Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Establishes Office of Mass Engagement to Transform How New Yorkers Participate in City Government
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good afternoon, everyone. One year ago this month, hundreds of New Yorkers gathered on a bright and bitterly cold Saturday morning, right here at Grand Army Plaza. It was six months before the Democratic primary for mayor. We were in the low single digits in the polls, at best. Every ounce of conventional wisdom said that our campaign was not supposed to work. Surely, there was a better way to spend a Saturday than knocking on doors, talking to strangers, and crossing the small but real distances that separate us from one another. And yet, New Yorkers showed up. At a moment when so many people feel isolated from one another and distant from a political system that can feel closed or unresponsive, they made a deliberate choice not to be bystanders, but to become participants. Their own politics and their own vision for New York City being the driving force behind what they were going to do. And that meant knocking on doors of people who lived just blocks away, but whom they had never met. It meant asking questions instead of assuming answers. It meant listening instead of lecturing, finding common ground. And that experience taught us something simple and profound. Democracy works best when people are not treated as an audience, but as an active part of it. Governing demands the same. That is why we are here today. We are gathered at Grand Army Plaza, surrounded by powerful symbols of public life. The central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, designed like an open book, a statement that knowledge should be shared and accessible to all. The Soldiers and Sailors Arch, a Civil War monument honoring those who fought in a war, waged for a new birth of freedom, and the expansion of democracy itself. Prospect Park. Public space built not to be exclusive or ornamental, but to be shared. These are reminders of a belief that once guided this city, that public infrastructure should be generous, beautiful, and open. But a city is not held together by buildings alone, it is held together by trust, and by whether people feel connected to the decisions that shape their life. That social infrastructure has been neglected for too long. Too often, engagement is fragmented or symbolic. Too often, people are asked for input, but never see how it shapes outcomes. Today, that changes. With the signing of this executive order, we will be establishing the Mayor's Office of Mass Engagement, a fundamental part of city government, dedicated to rebuilding our social infrastructure at scale. This office, combining and reorienting the existing community affairs unit, public engagement unit, and other initiatives, starts from a simple premise. Working New Yorkers know what they need to thrive. Our job is to make sure [the] government listens, consistently and with real consequence. The Office of Mass Engagement will organize participation across this city, proactively reach those that have been excluded, and ensure that public feedback is embedded directly into how we design policies, deliver services, and make decisions. And to lead this work, I am proud to announce that Tascha Van Auken will serve as commissioner. Since President Obama's first campaign in 2008 to her leadership in New York City DSA, Tascha has spent more than a decade organizing at scale, developing leadership, building trust, and helping working people turn priorities into action. In our campaign, she mobilized more than 100,000 volunteers, who knocked on more than three million doors. Not just to win an election, but to build leadership and a real sense of community across this city. She also spent many years working at the Blue Man Group, which means she brings both organizing discipline and an unusual tolerance for chaos. The Office of Mass Engagement reflects how we intend to govern. With humility, openness, and a firm belief that democracy is strongest when it belongs to the people, not just in theory but in practice. And we should be clear about how this work will be judged, not by how many meetings we hold, or surveys we collect, but by whether people can see their voices reflected in the decisions that we make. Judge us by whether engagement changes outcomes. Just as past generations invested in the public spaces around us, this administration is investing in the civic fabric that holds our city together. And that same commitment to openness, participation, and rebuilding trust in our institutions, guides how we approach every part of city government. That is why today, I am also announcing that Ali Najmi will serve as chair of the Mayor's Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. Under Ali's leadership, this committee will take on a more public and engaged role, reaching beyond City Hall to the wider legal community, demystifying the judicial selection process, expanding who participates in shaping our courts, and ensuring that our city's judicial system applies the rule of law universally and does so without favor. This includes proactive engagement with legal services organizations, bar associations, and minority and affinity bars, with the goal of widening the pipeline and strengthening confidence in our judiciary. Ali is a civil rights and election attorney with deep experience in our local courts, a longtime bar association leader who has helped diversify the judiciary in Queens, and someone I've known and admired for more than a decade as a friend, an attorney, and a leader in this city. Tascha Van Auken, Ali, welcome to a new era in our city. I look forward to building it with you, together.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceAll right, just before we start on topics, if we can have one last round of applause for Tascha Van Auken and Ali Najmi.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, the work of civic engagement has existed before today. It has been a part of city government. However, it has often been siloed in different parts of city government infrastructure, sometimes under different offices, sometimes through different initiatives. Part of the intent of this executive order is not just to create a new Office of Mass Engagement, but also to cohere all of the work that is already being done into one place so that we can ensure that it's not duplicative and it's actually fulfilling its intent. And then the other part of this is to transform what government deems to be acceptable when it comes to public engagement and outreach. Oftentimes, the outreach and engagement of city government is done with an intention to justify a decision that's already been taken. The point of this office is, however, to make decisions with a large part being what the public actually thinks about those decisions. And I can think of no one better than this New Yorker to my left, who fundamentally reshaped what so many across the city, including myself, thought was possible in terms of the engagement in a city-wide race to bring more than 100,000 people out to knock on doors and make phone calls.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI have to tell you, this is done with the intention of delivering for New Yorkers today [and] delivering for New Yorkers every single day. And I think what is so critical is that we have an opportunity in this moment where New Yorkers are allowing themselves to believe in the possibility of city government once again. That is not a belief that will sustain itself in the absence of action, in the absence of actually delivering for them. And so it is right now in a moment like this where we need to institute this kind of an office, this kind of an approach. And I would also say there is a through line between the actions taken to establish this new office and also the appointment of Ali Najmi in leading the recruitment and outreach efforts for our judicial system. Because too often, the ability for a New Yorker to become a judge has been determined by who they know as opposed to the work that they do. And what Ali is going to bring forth is a newfound focus on ensuring that not only does our judicial system reflect the city it serves, but also that it reflects a commitment to excellence and an application of the law in a universal manner.