In just three days Mayor Z managed to make the President of the United States his little bitch, forced DoorDash to cough up over $100 million in wages that it stole from NYC delivery folks, and then hosted an international conference of mayors.
He's practicing realpolitick, the art of the possible, a exemplar of maturity, iron will, and focus.
This guy is 34 years old -- I have pimples older than him -- but he seems to be a leader wise beyond his years and those of other much older elected officials. Damn.
This is leadership, a masterclass in what a leader can and should be. I sure hope he keeps it up!
This is not normal -- and, for once, it's a good thing.
The most right-wing president in American history just visted the most left-wing mayor in NYC history, and had a great meeting at Gracie Mansion! And the POTUS went to Hizzoner! It seems that, for some reason, Trump is super-charmed by Mamdani and they work well together.
And that's a great thing for the city.
The usual boring subjects are breaking the POTUS' and Hizzoner's respective balls over this meeting but here's the thing: this is called governing, realpolitick, dealing with what is and not what you want it to be, getting stuff done, engaging in politics as the art of the possible, not just winning elections.
Sadly this should be normal but isn't much these days. But, as a New Yorker, I'll take it!
These people, for now. City and State has published this exhaustive list of the people working in the Mamdani administration.
It's an impressive group of experienced public servants -- and it's a good reminder that the most important thing mayors and all good leaders do is to hire people to run an organization. All the greats also have great deputies -- Augustus had Agrippa, Henry VIII had Cromwell and Wolsey, Catherine the Great had Potemkin, Martin Scorsese has Thelma Schoonmaker, and Mayor Z has Dean Fuleihan.
Just a reminder that A's hire A's, B's hire C's, C's hire D's, and so on (look at the Trump administration, an F president hiring F- people). Mayor Z is an A!
And as we celebrate America 250, what do our former masters in the United Kingdom, the people "across the pond", think of their once-upon-a-time subjects?
Well, these two classy Brits have some thoughts -- especially about the mayor of NYC and how the "Mamdani Effect" is extending beyond NYC and even into the former Mother Country.
The sleaze of former Mayor Eric Adams, cleaning up the trail of slime he left behind from his four years in City Hall, is apparently something that Mayor Z's administration is doing, to varied success.
In his last days in office, Adams moved around a lot of his cronies in his administration to obscure city jobs so that he could continue to have a toehold in city government. The new mayor is trying to find and fire as many of them as possible but it's not always that clear cut. Just a reminder of the disaster we got rid of as mayor, and how lucky we are to have someone like Mayor Z in charge now.
But don't worry, Adams is fine -- he just became a citizen of Albania because, ya' know, that's not weird.
In the 1997 classic movie Wag the Dog the president's advisors create a fake war with Albania to help distract from a scandal and win an election. In this case, 30 years later, a very real scandalous mayor is actually going to Albanian and becoming a citizen! Wag the Mayor I guess. Dear God.
Mayor Z has been in office for 100 days -- a rather random benchmark but one that chief executives are always measured against.
Thus far, the mayor has had to deal with a budget shortfall and put together agencies that will deal with affordability. These first 100 days have been, it seems, all about putting the pieces in place to delivery his affordability agenda.
He still has high approval ratings -- but also high expectations. The next 100 days need to be more policy oriented so that the reality can soon match the promise.
Well, well, well, Mr NYC really is ... well, maybe not exactly prophetic than certainly perspicacious.
In the early days of this blog I wrote about the early 1950's NYC Mayor Vincent Impelliteri -- perhaps the city's most forgotten 20th century chief executive. Well, a man named George Arzt, a lifelong city government journalist and staffer, actually knew "Impy" back in the day. Arzt is retirning after 60 years working in and around city government and he's given a great exit interivew that you can read here.
And then here's another interview you can listen two between podcaster/comedian Billy Procida and adult film star Sonia Harcourt -- where they talk about polyamory and swinging and all sorta of sexy stuff. I interviewed both Billy and Sonia several years ago so it's great to here two previous Mr NYC interviewees talk to each other ... and apparently that's not all they did!
