Zohran Mamdani’s First New Media Press Conference as Mayor

It's my first time here in this room for a press conference as well.

>> So, good afternoon, my friends.

It is a privilege to be gathered here today in a building that belongs to the people of New York, but has too long been withheld from the people of New York.

There is a reason that we are here in this room. For generations, the blue

this room. For generations, the blue room has been reserved only for traditional press. But this

traditional press. But this administration is not traditional. And

the way we reach New Yorkers cannot be either.

You are newsmakers. You are trusted voices in communities across every burrow in our city, across races, religions cultures.

And as I look out onto this room, less than one week since I was sworn in as the mayor of New York City and joined by tens of thousands at our inauguration

here at city hall and in the block party that we had in the block stretching beyond, I see faces now of New Yorkers that so many in this city turn to and

trust, not just during the work of the campaign or the transition, buts also during the work of governing. And when

those in this city want to make sense of this city, when they want to feel the solidarity that sometimes feels absent in this city, when they want to figure out where to get some good momos in this

city, when they want to understand how and if government works and who it's meant to serve, or whether they want to get involved and hold those in power

accountable, they turn to you.

They turn to you. And they do so because many of these New Yorkers have not felt the presence of government in their own lives or in their own communities for all that long. They don't know what it

looks like when government makes a positive difference in their lives. When

government fills their days with dignity. These are tenants and young

dignity. These are tenants and young people, immigrants and trans New Yorkers. People who speak one language

Yorkers. People who speak one language with their parents and another with their friends.

As we transform how city hall serves the people, we want to also transform how it speaks to the people, too. Not just with a newfound empathy and interest in everyday people's lives and struggles,

but also with a new approach to communicating that speaks to New Yorkers where they are through the people they start and end their days with.

Here's the truth. We are going to have a lot to share because already not even one week into this position, we are

taking real steps forward in our agenda of affordability. And while I am so

of affordability. And while I am so proud of the work that we have done and the work that we will continue to do, the progress we deliver will be wasted

if New Yorkers do not know how their lives can be improved and are unaware of the resources they can now turn to. So,

I want to talk to you now and I will try to run through this quickly about some of what we've already done and how it will impact New Yorkers. But before I walk you through it, I do want to ask

you all a few questions.

Could you raise your hand if you have ever been charged for something you didn't really agree to? a free trial that quietly became a bill. A hidden fee

on your airfare or a doctor's visit? A

gym subscription that was impossible to cancel.

Now, could you raise your hand if you've ever paid more in rent while your apartment got worse, broken heat, leaks, unsafe conditions,

or been hit with extra fees just to apply, move in, or pay your rent?

And now raise your hand if you've ever felt like city hall or government in general doesn't really listen to people like you. Maybe you if you needed some

like you. Maybe you if you needed some help but hit a wall of paperwork. Maybe

if you reached out to your representative but you never heard back.

Maybe you watched decisions get made without your community in the room or even being thought of. Or maybe you voted or even volunteered and never saw the change that you had hoped for be

delivered.

Now, I would bet that seeing this many hands in the room at each one of these questions is not a surprise to any of you. These all feel like near universal

you. These all feel like near universal realities for so many who call this city home. It's something that we've become

home. It's something that we've become accustomed to almost. But that is also what happens when systems are built to be confusing, to be unaccountable, to be disconnected from the people that

they're supposed to serve. What we are doing differently in my administration and what we are have already delivered in the past six days since I was sworn in as the mayor of this incredible city

is about changing that. So, first, we've stood up for tenants by revitalizing the mayor's office to protect tenants, announcing rental ripoff hearings across all five burrows and announced a new

commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development named Dena Levy, who has spent decades fighting fiercely on tenants behalf.

