{"id":211837,"date":"2025-12-30T19:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T19:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/211837\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T19:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T19:02:10","slug":"mamdani-to-be-sworn-in-as-new-york-mayor-in-abandoned-subway-station-zohran-mamdani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/211837\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani to be sworn in as New York mayor in abandoned subway station | Zohran Mamdani"},"content":{"rendered":"

While tens of thousands of New Yorkers will be in Times Square for countdown to 2026, the city\u2019s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani<\/a> has said he will be sworn into office in an underground midnight private ceremony at an abandoned subway station built during the Gilded Age.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, 34, plans to take the oath of office on New Year\u2019s Eve in a disused subway station beneath city hall which acts as turnaround for the local 5 train. The unusual choice of venue for the ceremony, Mamdani said, is symbolically resonant of the \u201cinauguration of a new era\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a physical monument to a city that dared to be both beautiful and build great things that would transform working peoples\u2019 lives,\u201d Mamdani said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat ambition need not be a memory confined only to our past, nor must it be isolated only to the tunnels beneath city hall: it will be the purpose of the administration fortunate enough to serve New Yorkers from the building above.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that he was \u201chumbled by the opportunity to lead millions of New Yorkers into a new era of opportunity, and honored to carry forward our city\u2019s legacy of greatness\u201d.<\/p>\n

The abandoned city hall subway station. Photograph: Michael Freeman\/Alamy<\/p>\n

The station was first opened in 1904 as one of the city\u2019s 28 original stations and was decommissioned in 1945 as the system modernized It was designated a New York City landmark in 1979 and a national register of historic places site in 2004.<\/p>\n

The New York attorney general, Letitia James, has been selected to administer Mamdani\u2019s oath of office, with a follow-up ceremony on the steps of city hall later on Wednesday, where he will be sworn in by the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, followed by a block party up Broadway.<\/p>\n

The choice of a subway station, James said, was appropriate because the transit system is the \u201cgreat equalizer\u201d of New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor all of our strengths and weaknesses as individuals, we ride together on the train, to places far and wide,\u201d James added. \u201cZohran is our next mayor because he understands how important it is that New Yorkers living side by side all deserve a city that we can thrive in, no matter what subway line you use.\u201d<\/p>\n

But only one previous New York mayor, Bill de Blasio, a progressive Democrat, has confirmed their attendance, with former mayors Mike Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani not publicly confirming their attendance. Outgoing centrist Democrat mayor Eric Adams has left his attendance open to question.<\/p>\n

At a press conference on Monday, Adams said he wanted to discuss it with Mamdani to make sure he doesn\u2019t \u201cdisrupt his day\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a very important, historical day, and it\u2019s unfortunate that there\u2019s a body of some of his supporters, some of them, who rather protest everything,\u201d Adams said in an apparent swipe at Mamdani\u2019s supporters. \u201cIf he\u2019s cool, I\u2019m cool,\u201d Adams said. Mamdani said his predecessor is \u201cstill welcome to my inauguration\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Mamdani\u2019s swearing in, tech billionaire Elon Musk hit out at his choice to lead the city\u2019s fire department.<\/p>\n

\u201cProven experience matters when lives are at stake,\u201d Musk wrote in a post on the social platform X<\/a> after Mamdani appointed Lillian Bonsignore, 56, an openly gay, veteran emergency medical services (EMS) leader, to lead the FDNY.<\/p>\n

Mamdani wrote in a post<\/a> replying to Musk, \u201cExperience does matter, which is why I appointed the person who spent more than 30 years at EMS. You know, the workforce that addresses at least 70% of all calls coming into FDNY?\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Adams appointed Mark Guerra, the first deputy commissioner with 37 years experience on the fire department, to serve as fire chief for the remaining days of his mayoralty. \u201cLillian\u2019s light is one that can\u2019t be dimmed by anything else that takes place,\u201d Mamdani said, reported Fox 5. \u201cThe mayor is free to continue to be the mayor until the end of this year and make decisions as such.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While tens of thousands of New Yorkers will be in Times Square for countdown to 2026, the city\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-211837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}