The Kid Mero: Hot 97 “Mornings with Mero,” you know what it is, man. This is New York City's morning show. So of course, we got New York City's mayor, Zohran Kwame Mamdani, on the line. Let's go.
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Man, how you guys doing?
Mero: Feel good.
Kazeem Famuyide: Feeling great, man. I think you brought some good juju, you know what I'm saying? The Knicks are in the finals. I see the lamp post and the stations getting painted blue and orange. Mr. Mayor, talk to me about the New York Knicks being in the finals. What special things do you have planned for our boys when they come back to New York City for games three and game four?
Mayor Mamdani: First of all, I am just praying for them. I mean, they have lit this city up; you can just feel people's excitement across the five boroughs. I would say it's 1999, but I wasn't even 10 years old at the time. This is a beautiful moment for the city. It's incredible. And I think we could just — I mean — they are doing everything that every New Yorker would dream of, and we just want to make this a time whenever New York can celebrate them because I know whether it's a watch party at Radio City Music Hall or just [at] a local bar that New Yorkers are going to, everybody is thinking about the team.
Famuyide: What's the prediction? What do we got? We got “Knicks in four?” [Are we] bringing the brooms out? What's your prediction for this series?
Mayor Mamdani: I'm saying “Knicks in four” inshallah.
Famuyide: Let’s go! Let's go!
Miabelle: Inshallah.
Mero: Yo, Zo, man, listen, it's your boy, you know, the Kid Mero, we here. A lot of people are talking about what you did with the World Cup and having the $50 ticket lottery, and I was—
Mayor Mamdani: I knew you were [going] there.
Mero: You know what I'm saying? I was just walking down the street, you know, being the voice of the mornings, and I was in quiet, and they were like, “Yo, man, like we seen you with Zohran, man, like, can you call him up and see if he can do the same thing for the finals?” I said, “I don't know about that, but I'll ask him.”
Mayor Mamdani: You know, I was asked about this, and I told them the truth. I was like, “You know, I'm not going to make a promise I can't keep.” But I do appreciate that the Knicks organization has put a few hundred tickets towards charity for people who wouldn't be able to afford it. But I think this is always going to be something I'm working on for any sport, frankly, is just how do we get more people to be a part of the game? And how do [we] also just make sure that every New Yorker can be watching the game because we know that everybody's thinking about it.
Mero: Word, and like now every game is on like 18 different streaming platforms. So, you got to figure out, you know, what your subscriptions are to watch it.
Mayor Mamdani: I had to hit up my boy for his YouTube TV.
Mero: Yo, we got the mayor watching YouTube TV, he's just like us.
Miabelle: Literally. And thank you so much for appointing Edwin Raymond as the sheriff of New York City. We are so excited about that. It's such a huge deal for the community, for sure.
Mayor Mamdani: No, you are so welcome. It’s honestly not that hard of a decision to make, given who he is, his track record, his vision and you know, I never thought I'd be able to say it literally, but yes, there is a new sheriff in town.
Miabelle: Absolutely! And with that, of course, it makes us want to ask about youth violence and what's going on with summer programming this summer. We are seeing a lot of kids losing their lives in all of the boroughs. It's really sad. We do want to know about your plans for summer programming. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Mayor Mamdani: Absolutely. You know, I was actually sitting with a number of younger New Yorkers and one of them turned to me and he said, “You know there's nothing worse in this city than being young and broke and how hard it is for so many New Yorkers in what the most expensive city in the United States of America.” And I've often found in our politics we tell young people what they shouldn't do, but we rarely tell them what they should do and that we just created a website looking to do exactly that. It's a site called NYC.gov/Summer.
It's a free interactive map that connects New Yorkers to hundreds of free programs available throughout the summer. Kids can sort by their age, their ZIP code, their interests — whether that's soccer, basketball, even gardening or photography. When I was growing up in New York City, I used to go to a website called nyc.go at the time, and they would have the top 10 free things to do, and I would use that as a guide for what I could do that week [and for] that summer. We want to bring that back so that kids actually have a sense of how they can explore their city, whatever it is that their interests are, without having to worry about how much money is in their pocket.
Mero: That becomes prohibitive, you know what I'm saying? Like the cost of entry for so many things. Listen, you have, allow me 15 seconds to glaze you, my guy. You know what I'm saying, but you've done a lot of stuff, or basically kind of like uncover stuff, you know, going through the junk drawers of previous administrations or whatever, and just finding stuff — programs. That are underfunded, maligned, not talked about, not taken advantage of and bringing them to the floor. Is that something that you came in, like yo, I have to find ways, obviously ways to make New York City affordable for New Yorkers, but using programs that already exist and expanding upon those programs, as opposed to coming up with whole new ideas.