Second, we are going after fees and deceitful practices that drain New Yorkers bank accounts. I am talking about the junk fees that add $20 to your gym membership each month. the $30 that

comes out of nowhere when it's time to buy those Lucy Dus tickets, the added fees that your landlord thinks that they can burden you with. And third, we are

making our city safer and easier to get around. Whether we are paving the

around. Whether we are paving the Williamsburg Bridge bump that causes so many bike accidents each day or announcing that we are going to complete the redesign of McInness Boulevard as it

was originally intended so that New Yorkers can actually bike through Greenpoint without fear. We are

improving the streetscapes and the physical infrastructure of our city. And

finally, we are placing New Yorkers, not billionaires or career politicians, at the heart of these efforts. On our

second day in office, we established a new office, the mayor's office of mass engagement, led by Tasha Vanin, who served as the field director on our

campaign and helped us build a movement of more than 100,000 volunteers who knocked on millions of doors and made even more phone calls.

This office is going to be something that ensures that people powered is not just a buzzword or how we describe how we got here, but it is instead something that continues to define our politics

and governs our decision-making and our policy proposals. We are moving at a

policy proposals. We are moving at a pace that is as fast as the city that we love. In six days, we have signed 11

love. In six days, we have signed 11 executive orders. Historically, it would

executive orders. Historically, it would take months to get to that number. Now

that I know we built a movement around some pretty ambitious concepts, dignity, affordability, a government of the people, for the people, now that we're

in government, we have both the privilege and the responsibility to free those concepts from abstraction and put them into practice. Already, we are seeing that it is not only possible to

do so, but it is transformative when we do do so. Because when people see themselves and their interests reflected in governance, they care more about their democracy. They feel like they

their democracy. They feel like they have a greater say in their city and they participate more themselves. We can

only deliver for all of us if all of us work to deliver. So, thank you for being here, for continuing to share the not always glamorous work of government with

the people of this city and far beyond, and for holding those of us fortunate to be your public servants to account.

Thank you so much.

But we'll start with >> Oh, >> hi.

>> Hi.

>> I'm Laya. We met briefly at the primaries walking from Trump Tower to your debate. Um, I'm a Persian Lebanese

your debate. Um, I'm a Persian Lebanese content creator here. In the past six months, I've had so much fun making content for you. We've I've personally reached over 120 million people around

the world. So, it's really impactful and

the world. So, it's really impactful and it's just been really an honor to do that for you and I do it through just dancing and spreading joy. Um, so now for my question. I have been living in

the Upper East Side for eight years in the same apartment. Every year our rent goes up a tiny bit, but this year on the eve of November 3rd, my landlord, who is

kind and does try very hard, texted me and my roommate that he will be raising our rent 9.4% if we sign for one more year or 6.25 if we resign for two more

years. I love my apartment. I love its

years. I love my apartment. I love its quirks, but there are several issues which I'm sure a lot of other New Yorkers have like falling apart walls, things being painted over, whatever is

broken. I had a stalker that lived next

broken. I had a stalker that lived next door to me for 5 years that is now gone thankfully. Um, lack of security, broken

thankfully. Um, lack of security, broken intercom system, things like that. Um,

and so I was wondering how will the rental ripoff hearings be able to address concerns like this for myself and then other fellow New Yorkers who probably have much worse issues than

this?

>> Well, first of all, thank you for both sharing this question with us and the experiences that you've lived through as a New Yorker. The intent of the rental

ripoff hearings and also my selection of Sam Lavine as our new commissioner for the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection is to finally give New Yorkers a

place where they can register these kinds of complaints and concerns. Some

of the ripoffs that New Yorkers will speak about, I am sure, are the ones they've already shared with me. Ripoffs

like being charged fees that they cannot explain. ripoffs like being charged for

explain. ripoffs like being charged for services that are actually now supposed to be incorporated within the rent. Some

of them however will also align with what you have just shared which is a denial of repairs often times or an inability to actually get the services that you are owed. And what we are

looking to these ripoff hearings to do is not just to collect testimony but rather to use it as an opportunity to create proposals for policy implementation and enforcement. And the

last piece is critical because a law's worth is only so much as a New Yorker's knowledge of that same law. And there

are many laws that exist already to protect tenants, to protect workers. And

yet, if those tenants and workers do not know of them, then they can be taken advantage of. And so, our work will be

advantage of. And so, our work will be equal parts deliberation and legislation in partnership with the city council as well as enforcement.

