List of Mayors of New York City

List Of Mayors Of New York City

The Mayor of New York City is the chief executive of the government of New York City, as stipulated by the Charter of the City of New York.

This list includes mayors who governed the city of New York at times when its territory was smaller than it is today. Before 1874, the city covered little or no land beyond the island of Manhattan, but later annexed territory in the area that formed the Borough of the Bronx in 1898. The city's consolidation in 1898 defined the current boundaries of the five boroughs: Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. See History of New York City.

The current Mayor of New York City, (and 108th in the sequence of regular mayors), is Michael Bloomberg, once elected as a Republican and now an independent.

During the Dutch colonial period from 1625 to 1664, New Amsterdam was governed by a Director-General. For the year prior to the establishment of the office of Mayor of New York in 1665, New York was run by Richard Nicolls, who was the British military governor of the Province of New York. Thomas Willett was the first person to be specifically appointed mayor.

Mayors were appointed by provincial governors until 1777 when a Council of Appointment was formed by New York State. In 1821 the New York City Council – then known as the Common Council – began appointing mayors. Since 1834 mayors have been elected by direct popular vote.

The longest-serving mayors so far have been Fiorello H. La Guardia (1934–1945), Robert F. Wagner, Jr. (1954–1965) and Edward I. Koch (1978–1989), each of whom was in office for twelve years (three successive 4-year terms). The shortest terms in office since 1834 have been those of acting mayors Thomas Coman (November 30, 1868 to January 4, 1869) and Samuel B. H. Vance (November 30 to December 31, 1874), who each served for less than five weeks.

Although being Mayor of New York has been described as the "second toughest job in America" after the Presidency, and although several mayors – most recently John Lindsay and Rudolph Giuliani – have sought the Presidency, no one person has yet held both positions. Indeed no sitting or former mayor has been elected to another public office since Ardolph Loges Kline (acting mayor in late 1913) was re-elected Alderman in 1913 and later elected in 1920 to his only term in Congress. Neither has any mayor so far (out of more than a hundred) been female, nor has any except David Dinkins been non-white.