New York City got a new mayor on New Year’s day with Zohran Mamdani being sworn in to office and becoming, in the process, the first Muslim and person of South Asian descent to hold the post. The initial swearing-in, at one of New York’s original subway stops, was rich in symbolism: the choice of the venue was meant to embody the idea of NYC’s leaders — will Mr Mamdani join this august league? — striving to elevate the lives of the city dwellers, especially the poor. Indeed, during the course of much of his charismatic and imaginative campaign to become mayor, Mr Mamdani had focused on bread-and-butter issues, such as high rent, affordability and corruption. He now has to find a way to make sure that his promises, such as a rent freeze for about a million households, free childcare, free buses and so on, materialise as tangible and sustainable public goods. Fortuitously, Mr Mamdani takes charge of NYC at a time when the city seems to have mastered some of its festering challenges; violent crime has been clipped, unemployment has improved since the days of the pandemic and tourists, a source of revenue, are back. This will give Mr Mamdani some elbow room to focus on some of his other objectives on welfare that his critics pan as populist and ambitious. Adding to his challenges would be a fiercely adversarial president whose ideology and vision are in stark contrast to those of the young leader.

It would be erroneous to view Mr Mamdani’s successes or failures through a narrow, city-centric prism. If Mr Mamdani is able to honour some of his pledges, it could spur the Democrats to align their strategies to revive their future electoral fortunes with the elements of democratic socialism, which is not alien to Mr Mamdani’s ideology. If this were to come to pass, Mr Mamdani could even be seen as a potential force to take on the mantle of the Democratic leadership that, at the moment, is in need of someone who can take on the Republicans, including Mr Trump’s successor — if there is to be one. In the days to come, the eyes of not only America but also the world will be on Mr Mamdani.