Errol Louis: I'm Errol Louis, and welcome to "Inside City Hall." Although for this edition, it should be maybe "Inside Gracie Mansion." This is the start of a series we will be doing called "Out of the Office with Mayor Mamdani." The idea is that instead of him coming to the studio or us going to City Hall, we're going to go and look at some things outside of the office. In this case, actually the mayor's home. [It's] sort of a work-from-home episode. This is, of course, the official residence for New York City mayors. We're going to have a chance to talk about a number of different things. What's going on with that building that's at risk of collapse in Midtown. We're going to talk some, of course, about the recently concluded primary elections. We want to get into the budget and what happened with that.
And of course, a number of the mayor's initiatives, like fast and free buses, the rent freeze and on and on and on. After we're done with the business at hand, we're going to take a look outside because one thing that the mayor - who is a soccer nut - has decided to do is create a soccer pitch, a field right here on the grounds of Gracie Mansion where they have pickup games. We're going to talk, of course, about the World Cup and about the Knicks and all of the sports things that have been happening. But I also want to see what's going on with this. A soccer pitch right here at Gracie Mansion. Who would have thought it? Okay, it looks like the mayor is here, so let's get set and we'll get talking.
[Interview begins.]
We haven't talked since you moved into this great place. How do you like the mansion? How do you like it?
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: It's a pretty incredible place. I still struggle to believe that I live here, but it's lovely to have you over.
Louis: Well, thanks for having us. Are the bidets installed? A lot of people want to know about this.
Mayor Mamdani: Yes, they are. I can show you one of them.
Louis: Yeah, we will take a look. Who does the cooking? How are you handling that here?
Mayor Mamdani: So, it's the same chef that the prior administration had. She and the team have been incredible.
Louis: You asked him to bring in some dead animals, right? You're not doing the vegan diet that the prior mayor did?
Mayor Mamdani: Yeah, I guess technically, yes, but I had an RFK-style vision when you said that. We do eat chicken and beef.
Louis: Okay, fair enough. Actually, I mean one last thing on that. Mayor Bloomberg used to hold his daily cabinet meetings here. He really used it as a place, and he would have to commute here too. He didn't actually stay here. Are you using it in that way?
Mayor Mamdani: We have meetings here from time to time, but I spend far more time at City Hall.
Louis: Okay, well, let's talk about what's going on. That building in Midtown, the old Pfizer headquarters - what do we know about what happened and whether the area is safe for people?
Mayor Mamdani: So, at this time, what we know is that there hasn't been any additional movement in the building structure in over 24 hours, and that's been critical because it has meant that we can actually send in DOB inspectors to do the emergency response work, and so they have started shoring up a number of the floors. This is a 37-story building, and so they did a number of floors yesterday. That work continues to solidify the structure.
Once the emergency response is done, we're going to be conducting a full investigation as to how this happened, and in the interim, what we've seen is that the NYPD's frozen zone of the blocks around the area has narrowed as well as the buildings that actually have an evacuation order. We're looking to ensure that safety is paramount, and we're very thankful, frankly, that over the course of this, there have been no injuries and that every worker is accounted for.
Louis: I'm sure you got a crash course in the self-certification that basically drives this kind of a process, right? It's not like there are city inspectors watching a building like this every day and every move that they make. We're relying on professionals to do this the right way. Do you know if anything in that process broke down?
Mayor Mamdani: That's what we're going to be looking at as soon as the emergency response is done. What I will also say is a deep note of appreciation to New Yorkers themselves. A lot of this began with a 911 call early that morning, and what we have found time and again is even though it is a moment that none of us would wish to see, New Yorkers in the area have followed the instructions provided by on-site first responders. They've done so both being calm and following with urgency.
Louis: Is this a caution sign at all, do you think, for the office-to-residential conversions? I think this was the biggest of those with 1,600 units that are in process, and I know that your Committee on Government Efficiency, the COGE, has called for streamlining the process of making sure that renovations and conversions can happen more quickly.
Mayor Mamdani: I think that streamlining and safety are not in tension. What we want to make sure is that a regulation that doesn't have any reason for existing is not one that we continue, but regulations that create safety, those are ones that are critically important. And I think that office-to-residential conversions are and will continue to be an important part of our response to the housing crisis.
I also believe that we have to look back at the plans that were submitted, the adherence to that plan, and make sure that every single step was followed as it should have been, because what we have seen over these last few days, is not something that has been regular or should ever become regular in our city.
