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00:00So help me God.
00:30All right.
00:48Go right.
00:50Go right.
00:52Go right.
00:54Go right.
00:56My fellow New Yorkers, today begins a new era.
01:10I stand before you, moved by the privilege of taking this sacred oath, humbled by the
01:18faith that you have placed in me, and honored to serve as either your 111th or 112th mayor
01:26of New York City.
01:29But I do not stand alone.
01:31I stand alongside you, the tens of thousands of you gathered here in Lower Manhattan, warmed
01:39against the January chill by the resurgent flame of hope.
01:44I stand alongside countless more New Yorkers, watching from cramped kitchens in Flushing
01:51and barber shops in East New York, from cell phones propped against the dashboards of parked
01:56taxi cabs at LaGuardia, from hospitals in Mott Haven and libraries in El Barrio that have
02:04too long known only neglect.
02:07I stand alongside construction workers in steel-toed boots and halal cart vendors whose knees ache
02:13from working all day.
02:17I stand alongside neighbors who carry a plate of food to the elderly couple down the hall,
02:23those in a rush who still lift strangers strollers up subway stairs, and every person who makes
02:30the choice day after day, even when it feels impossible, to call our city home.
02:38I stand alongside over one million New Yorkers who voted for this day nearly two months ago.
02:47And I stand just as resolutely alongside those who did not.
02:52I know there are some who view this administration with distrust or disdain, or who see politics
03:00as permanently broken.
03:02And while only action can change minds, I promise you this.
03:08If you are a New Yorker, I am your mayor.
03:16Regardless of whether we agree, I will protect you, celebrate with you, mourn alongside you,
03:23and never, not for a second, hide from you.
03:27I thank the labor and movement leaders here today, the activists and the elected officials
03:33who will return to fighting for New Yorkers the second this ceremony concludes.
03:40And the performers who have gifted us with their talent.
03:44Thank you to Governor Hochul.
03:47Thank you as well to Mayor Adams.
03:52Dorothy's son, a son of Brownsville who rose from washing dishes to the highest position
03:57in our city, for being here as well.
04:01He and I have had our share of disagreements, but I will always be touched that he chose me
04:06as the mayoral candidate that he would most want to be trapped with on an elevator.
04:13Thank you to the two titans who, as an assembly member, I've had the privilege of being represented
04:19by in Congress, Nidia Velasquez and our incredible opening speaker, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
04:29You have paved the way for this moment.
04:33Thank you to the man whose leadership I seek most to emulate, who I am so grateful to be
04:38sworn in by today, Senator Bernie Sanders.
04:46Thank you to my teams from the assembly, to the campaign, to the transition, and now the
04:53team I am so excited to lead from City Hall.
04:59Thank you to my parents, Mama and Baba, for raising me, for teaching me how to be in this
05:10world and for having brought me to this city.
05:13Thank you to my family, from Kampala to Delhi.
05:18And thank you to my wife, Rama.
05:28For being my best friend and for always showing me the beauty in everyday things.
05:34And most of all, thank you to the people of New York.
05:40A moment like this comes rarely.
05:45Seldom do we hold such an opportunity to transform and reinvent.
05:51Rarer still is it the people themselves whose hands are the ones upon the levers of change.
05:58And yet we know that too often in our past, moments of great possibility have been promptly
06:04surrendered to small imagination and smaller ambition.
06:09What was promised was never pursued.
06:12What could have changed remained the same.
06:16For the New Yorkers most eager to see our city remade, the weight has only grown heavier.
06:22The weight has only grown longer.
06:26In writing this address, I have been told that this is the occasion to reset expectations.
06:33That I should use this opportunity to encourage the people of New York to ask for little and
06:38expect even less.
06:41I will do no such thing.
06:47The only expectation I seek to reset is that of small expectations.
06:55Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously.
07:00We may not always succeed, but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try.
07:08To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this.
07:14No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers' lives.
