For someone in a movie set in a romanticised New York, this is quite the dream — going from a one-room apartment to the mayoral mansion — but for Zohran Mamdani, the professed socialist Democrat who will now be running the megacity, it's a decision that comes with strings, not just perks.
“I don't yet have an answer on where I'm going to be living,” the mayor-elect said in an interview, “but I can tell you where I'm going to be working, and that's City Hall.” Such a response is right up the alley for the first Indian-origin, first South Asian, and the first Muslim to become New York City mayor. At 34, he is also the youngest in over a century.
But a 10-fold upgrade now would hold much meaning, just as most of his hyper-present, hyper-scrutinised campaign has held. The difference gets starker when you remember how he recently described spending a morning blanketing the floor with towels due to a leaky sink in the rented apartment in Astoria, Queens.
Gracie Mansion awaits.
{{/usCountry}}Gracie Mansion awaits.
{{/usCountry}}Born in Uganda and raised in New York City, the New York State assemblyman initially defeated fellow Democrat Andrew Cuomo in the election for the party ticket. And then he again defeated Cuomo, who ran as an independent candidate, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, in the actual election.
For the past seven years, Mamdani and his wife, Syrian-American artist Rama Duwaji, have lived in an apartment that could well be on the poster of his “let's make New York affordable” campaign.
It's in a building from before the American Civil War, and has hot water as standard but the laundry room is shared. Mamdani has said he found this apartment in 2018, when he was earning a modest income as a counsellor for people facing foreclosure over mortgage or loan default.
His potential new residence, Gracie Mansion, is in Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Built in 1799, it has been described in historical accounts as a “pale lemon cake of a house” with an "old-money" aesthetic.
It was built by a merchant named Archibald Gracie, who had to sell it due to “financial hardship, caused in part by the trade barriers of the War of 1812”. By 1896, the City of New York appropriated the estate due to the non-payment of taxes, incorporating its 11 acres into East River Park., its website says.
Mamdani is no pauper — Oscar-nominated director Mira Nair is his mother, and celebrated academic Mahmood Mamdani his father — but it could take some getting used to. The mansion has antique decor, grand fireplaces, glittering chandeliers, and a ballroom added in 1966, the NYT described.
Its grounds feature lush lined with apple and fig trees, protected by a robust, round-the-clock security detail. His apartment building has no doorman, he has said.
During the campaign, opponents frequently attacked Mamdani's right to occupy a rent-stabilised unit, suggesting he was too wealthy to benefit from the protection. Following his win, the political hostility led by President Donald Trump intensified.
Mamdani, however, has consistently tried to redirect the conversation away from his personal life, and towards his policy promises focused on the working class.
When pressed on the potential housing move, he was characteristically grounded, and non-committal, moving the conversation to “where I'm going to be working, and that's City Hall”. He also joked about getting a text from the building supervisor, and said he would consult his wife before making a decision.
The formal transition is to happen in in January, and the decision to move — or stay in the current home, as some previous mayors have chosen — will carry immense weight. And we are not talking about the luggage.