Louis: Speaking of buildings - the outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, which apparently is in this region, I mean, right in this area.
Mayor Mamdani: It's in this neighborhood, yes.
Louis: The City Council speaker who represents this area is calling for the Health Department to require all building owners to clean and disinfect their cooling towers. Is that a good idea, as far as you're concerned?
Mayor Mamdani: Well, what we've done thus far is we've inspected every single one of the cooling towers in the affected area, and I really do want to note the Department of Health, our health commissioner - they've made this a top priority, because oftentimes what we've seen with the city in the past is that the city catches up to it when it's already affected so many New Yorkers. This became an alert for us at the point at which the cluster was at a size of two New Yorkers being affected by it. We're now at a moment where about 36 New Yorkers have Legionnaires'. No one has passed away from this disease, and we continue to monitor it across the entire neighborhood.
Louis: In a case like that, you have to coordinate between the Health Department, I guess, and the Buildings Department, is that right?
Mayor Mamdani: We have to coordinate between [the] Health Department, Buildings Department and in a case like this, this was over the holiday weekend, and the Health Department brought in over 100 members of staff over that time period to ensure that they were canvassing the neighborhood and they were following up, because as you know, there are some buildings where everybody knows the landlord [and] everybody knows the owner. There are other buildings where it takes a little bit of time to find them and to make sure that they've been able to inspect every single one of those cooling towers.
Now, I know that sometimes with an outbreak of Legionnaires' residents in a neighborhood might ask themselves, "Is it safe to bathe or drink water to continue in their homes as they are?" And it is, it is safe to do all of those things, to use air conditioning as well, and we are following up on this as a top priority.
Louis: Okay, and as a reminder for our viewers, this is not something that can be communicated from one person to another. So, the problem is the building; it's not your neighbor. I wanna ask you about the city budget that was just concluded. The CityFHEPS program, in particular, a new version of it was created at literally the last minute. Were you expecting negotiations to go down to the wire in that way? You really only had a few hours left.
Mayor Mamdani: You know, negotiations are always gonna be a difficult thing, but we always were confident that we would land this. And I appreciate the partnership of the speaker and the Council in that process of the adopted budget. And what we saw is the creation of a new voucher program that will help New Yorkers on the precipice of homelessness, and we'll also do so in a way that will be sustainable for the city for years to come, because we wanna make sure that when we tell a New Yorker that there is a service for them - a program for them - they can come to rely on that program for years and not have to worry, is this one that's going to be scaled back or narrowed because of the response to it?
Louis: When you say "sustainable," there are at least some City Council members who think that this should ultimately replace the $4 billion shelter system, that this should be kind of the first line of response, as opposed to something that people get to a year or two into a housing crisis. What do you think of that?
Mayor Mamdani: Well, I share the hope of taking on the housing crisis in our city and ensuring that homelessness becomes a thing of the past. One of the things that we have to do as we embark on that is to also ensure that we are being fiscally responsible in the way that we are managing our budget. The reason that I say that is we saw that the original FHEPS program, started less than $50 million in an annual cost and went up to close to $2 billion.
And at that same time, shelter costs were not diminishing. And so, we will continue to take every step that we can to combat homelessness and to support New Yorkers who are on the precipice of eviction. We also want to do so in a way that we know that program is going to continue as it was first launched.
Louis: Next year, according to your adopted budget, you're anticipating a $6.4 billion deficit. Are you already thinking about how to deal with that?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, that is -
Louis: It's a pretty big number.
Mayor Mamdani: It is always going to be a focus for us of how we ensure that we're building not just for short-term stability, but medium- and long-term stability. Now, I'm thankful of the fact that while there is a deficit projected in the out years, as we often see, this is still going to be much lower than what we inherited when we came into office. And that means that the work of savings and efficiencies continues. And it also means that it's not a fiscal crisis in the manner that we first found this place.
Louis: I looked at the preliminary report from your Committee on Government Efficiency. I didn't see any big blockbuster numbers that would move the needle in the billions of dollars. Is that part of your charge to them, to look for and find those kinds of efficiencies?
Mayor Mamdani: Part of our charge is to look for savings and efficiencies wherever they can find them, and oftentimes to find them also in policies. Because what we have seen [are] the hoops that we ask, whether it's nonprofits or other partners across the city, to jump through in order to be a partner to our city. It is immense, and oftentimes it puts them off doing that kind of work.