07:23For too long, we have turned to the private sector for greatness while accepting mediocrity
07:28from those who serve the public.
07:30I cannot blame anyone who has come to question the role of government, whose faith in democracy
07:36has been eroded by decades of apathy.
07:39We will restore that trust by walking a different path.
07:44One where government is no longer solely the final recourse for those struggling.
07:48One where excellence is no longer the exception.
07:52We expect greatness from the cooks wielding a thousand spices.
07:57From those who stride out onto our Broadway stages and from our starting point guard at Madison
08:02Square Garden.
08:06Let us demand the same from those who work in government.
08:10In a city where the mere names of our streets are associated with the innovation of the industries
08:15that call them home, we will make the word City Hall synonymous with both resolve and results.
08:25As we embark upon this work, let us advance a new question, a new answer to the question
08:30asked of every generation.
08:33Who does New York belong to?
08:36For much of our history, the response from City Hall has been simple.
08:40It belongs only to the wealthy and well-connected, those who never strained to capture the attention
08:46of those in power.
08:48Working people have reckoned with the consequences.
08:53Crowded classrooms and public housing developments where the elevators sit out of orders.
08:59Roads littered with potholes and buses that arrive half an hour late, if at all.
09:03Wages that do not rise and corporations that rip off consumers and employees alike.
09:09And still, there have been brief fleeting moments where the equation changed.
09:15Twelve years ago, Bill de Blasio stood where I stand now as he promised to put an end to
09:20economic and social inequalities that divided our city into two.
09:26In 1990, David Dinkins swore the same oath I swore today, vowing to celebrate the gorgeous mosaic
09:33that is New York, where every one of us is deserving of a decent life.
09:39And nearly six decades before him, Fiorella LaGuardia took office with the goal of building a city that
09:48was far greater and more beautiful for the hungry and the poor.
09:54Some of these mayors achieved more success than others.
09:58But they were unified by a shared belief that New York could belong to more than just a privileged
10:03few.
10:04It could belong to those who operate our subways and rake our parks.
10:10Those who feed us biryani and beef patties.
10:13Picanha and pastrami on rye.
10:17And they know that this belief could be made true if only government dared to work hardest
10:22for those who work hardest.
10:26Over the years to come, my administration will resurrect that legacy.
10:30City Hall will deliver an agenda of safety, affordability, and abundance, where government
10:37looks and lives like the people it represents, never flinches in the fight against corporate
10:42greed, and refuses to cower before challenges that others have deemed too complicated.
10:49In so doing, we will provide our own answer to that age-old question.
10:54Who does New York belong to?
10:57Well, my friends, we can look to Madiba and the South African Freedom Charter.
11:02New York belongs to all who live in it.
11:06Together, we will tell a new story of our city.
11:10This will not be a tale of one city governed only by the one percent.
11:15Nor will it be a tale of two cities, the rich versus the poor.
11:19It will be a tale of eight and a half million cities.
11:24Each of them a New Yorker with hopes and fears.
11:27Each a universe.
11:29Each of them woven together.
11:32The authors of this story will speak Pashto and Mandarin, Yiddish and Creole.
11:40They will pray in mosques, at shul, at church, at gurudwaras and mandirs and temples.
11:47And many will not pray at all.
11:49They will be Russian Jewish immigrants in Brighton Beach, Italians in Rossville and Irish families
11:56in Woodhaven, many of whom came here with nothing but a dream of a better life, a dream which
12:02has withered away.
12:04They will be young people in cramped Marble Hill apartments where the walls shake when
12:08the subway passes.
12:10They will be black homeowners in St. Albans whose homes represent a physical testament to
12:15triumph over decades of lesser paid labor and redlining.
12:20They will be Palestinian New Yorkers in Bay Ridge, who will no longer have to contend
12:30with a politics that speaks of universalism and then makes them the exception.
12:35Few of these eight and a half million will fit into neat and easy boxes.