>> Thank you.

Okay.

>> Yes. Yes. Uh first of all, how's everyone doing?

>> Just want to say you're doing an amazing job and I'm super happy to be part of this movement, this new era. My question

is uh how can you help uh local entrepreneurs and business owners that are struggling to acquire physical spaces to run their business in the city as well as help struggling local businesses to keep their spaces through

this tough season right now January Feb first quarter >> you know I I think it's so critical to highlight the entrepreneurs and the small businesses across our city and too

often we measure these small businesses by how many open but we don't ask ourselves as much by how many close or how they're doing in between those two moments. And so we made a commitment

moments. And so we made a commitment over the course of the campaign and how we would cut red tape, how we'd make it easier for those small businesses to navigate the bureaucracy. And one of the critical things that I've also

appreciated in making my appointment of Julie Sue as the deputy mayor for economic justice is this is someone who will bring the understanding that what workers are facing in this city and what

small businesses are facing in this city are part of a similar struggle that we have to deliver on. So, it comes down to cutting red tape, cutting fines and fees, and also ensuring that where the

city actually owns commercial properties that we are doing everything we can to fill those properties. Thank you,

brother.

>> Uh, hey. Um, so it's obvious that like your uh rental ripoff hearings that addressing bad landlords and affordability are immediately within your uh time frame. where in your

timeline is addressing long-term housing solutions for homeless New Yorkers.

>> So, this is a key part of the portfolio of our deputy mayor of housing and planning, Leila Bozark, who has done incredible work uh in in the past and is

already hitting the ground running in putting together a housing plan for the long term because we have to build an incredible amount of additional housing

across the city. And we also have to do so with a view towards how we can ensure that New Yorkers can afford to live in that kind of housing. So a lot of that work of planning, a lot of that work of

building across the city will fall within her portfolio. Then the question of taking on homelessness is also critically important. And I'm so proud

critically important. And I'm so proud to have our deputy mayor uh for health and human services, Helen Antiaga, who comes from running Elmherst Hospital in Queens, who will be doing a lot of the

work of ensuring that our social services are actually being delivered to those who are in dire need of it.

>> Hey, how's it going, Kevin?

>> Um, I have two quick questions for you.

First, uh, we know that you're inviting a few media here and earlier this week, you were meeting with New Yorkers on the bus and having direct communication with them. How important will communicating

them. How important will communicating directly with New Yorkers be during your term as mayor? And do you foresee that getting more difficult as we get further along?

>> It's going to be a critical part of the work that we do. You know, there are so many New Yorkers, as I shared as we began this press conference, for whom all of you in this room are how they

start their days and how they end their days. There are so many New Yorkers for

days. There are so many New Yorkers for whom social media is the medium through which they understand not just their life, but the struggles of their life.

And we are looking to speak to those especially who have long regarded government as if it is somebody else's concern, as if it does not have a relevance in their own life. And the

longer you spend in government, the more tempting it is to think only of government, to only have your press conferences in this room. For example, I have been meeting with the press corps every single day, and we have done so

across the entirety of the city. We will

meet here as well, but it's important to also take this message out to New York City as well as bring the rest of New York City in to this same building. And

you know, when I went on the Q70, which is the one fair free bus here in New York City, what I loved about it is you hear what it actually means for

people in their life. So often politics gets distilled into statistics, into the narratives that we we we have read time and time again. But then when you sit

with a young man who tells you that this bus being free means he can get home every single day without having to worry about how much money is in his pocket.