Now, when it comes to the savings, we announce chief savings officers for every single agency and department at the preliminary budget. That work continues because we look at our budget. We always want to be able to tell a working New Yorker that we're as careful with our money as they are with theirs because at the end of the day, it's their money as well.
Louis: Let me switch topics and ask you about primary night. You had a great night. All of the candidates that you had endorsed ended up prevailing. I'm wondering though, in the aftermath, will New York pay a price, for instance, by losing Representative Espaillat, who had a seat on the Appropriations Committee and a certain amount of seniority? Dan Goldman, less seniority, but that is what counts down in Washington. Is this gonna definitely work to the advantage of New York?
Mayor Mamdani: I believe it will, and I'm incredibly excited to see the elections of Darializa, Claire Valdez [and] Brad Lander. These are candidates who will now be congresspeople that will bring a vision of our city as a place that's affordable for working people to Washington. Because you and I both know, as we sit here in Gracie Mansion, the first person to live in this home was Fiorello La Guardia. I believe he's the greatest mayor in our history. And a lot of his achievements were tied to his relationship with the federal government, with FDR. And when I look at these three soon-to-be Congresspeople, I see those that, though they may be at the beginning of their congressional careers, will be partners in achieving real results for working people.
Louis: It's gonna take a while for them to sort of figure that out, right?
Mayor Mamdani: The first thing it's going to take is us taking back the House. And I'm incredibly excited to see that happen this November.
Louis: Yeah, yeah, let's talk about that. The midterms are upon us, and there are a lot of candidates who are running. In fact, you have been weighing in on some of them. The one that, of course, that's in the news is Graham Platner. Was it the latest revelations that led you to suggest publicly when asked that he should maybe drop out?
Mayor Mamdani: I think having read that, the conclusion that I came to was that it was time for his campaign to come to an end. And I'm appreciative of the fact that I've just read that that's exactly what has happened.
Louis: There's a national discussion that this has triggered about whether or not the push by some progressives to sort of like, "Let's push the traditional mainstream Democrats aside. Let's bring in some new voices that can excite the populace," [and] that in their haste to do that, they came up with a candidate who was simply unfit or not prepared for the responsibility of making it all the way through the campaign. Is that a sort of an occupational danger for progressives?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I think my focus right now is how do we ensure that we bring this chapter to a close and then start to write a new chapter. And I think I trust the voters of Maine to point us in that right direction.
Louis: Do you support - they're calling him the "Michigan Mamdani," out of Michigan - the candidate, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who is a progressive running for the U.S. Senate nomination. That's gonna be coming up in a few weeks. Are you endorsing in that race?
Mayor Mamdani: The endorsements I've made have all been right here in New York City. I'm excited about the five state legislative candidates [and] three congressional candidates. That's where my focus is.
Louis: Do you know him? Do you know Dr. Abdul El-Sayed?
Mayor Mamdani: I've met him once or twice.
Louis: Okay, very interesting. Let's talk a little bit about what is going on here in the city with the economy. Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company, is doubling its headcount in the city. It's just signed to lease 16 floors of a building in Soho. Its rival, OpenAI, has leased a big chunk of the Puck Building. Are these companies and the technology generally a net benefit to this city, do you think?
Mayor Mamdani: We appreciate any investment in our city, and we want our city to continue to have a strong economy. And we also want the strength of the economy to be measured by the way that it meets the needs of working people as well. And I'll tell you, I'm just coming right now from the beginning of the construction process for the new American Express headquarters in Lower Manhattan. And what we're seeing is [a] multi-billion-dollar investment in our city and a recommitment to the very neighborhoods that not that long ago we were told would never rise again. And it is truly an incredible day for our city in that announcement and in all the announcements we've heard about companies committing to the city's future.
Louis: Is that your answer to the people,the critics, who keep saying you're gonna chase businesses and wealthy people out of New York?
Mayor Mamdani: My answer is to just take a look around.
Louis: A recent AP poll found that your favorability rating is 44 percent with American Jews, compared with 32 percent for Benjamin Netanyahu. I was wondering if you'd seen that?
Mayor Mamdani: I had.
Louis: What do you think of that?
Mayor Mamdani: I think it's great. I think it's - I think I'll leave it to New Yorkers and pundits to make of it what they will. My focus is on delivering for each and every New Yorker, and I'm proud to be the mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population in the country. And I think too often, we frame that responsibility as solely in the context of uprooting antisemitism from across the five boroughs, which is critical and necessary. I want to go beyond just the question of keeping Jewish New Yorkers safe but also ensuring that Jewish New Yorkers look at this city and understand themselves to be home. They understand themselves to be cherished and celebrated by the city. And I take a real, real pleasure in being able to be the mayor of the same city.