The thing about NYC is that it's a city with a fascinating past but that is always, relentlessly, looking into the future. And Mr NYC tries to be as future-oriented as possible, following the trajectory of the greatest city on earth.
But ... the past never fully vanishes. As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, we are always going against the current, "borne back ceaselessly into the past."
To put it another way, people will always be fascinated by NYC back in the day.
So here are some various examples.
Nostalgia for NYC back in the day is so huge that there's literally an entire Youtube Channel called ... NYC Nostalgia. It has numerous videos chronicling life in NYC in the last couple of decades and centuries, including about things you might not necessarily realize existed. For example, did you know there were motorcycle gangs all over NYC? Yes, there were, as this video shows:
Then there's the money. Yes, NYC was built by great wealth and generated great wealth. Heck, there's an entire show about it called The Guilded Age about the late-19th century when NYC's wealth changed the entire nation.
Sometimes this wealth produced great things and sometimes ... not so much.
This was true even before the Gilded Age, before families like the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers -- families that name many of our streets like the Astors, the Jeromes, the Schermerhorns, the Delanceys, and many others. Here's a great video about some of these families that used to rule NYC back in the day, the original city elite:
And then there's the darkness. Look at this photo taken in October 2001 at Ground Zero, a month after 9/11:
Ouch. You got then-Commissioner Bernard Kerik who ended up going to jail for corruption (and is now deceased). It includes then-Mayor Rudy Giuilani who later committed treason but trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and wound up broke, indicted and disgraced. And then there's the now former Prince Andrew, who's been arrested for corruption and settled a mult-million dollar sexual abuse lawsuit. The photo above was taken only six or seven months after this infamous photo:
The then-prince was in NYC at that time to pay his respects to the families whose loved-ones has perished, to visit and thank the first responders for their work, and extend sympathy to a traumatized city.
It appears that, during this visit to NYC, in the aftermath of this horrific event, Prince Andrew came to town not only to provide comfort but also to do some partying with Russian broads. Watch this video about Andrew's 9/11 jaunt, it'll both fascinate and disgust you:
And to think that these dark people were the ones taking care of NYC at this dark time only makes the darkness even darker -- darkness on top of darkness. And today when we see images of the now former prince, this is what we see:
But let's end this look at NYC back in the day on a happier, funnier note.
In the early 1980s, as Saturday Night Live was transitioning out of its '70s heyday, the show went into a critical and ratings downturn -- and flirted with cancellation. But it was saved by a 19-year old kid who was still living with his parents in Brooklyn named Eddie Murphy. His comic brilliance was so blazing, so wild and fascinating, that he saved the show that has lasted for half-a-century. When SNL started back in the day it was a curiousity -- a quirky, funky 1970s late-night sketch show from NYC. But Eddie Murphy turned it into an institution that defines the city and its impact on American culture to this day.
By the way, you can watch one of Eddie Murphy's funniest "Mister Robinson's Neighborhood" sketches below and the entire archive for your enjoyment here.
As NYC prepares for a big snowstorm this weekend, our new mayor is on the case!
This is the first big test of his mayoralty and no doubt the tabloids and the Republicans want him to fail -- so it's good to see Mayor Z is preparing, communicating, and ready to go as this storm hits.
A month in, it's interesting to see what a quiet, competent, nose-to-the-grindstone leader he's been. It's a HUUUUGE relief from the chaos of Eric Adams.
And talking about our former, unmissed mayor, the great NYC journalist Erroll Louis has written an interesting article about how the full scale of corruption in the Adams administration is still unknown. Even though he was only in office for four years, he number of people who worked for Adams that got indicted, the number of sleazy deals and activities, is breathtaking. It remind me of Nixon -- even years, decades after he resigned in disgrace, documents and tapes kept coming out revealing he was even worse that we knew. I'm sure the same is true of Eric Adams.
