![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Photo-Jan-19-2026-11-52-55-AM.jpg\" "\\"MLK")
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at the Brooklyn Academy of Music during the city\u2019s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration on Jan. 19.<\/p>\n
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell <\/p>\n
Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> used his Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen 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,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cBut why is there no focus on the exodus of fact?\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cFor it was we as this city that did so,\u201d he said, referring to the forces that pushed families out. He pointed to high childcare costs as a major driver of displacement, noting that \u201cthe average cost of childcare was $26,000 a year, and that\u2019s a good deal.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking at BAM\u2019s annual MLK Day celebration, Mamdani framed inequality as a defining contradiction of the city\u2019s wealth.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the city is wealthy beyond measure, it is also deeply unequal,\u201d he said. \u201cSome New Yorkers sleep in penthouses. Others sleep on the sidewalk below.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Throughout the speech, Mamdani tied his policy agenda to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s emphasis on economic justice, arguing that civil rights without economic access are insufficient.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot only speak of Dr. King\u2019s legacy as if it is a legacy of rights that can be given to people,\u201d he said. \u201cIt must also be a legacy of rights that those people can exercise themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n He also highlighted racial disparities in public services, saying that few experience the consequences of those failures \u201cas intimately as Black New Yorkers in our city\u2019s most bus-dependent areas.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Mamdani says taxing the rich will deliver more programs for New York<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.\n<\/p>\n