Mamdani Faces Early Tests at City Hall

Watch Mamdani Faces Early Tests at City Hall - Bloomberg on Dailymotion

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00:00Laura, first of all, Mamdani, what, he's coming into power tonight at midnight? Is that how this

00:04works? Yes, that's how it always works. It's not unusual. He'll be sworn in officially tonight at

00:11midnight in a ceremony that's going to take place, a subterranean ceremony, in the old

00:17decommissioned City Hall subway station. He'll be sworn in on a Quran, the first mayor in New

00:23York City history to be sworn in on a Quran. And then he will be participating in another

00:29ceremony tomorrow afternoon with a much larger audience, about 4,000 people. And I'll take the

00:37oath of office. Laura, you know, for a president, we think, boy, the first 100 days are critical here.

00:42How about for the mayor of New York City? What are the to-do list for him on, you know, as he gets

00:48rolling here? Well, I think he's going to be taking office as the mayor of a city with the largest,

00:56most competitive media environment in the country, I think it's fair to say. And so every move that he

01:02makes from now on is going to be closely scrutinized. And he has a bunch of different benchmarks

01:07over the next couple of months that will show us how successful he might be in his first year.

01:13He's going to need significant help from the New York State legislature and New York's governor in

01:18order to get funding or approval for some of the initiatives he's said that he wants,

01:23and we'll quickly be able to see in the next couple of weeks after the state budget is released

01:29and as negotiations get underway for the New York State budget, whether or not he's going to achieve

01:33any of his agenda there and, in fact, be able to get any sort of tax increases or revenue raisers to

01:40help pay for some really expensive items that he wants to offer New York City residents, like a

01:45universal free child care program or free citywide bus service.

01:49I don't want to sound like an old curmudgeon, but will he be able to get police to arrest people

01:53for breaking the law? Because I see people breaking the law in this city all the time with police just

02:00sitting on the corner doing nothing about it. Should I have any optimism there, Laura?

02:05Well, he is retaining the police commissioner from outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, Commissioner Jessica

02:13Tish. She's presided over some, a decrease in crime rates in a bunch of different major crime

02:18categories. But yes, he is nominally in charge of the police department and they're supposed to follow

02:24his lead. But those are potential cultural changes that would have to be worked through with

02:32with the police commissioner and the mayor.