New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji began moving into the official mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion, on Monday, leaving behind their one-bedroom apartment in Queens.
Workers unloaded cardboard boxes stuffed with houseplants and rolled up carpets as the couple made the transition to the mansion in Manhattan, a process Mamdani said he would mark publicly at Gracie Mansion’s riverfront lawn.
Mamdani held a press conference at the residence and framed the move as part of what he called an “ritual” that many New Yorkers have experienced. “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.
Gracie Mansion, known for its 18th-century architecture, has served as the official mayoral residence since 1942. The report said nearly all of the city’s mayors have slept there at least sometimes, including Mamdani’s predecessors.
For Mamdani, the move also came with a stark contrast to his previous living situation. The article described his Queens apartment as a $2,300 per month one-bedroom home that lacked a washer and dryer and was prone to flooding after a busted pipe.
The mansion, by contrast, is described as having 11,000 square feet (1,021 square meters) of space, along with a private chef, an ornate ballroom, and a veranda overlooking the East River. The article also said the home contains an original fireplace associated with Alexander Hamilton’s death after his duel with Aaron Burr, and it referenced Eric Adams, the city’s last mayor, saying Gracie Mansion has at least one ghost.
In remarks Monday, Mamdani acknowledged that the relocation might seem at odds with his pledge to lead “a government that looks and lives like the people it represents.” He said the decision was made in part to account for new security requirements, and he said that once settled he plans on “opening it up to New Yorkers who are not often the ones who get to visit such a place as this.” He also described an “aspirational hope” of installing bidets in the bathrooms.
The article said Mamdani spent most of his childhood on the other side of Central Park in a Manhattan apartment subsidized by Columbia University, where his father works as a professor. It added that while he served in New York’s state Legislature, he lived in Astoria, Queens, an area the report said is sometimes referred to as “the People’s Republic of Astoria,” citing its record of electing left-wing representatives including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Before leaving Astoria, Mamdani released a statement that said he would miss “the endless Adeni chai, the spirited conversations in Spanish, Arabic and every language in between, the aromas of seafood and shawarma drifting down the block.”
As Mamdani moved to the Upper East Side, the article said he may find fewer multicultural encounters there, and it described the neighborhood as among the city’s richest and nearly three-quarters white. It also said Mamdani won Astoria overwhelmingly, while Andrew Cuomo won the Upper East Side by double digits.
Outside a park near the mansion, Zoe Cuddy, a neuropsychologist and longtime Upper East Sider, said she hoped the new mayor would come to appreciate what she described as the area’s “quiet charms,” which she likened to “the suburbs of Manhattan.” She predicted Upper East Siders would eventually embrace the new neighbor, saying, “I think we’ll grow to be happy to have him here.”