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If you're trying to get a New Yorker to believe in the
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ability of city government,
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then you also have to be able to fill in their potholes
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because if they're looking out of their window and they're seeing
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a pothole that isn't filled,
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then they're asking themselves if I can't trust them to do this
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how could I trust them to do that?
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All right. Welcome to How Did We Get Here and today
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I'm joined with New York City Mayor Zora Mandami.
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As somebody who grew up in the Bronx and now lives in
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Los Angeles, it's been exciting to watch the impact you've had
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on New York and the way you've connected with people through social
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media and community engagement.
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Mayor Mandami, thank you for joining us.
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It's great to have you here.
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It's such a pleasure to be on.
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Thank you for having me.
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We just gotta get you back to the VX.
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I'm a Dominican living in LA,
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so you know I'm struggling out here.
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I'm missing the city.
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I'm missing the food.
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Speaking of food. What's your favorite Dominican dish?
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Talk to me. You know,
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I gotta say I have a preference for mofongo.
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That is, that is probably up there for me,
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if, if you were here,
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it would have been great to have you.
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We were uptown last night watching the Knicks game.
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It was a great time.
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I saw you at Locksmith.
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I saw you at Locksmith.
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It was, it was a great time.
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This city right now,
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you know, speaking of the fact that you're Dominican,
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so many of us were watching one of the best examples of
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A Dominican New Yorker putting the city on his back in
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and we're just so excited right now.
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All right. A lot of New Yorkers only notice the government
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when something goes wrong.
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How does work like fixing potholes and shoveling snow matter just as
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much as a big headline policies?
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I think if, if you're trying to get a New Yorker
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to believe in the ability of city government to deliver on the
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most transformative vision for them,
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like universal childcare, something that would be a multi-billion.
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Dollar initiative that would provide free childcare for children now for the
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first time in New York City history at 2 years of age
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then you also have to be able to fill in their
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potholes because if they're looking out of their window and they're seeing
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a pothole that isn't filled,
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then they're asking themselves if I can't trust them to do this
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how could I trust them to do that?
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And we wanna show New Yorkers that there's no problem,
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there's, there's no problem too big,
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there's no task too small for city government to deliver on,
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and, and that's really been our focus over the.
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These past 6 months and nothing beats a New York summer.
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We know we're about to hit an epic one this summer if
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Plus, the World Cup is pulling up to MetLife,
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New York is home to Mexicans,
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Dominicans, Colombians, Ecuadorians,
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Salvadorians, and so many other football fans.
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What are your plans for New York to honor our communities beyond
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just hosting matches? I think there's a number of things,
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as you said, we're excited that we're gonna be hosting 8
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games here in New York City.
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And these are moments that so many New Yorkers have been looking
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forward to, but also we want this to be a tournament
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where we remember more than just what happens on the field.
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We want this to be a moment when people from across the
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world come to our city,
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that they actually get to experience the breath and the beauty of
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our city, and so many of the communities you just mentioned
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they have thriving small businesses across the five boroughs,
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and we want people to know about them,
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to enjoy them. So we've set up.
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This is a deal with 488 small businesses and counting where we
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offer a deal of $26 for food and drink across the five
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boroughs, and that's a way that we can not only celebrate
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these communities on the field,
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but also celebrate them in the neighborhoods that they've helped to build
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I don't know why I'm out here,
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Come on, you gotta come back.
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Knicks in the finals,
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World Cup. All right,
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what message does it send when one of the world's biggest events
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arrives in a city built by generations of immigrants?
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Recognition of the fact that immigrants have helped to build this city
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and of the 8.5 million people who call the city home,
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more than 3 million are immigrants,
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and, and I'm actually one of them.
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And this is a moment when New Yorkers get to live the
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fullest version of themselves,
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where they get to cheer for the place where they live and
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also the place where they came from,
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and that's this beautiful.
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Full time in our city's history that we experience every 4 years
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with World Cups wherever they are,
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but now to have it here in New York City,
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it's gonna be something we're never gonna forget.
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In our backyard, in our backyard.
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Come on. What lessons can New York learn from soccer cultures
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around the world when it comes to building stronger communities?
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I've seen how they get down in Europe,
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they'd be closing schools down,
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closing up shop, leaving work early.
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Like, are we heading towards that or?
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I think one of the things I appreciate about soccer is that
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at its core, it's a working class game.
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And if you look at countries across the world,
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they understand that in terms of how they invest back in their
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people, and we're looking to make this a summer where we
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do the same. So just as important as us securing 1000
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tickets at $50 a pop for New Yorkers for the World Cup
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is the fact that we secured funding to create 50 so soccer
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Schools, so these are,
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soccer streets outside of public schools where we teach young
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people the game. We teach them how to play it,
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how to celebrate it,
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and also just painting murals about it.
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And that's also what we want this summer to be is a
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time for, for our youngest generation to fall in love with
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this game and see themselves as part of this game.
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Man, I feel like the Team USA in like 2060 is
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gonna be stacked. That's what we're hoping for.
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what role can sports play in.
