New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that advice from former Mayor Michael Bloomberg on building and trusting a team has shaped his management style during his first 100 days in office, citing pothole repairs and landlord settlements as early proof.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist sworn in Jan. 1 as the city's 112th mayor, made the comments Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" in an interview with moderator Kristen Welker, taped at City Hall at the desk once used by former Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.
Mamdani called La Guardia the greatest mayor in the city's history and said working at his desk served as "a reminder of all that's possible."
He told Welker he had met with several past mayors, including Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio, and argued that "there's a hubris in our politics that you have to create everything yourself."
Asked what single piece of advice had stayed with him, Mamdani pointed to Bloomberg.
"Michael Bloomberg spoke to me about the importance of the team that you build around you and that you let that team do the work that you hired them to do," he said.
He added that he had tried to resist "the micro-managerial aspect in so much of this work."
The mayor tied that approach to what his administration is billing as early wins, citing $32 million in settlements from what he called bad landlords and 102,000 potholes filled.
He credited his staff, saying, "That's a team that's doing that, and I'm so lucky to have the one that I have around me."
Welker asked whether Mamdani agreed with former Mayor John Lindsay's description of the mayoralty as the hardest job in the country after the presidency.
Mamdani called it "a tough job" but said it was "also an incredibly" fulfilling one.
The interview came as Mamdani marks the 100-day benchmark under pressure to convert sweeping campaign promises into policy.
Signature pledges to freeze rents, make buses free, and guarantee universal child care remain only partially fulfilled.
A citywide rent freeze awaits a summer vote by the Rent Guidelines Board, and a plan for free buses has been scaled back to a pilot program paired with expanded fast lanes.
The city is also facing a structural budget gap estimated at roughly $5 billion.
Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul last week endorsed a proposed "pied-a-terre" tax on second homes valued at $5 million or more, aimed at closing part of the shortfall.
President Donald Trump criticized the plan in an online post, accusing the mayor of "destroying" the city.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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