New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji have given up their one-bedroom apartment in Queens, and on Monday moved into Gracie Mansion, the mayoral residence, in Manhattan’s Yorkville neighborhood.
The Queens lease was up this month — the rent was $2,300 for the Astoria unit — and it was time to move, Mamdani said at a news conference in his new backyard behind the mansion, where the couple were to spend their first night.
Gracie Mansion was built in 1799 and overlooks the East River at 88th Street. It is a former country estate. Eric Adams, Mamdani’s predecessor, moved out last month to an undisclosed location. Mamdani had previously announced he planned to move there.
“Today, Rama and I feel lucky to participate in a ritual that so many New Yorkers have experienced at various meaningful moments in their lives: Beginning a new chapter by moving to a different part of the city that we call home,” Mamdani said Monday.
The backyard was the site of several famous — or infamous — news conferences held during the late stages of predecessor Adams’ administration, including where he endorsed now-FBI Director Kash Patel’s book, “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” after corruption charges were begrudgingly dropped by a federal judge against Adams, and where he called his then-foe Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo a “snake and a liar.”
Cardboard boxes, dollies and a moving truck were scattered on the mansion grounds Monday afternoon as Mamdani and his wife were inside the residence. Mamdani said he was getting allergy shots in anticipation of his wife potentially getting a cat.
The mayor said he plans to find ways to keep some parts of the house available for public events, “being thoughtful about how we steward this space and opening it up to New Yorkers who are not often the ones who get to visit such a place as this.”
“I will remain in the streets surrounded by the people I have the great privilege of serving. I will continue to take the subway, ride the bus, get on a Citi Bike, and I will never close my ears to the concerns and the opinions of New Yorkers,” he said.
Earlier, Adams said he had left a “good note” for Mamdani somewhere in the mansion. (Mamdani, asked about the epistle, said he hadn’t yet found it.)
Asked about changes he might make, Mamdani said he hopes to have a few bidets installed in the mansion bathrooms.
“That’s an aspirational hope,” Mamdani said. “We’ll see if we can actually get one.”
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.