Watch Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration outside City Hall in New York City. Mamdani is the city’s first Muslim and first person of South Asian descent to serve as mayor. At 34 years old, Mamdani is also the five boroughs’ youngest mayor in the past 100 years.

ZOHRAN MAMDANI, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: In 1990, David Dinkins swore the same oath I swore today, vowing to celebrate the gorgeous mosaic that is New York, where every one of us is deserving of a decent life. And nearly six decades before him, Fiorella LaGuardia took office with the goal of building a city that was far greater and more beautiful for the hungry and the poor. Some of these mayors may be different from others, but they were unified by a shared belief that New York could belong to more than just a privileged few. It could belong to those who operate our subways and rake our parks, those who feed us biryani and beef patties, picanha and pastrami on rye. And they know that this belief could be made true if only government dared to work hardest In the years to come, my administration will resurrect that legacy. City Hall will deliver an agenda of safety, affordability, and abundance, where government looks and lives like the people it represents, never flinches in the fight against corporate greed, and refuses to cower before challenges that others have deemed Well, my friends, we can look to Madiba and the South African Freedom Charter. New York belongs to all who live in it. Together, we will tell a new story of our city. This will not be a tale of one city governed only by the 1%, nor will it be a tale of two cities, the rich versus the poor. It will be a tale of 8.5 million cities, each of them a New Yorker with hopes and fears, each a universe, each of them woven together. The authors of this story will speak Pashto and Mandarin, Yiddish and Creole. They will pray in mosques, at shul, at church, at gurudwaras and mandirs and temples.

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