On a cold New Year’s Day, New York City turned the page.

Inside City Hall on Thursday, Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor. At 34, he is the youngest mayor New York City has had in more than a century.

The inauguration itself was as symbolic as it was unmistakably ideological, departing from tradition in several respects.

Mamdani, a Muslim, placed his hand on a Quran to take the oath — a first for a New York City mayor.

The oath was administered by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a longtime ally and the nation’s most prominent self-described democratic socialist, underscoring the political lineage Mamdani now represents.

And the anthem “Bread and Roses” — an historic labor and socialist anthem associated with early 20th-century union organizing — was performed before Mamdani’s inaugural address.

In his remarks, Mamdani framed his rise as inseparable from New York’s immigrant story. “Where else,” he asked, “could a Muslim kid like me grow up eating bagels and lox every Sunday?”

What distinguished the day, however, was not symbolism alone, but the open embrace of democratic socialism as a governing philosophy. Mamdani did not distance himself from the label that unsettles much of the city’s business community and conservative voters nationwide. He leaned into it.

Expectations are high, and patience is notoriously thin. “You are given about a week to deliver,” says Andrea Hagelgans, a former senior adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“We have no patience as New Yorkers.”

Your Rundown for Monday, January 2, 2026...

Ambition Runs Into Arithmetic

The clock is already ticking on Mamdani’s headline promises: freezing rent increases on rent-regulated apartments, expanding free child care, creating a fare-free city bus system — and launching city-owned grocery stores in each borough.

The grocery proposal alone would cost an estimated $60 million annually to operate five publicly run stores. Mamdani has described the plan as a “public option for groceries,” arguing that city-owned locations could bypass rent and profit pressures and pass savings on to consumers.

Critics counter that grocery margins are notoriously thin, that New York already has widespread supermarket access and that municipal stores could end up competing directly with private businesses rather than serving true food deserts.

Other proposals face similarly hard constraints. Rent regulation applies to only about a quarter of the city’s housing stock. And large-scale affordable housing construction would take years to complete, not months.

Plus, a fare-free bus system could cost roughly $800 million a year and would require coordination with the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Even so, Mamdani wasted little time signaling a clean break from his predecessor. Within hours of taking office, he began dismantling elements of former Mayor Eric Adams’ agenda.

Mamdani replaced them with his own priorities, signing orders to establish tenants’ rights task forces and formalizing leadership structures within his new administration — early signals that affordability will dominate the opening phase of his term.

Business leaders remain uneasy. Mamdani has proposed higher taxes on wealthy residents and corporations to fund his agenda; his approach could chill investment. “I think it’s the ideological pieces that get people nervous,” says Daniella Ballou-Aares, CEO of Leadership Now Project.

Mamdani addressed that divide directly in his inaugural speech. “I promise you this: If you are a New Yorker, I am your mayor,” he said.

Campaign promises now collide with governing reality. Turning a campaign defined by sweeping state intervention into workable policy will require compromise — with Albany lawmakers, with limited budgets and with a large share of New Yorkers who did not vote for him.

For a mayor who began his term with “Bread and Roses” ringing through City Hall Plaza, the harder test now begins: whether ideology can withstand the daily grind of running America’s most complex city.

Market Rundown for Monday, January 2, 2026

S&P 500 futures are up 0.50% to 6,925.

Oil is down 0.85%, just under $57 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold’s up 1% to $4,384.50 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s up 1.35% to $89,360.