12:43Some will be voters from Hillside Avenue or Fordham Road who supported President Trump
12:48a year before they voted for me, tired of being failed by their party's establishment.
12:54The majority will not use the language that we often expect from those who wield influence.
13:00I welcome the change.
13:02For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas
13:08of cruelty.
13:11Many of these people have been betrayed by the established order.
13:15But in our administration, their needs will be met.
13:19Their hopes and dreams and interests will be reflected transparently in government.
13:24They will shape our future.
13:26And if for too long, these communities have existed as distinct from one another, we will
13:32draw this city closer together.
13:35We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.
13:41If our campaign demonstrated that the people of New York yearn for solidarity, then let this
13:47government foster it.
13:49Because no matter what you eat, how you pray, or where you come from, the words that most define
13:57us are the two we all share, New Yorkers.
14:04And it will be New Yorkers who reform a long, broken property tax system.
14:09New Yorkers who will create a new Department of Community Safety that will tackle the mental
14:14health crisis and let the police focus on the job they signed up to do.
14:19New Yorkers who will take on the bad landlords who mistreat their tenants and free small business
14:25owners from the shackles of bloated bureaucracy.
14:29And I am proud to be one of those New Yorkers.
14:33When we won the primary last June, there were many who said these aspirations and those who
14:38held them had come out of nowhere.
14:42That one man's nowhere is another man's somewhere.
14:47This movement came out of eight and a half million somewheres.
14:52Taxicab depots and Amazon warehouses, DSA meetings and curbside domino games.
15:00The powers that be had looked away from these places for quite some time if they'd known
15:05about them at all.
15:07So they dismissed them as nowhere.
15:11But in our city, where every corner of these five boroughs holds power, there is no nowhere
15:18and there is no no one.
15:20There is only New York and there are only New Yorkers.
15:24Eight and a half million New Yorkers will speak this new era into existence.
15:31It will be loud.
15:33It will be different.
15:35It will feel like the New York we love.
15:41No matter how long you have called this city home, that love has shaped your life.
15:48I know that it has shaped mine.
15:51This is the city where I set land speed records on my Razor scooter at the age of 12, quickest
15:57four blocks of my life.
15:59The city where I ate powdered donuts at halftimes during AYSO soccer games and realized I probably
16:05was not going to be going pro.
16:08The city where I devoured two big slices at Coronet's Pizza, played cricket with my friends at Ferry
16:15Point Park and took the one train to the BX10 only to still show up late to Bronx Science.
16:23The city where I have gone on hunger strike just outside these gates.
16:27The city where I have gone on hunger strike just outside these gates.
16:31I sat claustrophobic on a stalled end train just after Atlantic Avenue and waited in quiet
16:37terror for my father to emerge from 26 Federal Plaza.
16:41The city where I took a beautiful woman named Rama to McCarran Park on our first date and
16:50swore a different oath to become an American citizen on Pearl Street.
16:55To live in New York, to love New York, is to know that we are the stewards of something
17:00without equal in our world.
17:03Where else can you hear the sound of the steel pan, savor the smell of sancocho, and pay nine
17:11dollars for coffee on the same block?
17:16Where else could a Muslim kid like me grow up eating bagels and lox every Sunday?
17:24That love will be our guide as we pursue our agenda.
17:30Here where the language of the New Deal was born, we will return the vast resources of this
17:37city to the workers who call it home.
17:40Not only will we make it possible for every New Yorker to afford a life they love once
17:46again, we will overcome the isolation that too many feel and connect the people of this
17:53city to one another.
17:56The cost of childcare will no longer discourage young adults from starting a family.
18:03Because we will deliver universal childcare for the many by taxing the wealthiest few.
18:13Those in rent stabilized homes will no longer dread the latest rent hike.
18:17Because we will freeze the rent.
