Nothing cross-examines a New York Metropolis mayor within the courtroom of public opinion fairly like a serious winter storm, as Mayor Zohran Mamdani is about to study.
Simply three weeks into his four-year time period as town’s chief government, Mamdani has spent the latter half of this week gearing up for a dramatic nor’easter anticipated 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.
Donning a basic New York Metropolis Emergency Administration sweater for a Friday morning snow briefing, the mayor emphasised the intense nature of the approaching storm and affirmed that his administration is prepared for no matter lies forward. Town started salting streets on Friday, and has snow plows on the prepared, he mentioned.
New York has a fraught political historical past with blizzards. If historical past is any indication, Mamdani may take some severe warmth if elements of town are omitted within the chilly through the storm response.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks throughout a press briefing on town’s preparations for an upcoming snowstorm on the New York Metropolis Emergency Administration Division on Friday.Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Earlier mayors have suffered severe approval ranking hits for failed responses to freezing temperatures and heavy snow. A very poor response by former Mayor John Lindsay to a storm in 1969 left town in a “state of near paralysis” and was blamed for the deaths of 42 New Yorkers.
Mamdani’s predecessor, former Mayor Eric Adams, even distanced himself from his earlier job in a Friday submit on X, urging disgruntled New Yorkers to take their complaints elsewhere.
“Reminder: I don’t run City Hall anymore,” Adams wrote. “Yelling at me on Twitter will not speed up snow removal.”
New York News examined the historical past of blizzard response in New York Metropolis — and the political penalties at stake — because the 5 boroughs brace for the chilly.
John Lindsay, 1969
Mayor John LindsayWikimedia Commons/public area
A February 1969 snowstorm wreaked havoc not simply on New Yorkers, however on then-Mayor John Lindsay, whose bungled response to the blizzard left many blaming him for the storm’s destruction.
The blizzard dumped 15 inches of snow, killed 42 folks and injured 288 others. A 2001 ebook by Vincent Cannato titled “The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York” describes the storm and the poor response as leaving town “in a state of near paralysis” for 3 days.
Forecasts had solely predicted heavy rain, not a blizzard. Town’s environmental safety administrator, Merril Eisenbud, was out of fee in upstate New York, and near 40% of town’s snow removing gear was unusable, a results of long-term neglect.
Queens was hit notably laborious. Together with Staten Island, the borough usually faces the brunt of New York Metropolis storms attributable to its coastal place. Lindsay was accused of neglecting Queens, which noticed half the overall deaths, and he attracted much more vitriol when, upon visiting, his limousine was unable to go via Rego Park as a result of the streets have been unplowed.
George Artz, who served as former Mayor Ed Koch’s press secretary, mentioned {that a} stable snowstorm response is important for mayors working to construct credibility with the general public.
“It’s a test of competence, and people get their first view of what a mayor can do under pressure,” Artz advised New York News, noting Lindsay’s disastrous response. “Other mayors who had snowstorms, succeeding Lindsay’s, would say, ‘You don’t want to be another Lindsay.’”
Lindsay suffered successful to his reputation, although he pulled via in his reelection marketing campaign later that 12 months, serving one other 4 years in Metropolis Corridor.
Town’s neglect of Queens through the 1969 blizzard served as a lesson for future mayors, together with Koch, Artz mentioned, who was Lindsay’s second successor. Koch made some extent to deal with Queens in his varied snowstorm responses, Artz mentioned.
Mamdani, who simply moved to the Higher East Aspect’s Gracie Mansion from his residence in Astoria, Queens, ought to plan to do the identical, Artz mentioned, providing recommendation for the brand new mayor.
“I would say, call your emergency agencies in, make sure they’re aware that this is important for you, and hear their plan on getting things out, especially in communities that usually receive a secondary approach,” Artz mentioned. “I’m sure he’ll do that.”
Michael Bloomberg, 2010
Mayor Michael Bloomberg heads to Metropolis Corridor throughout a snowy Broadway on Dec. 27, 2010.Spencer T. Tucker/Mayoral Images Unit
Mayor Michael Bloomberg caught criticism in 2010, the primary 12 months of his third time period in workplace, for town’s failed blizzard response, largely owing to system crashes and an insufficient emergency response system.
Bloomberg took the blame for the failed response, saying he was “extremely dissatisfied” with the efficiency. Emergency telephone traces have been overloaded with calls, snow plows have been unprepared, and vehicles and buses blocked snow plows as soon as they have been activated.
“Everybody has worked hard,” Bloomberg mentioned on the time. “The results were not what we’d like them to be, but it has not been for lack of effort. And we’ll find out what was different this time and try to do everything we can to make sure it’s better the next time.”
The scrutiny on Bloomberg was heightened by the revelation weeks later that his non-public jet was seen touchdown in Bermuda on the eve of the snowstorm.
Mamdani has assured New Yorkers that town’s emergency administration system, which has a checkered previous, is ready this time round.
“This 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,” Mamdani mentioned Friday morning. “Across 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.”
Invoice De Blasio, 2014 and 2018
Mayor Invoice de Blasio shovels snow exterior his Brooklyn house in January 2014.Rob Bennett for the Workplace of Mayor Invoice de Blasio
Former Mayor Invoice de Blasio, Adams’ predecessor who supported Mamdani within the 2025 election, felt the wrath of Higher East Siders in 2014, once they accused the mayor of neglecting Manhattan in favor of the outer boroughs following a gradual response to a January snowstorm.
On the time, the freshly inaugurated de Blasio denied that he had handled any of New York Metropolis’s neighborhoods any otherwise in his administration’s storm response. Inside hours, he admitted the response was lackluster.
“After inspecting the area and listening to concerns from residents earlier today, I determined more could have been done to serve the Upper East Side,” he mentioned at a night press convention later that day.
In an interview with Gothamist earlier this week, de Blasio mentioned he “felt unjustly accused” on the time.
“If I could do it once again, I wouldn’t have been hung up on that,” he advised Gothamist.
De Blasio later confronted accusations of being too liberal with calling snow days — a difficulty that poses much less of a menace to Mamdani, who has the post-COVID pandemic choice of distant education in lieu of a complete cancellation.
Artz famous that Mamdani, and his latest predecessors have loved the posh of digital and social media as a method to unfold the phrase about emergency preparedness.
There’s no option to know the way the brand new administration’s precise storm response will seem like, and even how a lot snow New Yorkers will find yourself seeing, however Mamdani is to date succeeding within the consciousness marketing campaign, Artz mentioned.
“Back then, we didn’t have digital ways of telling people, but of course, digital, I see warnings all the time,” Artz mentioned.
Criticism of De Blasio’s storm dealing with continued all through his eight years in workplace, punctuated by a botched snowstorm response in 2018 that led to the ouster of then-Emergency Administration Commissioner Joseph Esposito.
The November storm, which lined town in six inches of snow, left hundreds of commuters stranded and compelled some New Jersey youngsters to spend the evening at school after buses have been canceled.
“I don’t think it’s fair to say that the city agencies could have stopped all of this,” De Blasio mentioned on the time, noting that the storm caught metropolis leaders largely off guard. “I’m not going to do that because I think that’s just too convenient.”
