After leaving doubt, the elected mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani announced Monday that he would leave the modest rent-controlled apartment he occupies in Queens for the mayor’s luxurious official residence in Manhattan.
The Democrat, who will take office on January 1, will join the same month Gracie Mansion, a house of a thousand square meters built in 1799 in the very chic Upper East Side, on the banks of the East River, nestled in a green park, which became an official residence in 1942.
There is no obligation to live there for city councilors even though most have lived there, with the notable exception of Michael Bloomberg (2002-2013).
In a press release, Zohran Mamdani said he made this decision with his wife, the illustrator Rama Duwaji, mainly for “security” reasons and regretfully leaving the two-room apartment that the couple occupies in Astoria, a neighborhood in Queens populated by immigrants, mixing dozens of different nationalities.
“We will miss many things about our Astoria home. Preparing dinner side by side in our kitchen, sharing a sleepy evening elevator ride with our neighbors, hearing the music and bursts of laughter vibrate through the apartment walls,” he wrote.
Zohran Mamdani made the issue of the cost of living the heart of his campaign, promising in particular more housing with regulated rents.
The fact that he himself lives in one of these apartments, for an amount of $2,300 per month, has been criticized by his opponents, who believe that his salary as an elected official in the New York State Assembly and his wife’s income allowed the couple to afford an apartment outside of this framework.
“Even when I no longer live in Astoria, Astoria will continue to live in me and in the work that I do,” the chosen one still promises.
