As Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani prepares to take office in January, he is poised to leave behind the modest Astoria apartment he has called home since 2018 — a rent-stabilized one-bedroom that has long been a talking point for both supporters and critics.
The move across the East River marks a dramatic lifestyle shift for the Democratic Socialist, who confirmed he will relocate to Gracie Mansion with his wife, Rama Duwaji, after inauguration.
The newlywed couple has spent the past several years tucked inside a prewar elevator building on 35th Street, where records show Mamdani initially paid about $2,000 a month for the unit, later rising only to roughly $2,300.
The listing for the apartment promoted a “spacious living room,” a separate windowed kitchen fit for sit-down meals, wood floors and a king-sized bedroom with two closets — with heat and hot water folded into the rent.
Laundry and a building super were among the few amenities. Photos advertising the building depict no-frills charm typical of older Astoria stock.
The previous listing that Mamdani also saw at the time of renting the unit noted that the “photos are of [a] similar apartment in the same building.”
Mamdani — the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and academic Mahmood Mamdani — said the decision to move to Gracie Mansion was rooted in security, as well as governing focus.
“My wife Rama and I have made the decision to move into Gracie Mansion in January,” he announced, adding that “this decision came down to our family’s safety and the importance of dedicating all of my focus on enacting the affordability agenda New Yorkers voted for.”
His departure also follows months of public debate over whether a politician earning a six-figure salary should occupy a stabilized unit in a borough where affordable inventory is scarce.
Rivals seized on the arrangement during the mayoral race, with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo charging that Mamdani’s residence could have gone to someone in greater need. Mamdani countered that he moved in while earning $47,000 and has said he was unaware of the regulatory status at the time.
Until this week, it remained uncertain whether he would actually trade Queens for the official mayoral residence on the Upper East Side.
However, it’s still unclear whether he plans to hold onto the apartment or give it up altogether. Mamdani’s office did not respond to The Post’s request for comment when asked if he intended to keep the Queens unit.
Still, the future mayor has signaled emotional attachment to the neighborhood he is leaving behind.
In reflecting on the apartment, Mamdani described “cooking dinner side by side in our kitchen, sharing a sleepy elevator ride with our neighbors in the evening, hearing music and laughter vibrate through the walls of the apartment.”
“While I may no longer live in Astoria, Astoria will always live inside me and the work I do,” he added.
“We will miss it all — the endless Adeni chai, the spirited conversations in Spanish, Arabic and every language in between, the aromas of seafood and shawarma drifting down the block,” he wrote, praising a community that “shown up for one another” through the pandemic, anti-immigrant hostility and an affordability crisis.
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