{"id":539641,"date":"2026-01-24T14:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T14:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/539641\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T14:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T14:33:16","slug":"mamdani-will-need-to-avoid-snowy-pitfalls-of-predecessors-in-his-first-real-test-as-mayor-amnewyork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/539641\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani will need to avoid snowy pitfalls of predecessors in his first real test as mayor \u2013 amNewYork"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nothing cross-examines a New York City mayor in the court of public opinion quite like a major winter storm, as Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> is about to learn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just three weeks into his four-year term as the city\u2019s chief executive, Mamdani has spent the latter half of this week gearing up for a dramatic nor\u2019easter expected to blow in early Sunday morning. As of Friday afternoon, forecasts predict between 10 and 15 inches of snow will fall between Sunday and Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Donning a classic New York City Emergency Management sweater for a Friday morning snow briefing, the mayor emphasized the serious nature of the impending storm and affirmed that his administration is ready for whatever lies ahead. The city began salting streets on Friday, and has snow plows at the ready, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York has a fraught political history with blizzards. If history is any indication, Mamdani could take some serious heat if parts of the city are left out in the cold during the storm response.<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a press briefing on the city\u2019s preparations for an upcoming snowstorm at the New York City Emergency Management Department on Friday.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

Previous mayors have suffered serious approval rating hits for failed responses to freezing temperatures and heavy snow. A particularly poor response by former Mayor John Lindsay to a storm in 1969 left the city in a \u201cstate of near paralysis\u201d and was blamed for the deaths of 42 New Yorkers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams, even distanced himself from his previous job in a Friday post on X<\/a>, urging disgruntled New Yorkers to take their complaints elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cReminder: I don\u2019t run City Hall anymore,\u201d Adams wrote. \u201cYelling at me on Twitter will not speed up snow removal.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

amNewYork examined the history of blizzard response in New York City \u2014 and the political consequences at stake \u2014 as the five boroughs brace for the cold.\n<\/p>\n

John Lindsay, 1969<\/b>
\n\"NYCMayor John LindsayWikimedia Commons\/public domain<\/p>\n

A February 1969 snowstorm wreaked havoc not just on New Yorkers, but on then-Mayor John Lindsay, whose bungled response to the blizzard left many blaming him for the storm\u2019s destruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The blizzard dumped 15 inches of snow, killed 42 people and injured 288 others<\/a>. A 2001 book by Vincent Cannato titled \u201cThe Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York\u201d describes the storm and the poor response as leaving the city \u201cin a state of near paralysis\u201d for three days.<\/p>\n

Forecasts had only predicted heavy rain, not a blizzard. The city\u2019s environmental protection administrator, Merril Eisenbud, was out of commission in upstate New York, and close to 40% of the city\u2019s snow removal equipment was unusable, a result of long-term neglect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Queens was hit particularly hard. Along with Staten Island, the borough generally faces the brunt of New York City storms due to its coastal position. Lindsay was accused of neglecting Queens, which saw half the total deaths, and he attracted even more vitriol when, upon visiting, his limousine was unable to pass through Rego Park because the streets were unplowed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

George Artz, who served as former Mayor Ed Koch\u2019s press secretary, said that a solid snowstorm response is essential for mayors working to build credibility with the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a test of competence, and people get their first view of what a mayor can do under pressure,\u201d Artz told amNewYork, noting Lindsay\u2019s disastrous response. \u201cOther mayors who had snowstorms, succeeding Lindsay\u2019s, would say, \u2018You don\u2019t want to be another Lindsay.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsay suffered a hit to his popularity, though he pulled through in his reelection campaign later that year, serving another four years in City Hall.\n<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s neglect of Queens during the 1969 blizzard served as a lesson for future mayors, including Koch, Artz said, who was Lindsay\u2019s second successor. Koch made a point to focus on Queens in his various snowstorm responses, Artz said.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who just moved to the Upper East Side\u2019s Gracie Mansion from his apartment in Astoria, Queens, should plan to do the same, Artz said, offering advice for the new mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say, call your emergency agencies in, make sure they\u2019re aware that this is important for you, and hear their plan on getting things out, especially in communities that usually receive a secondary approach,\u201d Artz said. \u201cI\u2019m sure he\u2019ll do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Bloomberg, 2010<\/b>
\n\"\"Mayor Michael Bloomberg heads to City Hall across a snowy Broadway on Dec. 27, 2010.Spencer T. Tucker\/Mayoral Photography Unit<\/p>\n