When you sit with someone and you hear from them about how that bus being free is means that they don't have to cut into the check that they're about to make at LaGuardia because of the cost to

get there, you remember what is driving this moment and what is driving this movement. And so I will always have to

movement. And so I will always have to get outside to make sure that this is a politics that reflects the rest of the city, not just the confines of this place. We also saw what happened in

place. We also saw what happened in Minneapolis and ICE agent shot a woman uh directly and killed her instantly. Um

and we know that in the previous administration there were a lot of runins with ICE in the city where New Yorkers thought that NYPD officers were either protecting or assisting ICE agents. So how can New Yorkers under

agents. So how can New Yorkers under your mayorship trust that NYPD when those situations arise will be there to protect them and not to protect mass secret agents? Well, I first just want

secret agents? Well, I first just want to make clear that the news coming out of Minneapolis is horrific. This is

one part of what has been a year full of cruelty. And we know that when ICE

cruelty. And we know that when ICE agents attack immigrants, they attack every single one of us across this country. And this is a city and will

country. And this is a city and will always be a city that stands up for immigrants across the five burrows. And

I have made it clear to everyone within my city government, and that extends to NYPD, that we are going to uphold our sanctuary city policies. We are going to

adhere to them. That is why one of the 11 executive orders that we signed was to repeal the previous administration's order to allow for collaboration with

ICE on Riker's Island. What we are going to be doing is following the laws that we have set, laws which have kept New Yorkers safe and we are going to make it clear to each and every person in this

city what their rights are. That's why

we took the time to make a know your rights video because it goes back to the earlier question. If you don't know of

earlier question. If you don't know of your rights, then how can you be expected to actually use those rights?

So, we are going to take every opportunity we have to inform New Yorkers of what they already can do and also to make it clear to our own city government agencies and departments

across the board, including NYPD, that we are not here to assist ICE agents in their work. We are here to follow the

their work. We are here to follow the laws of New York City. Thank you very much.

>> Hi, I'm so grateful to be here.

Congratulations and thank you. Uh my

question is about government bureaucracy. You've addressed it before

bureaucracy. You've addressed it before as it pertains to small businesses and I appreciate you acknowledging that it is an issue um in the interviews you've done even before you were elected. I'm

curious now that you're in office, what bureaucratic incentives do you feel like are the biggest obstacles um for you and your agenda and what are you doing to address them?

You know, when in one of the earlier conversations I had with Lena Khan, she told me that when she got to the FTC, it felt like she was experiencing the great forgetting where people had grown

accustomed to forgetting the actual potency of the tools they had in front of them. And the challenge that that

of them. And the challenge that that represents is having to push past an answer of this is how things are done or this is how we've always done them and

instead ask what are we able to do? And

so what I've been so appreciative of is that we are building a team that is looking at these tools in the full sense of what they are able to accomplish as opposed to what they've been used to

accomplish for the past few years, the past few administrations. So even the references we've made to rental ripoff hearings or the city's intervention in a bankruptcy court case against uh

Pinnacle Realy, these are examples of a city that is not going to be afraid to use its own power to stand up for working New Yorkers. And what I'm excited about is that all of this is

animated by a belief in government's purpose as being one that serves working people. And if you understand that, then

people. And if you understand that, then you are willing to do everything that it takes to actually deliver on that.

>> Very welcome.

>> Good afternoon, May.

>> Good afternoon.

>> I really appreciate the time I got following you and that's what really changed my mind and made me vote for you um during that um casting for the taxis.

So, I have two quick questions. Um first

of all, I'm a vendor. am a music producer from Jamaica, Queens.

>> Okay.

>> Um and I want to know can because I lost a lot of contracts when when the Trump administration came in. Are we going to get contracts back with vendors for after school program because that's what

our children need.

>> Look, this is a focus of our work. You

know, when we ran the campaign, we spoke again and again about the importance especially of universal child care.

