Zohran's Bronx Science tales

Politico

21-07-2025

With help from Amira McKee
MAMDANI PLAYS HOOKY: He's just like us. He got detention. He cut class to get lunch. He says he's bad at math.
Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani graduated from the public, test-in, competitive Bronx Science High School in 2010.
Six years later, an oral history project aimed at capturing alums' experiences at the school included an interview with Mamdani — thus blessing us with some Zohran high school lore.
'If I hadn't gone to Bronx Science, I would have remained within a privileged bubble for my whole time in New York City,' Mamdani told the podcast's host, Daniel Kisslinger, in the episode.
'I didn't have any intention of going to Bronx Science,' he recalled. 'I mean, really, it was a small idea of, like, maybe Stuyvesant, and then when I didn't get in, I was like, 'Nah, I ain't going to public school.''
The exact date of the recording of his interview with 'Encompassed – Bronx Science Stories' is unknown, but the project, dated April 2016, was posted to SoundCloud in June of that year. Mamdani finished college in 2014.
If elected, Mamdani — a democratic socialist Bowdoin College grad — would be the youngest mayor in over a century. He'd also be the city's first South Asian mayor, and the first Muslim mayor.
And he might be the first mayor to be honest about high school shenanigans.
In the pod, Mamdani marveled at 'the amount of dean's detentions that I rolled out of Bronx Science with.'
In one apparently detention-deserving incident, he recalled how the school's guidance office would hand out passes to students who wanted to attend college information sessions during school hours. The passes gave the students excused absence from class.
Mamdani remembered getting his hands on a blank one, and how he 'photocopied that shit' and used it to skip class.
'I'd always take it. I'd just go out for lunch. Just like — peace, son!' Mamdani remembered.
But his math teacher, who Mamdani noted was a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces, caught him.
'One day he tailed me,' Mamdani said. 'I mean, keep in mind, this guy is a graduate of the Israeli Defense Forces. He's tailed brown guys for a long time. He's good at it, right? Tailed my ass. That was the first 20,' he said, seeming to refer to the number of detentions he received.
'Journalism class' was also one of his most memorable classes because 'we just had so many disruptive personalities, myself included.'
Despite the tomfoolery, the aged interview also gives listeners heartfelt glimpses into the politician Mamdani grew to become.
He spoke frankly about the struggles of being a person of color in a school where 'the cool kids were the white kids.' He talked about co-founding the school's cricket team, which drew students from similar South Asian backgrounds and he described how he eventually became 'proud of my brownness.'
'There are these kids, you know, coming out of Fieldston who will have read Dostoevsky thoroughly and really analyzed it, and I didn't, right?' Zohran said, referring to one of the city's most elite private high schools. 'But I got these experiences and these friends that transformed my understanding of the city, which changes your life.'
In a statement, Jeffrey Lerner, a spokesperson for Mamdani, said his candidate's own stories of truancy are nothing compared to his rivals' baggage.
'Zohran's is a proud product of a New York public high school (but maybe not proud of every single thing he did while there),' Lerner said. 'If you take a stroll down memory lane, the stark contrast in this race is clear. Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams would give anything to not be saddled by decades of corruption and backroom dealing.' — Jason Beeferman
From the Capitol
SUPER SAVERS: Gov. Kathy Hochul will appoint an 'internal swat team' to find savings as New York scrambles to shore up cuts imposed by the federal government.
The state will lose $750 million for the Essential Plan, which provides medical coverage to about 1.6 million low-income New Yorkers. And for now, there are no plans to call the Democratic-led state Legislature back to Albany to address the gap.
Hochul, though, is trying to find cash under the state government's proverbial couch cushions, she told reporters today.
'It's a huge hit to our system and we'll adapt,' she said. 'We'll figure it out.'
The governor said the 'swat team' will be composed of people who will 'go through system by system' to find ways of 'managing our government.' More details are expected to be released this week, she added.
'This has to be a whole-of-government approach,' Hochul said.
For the moment, the plan appears to be an initial step toward finding low-hanging fruit without making painful decisions. The more politically difficult questions may have to be answered next year.
New York's fiscal picture will become more complex when the state budget is negotiated in 2026 and policymakers contend with a $3 billion cut to the Essential Plan. Hochul has so far resisted broad-based tax hikes on rich New Yorkers to address budget gaps. — Nick Reisman
From City Hall
DEFAMATION STATION: Former Interim NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon has taken the first step toward filing a $10 million defamation suit against his old boss, New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Donlon filed a notice of claim Sunday with the city comptroller's office — a prerequisite for certain types of lawsuits against the administration. In addition to Adams, Donlon named former Assistant Chief Tarik Sheppard, who was the lead NYPD spokesperson during Donlon's brief tenure at the nation's largest police department.
The action comes days after Donlon filed a federal lawsuit accusing Adams, Sheppard and several other top police officials, past and present, of running the department as a criminal enterprise.
