Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at the Brooklyn Academy of Music during the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration on Jan. 19.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Mayor Zohran Mamdani used his Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) on Monday to push back against warnings that his plan for higher taxes on wealthy New Yorkers would drive them out of the city, arguing that city leaders have ignored what he described as a more concrete and damaging population loss.
“When I speak about how the wealthiest in this city should pay a little bit more in taxes, I am often told about a potential exodus,” Mamdani said. “But why is there no focus on the exodus of fact?”
Mamdani cited data showing that from 2010 to 2019, New York City lost nearly 20% of its population of Black children and teenagers, framing the decline as the result of policy choices rather than individual decisions.
“For it was we as this city that did so,” he said, referring to the forces that pushed families out. He pointed to high childcare costs as a major driver of displacement, noting that “the average cost of childcare was $26,000 a year, and that’s a good deal.”
Speaking at BAM’s annual MLK Day celebration, Mamdani framed inequality as a defining contradiction of the city’s wealth.
“While the city is wealthy beyond measure, it is also deeply unequal,” he said. “Some New Yorkers sleep in penthouses. Others sleep on the sidewalk below.”
Throughout the speech, Mamdani tied his policy agenda to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s emphasis on economic justice, arguing that civil rights without economic access are insufficient.
“We cannot only speak of Dr. King’s legacy as if it is a legacy of rights that can be given to people,” he said. “It must also be a legacy of rights that those people can exercise themselves.”
He also highlighted racial disparities in public services, saying that few experience the consequences of those failures “as intimately as Black New Yorkers in our city’s most bus-dependent areas.” Mamdani pointed to slower bus service, crowded classrooms, and maternal health outcomes, noting that Black mothers are nine times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes.
Mamdani says taxing the rich will deliver more programs for New York
On solutions, Mamdani highlighted the recent city-state agreement to deliver more than $1 billion in funding for universal childcare, framing it as a critical step toward keeping families in the city.
He reiterated his call for the wealthiest New Yorkers to pay more in taxes to fund equity initiatives and broader public services, such as his campaign pledges for free and fast buses.
Last week, he said his administration would continue pressing Albany to address fiscal gaps as budget negotiations move forward, proposing an increase in the state’s corporate tax rate for large companies from 7.25% to 11.5%, along with additional income taxes on New Yorkers earning more than $1 million annually.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has ruled out tax hikes on high-income earners in this year’s state budget, though she left open the possibility of adjustments to corporate income taxes. She did not propose any increases in her State of the State address earlier this week.
ICE agents mask up because ‘they know’ they’re wrong: Mamdani
Addressing federal immigration enforcement, he said the city is seeing “the craven abuses of ICE across this country and also in this city,” accusing agents of targeting immigrant communities.
“They wear masks because they know that what they are doing is wrong,” he said.
Mamdani, who immigrated to the U.S. as a child, said those policies have transformed civic spaces that once symbolized opportunity into places of fear. He described how buildings he once viewed as pathways to citizenship, such as the immigration courts at 26 Federal Plaza, are now associated with detention and deportation.
The mayor also pointed to a recent agreement with the state, saying it will deliver “more than a billion dollars in funding for universal child care right here in New York City.”
He closed by urging New Yorkers to recommit to King’s vision of solidarity and moral leadership, calling for compassion and collective responsibility “no matter the cost.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.