Last year I blogged a lot about the rise of Zohran Mamdani from an largely unknown State Assemblyman into the Mayor of NYC. You can read about all of that here.
And now, ladies and gentlemen ... here iz Hizzoner ...
When Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor last November, it was declared that he would be the 111th mayor of New York City.
But ... not so fast.
A deep-dive into the municipal archives reveals that -- in the 17th century -- when NYC was a new city and the mayors were appointed by the British government -- a man named Matthias Nicolls in 1674 briefly served as the city's chief executive.
Nicolls had been mayor before, then left office, but it appears that he was reappointed as mayor before departing quickly again. So Mamdani will technically be the 112th mayor.
It appears that there was no nefarious reason for this oversight -- it was simply a slip of the historical record.
Just another example of how the history of NYC is forever fascinating.
I was going to blog a little bit how about the Mayor-Elect, Zohran Mamdani, is from my childhood neighborhood, Morningside Heights. Zohran grew up there and went on to greatness, and I grew up there and went on to ... anyway, read 'bout Zohran's Morningside Heights childhood ...
... and then listen to my favorite Two Classy Brits talk about Zohran's historic victory and the road ahead for NYC.
As the bizarre spectacle of Eric Adams' time as mayor comes to its ignominous end, The Daily Show did us a big favor of putting together several of his most memorable moments.
Goodbye Eric Adams, we hardly knew yet -- and hope we'll never hear from or see you ever again.
In 2017 I interviewed the journalist Ross Barkan when he kicked off his campaign for State Senate in Brooklyn. He made the bold decision to stop just commenting on politics and instead jump into the fray, slap down his credentials, and put himself before the electorate, ready to serve.
He lost -- and returned to journalism.
But Ross' campaign turned out to be an acorn from which a great oak grew. Ross' campaign manager in that race was ... drumroll ... Zohran Mamdani.
Zohran, as we know, would go on to be elected to the New York State Assembly from Astoria, Queens in 2020 and is now the Mayor-elect of New York City.
Mind-boggling.
Ross has written a wonderful column about his relationship with Zohran during the 2017-2018 campaign and afterwards. It is, as he notes, head-snapping to have known someone when he was an anonymous staffer and is now a world-famous, history-making political figure.
I can only imagine.
But it is amazing to realize that, when I interviewed Ross back in 2017 (twice actually and later on in 2020), he was nurturing a one-in-a-million political talent who would go on not only to make NYC and American history but vanquish a fifty-year old political dynasty.
And to think, to ponder, to be amazed by the fact that there is a semi-direct link from a post on this 'umble blog covering a mere State Senate race to, less than a decade later, worldwide coverage of a history-in-the-making election ... curious the fates are.
History has its eyes on us. And to prove, yet again, Mr NYC is ahead of his time!
I didn't get to do this four years ago because life events intervened but here, tonight, marks the return of the Mr NYC Election Night Live Blog.
By the way, this is the highest turnout NYC election since 1969 -- over 2 millions voters turned out. The eyes of the world are on NYC tonight -- the future is made here.
9:03 PM - Polls closed. The memory sticks are being loaded. Let the games begin!
9:09 PM - Zohran has 51%, Cuomo has 39%, Sliwa at 8%.
9:16 PM - Democrats leading in Comptroller & Public Advocate elections and Borough President elections -- except Staten Island. Same with City Council.
9:24 PM - Zohran is a tiny bit under 50% now with 51% of the vote in -- 8% over Cuomo. Nothing interesting down-ballot.
9:32 PM - Now with 60% of the vote in, nothing's changed percentage-wise.
9:36 PM - CNN is calling the Mayor's race of Zohran -- but still more votes to count.
9:47 PM - It's official -- Zohran will be the next Mayor of NYC!
The first Muslim elected mayor, that's wild -- and that's what's great about this city and America!
Is it too early to start calling him Mayor Z?
10:01 PM - Zohran is closing in on getting almost 1 million votes. That's crazy. Koch, Giuliani, Bloomberg, De Blasio, and Adams got nowhere near that many.
