Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Appears On The People's Brief With Lynae Vanee, Revolt TV (Pre-Taped)
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
It's such a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI want to say shout-outs to all of the city workers because, yes, I work hard. They work very hard. We have more than 300,000 city workers. And so, when New Yorkers wake up, they go outside, they see the pothole paved. More than 191,000 in the last nine months. That's a city worker. And so doing my job is also the privilege of leading that workforce. It's a very difficult job, but it is also the most fulfilling job I could ever imagine because when this job works, it means you are making someone's life better. And I don't think that there's anything better than that.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceHe did some incredible — he continues to do incredible work on public safety. When you look at the statistics, it's really — it speaks for itself. I had the privilege of speaking to him in the months leading up to taking office. And one of the reasons that I wanted to have that conversation was just looking at what he's been able to usher in. It's been quite something.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think I'll say one of the most important things I learned was that nobody owes you their support. Nobody owes you their faith or their trust. You have to earn it. And so that means that when someone tells you that they don't believe that City government can actually deliver for them, your job isn't to debate them. It's to deliver for them. And I think that's something that we've found more and more people starting to believe that City government can be more than what it's been because, finally, the things that they've looked at in their own neighborhood [and] their own life and said, "They can't do this. How can I believe them on that?" We're fixing those things. And to me, if you want to deliver universal child care, you have to pave the pothole. If you want to show that we can actually make the most expensive city in the United States of America affordable when it comes to housing, you also have to open the park. It's all of these things together.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceMy hope is to show that there are things that no one should be priced out of, and dignity is one of them. We understand that at a certain level in our country when we're talking about libraries or we're talking about public schools, but for too long we've only said it in words when it comes to housing or when it comes to child care. We believe that it's okay that the market will set the price and if you can't make it, then that's what it is. I don't think that in the wealthiest city, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, we should have one in four people living in poverty. And to me, that is not a reflection of whether or not they're working hard enough. New Yorkers work so hard every single day, but it feels like the harder people work, they're still stuck where they are in their life. And we want to make it such that there are certain things that every New Yorker will have as a part of their life and that this is a city where the harder you work, the better you do.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think that the biggest thing is to deliver for people. A lot of times politics has felt like a hobby that only some people can afford to have. And I want politics to be something that people understand that can make their life better. And so, we need to do that for people to believe that it's possible. And one of the things that, when you do this work, you come up against is understanding that there's a rationale that you hear in politics. It doesn't stand up to when you're talking to someone outside of it. What I mean by that is I'll ask, "Why do we do this?" Sometimes the answer I'll get is, "Because we've always done this." When you tell someone why you can't pave their pothole, they don't care if it's the same reason you could have given them 10 years ago. They want to know how and when you're going to do it. And so, some of this is just pushing and pushing and pushing past the "We've always done it this way" to get an answer that actually makes sense. Because it feels like we have a different language in politics. We have a different — and a different framework entirely. And it needs to be one that actually mirrors what working people are worried about in the city.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think one is, find what you're passionate about. Sometimes it feels overwhelming because it feels like you have to care about everything in order to care about anything. And what I would say is, if there is something that you are particularly passionate about, let's say it's public transit. Let's say it's libraries. Let's say it's parks. Pour yourself into that because that is something that you can start to put together a sense of, okay, this is what I want to see. This is what I have in front of me. These are the obstacles. Because with the scale of things in our world today, it can feel so overwhelming, where it feels like, you know what, it's better to not be engaged. And what I've found in my own life is the way that I've found purpose is focus, focus and specificity. And so, if you're in Atlanta, I would say, what's the thing that you see as what City government could do more on? And picking that, starting to think about what that life could look like, and then pushing for that, that gives room for others to step up. Because there are a lot of people who are waiting to do something, but they're worried that they're alone in thinking about it. And even if just one other person steps up and says, "You know what, that's my concern," you start to feel like, I'm actually not alone in this anymore.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI don't know enough about astrology, so I didn't know if that was, like, a prompt. Yes, I'm a Libra. I was born October 18th. And I will be honest with you. One thing, biking is something that gives me peace of mind because you can't do anything while you're doing it. And so often now, you feel like you have to be multiply productive. You know, like, you're on your way somewhere; you can be doing something as you do it. When you're biking somewhere, you just have to focus on getting there. And that is something that clears the head. I did just have a chance to take a week off with my wife, and that was lovely. Isn't she?
