When New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani moves into Gracie Mansion, the elegant 18th-century house long associated with New York’s political elite on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in January, he will leave behind the rather more modest, rent-controlled Queens apartment he has lived in for several years.

For a democratic socialist who has been elected by New Yorkers on a housing justice ticket, the contrast may seem striking to observers.

Mamdani won last month’s New York mayoral election, in part because the city is facing a severe housing crisis, with record-high rents and one of the lowest property vacancy rates in the country. Mamdani built his campaign around freezing rents and expanding affordable housing.

So what exactly is Gracie Mansion, and why does it matter in a city where hous

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