Zohran Mamdani indicated Wednesday he will right a historic wrong upon taking office by being sworn in as New York City's 112th mayor, rather than the 111th.
Mamdani’s comments came in response to Gothamist’s recent coverage of a historian’s discovery that a 17th century mayor’s second nonconsecutive term is not reflected in the official record, resulting in a mayoral miscount across centuries. Mamdani referenced a tweet by the city’s Department of Records that confirmed the miscount, meaning Mamdani is the 112th mayor.
“Well, I thought I was going to be the 111th. I think the City's Department of Records tweeted out in fact that I will be the 112th, and I am excited to be whichever mayor it is,” Mamdani said.
Asked whether that meant he would have inaugural banners that read 112th mayor, Mamdani responded “I trust that tweet.”
It's yet unclear how the official count of mayors will be updated to reflect Mayor Matthias Nicolls' second one-year term in 1674. As recently as Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams described himself as the 110th mayor – when in fact he is the 111th.
Inserting Nicolls’ second term would bump the sequence of each subsequent mayor by one, making Fiorello LaGuardia the 100th mayor instead of the 99th. David Dinkins would be the 107th mayor instead of the 106th.
There is a precedent for a correction to the official list of mayors. In 1937, Charles Lodwick, who served from 1694-1695, was inserted as the 21st mayor.
