There were South Asian aunties with hand warmers and hot coffee, A-list actors hidden behind heavy coats and, outside the gates of City Hall, an a cappella group wearing nothing but pink.
All told, tens of thousands of New Yorkers — the biggest inauguration crowd in decades, if not longer — defied freezing temperatures, a fresh coating of snow and daunting security on Thursday to watch Zohran Mamdani take the oath to become the city’s next mayor.
It was the first large-scale New York mayoral inauguration in more than a decade, after Covid spoiled the last one. But more than the spectacle, they came to witness and take part in history, at a time when the nation and its largest city appear to be shifting direction.
Mr. Mamdani rested his hand on a Quran as he took the oath of office, becoming the first Muslim mayor in the city’s 400-year history.
The leading roles for two fellow socialists, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, made clear that Mr. Mamdani intends to lead the most left-leaning City Hall in decades.
And lest anyone forget that Mr. Mamdani, 34, is now the first millennial (and the first former rapper) mayor of the largest American city, he quoted the city’s own Jadakiss, promising to govern “outside” in the city itself.
“My fellow New Yorkers,” he began his 20-minute inaugural address. “Today begins a new era.”
The proceedings were broadcast around the world, a nod to the significance of the position and the stakes of Mr. Mamdani’s ambitious, untested leadership. But for the crowd of 4,000 or so people jammed into the park surrounding City Hall and the many more outside it, the whole affair at times felt surprisingly intimate.
Cynthia Nixon, the actress, danced near the back in a striped purple coat. Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist the Trump administration has targeted for deportation, mingled not far away.
The new mayor’s mother, the director Mira Nair, took cellphone photos of her son as he addressed the city for the first time as mayor. Rama Duwaji, the 28-year-old first lady, wiped away tears.
Eric Adams, the now former mayor, sat onstage, too, after waffling for weeks about whether to attend. He was booed as he feared, but only briefly. He wore a Fendi monogrammed scarf, and told reporters earlier that he soon planned to head to the airport to leave the country.
Another former mayor, Bill de Blasio, sat two seats down, separated by Chirlane McCray, his wife whom he separated from in 2023. Earlier, he was seen showing his new girlfriend, the mayor of South Tucson, Ariz., around his former workplace.
Lucy Dacus, a Grammy winner, performed “Bread and Roses,” a rallying cry for labor rights. Mandy Patinkin, the actor and singer, led a school choir in a rendition of “Over the Rainbow.”
Cornelius Eady recited an original poem, “Proof” for the occasion:
New York, city of the real,
Where the canyons
Whisper in a hundred
Tongues.
When the time came for him to speak, Mr. Mamdani reiterated ambitious — and expensive — plans to mend and expand the city’s social safety net. He also expounded on his aspirations for collective life in New York, where he said Pashto, Mandarin and Yiddish speakers of different faiths and colors could offer a municipal counterpoint to President Trump’s conservative approach from Washington.
“We will draw this city closer together,” Mr. Mamdani said.
Bringing either the policies or the multicultural utopia to life will prove exceedingly difficult. But in an unusual show of earnestness for New Yorkers, many of those who turned out seemed ready to join him in trying.
On lower Broadway, in the glorified overflow spaces that the mayor’s team optimistically dubbed a citywide “block party,” a middle-aged marching band serenaded their neighbors and an a cappella group, Sing Out, Louise!, performed an original song about Mr. Mamdani set to the tune of “New York, New York.”
Its members, clad in all pink, sang:
“We’re going to make it fair — then take it everywhere. It’s up to you, New York, New York.”
“Today we woke up in a city we want to see, where there is equality, just leave it to Z.”
“I felt like a kid again in the sense that I believe in the government and its ability to actually contribute to making things happen,” said Grace Rector, 26, as she joined a throng searching for snacks and hand warmers inside a CVS on the route.
Not everyone there was a die-hard supporter. Some just came to see a New York moment.
Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels founder who ran third as the Republican nominee for mayor, said “the Z man and his peeps” had not invited him to the swearing-in but he was going to join the revelers outside the gates anyway. (Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the other candidate in the race, did not attend.)
“I’ll hang with the Zohranistas, some who like me and some who hate me,” Mr. Sliwa wrote in a text. “I will treat the Block Party as a Mosh Pit.”
Others came to protest the city’s new direction, and offer a reminder of the nearly one million New Yorkers who voted against Mr. Mamdani and his vision.
On Park Row across from the inaugural stage, a few dozen Jewish New Yorkers and others gathered to voice dissent over Mr. Mamdani’s outspoken criticism of Israel and its military campaign in Gaza. Some waved American and Israeli flags.
“I have deep respect for the position of New York City mayor, but my heart is broken as Mr. Mamdani becomes mayor,” said Rabbi Avi Weiss, 81. “Never in my life did I ever dream that the mayor of the City of New York would be an anti-Zionist, would be anti-Israel.”
He added a note of caution to the new mayor: “Wherever you go, you’re going to hear a voice that stands proudly with the Jewish state, the Jewish democratic state of Israel.”
Millions more New Yorkers simply went about their lives, too busy to stop to watch the pomp or line up in Lower Manhattan. Others found small ways to mark the changing of the guard.
On Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens, where Mr. Mamdani has lived in recent years, Lia Lowe handed out complimentary cardamom tea to those who stopped by her shop to honor Mr. Mamdani.
“We needed this,” Ms. Lowe, 39, said. “We have a lot of very valid concerns, and I love that he listens.”
Outside the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx, Yoro Diakite said he had been most moved to watch Mr. Mamdani place his hand on a Quran.
“He has to show people that Muslim people are not bad, that we can be treated like we are people, that we are equals,” said Mr. Diakite, 58, a construction worker. “He can be a corrective about Islam.”
As for Mr. Mamdani, there was relatively little time to revel Thursday afternoon.
After a brief inaugural luncheon with family and friends, he got in a motorcade to Brooklyn, where he announced a slate of new positions and executive actions targeting what he called predatory landlords.
Later, he returned to City Hall to hand out cups of hot chocolate to workers cleaning up the gold and blue confetti outside. He confided in one he had put hand warmers in his boots during the ceremony.
“How was your day?” he quietly asked another.
Reporting was contributed by Molly Longman, Sarah Chatta, Nate Schweber, Jeffery C. Mays, Samantha Latson, Sarah Goodman and Michael Anthony Adams.
Nicholas Fandos is a Times reporter covering New York politics and government.
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