Mayor Zohran Mamdani reflected on the enduring legacy of former Mayor Fiorello La Guardia during an exclusive one-hour conversation on Monday, just after his first 100 days in office.
NYC Mayor Mamdani's First 100 Days Echo La Guardia's Bold Legacy
Speaking before a sold-out audience inside the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space in Lower Manhattan, Mamdani, a democratic socialist, told our website senior politics reporter Brigid Bergin he takes inspiration from La Guardia, the popular three-term mayor who led New York City out of the Great Depression and championed big-government progressivism.
"La Guardia would say we need imagination," Mamdani said. "I look back on that idealism and see so much of a reflection of a similar scale of crisis that we are living through, and the need for a similar scale of ambition and vision."
"I've been called an idealist," he added. "I propose to go right on with my idealism."
The mayor met with former President Barack Obama at a Bronx child care center over the weekend. It was the first public meeting between the two and a sign of how national Democrats are closely watching how Mamdani is crafting his agenda.
Mamdani said before their event that he and Obama spoke about his "vision for this city" and the importance of universal child care. He also spoke about how his platform on child care reflects a change in how Democrats approach voters.
"I think part and parcel of that is in our politics, there's often a condescension towards people, a sense of more people should settle down and raise kids in the city without reckoning with why they are not doing so," he said.
The event featured several recordings of La Guardia, who had a radio show on WNYC.
"One of the incredibly cool things about this job is that I get to use Fiorello La Guardia's desk," he said.
Mamdani used Monday night's conversation as an opportunity to tout the successes of his first 100 days. He marked the early milestone earlier this month with a rally in Queens.
In recent days, he has trumpeted one of his biggest policy wins - $1.2 billion in state funding to kickstart his universal child care plan - and framed the delivery of everyday city services as "pothole politics."
The mayor made a point of referencing La Guardia during his first 100 days, beginning with his inauguration speech, where he pledged to carry out "the most ambitious agenda to tackle the cost-of-living crisis that this city has seen since the days of Fiorello La Guardia."
After campaigning to raise income taxes on the rich, the mayor last week negotiated a compromise with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who proposed a pied-à-terre tax that would affect luxury second homes.
The first months of Mamdani's mayoralty have also featured strategic reversals on stances he took during his campaign, like supporting mayoral control, resuming homeless sweeps, opposing the expansion of a rental voucher program and scaling back his proposed department of community safety.
Last week, Mamdani announced his plan for city-owned grocery stores at La Marqueta, a public market in East Harlem that opened under La Guardia in 1936.
"Just as La Guardia used government to respond to the challenges of the Great Depression, we will use government to respond to rising prices and unaffordable groceries," he told reporters.
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