18:23Getting on a bus without worrying about a fair hike or whether you'll be able to get to your
18:28destination on time will no longer be deemed a small miracle because we will make those
18:33buses fast and free.
18:39These policies are not simply about the costs we make free, but the lives we fill with freedom.
18:46For too long in our city, freedom has belonged only to those who can afford to buy it.
18:52Our city hall will change that.
18:56These promises carried our movement to city hall, and they will carry us from the rallying
19:02cries of a campaign to the realities of a new era in politics.
19:09Two Sundays ago, as snow softly fell, I spent 12 hours at the Museum of the Moving Image in
19:14Astoria, listening to New Yorkers from every borough as they told me about the city that is theirs.
19:22We discussed construction hours on the Van Wick Expressway and EBT eligibility, affordable
19:29housing for artists and ICE raids.
19:32I spoke to a man named TJ who said that one day a few years ago, his heart broke as he realized
19:39that he would never get ahead here, no matter how hard he worked.
19:44I spoke to a Pakistani auntie named Samina who told me that this movement had fostered something
19:50too rare, softness in people's hearts.
19:55As she said to me in Urdu,
19:57I spoke to a man named Samina who told me that his heart was changed.
20:03A hundred and forty-two New Yorkers out of eight and a half million.
20:08And yet, if anything united each person sitting across from me, it was the shared recognition
20:16that this moment demands a new politics and a new approach to power.
20:22We will deliver nothing less as we work each day to make this city belong to more of its
20:27people than it did the day before.
20:33Here is what I want you to expect from the administration that this morning moved into the building behind
20:39me.
20:42We will transform the culture of City Hall from one of no to one of how.
20:48We will answer to all New Yorkers, not to any billionaire or oligarch who thinks they
20:53can buy our democracy.
20:57We will govern without shame and insecurity, making no apology for what we believe.
21:04I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist.
21:16I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed radical.
21:22As the great Senator from Vermont once said,
21:25what's radical is a system which gives so much to so few and denies so many people the
21:31basic necessities of life.
21:35We will strive each day to ensure that no New Yorker is priced out of any one of those
21:40basic necessities.
21:42And throughout it all, we will, in the words of Jason Terrence Phillips, better known as
21:48Jada Kiss or J to the Mwah, be outside.
21:57Because this is a government of New York, by New York, and for New York.
22:10Before I end, I want to ask all of you, if you are able, whether you are here today or
22:17anywhere watching, to stand with me.
22:24I ask you to stand with us now and every day that follows.
22:29City Hall will not be able to deliver on our own.
22:33And while we will encourage New Yorkers to demand more from those with the great privilege of
22:39serving them, we will encourage you to demand more of yourselves as well.
22:44The movement we began over a year ago did not end with our election.
22:49It will not end this afternoon.
22:52It lives on with every battle we will fight together.
22:57Every blizzard and flood we withstand together.
23:01Every moment of fiscal challenge we overcome with ambition, not austerity, together.
23:06Every way we pursue change in working people's interests rather than at their expense, together.
23:14No longer will we treat victory as an invitation to turn off the news.
23:19From today onwards, we will understand victory very simply.
23:25Something with the power to transform lives.
23:29And something that demands effort from each of us every single day.
23:35What we achieve together will reach across the five boroughs and it will resonate far beyond.
23:41There are many who will be watching.
23:44They want to know if the left can govern.
23:47They want to know if the struggles that afflict them can be solved.
23:52They want to know if it is right to hope again.
23:57So standing together with the wind of purpose at our backs, we will do something that New
24:03Yorkers do better than anyone else.
24:07We will set an example for the world.
24:13If what Sinatra said is true, let us prove that anyone can make it in New York and anywhere
24:20else too.
24:22Let us prove that when a city belongs to the people, there is no need too small to be met.
24:28No person too sick to be made healthy.
24:32No one too alone to feel like New York is their home.
24:39The work continues.
24:42The work endures.
24:44The work, my friends, has only just begun.
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