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Mayor Zohran Mamdani told other US city leaders that he “struggles” to imagine how his job “could be better” at the moment — even as 10 New Yorkers died in the recent deep freeze and the Big Apple faces a $12 billion budget gap.
The cheery remarks, during a panel at the US Conference of Mayors’ annual winter meeting Thursday, reported on by Politico, came after Winter Storm Fern brought around a foot of snow, below-freezing temperatures and turned deadly last weekend.
“I’m new to the job. I know the burdens will get heavier, but right now I struggle to imagine how it could be better,” Mamdani said, according to a prepared speech shared with Playbook.
“At a moment where so many Americans are searching for genuine leadership and tangible change from government, each of us hold a mighty ability to deliver just that,” he said.
Mamdani delivered the sunny spiel virtually at the event’s “Big City Alliance” panel, and wasn’t expected to attend the two-day conference in-person as New York was still digging itself out from the winter storm.
Hizzoner’s optimistic outlook came despite him ringing alarm bells earlier in the week over the city’s $12 billion budget hole — ahead of his first spending plan that’s expected to be unveiled in mid-February.
He addressed the potential fiscal problems during his panel appearance.
“Some of your cities, like New York, might contend with budget deficits. Others might be reckoning with rollbacks in federal funding, or the myriad of other challenges we face,” Mamdani said, according to Politico.
“But no matter how hard it often feels, I try to remember every day the intimacy that defines the relationship between city government and the people of a city.”
His comments about his first month in office being better than he could imagine, drew outrage and confusion from politicians and pundits.
“What is he talking about? There are ten people dead, and a man freezing right outside his office window on Broadway that he’s done nothing about,” Queens Republican Councilwoman Joann Ariola said in reference to Post reporting on a homeless man camped out in front of City Hall Thursday.
“If he wants to do better, the Mayor could start by actually enforcing the Code Blue so our most vulnerable stop freezing to death on our streets,” she said.
“This is really more of the same from the administration – nice words to appeal to his base, but a lack of any real action and a detriment to the people of this city.”
Melissa DeRosa, a close ally of Mamdani’s defeated election rival Andrew Cuomo, added: “This is an odd thing to say after 10 people freeze to death, people still can’t board buses because the sidewalks and crosswalks are a mess days after a snow storm, and you suddenly learn of a super secret multi-billion dollar budget deficit.”
Mamdani’s senior spokesperson Dora Pekec argued the remarks were taken out of context, but refused to share the mayor’s full speech with The Post.
She would only say that he was being playful, recalling the Lyndon B. Johnson quote “When the burdens of the presidency seem unusually heavy, I always remind myself it could be worse. I could be a mayor,” before making a quip about his first month on the job.
Mamdani has faced questions and outright criticism over his softer approach to pulling homeless people off the streets after the weather-related fatalities came to light.
The mayor stopped homeless encampment sweeps when he first took office and has said forcibly getting people off the streets would be a “last resort” – in a clash with critics who want the city to take a more urgent and heavy-handed approach to getting people inside during below-freezing weather.
At least six of the people who died had past interactions with the city’s shelter system, according to the mayor’s office.
Seven of the 10 deaths were suspected of being connected to hyperthermia, City Hall said, though the office of the medical examiner will determine the exact cause.
The US Conference of Mayors is a non-partisan coalition of mayors that lead cities with populations of at least 30,000.
English (US)