Watch New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's 1st 100 days interview on "The Point with Marcia Kramer"

Zohran Mamdani, New York City's first social influencer mayor, has reached 100 days in office, and he's been busy. 

So far, the Big Apple's youngest mayor in over a century has been running the city like he's still on the campaign trail. Choosing to host events at unique locations was a hallmark of his campaign, and he's still doing it, which is why CBS News New York interviewed him on his 100th day in office at the Prospect Park Zoo. 

The mayor stood in front of the red panda enclosure in Brooklyn. Why wouldn't you if your press conference du jour was a junk fees settlement with the HungryPanda delivery app? His staff went to great lengths to make sure that the normally nocturnal red pandas were there for everyone attending to marvel at. 

"Just going to take a quick look to see if the pandas are still here, just like a one-second break, " Mamdani said from the lectern. "Incredible. Incredible. Even the Post is happy. Come on," he chuckled. 

It was vintage Mamdani and the location he chose for this chat. 

Best and worst moment so far

Marcia Kramer: A hundred days almost in office. What was your best moment?

Mayor Mamdani: Honestly it's hard to top this one as we're sitting in the zoo celebrating with the red pandas. 

Marcia Kramer: Pick one. 

Mayor Mamdani: My best moment was probably Day 8, when we stood with Gov. Hochul to announce $1.2 billion to put our city on a pathway to universal child care.

Marcia Kramer: How did I know you were going to say that? 

Mayor Mamdani: You know, I think part of it comes from the fact that New Yorkers consider it a good deal when they find $20,000 a year to spend on a child for a single year. We can put that money back in their pocket, and that's what we're going to do starting this fall. 

Marcia Kramer: Your worst moment?

Mayor Mamdani: Worst moment. Worst moment was when I read an article recently that said we might have more snow [both laugh]. I gotta be honest. 

Marcia Kramer: If you could do one do-over, what would it be?

Mayor Mamdani: Hmm. One do-over. I would've worn a hat. 

Marcia Kramer: During the winter? 

Mayor Mamdani: During the winter. 

Marcia Kramer: You know, can I tell you something? When I went out an talked to people, they said they're worried about your health. 

Mayor Mamdani: [laughs] 

Governing vs. campaigning 

The February blizzard was more than a headache for the new mayor. As many as two dozen died and Staten Islanders were livid at a botched cleanup. But that was not the mayor's most frustrating moment. 

Mayor Mamdani: Frustrating moment? I think, honestly that we can't find more hours in the day. We are looking to do so much in this city to help the people who call it home, and there is never enough time, but every day is an opportunity to meet it. 

Marcia Kramer: So, I'm wondering how the reality of governing, which is different than campaigning, has affected your ability to immediately realize some of your goals? Because, you know, you can't just say I'd like to do it and snap your fingers. 

Mayor Mamdani: You know, I think that there's a lot made the poetry and the prose, as we've heard it many, many times. I will say however that people underestimate how much you can do when you govern. I think about the fact that in less than 100 days, we secured more than $9 million for workers and small businesses. It's almost $100,000 a day going back in the pockets of people who had been defrauded by large-scale corporations. We're talking about holding bad landlords accountable, and when I go and meet those tenants and they show me the conditions they've lived in, I ask them, 'How long has you lived with this?' The don't tell me a month or a year. They talk about decades. And right now we have more than 6,000 apartments being fixed through more than $30 million secured from those landlords. 

Being the 1st Muslim mayor

Mamdani's ambitions agenda, including a promise to either tax the rich or raise property taxes has produced a battle royale with the way-more-moderate City Council Speaker Julie Menin. 

"We have said a hard no to raising property taxes 9.5%," Menin has declared. 

He's also tangling with Menin over a bill she passed, but he hasn't yet signed, to set up protest buffer zones around houses of worship and schools. 

Marcia Kramer: I thought that the protests outside Gracie Mansion that led to those people with the pipe bombs were, disturbing. And I wondered, truly in your heart, how you felt having those protests on your doorstep. I know you had to deal with it during the campaign and I wonder, in your heart, if it hurt you?