Mayor Michael Bloomberg caught criticism in 2010, the first year of his third term in office, for the city\u2019s failed blizzard response, largely owing to system crashes and an inadequate emergency response system.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg took the blame for the failed response, saying he was \u201cextremely dissatisfied\u201d with the performance. Emergency phone lines were overloaded with calls, snow plows were unprepared, and cars and buses blocked snow plows once they were activated.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody has worked hard,\u201d Bloomberg said at the time<\/a>. \u201cThe results were not what we\u2019d like them to be, but it has not been for lack of effort. And we\u2019ll find out what was different this time and try to do everything we can to make sure it\u2019s better the next time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scrutiny on Bloomberg was heightened by the revelation weeks later that his private jet was seen landing in Bermuda<\/a> on the eve of the snowstorm.<\/p>\n

Mamdani has assured New Yorkers that the city\u2019s emergency management system, which has a checkered past, is prepared this time around.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis weekend is going to be cold, it is going to be windy, and above all else, it is going to be a weekend where your city is prepared,\u201d Mamdani said Friday morning. \u201cAcross every single level of government, we are working together to ensure that our streets are being kept clear, that New Yorkers are safeguarded, and that the most vulnerable among us are being connected with shelter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill De Blasio, 2014 and 2018<\/b>
\n\"\"Mayor Bill de Blasio shovels snow outside his Brooklyn home in January 2014.Rob Bennett for the Office of Mayor Bill de Blasio<\/p>\n

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, Adams\u2019 predecessor who supported Mamdani in the 2025 election, felt the wrath of Upper East Siders in 2014, when they accused the mayor<\/a> of neglecting Manhattan in favor of the outer boroughs following a slow response to a January snowstorm.<\/p>\n

At the time, the freshly inaugurated de Blasio denied that he had treated any of New York City\u2019s neighborhoods any differently in his administration\u2019s storm response. Within hours, he admitted the response was lackluster.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter inspecting the area and listening to concerns from residents earlier today, I determined more could have been done to serve the Upper East Side,\u201d he said at an evening press conference later that day.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Gothamist<\/a> earlier this week, de Blasio said he \u201cfelt unjustly accused\u201d at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could do it once again, I wouldn\u2019t have been hung up on that,\u201d he told Gothamist.\n<\/p>\n

De Blasio later faced accusations of being too liberal with calling snow days<\/a> \u2014 an issue that poses less of a threat to Mamdani, who has the post-COVID pandemic option of remote schooling in lieu of a total cancellation.<\/p>\n

Artz noted that Mamdani, and his recent predecessors have enjoyed the luxury of digital and social media as a means to spread the word about emergency preparedness.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no way to know how the new administration\u2019s actual storm response will look like, or even how much snow New Yorkers will end up seeing, but Mamdani is so far succeeding in the awareness campaign, Artz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then, we didn\u2019t have digital ways of telling people, but of course, digital, I see warnings all the time,\u201d Artz said.\n<\/p>\n

Criticism of De Blasio\u2019s storm handling continued throughout his eight years in office, punctuated by a botched snowstorm response in 2018 that led to the ouster of then-Emergency Management Commissioner Joseph Esposito<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The November storm, which covered the city in six inches of snow, left thousands of commuters stranded and forced some New Jersey children to spend the night in school after buses were canceled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to say that the city agencies could have stopped all of this,\u201d De Blasio said at the time, noting that the storm caught city leaders largely off guard. \u201cI\u2019m not going to do that because I think that\u2019s just too convenient.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nothing cross-examines a New York City mayor in the court of public opinion quite like a major winter…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":539642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,238290,23748,8071,238291,405,403,238292,5226,5225,25745,5228,5227,238293,238294,55347,4413,224860,238295,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,177393,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-539641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city-hall-politics","10":"tag-emergency-management","11":"tag-extreme-weather","12":"tag-mayoral-leadership","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-mayors","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-noreaster","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-nyc-blizzard-history","22":"tag-political-accountability","23":"tag-public-opinion","24":"tag-queens","25":"tag-snow-removal","26":"tag-snowstorm-response","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-united-states-of-america","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-usa","33":"tag-winter-storm","34":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115950571211686537","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}