Louis: Like it or not, you're part of what is, frankly, an international conversation about what should happen in the Middle East. Do you have any, have you given any thought to the idea of what they call a two-state confederation? A little bit different than the traditional two-state solution with fixed borders, but the notion of basically a shared country that has different kind of sovereignty rules, but free movement, free electoral input and an international capital in Jerusalem.
Mayor Mamdani: I have to be honest with you: I'm not as familiar with that proposal. What I will say is that I believe that any future should be one that has equal rights for all people. And one of the things is we've just celebrated our nation's 250th anniversary. That makes me so proud to be an American is that that equality is enshrined in our Constitution. And it helps me in understanding how I think the world should also look like with that same equality.
Louis: Okay. Let me ask you about the Office of Community Safety. Everybody's happy about the fact that shootings and homicides are at record lows. What's your theory about how and why that happened? And how will that affect what goes on with the Office of Community Safety?
Mayor Mamdani: As you've said, we are looking right now at the lowest numbers of shootings and murders in New York City's recorded history, and that is an incredible achievement. And I think a lot of that is as a result of the work that we're seeing from our NYPD. And as you've also mentioned, one of the critical partners in providing public safety will continue to be the Office of Community Safety as well. And in their work, it is work that also looks to do that of prevention as well as that of response. I was recently in Coney Island alongside a few members of the family where eight children were shot over the course of one barbecue on [the] July Fourth weekend.
And I was there alongside my deputy mayor for Community Safety, our executive director of the Office of Community Safety [and] the head of the Office of Neighborhood Safety, and the work that they were doing in meeting with that family, in providing them what they needed, because too often, these shootings, these murders, they're thought of as statistics, things that can be summarized in a quarterly report. It also is an impact on a family for the rest of their lives. And the OCS, they're doing incredible work in advance and in response.
Louis: The - on the campaign trail, you thought it would cost about a billion dollars or a little more than that. In the end, what was budgeted was about 40 million. Is that tied to the reality on the ground, meaning the falling numbers as far as violent crime, or is that just kind of a budgetary constraint that you have to live with?
Mayor Mamdani: So right now, the Office of Community Safety and the offices that live within it are upwards of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in the funding that has been put forward for them. And it's the beginning. It's the start of an investment into what is going to be a long-term commitment to community safety. Because I think, as you and I both know, this is something that New Yorkers need to be able to feel and breathe in their day-to-day lives, and this work is critical.
Louis: Okay. In our last minute, the first lady, Rama Duwaji. How does she like the house? How does she like the place?
Mayor Mamdani: She likes the house. And I have to give her a lot of credit because she is someone who introduced me to the beauty of everyday things. And, you know, we are on the first floor, which is, in many ways, as it has been under prior mayoral administrations. The next floor, where we live, is truly a combination of the best items that Facebook Marketplace has to offer, and things that she has thrifted and a few things that we've bought as well. I give her all credit for that.
Louis: We've talked before about - what will her public role be? When she does show up, the spotlight goes right to her, right? When she was with you at City Hall for the Knicks parade, and she had that outfit that she'd sort of created. I know there are lots of arts openings. Is she gonna be involved in that side of public life?
Mayor Mamdani: I think her focus at this time is on being an artist herself. And it's something that I really appreciate because I think she - while I'm so proud to call her my wife and the love of my life - she's also an incredible independent woman who creates art, commissions art and deserves to be known in her own right as well.
[Mayor Mamdani and Louis exit to Gracie Mansion's backyard.]
Louis: Here we are, out of the office.
Mayor Mamdani: Yes, sir.
Louis: You've done something great here in the backyard here at Gracie Mansion.
Mayor Mamdani: Well, you know, we know the World Cup is something that so many New Yorkers look forward to, and we also want it to be something that every New Yorker can feel the spirit of, the magic of. And so, we've been having a number of New Yorkers come out and play right here on the Gracie Lawn, so that they too can be part of this.
Louis: So you can humiliate them.
Mayor Mamdani: No, no.
Louis: You make your staff come out here and do drills? Is that the idea?
Mayor Mamdani: No, no.
Louis: Okay.
Mayor Mamdani: No, I am simply here to be humiliated by my constituents.
Louis: Right, right. Well, look, you are New York's number one fan. I have not met a public official in 40 years in this business who has the passion for soccer that you do.
