, it is not the case anymore. After housing, the next cost for New Yorkers is childcare. You have to make $334,000 a year in New York City to afford childcare for one child. That's the amount that you have to make to be considered to afford it. Obviously, other people pay for it with making much less, but they pay for it at the expense of everything else in their life. So, $120,000 is still a struggle in New York City. And so, to me, I think there are a few things. The first is we have to take a universal approach. And one of those approaches is when it comes to childcare. Universal childcare saves each family at least $20,000 a year. And we know that there are some families paying up to $40,000 a year, and this is for every New Yorker, no matter what their salary is — if they're making $120,000 or $60,000, because we know it's not enough to stay in the city. The second thing is: how do we also ensure that the quality of what the city is delivering is so good that you will choose that city service no matter how much money is in your pocket? One of my favorite things about our city is the subway. And at its best, the subway is what everyone uses to get from place A to place B. Now, we have to deliver that excellence across every service, because when you do that, you also save people money that they would otherwise be spending on a private version of that. And there's so much they can spend in the private market, but when it comes to things that are necessary for their life, when it comes to education, when it comes to libraries, when it comes to parks, let us deliver that standard of quality that New Yorkers know — actually, I can get the best thing, and I can get it for free.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThat's still something we're fighting for. And, you know, I built a campaign with our team around the cost-of-living crisis. And one of the central three things that we would talk about in that campaign was making buses fast and making them free. And I've said that that's something we're going to deliver by the time that I'm done being mayor. And what we're doing right now is working on the fast. You know, we have buses in this city traveling five miles an hour. And I can tell you, there are times when you are walking faster than five miles an hour. I mean, I used to go to high school at Bronx Science in the Bronx. I would take the 1 train from 116 to 231st. I would get out; I would take the Bx10. I knew if I could see the Bx10 two stops away at the top of the hill that I could run and catch the bus. And that is a good thing for me when I'm late, and that's a bad thing for the city. I should not be able to catch the buses if it's two stops away. And then we're going to keep working with Albany to make these buses free because you spoke about it just now; we're talking about the cost of public transit [being] three dollars. Disproportionately, the ridership of our buses is the most working-class ridership of any public transit. And what we found is that one in five of those riders are struggling to afford three dollars; we do not want people to be priced out of taking the bus. And so, we worked with the Council; we increased the eligibility for Fair Fares, which is reduced pricing for New Yorkers who make a certain amount, but we're still gonna keep working to make those buses free.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceIt's a very sweet question. We got to get you back to New York City. You know, I think one is just growing up in New York City. You are used to noise. And what you have to do is decide what you want to tune out and what you want to tune into. You can never just tell yourself, “I'm going to tune out all criticism.” Because then you might as well just stay at home and look in a mirror. You have to just understand when people are offering things in good faith, take it, take that criticism [and] take that reflection. And then I also just — I have to credit my grandmother; she told me from a young age that smiling was a good thing, that you should smile. And she would always encourage me to, and it just became a part of my nature. And It's easier for me to smile than to scowl, and I've been really lucky that New York City gives me so much reason to smile.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceIf it’s Christmas, I always say Mariah. Alicia Keys, she's just such a hometown hero, and I know that so many now, when we think of Alicia Keys, we think about “Empire State of Mind.” It was incredible having her at City Hall for the Knicks celebration. But I just think of so many memories of middle school and high school for me, and it's just to the soundtrack of Alicia Keys. It’s me just humming on the 1 train, “This girl's on fire.” [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThat's a great question, and it's a question that has empathy in it, and I appreciate that because sometimes on these topics, it's few and far between. I think first, we have to reckon with the fact that for many New Yorkers, investment in their neighborhood has sometimes come with a specter of displacement. People feel like, oh, I'm going to get a nice thing; it must mean that someone is going to come and enjoy this. And we have to show that we can deliver that investment for the people who live there right now. And earlier we were talking about universal childcare. The governor and I have been working together with leaders in the state legislature. We're delivering 2,000 free seats this year, 12,000 free seats next year for two-year-olds. End of year four? Every single two-year-old in New York City. When we're starting that, we decide where do we want to begin this. And one of the conversations we had is, what are the neighborhoods that are either last on the list or not at all? And so, we made the decision that with these first 2,000 seats, we were going to start in the Rockaways, in Brownsville, in Fordham, in so many neighborhoods that we've seen economic need is so high and yet city investment is so low. And second, when it comes to dealing with the homelessness crisis, we have to both deal with the short-term of it and the long-term of it. Long term of it, we have to build enough housing, ensure that it's affordable enough that people aren't being pushed out of that housing. Because we know that when rent goes up, there's a relationship with homelessness also going up, and when it comes to the short term, we have to have an analysis of fair, being fair with where shelters are placed and why we are placing them, why we need them. And so, when I've had conversations with elected officials about this is why the city needs to open a shelter here, we talk about the fact that we are a city that's proud of the fact we have a law called the “Right to Shelter,” where every New Yorker has a right to a shelter. What that means is that we have to have a certain capacity for shelters, but then I also go back to my team, and I say, how do we make sure that in eight years I'm not picking up the phone to have the same conversation? How have we built enough housing so that it's not always just temporary, temporary, temporary, but it's also starting to move to the long term? And one of the things is it's just not enough to build housing at large; you also have to build supportive housing. And for those who don't know, supportive housing is housing that comes with programming and clinical assistance and the kind of support that formerly homeless New Yorkers need to ensure that they actually get the tools they can to live a stable life. I think it was on Monday that I was in the Bronx at Casanova Residences celebrating the breaking ground with The Doe Fund of affordable housing, of which a significant portion is going to specifically be for formerly homeless New Yorkers, so we can get people out of shelters and get them into their homes. Thank you for your work.