After school is also critically important for so many. And I think that one of the first tasks we have in front of our administration is stabilizing what we have seen over the last few years and then also simultaneously

advancing our vision. So we've said that the days of spending a budget process forcing the public library to justify its own existence. Those have to come to an end. The days now that we are

an end. The days now that we are starting to embark upon will be one where we are honest with New Yorkers about the fiscal challenges we have but also create a budget that is a reflection of our own values. And for

me, those values include taking care of our children across the city. And so

that's where we're hard at work at right now.

>> Second question would be about St.

Elvis, Queens. We have this battery issue that we're having. So we have private homes that are being built next to these battery um farms. So lithium batteries, they explode and they're very they're 5t away from these private

homes. So people are concerned in

homes. So people are concerned in Jamaica, Queens. Is can we get some help

Jamaica, Queens. Is can we get some help with that that issue?

>> So that is an issue that I'm going to follow up with after this meeting. Thank

you for raising it. Appreciate it.

Uh my name is Juan Bago and uh actually today I do not have a question. Uh my

son has a question for you and I'm going to read it uh to hopefully your staff doesn't verify if it's real or not. Um

dear Mayo Zo you and I have a parent that is a filmmaker uh one of more successful many other. Uh, my question is, as mayor, uh, do you and your staff

have a plan to support independent filmmakers and content creators in New York City? Uh, PS. My dad bribed me $5

York City? Uh, PS. My dad bribed me $5 in a trip to Chuck-e-Cheese to ask this question.

>> Wow.

>> Tell your tell your dad not to bribe me because we don't do that here. Um, thank

you for that question, my friend. Thank

you for being here as well.

I think that the arts are a critical part of this city and too often we think about the arts as if they are separate from an agenda of affordability. And so

we don't want to just make it easier for filmmakers to tell the stories of this city, though we do. We also want to make it easier for filmmakers to be able to

afford to live in this city. And I

always think back to the conversation that you may have or your father may have seen. You probably didn't see it.

have seen. You probably didn't see it.

Maybe others in this room have seen it where Timothy Shalamé and Coleman Domingo were having a conversation and they realized they actually lived in the same building and they lived in that same building because it was a building that was built with the intent of

providing subsidized housing for artists. And so what we need to do in

artists. And so what we need to do in this city is ask ourselves if we want to have this city continue to be the cultural capital of the country, we also have to invest in it such that artists

can actually afford to live here and not just dream of coming to stay here. and

that's going to be a big part of our housing plan. Thank you,

housing plan. Thank you, >> Hi, >> Mayor Maldani. Thank you so much for having us here. It's such an incredible experience as a content creator to be able to come into the space. My name is

Aani and I make fitness content. And if

it's okay, I'm going to ask my question first in Spanish and then go for English.

for salute.

As someone in the fitness space, I'm very aware that access to gyms and safe spaces is a privilege. For example, the gym fees while trying to make strides towards self-improvement can hinder

someone's access. What is your plan to

someone's access. What is your plan to improve the average New Yorker's access to fitness spaces? And generally, how will your affordability agenda help improve the physical and mental fitness

of New Yorkers?

>> It's a lovely question. Um,

you know, I think the the first thing that we are focused on is that New Yorkers actually be able to trust that the subscriptions they are signing up for or the memberships are ones that

they can also get out of and ones where they agreed to pay the amount that's being charged to them. Because what

happens when you are ripped off or you are overcharged or you face a junk fee is it also diminishes your trust in that activity as a whole. And we do not want

to turn people away from exercise and physical activity. We want in fact to

physical activity. We want in fact to make it as easy as possible for them to express themselves in the city that is theirs. And so we are going to make

theirs. And so we are going to make clear to gyms as well as any and all businesses across this city that the law is something to be followed, not

something to simply be considered. And

that means to end the practice of subscription traps. It means to end the

subscription traps. It means to end the practice of junk fees and overcharging.

