Mayor Zohran Mamdani seemed to pass his first weather test as mayor amid a blizzard on Sunday that buried the five boroughs with between 8 and 15 inches of snow — the most snowfall the city has seen since 2021.
The mayor remained highly visible throughout the city on Sunday under heavy snowfall, appearing live on the Weather Channel, holding a press conference to deliver updates, and helping residents in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, dig their cars out from the snow.
Blizzards in New York City have a checkered political history. In a city with 8.5 million people packed into 300 square miles, City Hall’s neglect of any street or neighborhood can have disastrous consequences and bring on the wrath of the public.
Former Mayor John Lindsay’s notoriously failed response to a devastating blizzard in 1969 severely damaged his popularity with voters. After the storm left 42 people dead and 288 injured, half of them in Queens, trust in Lindsay’s leadership plummeted and he scraped by in his reelection campaign later that year.
Other successors of Mamdani’s have also had pitfalls of their own in blizzard response — Michael Bloomberg took heat in 2010 for the city’s botched operations during an after-Christmas blizzard, and Bill De Blasio struggled throughout his tenure to gain trust in his emergency response abilities amid a series of questionable snowstorm responses.
Throughout the past week, Mamdani seemed to take these lessons to heart. Days before the storm hit, he repeatedly spoke publicly about storm preparation days and made New Yorkers well aware of the hazards that came.
In the end, Mamdani seemed to suggest Monday that the city came out of the winter storm well.
“New York was prepared and New York weathered the storm,” Mamdani said at a Monday press conference.
When asked to grade his administration’s response, the mayor demurred.
“I will leave it to New Yorkers to give me a grade,” Mamdani said, instead crediting advance planning and the work of sanitation workers and other city employees who began preparing days before snow fell.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin applauded the city’s response in a statement to amNewYork.
“Mayor Mamdani clearly communicated the risks of the storm and was on the ground throughout the city, so New Yorkers understood the severity and stayed indoors, which was so important in order for Sanitation workers to do the vital snow removal work,” Menin wrote. “Due to their tireless work, the city is functioning today. In terms of the fatal fires in the Bronx, we are working with City Hall to ensure all displaced residents receive the services they need.”
In a previous statement to the New York Times, Menin said the response could have been better: “There are areas where emergency response has been stretched and needs to improve, and the Council will be closely engaged in addressing those gaps.”
Communications: Mamdani fills the airwaves
Just as important as the response itself is how that response is communicated and made visible to the public, according to George Artz, who served as press secretary for former Mayor Ed Koch.
“He’s done very well,” Artz told amNewYork. “He was on all the TV channels, he was out there, he was holding press conferences.”
Mamdani spent much of Friday and Saturday sitting for interviews and holding press conferences about storm preparation, urging New Yorkers to sign up for text notifications from NotifyNYC, shop for groceries in advance of the snow, and avoid unnecessary travel.
On Sunday, the day of the storm, Mamdani went live on the Weather Channel from Central Park, speaking to broadcast meteorologist Jim Cantore about the snow. He also held a press conference in the middle of the day, delivering updates to the city alongside other members of his administration.
In addition to remaining visible on television and repeatedly updating his social media as the storm went on, Mamdani spent much of his day out in the cold visiting Department of Sanitation Workers, Department of Parks and Recreation workers, and even helping dig residents’ cars out from the snow.
The mayor’s response brought him praise from other electeds and political players — even some of his critics.
Benny Polatseck, a vocal critic of Mamdani and formerly a multimedia producer for former Mayor Eric Adams, wrote in a Sunday post on X, “Credit where due, looks like @NYCMayor is handling this storm very well so far.”
“It was his first test to the public, and it was good,” Artz said.
Mamdani sought to make the day fun for snowed-in New Yorkers, urging residents to stay inside, relax, and watch television or read.
The complaints that did surface
Mamdani made a point of preparing the city’s snowplows and street brining operations several days in advance. When the time came to put cleanup measures into action, the city had over 2,000 active snowplows and 700 salt spreaders canvassing the five boroughs. The city’s PlowNYC map allows New Yorkers to check when their street was last plowed.
The day didn’t come without hiccups and complaints, though.
The high volume of snowfall left massive mounds of snow on the sides of the streets after they had been plowed, posing issues for pedestrians braving the cold. And, the city’s requirement that property owners shovel their sidewalks in lieu of the city being responsible left many walkways nearly impassable, an age-old problem in the city.
Mamdani also put an early focus on safety, declaring the typical Code Blue, which requires all shelters to admit anybody looking to get out of the cold and triggers homeless outreach teams to seek out New Yorkers stuck in the cold. The city usually declares a Code Blue when the temperature drops below 32 degrees.
The city recorded five deaths on Friday, which Mamdani said are still being investigated for being tied to the cold.
He said at a Monday press conference that the death toll had risen to seven, and that the city was investigating the causes of death.
“I send my deepest condolences to the families and the loved ones of those New Yorkers that lost their lives,” he said at the press conference. “Any loss of life is truly a tragedy and that’s why we’re continuing to urge New Yorkers to get to a safe and warm location.”
With reporting by Adam Daly
