New York City’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has been living in a modest one-bedroom apartment with his Syrian wife but could move into Gracie Mansion, the city’s official mayoral residence, according to The New York Times.
The Ugandan-born politician’s $2,300-a-month (shs8.1m) apartment in Astoria, Queens, has had plumbing problems, and Mr Mamdani recently spent a weekday morning blanketing the floor with towels to absorb water from a leaking sink, the paper reported.
But it said Mr Mamdani had not decided yet whether he was ready to move into the mansion, which was built in 1799 and has been the official residence of New York City’s mayors since 1942.
“I don’t yet have an answer on where I’m going to be living,” Mr Mamdani told The New Yorker Radio Hour, according to the Times. “But I can tell you where I’m going to be working—and that’s City Hall.”
“My wife and I have just talked about the fact that a one-bedroom is a little too small for us now,” he said.
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If he takes up residence at Gracie Mansion—a Federal-style landmark on the Upper East Side—Mr Mamdani would be trading his 800-square-foot apartment for an 11,000-square-foot estate with manicured lawns, apple trees and a full-time chef, The Times reported.
The home, known as “the people’s house,” has hosted mayors since Fiorello LaGuardia reluctantly moved in during World War II.
Bill de Blasio’s son, Dante, recalled feeling like “the luckiest kid in America” when his family moved there in 2014, according to The Times.
But he also cautioned that the mansion can feel isolating. “You are detached from the day-to-day reality of living in New York City,” he said, while urging Mr Mamdani to “throw parties” and use the house to its full potential.
Security concerns could tip the balance. The mansion is protected by a high fence, surveillance cameras and police officers—far from the unguarded Queens block Mamdani now calls home.
If history is a guide, the decision may not be his alone. “He absolutely needs to go to Gracie,” former Mayor de Blasio advised.
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