What we also have to do is invest in our public spaces as well. And we have to make it easy for New Yorkers to exercise outside as well as they can inside. And

that is something that I appreciate very deeply as someone who grew up in this city and also someone who has run very very slowly around this city and has

done so because of the parks of this city. And I think that for a long time

city. And I think that for a long time we have thought of some of these questions, some of these points, whether they be arts or physical activity, as if they are just footnotes to what should

be the focus of city government. But

they are in fact so much of what makes this a city people want to live in. And

so we need to actually treat it that way.

>> Thank you so much.

>> Runners still run marathons. I'm still

>> Thank you. Thank you.

I also enjoy running a marathon. But um

I have a three-part question. Okay. One

is uh the mayor.

>> We'll do one at a time.

>> Okay. Mayor of Minneapolis uh Fry has said I should get the f out of Minneapolis. Do you have the same

Minneapolis. Do you have the same attitude in New York? any um do you have any idea whether President Trump plans

to surge ICE agents here and even if he doesn't um how to protect the earth?

>> Now I can't speak to what the president will do. I can tell you however what

will do. I can tell you however what I've also said to him directly which is that I believe that these raids are cruel and inhumane and they do nothing to actually serve the interests of

public safety. And what New Yorkers want

public safety. And what New Yorkers want to see is a city that they are safe in, a city that they can also feel comfortable leaving their home in. And I

can tell you when we did the mayor is listening. When I sat for 12 hours at

listening. When I sat for 12 hours at the museum of the moving image in Atoria, I had a number of undocumented New Yorkers come and speak to me and share with me the anxiety that they live

with each and every day, the fear when they leave their home and also the sense that when they hug their aunt, it may be the last time that they do so. And so we will continue to make clear that this is

a city that stands up for immigrants and also this is a city that will follow its laws of sanctuary city policies precisely because these are laws that keep New Yorkers safe. And prior to this moment in time, these were laws that

were defended by people of both parties because of what they were seeing as actually delivering.

Just very quickly follow up about the Trump administration uh ending 10 billion dollars in funding to five Democrat-led states which for child care

for low-income in our case New Yorkers.

Um what is your plan right now on universal child care and to subsidize people who are going to be losing that support for everything from child care

to paying for diapers. This is a cruel decision that seeks to play politics with the future of our kids' lives here in this city. And I am looking forward to working with our partners in Albany

to not only fight this, but I also take heart from the fact of what the governor said yesterday, which was her confidence in being able to defeat this move in court. And we also know that it is

court. And we also know that it is insufficient to simply protect that which we do have. We also have to meaningfully advance our vision of universal child care. It costs a family

$22,500 a year to take care of a single child in this city. 80% of families with kids under the age of five cannot afford to live here any longer. This is an imperative for us. And so our task in

this year ahead and in every year is to meaningfully advance this vision of universal child care. We said that the beginning of that would be to fix 3K and then start to provide additional child

care for ages younger than that portion.

And that's what we have to be doing.

>> How do you leverage your position?

President Trump.

>> I'm sorry, Amy. I I I I I have to go on to other questions. Yeah. Thank you.

>> Hi, Mayor Mani. I met you briefly on election day and I haven't had a chance to say congratulations.

>> Thank you very much.

>> Um I work in fitness too and I echo Alan's sentiments about how important affordability and accessibility is. Uh

you've talked about the junk fees specifically like it's a huge joke in the fitness industry about how horrible what horrible offenders gyms are with memberships.

When we talk about things like the junk fee actions and the uh rental ripoff boards, it sounds great in theory and in practice for a lot of New Yorkers, these

things end up being a lot of more a lot more bureaucracy and a lot more red tape. How can everyday New Yorkers

tape. How can everyday New Yorkers expect to see these things in practice in how much we're paying to to live here?