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWell, first, I have to say, great t-shirt. Second, mom-and-pop shops are near and dear to me. They are some of what makes our city special. And especially in a moment where it feels like so much is being made uniform, so many parts of the city and the country and the world feel as if you can just cut and paste, there are these places in our city that you cannot find anywhere else. And part of this is when we have city resources, that we shine that light as you've said. Part of this is also asking small business owners, what's making it harder for you to stay open? And what we heard from these small business owners is, yes, some of it's the fines and fees; some of it's also just the number of hoops they have to jump through. So, we had these task forces and these convenings; we recently came out a couple weeks ago and announced a task force called OPEN to help these small businesses and that we were going to introduce more than 50 regulatory reforms. Some of these reforms speak to the fact that today, a small business needs to have a license to sell hot food and a license to sell a frozen dairy dessert. Makes no sense to me. And it's not just about the money that each license you have to pay for, but how many times you have to fill out paperwork and go to a new agency and go to the next meeting, and we want them to just be able to focus on their work. And the second thing is, you know, some of these regulations are just arcane. There was a regulation that was limiting how much a bingo cash prize could be. It's like, I'm not going to get in the way of aunties and uncles playing ping-pong. This is not one of the city's problems. And so, I think it's asking, it's listening, and then it's acting on it. And we have a mom-and-pop czar, Delia Awusi, who's doing great work. But we're always trying to think about how can we shine a light. The last thing I'll say is we just had the World Cup. It was incredible. We had a lot of people come to New York City for the first time. We also wanted to make sure that, with all due respect to Midtown, they also went to other parts of New York City. And so, we started a $26 meal and deal, you know, a challenge really where we had small businesses sign up to offer $26 bucks to get a meal and a deal. And whether it was Xochimilco in the South Bronx, whether it was having tacos in Corona, we saw New Yorkers go across the five boroughs. And it was really a celebration of these mom-and-pop stores. Thank you for your questions.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, our nurses do incredible work each and every day. And when I came into office, I met a number of norms about the office. One of those norms was when there's a labor negotiation, the mayor should stay out. And I looked, and I saw nurses who were picketing and striking for the right to earn enough to stay in this city and to have safe staff. And I remembered the quote, I think it's from Desmond Tutu. He says, neutrality in the face of injustice. [I’m] making a choice to paraphrase him. And I decided to go with Senator Bernie Sanders and stand on that picket line with those nurses and add my voice. Because as you have laid out in your question, this work — they are not fighting for luxury. They are not for things that would be nice to have. They're fighting for things that are necessary not just for their job safety, but also for the safety of patients. And it was incredible to see them and management come together to celebrate a new contract. And we celebrate the work that they do in this city.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceAnd I think that's what I've heard from New Yorkers is, “I don't care what you describe yourself as, as long as there's room for me.” And people have struggled in this city. So many of the people who helped to build this city are the ones struggling in this. And they are tired of bankrupt politics. Whether it's morally bankrupt or economically bankrupt or politically bankrupt, they want to see a government that works as hard as they do. They want a government that is as cautious with the way that it spends its money as they are when they're at the grocery store. And for too long, it's felt as if that's too much to ask. And as much of a New York supremacist as I am, I also know that it's not just New Yorkers who are struggling with these issues. It's not New York that’s struggling with rent or groceries or childcare; It's people across the country. And part of the reason we also know that is that New Yorkers now live across the country because they couldn't afford to stay here. And whether you want to look at Michigan or you want to look at Denver or you want to look at New Jersey or New York, wherever you want to look, there's a hunger for a new kind of politics, and it's one where working people are back at the heart.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceOh, I’ve done this to myself. I see Jeff May smiling in the background.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou're just sitting on the edge of Roosevelt Island right now, you just cast out. You're like, let me just fish!
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceOk, first of all, not me. I think we have a number of choices. I know that people are making their own choices, of whether or not they want to run. What I'm hopeful of is we're seeing a lot of examples of what it can look like to have that focus on the working person. People who understand that affordability isn't just something you say, it's something you have to deliver. And that in doing this, we're not running away from the Democratic Party; we're going back to what the party used to be. You think about FDR and La Guardia, you think about the New Deal; that's what the Democratic Party once was. That's what it could be again. And if we want to win, I think that's what we have to become. I'm looking for somebody in their late 40s who's struggling with a cat [inaudible]...showing vulnerability, but also humility—
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceNo. I just want to say thank you for having me. And thank you all for being here because it is a choice of how to spend your time. And to have you all be here to ask these questions, to share your reflections and your experiences with me, it's something that I now get to take from this room and have be a part of the compass that guides this work. So, thank you all so much. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Appears on Clay Cane Show (Pre-Taped), Urban View, Sirius XM (Channel 126).