Zohran Mamdani, an avowed socialist and mayor of New York City, and his deputies talk often about “everyday” and “working” New Yorkers. The mayor also puts his lectern where his mouth is.
Mamdani frequently has his staff drag a heavy, wooden desk or lectern into the streets when he makes announcements or signs documents.
On Jan. 10, the 10th day of his mayoralty, he sat at a wooden desk with the city seal on a street corner under a bridge and signed a document to create a new public bathroom, which is part of a $4 million program for accessible “high-quality modular public restrooms.”
Five days prior, Mamdani signed documents at a park in Long Island City as he sat at the same desk, alongside the state attorney general, City Council speaker and others. And on Jan. 2, Mamdani signed an executive order creating a mayoral office on mass engagement while seated at the desk on the street in Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn.
As many politicians do, the mayor often has his staff set up lecterns on street corners, and he even did so on a city bus on Feb. 13.
The mayor stood in front of city transportation workers in hard hats and reflective vests as he delivered remarks behind a lectern on a Manhattan city street on Jan. 6, and spoke at a lectern on a street corner the next day in Jackson Heights in Queens.
He and others spoke at a podium in the snow in a park on Jan. 17 and in front of an apartment building in the Bronx on March 6.
Beverly Hallberg, president of District Media Group who trains politicians, business leaders and others on media strategy and public speaking, told JNS that Mamdani’s outdoor desk reflects his “being self-conscious about being mayor.”
“Instead of holding a document signing inside, where cameras could easily be let in, he goes outside to signal that he’s not a typical politician but a man of the people,” Hallberg said.
“At the same time, he wants to flex his authority as mayor of New York City, so he brings the desk outside to show he should be taken seriously,” she said.
Hallberg thinks there’s also another aspect to Mamdani’s choreographic decisions here.
“He may believe that clips of him signing outside play better with Gen Z audiences watching on TikTok,” she told JNS.
Outdoor lecterns, to Hallberg, aren’t unusual.
“Having a single fixed location for a speaker helps with sound and lighting, gives the speaker a place for notes and makes it easier for the press to capture clean photos and video outdoors,” she said.
“It’s the desk outside that’s the head-scratcher. I haven’t seen it done to the extent that Mamdani does it,” she told JNS. “Trump did sign executive orders at a desk on Inauguration Day at the Capital One Arena, but a desk being used for outdoor signings isn’t something I can recall being a recurring practice before this.”
Henry Olsen, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and host of the Conservative Crossroads and Beyond the Polls podcasts, told JNS that he has seen lecterns on flat ground before.
“I presume it allows for better sound through the fixed mic, plus it conveys official status with the seal,” he said.
JNS shared photos that City Hall posted of Mamdani signing documents at the desk with the city seal on street corners.
“I have never seen a desk transported like your picture shows, nor have I seen a lectern on a bus,” Olsen said. “I presume he uses those to reinforce the idea that he is the mayor. He is so young, and the fact he has a beard means he could be subliminally viewed as unauthoritative if he stands alone, but that’s just conjecture.”
JNS found two examples of then-mayor Bill de Blasio signing documents at a desk on the street, one with a “black live matter” sign on July 15, 2020, and the other on May 14, 2021.
