Families of 9/11 victims delivered a petition with more than 102,000 signatures to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office at City Hall on Tuesday, demanding he skip Friday’s 25th anniversary commemoration at Ground Zero.
The hand-delivered petition, started in July on Change.org by Giovanni Galante — whose wife Grace Catherine Galante was killed in the attacks — was received by Ramzi Kassem’s chief of staff. Galante was among more than a dozen mourners who gathered to voice their anger over Mamdani’s confirmed attendance at the ceremony where all 2,983 victims’ names will be read aloud.
Cheri Sparacio, whose husband Tom Sparacio was a currency trader at Euro Brokers on the 84th floor of the South Tower, pushed back against any suggestion the protest was rooted in prejudice. “It’s not about his religion or where he came from. It’s about the policies he has today,” she said. Sparacio also singled out Mamdani’s hiring of Kassem, who represented an al Qaeda terrorist held at Guantánamo Bay in 2014, as the mayor’s chief counsel. “It is today that he hires people like Ramzi Kassem… That is what we object to,” she added.
Monica Iken, who lost her husband Michael Patrick Iken — a 37-year-old bond broker on the same floor as Tom Sparacio — questioned Mamdani’s insistence on attending. “I don’t know why he’s so adamant about this one when we just ask that he respect us from 7 a.m. To 11 a.m.,” she said. Iken had been married to Michael for just 11 months when he was killed.
Charles Wolf, whose wife Katherine Wolf died in the North Tower attack, contrasted Mamdani with past officials who he said had supported victims’ families through legislation and personal presence. “These are the politicians that helped us push beneficial laws through and literally held our hand during that time. Mayor Mamdani has not shown any of that, none of it,” Wolf said. “He just wants to be there because he wants to be there.”
Walter Matuza, whose father Walter — a 39-year-old telecommunications analyst at Carr Futures — was killed when a hijacked plane hit the North Tower just above his 92nd floor office, agreed with Wolf’s assessment.
Later Tuesday, roughly 200 demonstrators gathered outside the Democratic Socialists of America local chapter’s Manhattan headquarters to amplify the demand that Mamdani stay away from Ground Zero. Protester Shawn Michael warned that attendance would backfire politically. “Zohran Mamdani can have his day every other day of the year, but this day he should just leave it for the victims of 9/11,” Michael said. “It would be the worst political move” for him to show face at the 25th anniversary commemoration.
Ronen Levy, a 55-year-old New York resident, echoed that sentiment with sharper language. “To hell with him being a mayor, but especially on 9/11,” Levy said. “I mean, he handed the pen to the terrorist lawyer…he did that purposely.”
Aaron Herman, CEO of Impact and one of the protest organizers, framed the dispute around respect for the solemnity of the occasion. “September 11 is one of those moments in time where it demands respect,” Herman said. “What we’re seeing through, unfortunately, the mayor’s office, there’s been a disrespect for the 9/11 families, and it’s important for him to understand that,” Herman added that Mamdani’s presence would inevitably bring politics into a nonpartisan space. “If the families, you know, who are still suffering, this is their time to grieve and remember. Then it’s important to respect their wishes.”
Mamdani, who was nine years old at the time of the 2001 attacks, has repeatedly stated he will attend Friday’s ceremony and other commemorative events this week. He also signed two executive orders last week, including one formally establishing September 11 as a “Citywide Day of Remembrance Service.”
“I’m proud to be the mayor of this city. I love this city. I love this country,” Mamdani told reporters on Monday. “And what I want this week to be a focus on is on the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11th, and a focus also on the first responders who gave everything they could to this city and to the people who came together to try and help their fellow New Yorkers.”
The memorial ceremony at Ground Zero begins at 8:46 a.m. Friday and will include the first-ever moment of silence honoring the thousands who have since died from 9/11-related illness.