>> You know, I I really appreciate the the question and the framing of it because I think what it speaks to is why so few people have hope in government's ability to actually deliver. And in Sam Lavine,

we have a commissioner for the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection who has demonstrated his track record of results at the national level. This is someone who was a key

level. This is someone who was a key part of the FTC under Lena Khan's leadership and someone who has shown the ability to to take on junk fees, subscription traps, exactly these kinds

of things at a nationwide level. And so

what I appreciate in this is we are not looking to make an announcement that we will then not return to. What we are in fact looking to do is empower a leader within our city government to collect

testimony from New Yorkers and then start to make rules on the basis of that testimony, create policy and deliver a new landscape in this city where those

kinds of fees are not ones that you come to accept as the cost of doing business, but they are in fact things that we know have no place in this city.

>> Thank you.

Hello. Nice to meet you again. Hi Toya.

Esard a couple months ago. Um, and I asked too many questions so I will not do that today. Um, so I'm a historian and my question is like everyone's talked about already. You've moved

really quickly on the rental ripoff hearings. I'm excited to see what that's

hearings. I'm excited to see what that's like and the junk feet orders. Are there

historical mayors? I know you said LaGuardia was your favorite mayor on the tour or moments in New York history's past like I think about the Harlem Tenants Council and the Harlem strikes

um Harlem rental strikes in the 1930s that have impacted you and how you prioriti what you prioritize early on.

And then my second question to follow up with that is how does it look from a vantage point of not being like an activist or a person but now being a person inside a mayor that can actually

make change?

You know, my favorite mayor will continue to be Fierella LaGuardia, and I think of his example often. Um,

LaGuardia founded what is today called the New York City Commission on Human Rights. At that time, it had a different

Rights. At that time, it had a different name. And today, we announced our new

name. And today, we announced our new executive director, our new commissioner and chair of that entity. And in doing

so, we announced our commitment to actually follow through on allegations of housing discrimination that take place across the city on allegations of discrimination on the basis of race or

religion or sexual orientation or disability status. And in announcing new

disability status. And in announcing new leadership, we continue to fulfill that same vision from decades ago. I think

what appeals to me so much about LaGuardia's legacy is it was one that measured itself by the work that it did for New Yorkers. And it delivered for

working New Yorkers also at a time of incredible anti-immigrant animists. And

it did so without trying to pit the two against one another, but instead speaking of a vision of the city that was for all and a vision of the city that was built around the importance of

public goods. And as much as we think

public goods. And as much as we think about the New Deal, as we should, we also have to recognize that those words were in fact first spoken here in New

York. And there are examples that we

York. And there are examples that we should emulate in in learning about that history. And then to your second

history. And then to your second question, you know, it is so incredibly exciting to be part of a team that is actually

delivering on this kind of work. And now

delivering doesn't just mean taking on the crises that we have all spoken about and known about. It also means showing that there is no job too small, no job too small, no crisis too big for city

government to actually concern itself with. And you know the other day we we covered over the Williamsburg Bridge bump. Now, this is

something that I myself have biked over many a time and have done so with real anxiety about how I'm going to look and feel at the end of that bump. But it was also more importantly something that New

Yorkers had flagged for me over the course of the campaign. And what I appreciated about it is what they were flagging for me was not just that particular instance, but also an example

of if you can't fix this, how are you going to do anything else? And what we want to show New Yorkers is we can do both. and we are going to do both. Thank

both. and we are going to do both. Thank

you.

question.

We're gonna take a really photo.

>> Well, I will say before we take this photo, I really do want to say thank you to everyone here for the work that you do, for the ways in which you keep New

Yorkers engaged and involved. and also

to make a commitment to you that this kind of engagement is something that will continue to characterize our administration because we need to speak to New Yorkers through every single

medium that they see themselves and see the world around them. And all of you are such critical parts of that. And now

I'm going to take a very poorly composed selfie and then I will walk out of this room and I will see you all very soon.

They told me to do five, but I don't know how to do this. So, here we go.

>> No, I'm not doing five.

>> I'm not doing five.

>> Here we go.

>> You guys in >> Didn't elect a Zoomer. You elected a millennial.

>> Thank you guys. It's a real pleasure.