Astead Herndon

Did you meet anyone who was also wondering whether this was all just spectacle?

I'm doing well, Mayor-elect.

How are you?

Thank you for joining us.

My plan with talking to the mayor-elect was to figure out how he's going to avoid letting New Yorkers down, especially considering how much hope was surrounding his campaign.

But I also wanted to figure out how he makes this agenda happen once he's sworn into office three days from now.

Well, we're glad to talk to you at this point because, you know, we want to focus on the transition, not only how you all have conducted it, but also how you're thinking about how it informs your term ahead.

We know that kind of mayoral transitions can sometimes be the high watermark for elected officials.

I recently saw that you were plus 15 in your own favorability.

How do you reverse what has been a historic trend?

How do you make sure that this moment in office, that you're taking office, is not the end of something but the beginning?

I feel like the first clues of how you all planned to do that came in the transition.

You all had some kind of unique moments, putting out these explanatory videos about semi-mundane kind of process things, baseball cards for staff appointments.

We were at the event that you all held last week at the Museum of Moving Image.

Why do that stuff?

What is the goal of those type of events?

Sounds like the demystifying efforts are connected to what, you know, has been described as inside out strategy that to the goal of delivering, you feel as if you have to keep the public engaged, you have to keep that public pressure going.

I mean, how does that get harder once you're in office?

Do your point about the way the campaigns and transitions kind of create a sense of unity?

You know, once the inauguration happens, you know, everything becomes Mayor Mamdani's problem.