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Keeping young people engaged,
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connected, and hopeful during a time when many communities are feeling
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isolated. I think sports has a critical role to play.
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I mean, you could see it right now with the Knicks
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It feels like the entire city has come alive and we
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are all thinking about the same thing.
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We're all praying for the same thing,
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and there's a real sense of community that comes out of that
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And I think we will,
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we hope to see the same thing in the World Cup and
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you know, oftentimes.
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You're speaking to someone who speaks a second language or a third
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language, and you're speaking to them in something that isn't their
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first language, you realize that you're talking in some ways to
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Soccer in some ways is a is a language that can unlock
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the fullness of each person,
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whether yourself or someone else,
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creates a new thread between the two of you,
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and we're hopeful that this is a game where more New Yorkers
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understand it as a reflection of how they belong in the city
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A lot of young people engage with politics.
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Through social media, what advice would you give them about getting
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involved in their communities?
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I think first and foremost to make sure that you're actually thinking
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and speaking and fighting for the things that working class people are
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struggling with. Oftentimes in politics it feels like you're lecturing people
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as to what they should care about as opposed to the fact
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that you're listening to them tell you what it is that they
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care about and then developing plans on how to respond to that
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And people will tell you very clearly,
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here are the costs that I'm struggling to keep up with in
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my life, and from that you can start to build a
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sense of what are the interventions we could have to make it
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easier for them to afford that day to day life.
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And what issues do you wish more young New Yorkers were paying
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attention to? I would say first,
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just that they knew that there is a website,
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NYC.gov/summer. This is a website where we've put together hundreds
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Of free activities across the five boroughs and kids can filter
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it by age, by zip code,
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by interest. It has activities whether it's soccer or basketball or
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gardening or photography and growing up in the city,
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I always used to go to a city website back in the
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day which would show me the free events of the week.
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This is our answer to that for the next generation.
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The other thing that I would always say is,
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For our youngest generation to be thinking about is housing in the
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city. We wanna make sure that young people can afford to
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live here, can afford to build their lives here,
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that they don't have to go to LA,
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but they could stay in the VX,
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and part of that is if we actually build enough housing and
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strengthen our tenant protections,
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and that's exactly what we're doing with the plan that we released
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just last week called Block by Block.
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You keep selling New York to me,
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I'm gonna have to literally move back.
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All right, as we know,
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the Knicks are officially up one in the finals,
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and we haven't been there since '99.
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What has this run meant for you?
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I saw you in locksmith.
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You were around some of my friends.
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I got some pictures of you there.
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You were turning up.
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what has this run meant for New York City?
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It's meant everything. I mean,
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it, it just feels like,
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you know, orange and blue skies,
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as everyone is saying,
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that people just light up at,
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at, at even thinking about the Knicks because,
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as you said, we haven't been here since 1'99,
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and 1999 was. a tough series for us.
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you know, as you know,
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the last time we won a championship was 73,
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and we're Jackson won 99 back.
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Sorry, I was gonna say Phil Jackson was on that team
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I know, I know it's hard to even imagine that
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coaches were players at one time,
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but that's what it was.
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And, and now here we are,
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and it's just kind of this beautiful moment where Rick Brunson was
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a part of that team in '99.
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Now Jalen Brunson is carrying this team in 2026,
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and you're just seeing every single.
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Players show up and to me,
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that is also what this team represents to New York City.
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it's, it's the city come to life on a basketball court
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I'm, I'm telling you just like what it means to me
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sentimentally as well as to New Yorkers,
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but even economically, every home game generates $90 million in economic
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activity for our city.
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If the Knicks go the full distance,
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we're talking about more than $460 million in economic activity.
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This is of incredible importance to our city.
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And I see you've also extended bedtime.
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Mr. Mayor. Now nobody parties like us.
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I'm sure you know that.
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Knock on wood, say we win.
09:13
What would you say to Knicks fans as we celebrate,
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cause I've been out here in LA and it gets a little
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crazy out here. I'd say I'll see you at the parade
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I was given 2003 blackout vibes.
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I don't know if you remember that.
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That's what I'm comparing it to if we win,
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no blackouts. I feel like,
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people are drawn to you because you're easy to relate
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to. Pokemon turned 30.
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We're kind of the same age.
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What was your starter Pokemon,
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I can't remember my starter Pokemon,
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but I remember going to the Pokemon movie in the hopes of
09:45
You're,, definitely inspired by a new generation that there's
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hope in politics. How can LA and other cities get Zoran
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coded cause it's a mess out here.
09:56
We need, we need one of you out here.
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Well, what I would say is there are a number of
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candidates I'm incredibly excited by,
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here in New York City we got,
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we got two of them in Claire Valdez and Dari Alisa Avila
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Chevalier, as well as,
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but in terms of young people who are looking to find their
10:11
way in politics, one of the things that was most important
10:13
for me was finding a political.
10:14
Home, not feeling like you have to do everything on your
10:17
own and, and for me that was the Democratic Socialism of
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America. I know there's a chapter out there in LA as
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thank you for your time,
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Mr. Mayor. Go Knicks.
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I'm going for the parade.
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You better come back.
Series