Mayor Mamdani: It's difficult when someone comes with a pig to drop at your doorstep, or a goat, or is looking to find a criticism not of your politics, not of you as a person, but of you as a part of the faith that you belong to. And what I'm heartened by, however, is that so often this kind of bigotry, it's not coming from here in New York City. It's coming from outside. And even though it's something I deeply disagree with, I still believe they have the right to their protest.

Marcia Kramer: So I wonder if you feel the weight of being the first Muslim mayor the city has ever had and how that affects the things that you do? 

Mayor Mamdani: I wouldn't say I feel it as a weight. I would say that, when I see what it means to so many New Yorkers who, for a long time, have been forced to debate whether or not they belong in this city, it really fills my heart, because what I'm looking to be is a mayor for every New Yorker and a mayor that every New Yorker can look to and say that I, too, belong in this place that I call home. 

Foreign affairs 

Marcia Kramer: So one of the other problems that you've had is to win over some portion of the Jewish community. And when I went out and talked to people about your 100 days, some of the Jewish people that I spoke to said that they thought that you would do better to stay out of foreign affairs, and not say, 'I'm going to arrest Bibi,' or 'I'm going to do this.' Do you think that, that, you know, you should stay out of foreign affairs and just focus on running the city? 

Mayor Mamdani: I think my focus should always be on running the city, and that's what it has been. And also that I should be honest with New Yorkers when I'm asked questions. You know, I've often been asked for example, over the last few weeks, what do I think about the war in Iran. And I tell them that I think that this is an affront, not just to procedure or politics, but also to our morals. That, we are in a moment in time when a federal government can find tens of billions of dollars to plunge millions into despair, when that same money should be used to uplift working-class New Yorkers and Americans our of a cost-of-living crisis across the country, and that is to be honest with New Yorkers. My focus, however, is the 100,000 potholes. My focus is the more than 1,000 miles of roads we have to repave, and how every New Yorker can wake up in the morning and feel the city's on the right direction. 

FIFA World Cup plans

Mamdani is a man with plans.

Marcia Kramer: So you started down the road of affordability. You got the child care working, but what's the next goal for your next 100 days or the next 100 days after that?

Mayor Mamdani: Well I will tell you that, as we come to the end of the first 100 days, the next calendar date that I have in my mind is actually the World Cup. We're less than 70 days away from it, and it's not just going to be the most-watched sporting event in the world, it's also going to be a multi-billion-dollar economic opportunity for the city. And we want it to be one where New Yorkers are feeling the magic of the tournament in every borough of our city, in every neighborhood. And so we're hard at work right now in ensuring the tourists who come here, they feel the true breadth of this city. 

Marcia Kramer: So then if you're doing that, why are we asking, the NYPD and the Parks Department are trying to ask other people not to do other things. Is it because you don't want anything competing with the World Cup? 

Mayor Mamdani: It's not about competition. There's gonna be so much going on the city. But it's about the fact that if we want to prepare for the scale of how many people are going to be visiting this city, events that we can reschedule in other times of the summer, or other times in the fall, we should pursue that, so that we have the requisite public-sector capacity for the World Cup. What we've seen sometimes is cities and states and countries unprepared for just how popular of an event this is. We don't want that to be us. 

"New Yorkers are rightfully impatient" 

He also showed that no problem is too small to get his attention. 

Marcia Kramer: So, what surprised you most about being mayor?

Mayor Mamdani: I think, how much you can do, and how important it is to not just pursue the big things, but the little things as well. You know, we talk about Day 8 a lot, universal child care. Day 6, we filled a bump by the Williamsburg Bridge, and it was a bump that many cyclists had been going over day-after-day for weeks, for months, for years. We filled it and it is something that, still, people approach me to talk about. Because it's an example of the fact that if a New Yorker can't trust their city government to fill a bump in the road, how can they believe that that city government could deliver universal child care?

Marcia Kramer: You know what's really interesting is that you're able to recall Day 6, Day 8. You probably could tell me Day 22. Why is that? I mean is this something that you have plotted out, that you've focused on, that you have to do something special every one of these days? 

Mayor Mamdani: We have told ourselves that every day has to be one that's marked by an accomplishment, that by an achievement, by progress, because New Yorkers are rightfully impatient. They've been waiting for a long time, and we don't want them to wait any longer.