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThere are a number of employees within this office that are already working for the city within previously existing offices, and then the specifics of how it will expand beyond that is something that we will be sharing later.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, a few years ago, I was an assembly member conducting a number of meetings on the MTA. My chief of staff, Elle Bisgaard-Church and I were looking to put together a campaign in Albany that would look to fix the MTA. And so we had meetings with journalists, meetings with policy experts, meetings with MTA officials themselves. It was actually an MTA official who told me in one of those meetings that if you really cared about equity, you would focus more on the bus. And it was soon after in a meeting that I had with a friend of mine, Alisha Singh, who brought up the fact that in order to deliver not only in terms of economic relief, but also in terms of public safety, this would mean also making buses free. Those are meetings that then informed our approach, not just to that legislative session, but then actually became a hallmark of the campaign that we ran. Yes, and I think this comes back from a belief that too often in politics, there is a temptation to pretend as if you have all the answers already, when in fact there is no New Yorker that has a monopoly on the answers that the city is asking questions towards. We need to have leadership and a city government that knows the answers to the most pressing questions, big and small in this city, [that] could come from New Yorkers themselves. The answers to the very questions that are flummoxing so many in the highest levels of government could in fact be answered by those that we are currently walking past or overlooking or not even listening to. And what I so love about Tascha and her work is that she sees within each person a potential to be that leader. She gives them not only the room to grow, but the belief that they can and they must grow. And that is also something that we have to deliver for New Yorkers at large.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceAbsolutely, so I think first and foremost, this has an immediate impact in terms of restructuring city government itself, where we are taking these existing initiatives and agencies, bringing them together, and that is something that will change from today. And then it will change in terms of what we expect of ourselves and how we start to engage with the public at large. And that's partially why I said we should not be measured on the number of meetings we hold or the number of surveys that are filled out, we should in fact be measured by the way in which we incorporate that feedback into the decisions that we make. And that's something that I look forward to working with my commissioner on, to ensure that New Yorkers feel a difference in this era of New York City government as opposed to being just told about that difference. Thank you very much.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo I am going to demand the world from Tascha in her new position as the commissioner of the Office of Mass Engagement. And I'm also going to give her more than five minutes before she gets into the position to have to answer some of the specifics around budget and personnel, though I do assure you that this is going to be an office that will have the backing of myself as the mayor of this city. And yesterday, I think it was yesterday, the inauguration, I mentioned in my speech that let us not allow victory to become an invitation to turn off the news. We have seen sometimes in our politics a description of success as the ability for Americans to return back to their lives. We want to make clear that our successes will be achieved together with the New Yorkers who brought us to this point and all others that call this city their home. And so that means that our agenda is not one that is going to be fought for simply behind the closed doors of city and state government, but rather one that the very New Yorkers who are here today and those that are hard at work across the city will be a part of advocating for. Because it is those New Yorkers that actually determined this agenda in the first place. And it is those New Yorkers who will be alongside us as we not only fight for this, but win this.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI would not be standing here before you as the mayor of this city if it were not for Latino New Yorkers across the five boroughs. Latino New Yorkers, a majority of them supported us in the primary, we saw that only continue in the general, and what I've heard from so many Latino New Yorkers is a feeling that not only do they not see themselves within city government, but they don't also see their own struggles in city government, in the focuses of that government, in the priorities of that government. And what we are going to do is to deliver a city government that finally not only looks more like, but is paying more attention to the actual struggles of day-to-day New Yorkers. Latino New Yorkers face the highest levels of housing insecurity of any ethnic group in this city. When we are talking about the affordability crisis, it is hitting Latino New Yorkers at a disproportionate rate, and so when we talk about the necessity of freezing the rent for more than two million rent-stabilized tenants, when we talk about the urgency of making the slowest buses in America, fast and free. And when we talk about the importance of transforming what is currently a $22,500 a year expense to send a child to childcare, that is going to be critical in ensuring Latino New Yorkers can stay in this city. Because I have heard from far too many who still call themselves, they are Latino, they still call themselves New Yorkers, but they actually live in Pennsylvania. They live in New Jersey. And that is because we have pushed them out of the city. It's time for us to actually not only keep New Yorkers here, but start to make those who left feel like they can actually come home.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo I was proud yesterday to sign a number of executive orders that will give my administration a clean slate to get to work on delivering a new era for New Yorkers, one where they can envision living an affordable and dignified life. My administration will also be marked by a city government that will be relentless in its efforts to combat hate and division, and we will showcase that by fighting hate across the city, and that includes fighting the scourge of antisemitism, by actually funding hate crime prevention, by celebrating our neighbors, and by practicing a politics of universality. And when we speak about the IHRA definition that you asked about, you know, protecting Jewish New Yorkers is going to be a focus of my administration, and I also know that a number, as you said, of leading Jewish organizations have immense concerns around this definition. And so what we will do is actually deliver on our commitment to protect Jewish New Yorkers in a manner that is able to actually fulfill that.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceIn the first executive order, you, as the new mayor of a city, have to sign a continuation of all prior executive orders or a revocation or an amendment of all of them. And so what we did was to sign an executive order that continued every executive order that predated the moment when our former mayor was indicted. A moment when many New Yorkers lost even more faith in New York City politics and the ability of city government to actually prioritize the needs of the public, as opposed to the needs of the person, and what we will now do is showcase that new era to protect each and every New Yorker and to deliver for those same New Yorkers in a manner that they have not seen under prior administrations. 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 Establishes Office of Mass Engagement to Transform How New Yorkers Participate in City Government.