In his notice of claim, Donlon accused Adams and Sheppard of defaming him in their responses to that case: On Wednesday, Sheppard said during an interview with PIX 11 that Donlon had his phones seized by federal agents during a shocking raid on his home in 2024, just days after he assumed leadership of the department. He further suggested Donlon was suffering from cognitive issues — a notion echoed by Adams.
Two days after Sheppard's remarks, which he repeated in other interviews, Adams told a group of business leaders that Donlon's mental health had been rapidly deteriorating and, after Donlon allegedly refused to seek treatment while serving as a City Hall public safety adviser, he was fired. Adams made similar remarks at a Friday press conference.
Donlon pushed back in his notice of claim, arguing his phones were not seized by the FBI — which did, however, seize old documents from his home — and that he has not been suffering any mental decline.
'None of this is true. There is no record of any mental health request, no evidence of cognitive decline, and no justification for these remarks,' he wrote.
When asked about the case during an unrelated press briefing Monday, Adams drew attention to typos in the complaint.
'I know many of you won't talk about it, but if you see the original complaint, you see the misspells, you see the grammar errors, you see the space,' Adams said. 'It was a rush, and so this will be handled out in court.' — Joe Anuta and Amira McKee
ICE TO 'FLOOD THE ZONE': The Trump administration will 'flood the zone' with ICE agents in New York City after the City Council blocked federal law enforcement agencies from opening an office in the city jails, President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan said this morning, POLITICO reports.
Homan joined DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to deliver that message at One World Trade Center after an off-duty federal customs officer was shot by an undocumented immigrant in an attempted robbery Saturday night, Noem said.
'You don't want to let us in the jails to arrest a bad guy in the safety and security of a jail,' Homan said. 'So what are we gonna do? We're gonna put more agents in New York City to look for that bad guy. So sanctuary cities get exactly what they don't want: more agents in the community.'
Adams said he welcomes more ICE agents if they're going to help the city go after 'dangerous people' like the alleged shooter, but said that 'if it's going to be to go after everyday individuals who are trying to complete the path, who are trying to be a citizen, I don't think we should do that.'
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on current staffing levels and what an increase would look like. — Jeff Coltin
FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
JGR'S FIRST ENDORSEMENT: First in Playbook, youth climate advocacy group Sunrise Movement NYC will endorse Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas for state Senate at the Queens Democrat's campaign fundraiser tonight in Jackson Heights.
That's a sign of how young lefties are foaming at the mouth to see JGR challenge state Sen. Jessica Ramos, after the incumbent shocked her progressive allies by endorsing Andrew Cuomo for mayor.
'Ramos has spent the better part of the last year burning bridges with progressive groups,' said Michael Magazine, head of elected partnerships for Sunrise Movement NYC. 'We have much more faith in González-Rojas' character.'
González-Rojas formed a Senate campaign last week, City & State first reported. Ramos' campaign declined to comment on the endorsement. — Jeff Coltin
EMPOWERING ADAMS' RUN: A super PAC supporting the mayor's reelection reported raising nearly $500,000 from business and real estate tycoons — along with donors from the crypto and blockchain world.
Empower NYC raised $425,000 from nine donors between April and earlier this month, according to disclosures filed with the state Board of Elections. Among the contributors were Brittany Kaiser, a data rights activist who donated $25,000.
Kaiser gave an interview at the same Las Vegas Bitcoin conference attended by the mayor in May. As POLITICO previously reported, a representative from Empower NYC also attended that conference, where he pledged to raise big bucks from members of the crypto community keen on seeing Adams expand digital currency use in New York City. The overlap between the PAC and the mayor's official trip alarmed ethics experts.
Eric Chen, head of an organization called Injective that deals in blockchain, gave $20,000 to the PAC.
The pro-Adams committee also received $15,000 from Alexander Rovt, a billionaire commercial landlord who scored a controversial city lease deal.
As POLITICO has reported, Rovt is the owner of 14 Wall St., the downtown office building selected for a plum city lease deal despite losing out to another property in an internal scoring system. Rovt had been a loyal donor to Adams beforehand. And the internal scoring system at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services was discarded by Jesse Hamilton, the mayor's longtime friend and protege, in favor of awarding the lease to Rovt's property.
The city has said the deal was above board and has cleared its passage after a temporary review.
The biggest contribution to the PAC, which is supporting the mayor in his longshot reelection bid, came from developer Gary Barnett, head of Extell Development, who gave $250,000.
The head of the PAC, Abe George, did not respond to a request for comment. — Joe Anuta
AROUND NEW YORK
— MAMDANI'S PUBLIC SAFETY: The Democratic nominee is looking to revamp New York City's public safety policies, but it's unclear how Mamdani would address the NYPD's staffing shortage if elected in November. (POLITICO Pro)
— HEASTIE'S AID: State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Queens Assemblymember Vivian Cook announced $30 million in state assistance for a struggling affordable housing complex in southeast Queens — but residents say it's not enough. (Gothamist)
— AOC OFFICE VANDALIZED: Protesters threw red paint on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's office and posted a sign with the words 'AOC funds genocide in Gaza.' (ABC7)
Missed this morning's New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.