Mayor Mamdani: Thank you.
Louis: And you used to play in a league?
Mayor Mamdani: Yeah.
Louis: And I hear you like you're doing pickup games, right?
Mayor Mamdani: Every now and then.
Louis: You're, like, dragging people up the street? Mayor Mamdani: We try and have people who come here and play. And I think, you know, one of the nights was, you know - I went to Bronx Science for high school. And one of my proudest accomplishments before being the mayor was being on our PSAL websites, Honorable Alumni List. [My] name is misspelled, but we still appreciate it.
Louis: That's okay. They know you. You know who they mean.
Mayor Mamdani: And so, you know, one of the nights we had PSAL players come and enjoy this. And I think that it's about celebrating what this moment means. Tonight, we're gonna have a lot of New Yorkers who come from countries for whom this is their first World Cup. You know, whether we're speaking about Uzbekistan or Curaçao, there's a meaning in being seen on that world stage.
Louis: You know, you have done something that you don't normally see, which is every kid starts out playing soccer. And a little bit past middle school, it all just kind of dies away. And so, it's the biggest sport. Literally, it's the biggest sport. And then there's no sort of professional follow-through for the most part, right? So, that the sport just kind of dies. Now, there's some interesting possibilities here, especially with women's soccer. And then we're building this new stadium and so forth. And what it has needed is somebody to promote it.
Mayor Mamdani: Well, I'm incredibly excited to be one small part of this. And I think, as you alluded to, we recently announced that Etihad Park, which is gonna be home to New York City FC, is now also gonna be home to the women's team, Gotham FC. And they are the two-time and reigning National Women's Soccer League champions. And, you know, you used to - to see them, you'd have to go to New Jersey. And now you're gonna have young girls who live in Jackson Heights, who, you know, dribble in Traverse Park on the weekends, just get on the 7 train and be able to watch this team. And that's incredible.
Louis: Nice, nice. Now, you've referred to it before, and I know you try to be diplomatic because you're high-profile. But FIFA is so corrupt. I mean, the whole red card incident where a phone call from a politician results in an important call being reversed for, you know, in a way that hadn't been done since the 1960s. I mean, it's kind of crazy. Does that affect your love of the game or do we need some kind of reform at that level?
Mayor Mamdani: Well, you know, I think we all know that the love of the game comes from the players who play it and that which we see across the world. And what I've always looked to be, is honest about the fact that when this World Cup was first announced, we were hopeful that there would be a way for New Yorkers to be able to afford to go to these games. At the time, there wasn't any plan to that. And so, we raised our voices, and I'm glad to say that we're the only host city in the country that secured affordable tickets at $50 a piece.
When FIFA announced that they weren't going to allow plastic water bottles to be brought into the stadium at a time of immense heat, I spoke up and I said that that's not how it should be. And I was glad to see that they reversed their position. So, I think that there will be differences of opinion, but we know that what makes the game so special. It's the people who play it, and it's the matches we watch.
Louis: Did you - you've met, I assume, some of the many, many, many super fans from around the world who have come here and, you know, sort of gone crazy, but they've also gotten a taste of New York - some for the first time.
Mayor Mamdani: They have, and I think it's a beautiful thing because this is the world's city. And so, we say, "Welcome home," to everyone who's visiting for the first time. And one of my favorite things has just been to look at Times Square. On a daily basis, you'll see a different set of fans from a different team. You know, one day you're looking, [and] it's Norwegians rowing. The next day you're looking, it's the Brazilians just, you know, celebrating their team. And I think that that's what this tournament is supposed to be about and also for New Yorkers to rediscover their own city. And that's been a beautiful thing. You know, you go on Steinway, you go today, you'll feel like you're in [the] Maghreb, and that's the beauty of the city.
Louis: Yeah, yeah. Now, when you play, what position do you like to play?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I have the classic trajectory of a man who began up top, lost his speed and his form, and slowly went to the back.
Louis: A wily defender.
Mayor Mamdani: Now, I play left back. I do like one lung-busting run every 30 minutes. I feel it in my ribcage, and I'm just, you know, exhausted.
Louis: I hear you. They say it's about, like in a professional match, they're running maybe seven miles flat out.
Mayor Mamdani: I've never played one of those.
[Crosstalk.]
Louis: We'll keep it Gracie Mansion sized.
Mayor Mamdani: Seven miles? Brother, I don't know nothing about seven miles.
Louis: Good enough.