Mayor Mamdani: I appreciate you, my man. I think that it is definitely a part of it is coming into city government with an understanding that if New Yorkers don't know about a program, then what is it worth? And too often in politics, you know, we pat ourselves on the back, saying, oh, we're already doing that. And if nobody knows you're doing it, if nobody knows how to be a part of it, then, what are you really doing? And we want to make sure that people know about the Summer Youth Employment Program, people know about these opportunities for kids at NYC.gov/Summer, that people know that we're providing free childcare for the first time for two-year-olds because if you don't know that, you might end up paying $20,000 a year, you might have been the voice of the morning but having to live in New Jersey.
Mero: Ah, crazy, crazy.
Famuyide: Damn, you let the mayor just put you on blast.
[Crosstalk.]
Mero: Listen, I need one thing from you, though, my brother. I need you to pull up to Summer Jam and stage dive during Cash Cobain’s set.
Mayor Mamdani: Look, man, if you promise to catch me.
Mero: We got you. Listen, I'm volunteering the entire crew. Miabelle, Kaz, Shani, Kast. You know what I mean? We got you.
Mayor Mamdani: This is going to be one of those trust falls where I just feel the ground immediately.
Famuyide: I promise we got you.
Mero: I got soft hands, that’s what my coach used to tell me in football.
Famuyide: So, I gotta ask man, the World Cup, you know, I'm saying it's coming to the city, and you know —
Mayor Mamdani: C’mon.
Famuyide: It’s an incredible time to be in the city right now, [with] all the global sports events convening down here. Aside from obviously making those affordable tickets for the World Cup, I'd love to hear just a little bit more about how you plan to keep the city moving while all these things are happening. I feel like there's lots of things happening with transit and Penn Station, and all these things with all these new, you know, visitors coming to our city for these events. How do you plan to keep the city moving?
Mayor Mamdani: I think, first, we're trying to get, you know, funk-flex style “Waka Waka” drops every 10 seconds.
Famuyide: I think we got to raise that. We got to holla at flex, man. We got raise that, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Mamdani: I just hear Mero being like, “Tsamina mina, anawa-a-a, eh, eh!”
Mero: Eh, Eh!
Mayor Mamdani: No, but I think, you know, you're speaking to the fact that we're so excited that there are going to be so many people who come to New York City. We also know that for a lot of New Yorkers, it's still a workday. It's still, they got to get through the city, they gotta get to work, they've got to get to wherever they're going. And so, we are setting up traffic plans, especially for Midtown Manhattan. We are converting 42nd Street into a bus and shuttle corridor from 1st to 12th Avenue. We're going to dedicate the two easternmost lanes of traffic along 6th as bus and shuttle lanes from 42nd to 59th. And for any New Yorker who just wants to stay on top of this, especially on game days, I would encourage you to text NOTIFYNYC to 692-692, because this is going to be a time where we want to make sure that we can welcome the world to come to our city and also that we can welcome New Yorkers to keep living their lives. And that's what we're trying to do with our traffic patterns, all while everybody gets excited, for you know, the finals and the World Cup all the same time.
Famuyide: Yeah, speaking of which, we know you're very busy but [on] Wednesday night, we have an event at Snipes in Harlem. You know what I'm saying Hot 97’s game one watch party. I know you got a million watch parties that you probably [get] invited too. But we just want to extend the invitation if you want to come pull up on us.
Mayor Mamdani: Alright. I appreciate that. I'm going to ask the team to follow up for details, [and] we'll try and see if we can figure it out.
Famuyide: Alright, let's do it
Mero: It's New York's morning show. Come on, man. I'm hearing things out here about you getting busy and signing executive orders out here like a real G. Talk about it.
Mayor Mamdani: Brother, I did not know where you were going. I gotta be honest. You are absolutely correct. I was happy to sign an executive order today with a number of New York's Cutest, so the kids can actually stay up late past bedtime to watch the finals.
Mero: Yeah. There you, there you go, it's not just me. It's not to just me saying that. You heard it from the mayor himself!
Mayor Mamdani: Come on, whereas it is important for all New Yorkers of all ages to support the Knicks in their championship run. That's what we're talking about.
Famuyide: For the standpoint of this today.
Mero: Mic drop!
Miabelle: Thank you, Mr. Mayor!
Famuyide: Thank you so much!
Mayor Mamdani: We gotta get Mike Green on here.
Mero: Come on Zo, we appreciate you. Thank you for calling in, man. Listen, call us up anytime, man, you know the number. Tell him the number!
Mayor Mamdani: Here we go. You need to call in at 1-800-223-9797 for Mornings of Mero.
Everyone: Yes, sir! Yes, sir!
Mero: Let's go! New York City's mayor, ladies and gentlemen, Zohran Mamdani!
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