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceShe is. And I think the other thing that's really lovely is the people that I work with, you actually look forward to seeing them every day. You look forward to coming into the office. And I know that's — I mean, that's not always been my experience when I've worked. And to have that here, it's because you have a shared sense of purpose. You know why you're doing this. You're doing this for the people outside of City Hall. And that's the other thing of why bike, why take the train, why walk, why get out of this building is because too often it feels like politics is just inside these buildings. Caring only about the concerns of the people inside the buildings. It has to be about outside the building. What's your sign? What does that mean?
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceAnd I think, yeah, if your brain is broken like mine, sometimes I have to motivate myself in strange ways. And one reason why you should also take time to turn off is that that's when you can actually think. That's when you can reflect. If you're just living at this speed, you will never get the time to actually dig into the depth of something. And you don't know the ideas that come to you when you're running or you're biking. Or even if you're just — I know there have been times where it's like, I don't want to stop looking at the work I have on my phone. But sometimes when you do that, you can actually resolve the question that's in front of you.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think it gives you a perspective of a different vantage point. And also just how critical every single role is to the outcome. As a PA, my job was mostly like, "Get this milkshake, get this juice." But I would also motivate myself knowing that if I gave this to someone, it would make them feel better, they could do their job better. And there is so much that it takes to do this kind of work in City Hall. And too often when it works, it's framed as if it's a reflection of just one person, when, in fact, it's a reflection of a process and a team.I could not be doing this without this team. And that's also something that I would just offer to others. You shouldn't compare yourself, one individual to another. You should compare the people that you're building around yourself, because the collective is actually what's going to deliver it for you.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI did not think I was going to be mayor nine years ago. When I was getting my milkshake back, I wasn't like, "Just you wait. I'm going to be the mayor in nine years." No, I did not have that thought.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, I think the biggest thing that frustrated me was how we were seeing the city have a skyrocketing cost-of-living crisis and a sense that the mayor could do nothing about it when, in reality, the mayor was exacerbating that cost-of-living crisis. And that is what really pushed me over the edge: that it can be different. And if we just tell ourselves that this is what it is, then we're allowing it to get worse. And I want to try. I didn't think at that moment that trying meant that everything could work out. But when, you know, a friend of mine, Phara Souffrant Forrest , she always tells me, "Closed mouths don't get fed." And so, if you, you know, the only way you can succeed is if you're willing to try.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think as millennials, we're old enough to have lived through the promise of the world around us and the contradictions. Like, we came of age during the financial crisis, during the Iraq war, came of age at a time when we were taught and learned the hard way that so many of the so-called experts who we could trust to steward our future were, in fact, ensuring that our past looked much brighter than what we were about to live through. And I think that also imbues us with a responsibility that we may have to be the ones who are part of writing that next chapter. And it's so exciting to see so many other millennials who are a part of what it looks like to do that and to just be one small part of it.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWell, I mean, even if you think about the internet, we lived through a time where it wasn't our second language and we lived through a time where it was starting to become it. So there's at least some sense of what it looks like to live in both of those worlds.I mean, I think about, like, my first iPod. You remember that?
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think that I'm really hopeful that these are the midterms where we take back the House. And to me, that's not simply important from a political level. It's what that can mean for working people. When I'm thinking about the cuts that have come from Washington, D.C., under this federal administration, the health care cuts we're about to see, the SNAP cuts, these will be devastating for people. And so, if you have Democrats who have the House, then it means that there is actually a path to fighting back on some of these things. And so often politics, it feels like it's removed from the day-to-day. But what we're really talking about is people going to the hospital, people going to the grocery store. These are ways to make it that little bit easier. I think we've seen what that cruelty can look like from Washington. It's time to actually redefine what Washington can be. Very welcome. Thank you 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 The People's Brief With Lynae Vanee, Revolt TV (Pre-Taped).