What the storms showed Mamdani, and what he showed New York
In the brief time that Zohran Mamdani has been a household name for New Yorkers, he has been plagued by criticisms of inexperience. “He’s young,” they say, and it’s true — he is the youngest person, in fact, to hold the title of mayor in a century, and the first Millennial to do so. “He doesn’t know City Hall,” they say — also true, as he’s spent his time as a lawmaker in Albany. “He’s never managed anyone” — fair, as his staff of a handful in the State Assembly pales in comparison to the 300,000-plus people he’s suddenly overseeing.
Then came a record winter, a major challenge for any mayor, let alone a new one. A “bomb cyclone” levelled half of the country in late January, followed by 13 days of sub-zero temperatures in New York City, which meant all that snow just wouldn’t melt. And just as residents were donning thinner coats, another blizzard — the ninth largest in recorded history — dumped 22 inches onto LaGuardia Airport this week.
It’s a blessing in disguise for a man who won more on sweeping promises than on management competence. There is perhaps no better crash course in city operations than an extreme weather event like a snowstorm — a time when our government’s capacity to act instead of just legislate is put on full display to the public. And though Mamdani took some fair hits for management, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the first storm, the cold wind in his face will serve his mayoralty well over the long run, forcing him to grapple with the daunting reality that grand ambitions are nothing without day-to-day government competence. Like my friend Hayden Clarkin wrote: “Every politician must understand that the public feels delivery and not policy.”
As most New Yorkers know, snowstorms are legendary tests for mayors. The disastrous “Lindsay Blizzard” of 1969, for example, laid bare the notion that John Lindsay, like Mamdani, was also young (44, not 34) and not up to task. A 2010 storm, which first found Michael Bloomberg in Bermuda, didn’t help the image he was already battling of a billionaire being out of touch with New Yorkers. Disasters are not make-or-break events for mayors, per se, but they can deepen views that voters might already have of them.
For Mamdani, this past month not only provided a premier “stress test” for a socialist’s managerial chops, but also offered Hizzoner a rare opportunity to prove himself to New Yorkers. He mostly passed, and where he didn’t, he learned valuable lessons that should serve him well. Chief among them: that a manager must adapt on the fly.
After the bomb cyclone in late January, the Mamdani administration placed an emphasis on the plow. The mayor’s earliest videos were shot in Sanitation garages. With the city’s now well-tested online tracker showing plow activity live for all to see, Mamdani was spotted high-fiving and waving to drivers.
This focus makes sense: People are conditioned to take how passable the streets are as the leading barometer of how well their city is doing during a storm.
But the infrastructure we traverse each day is much more granular than that. There were problems. Bus riders trudged through stops encased in snow. For days, crosswalks remained treacherous for pedestrians, let alone those with disabilities or strollers. Citi Bike stations went untouched for a long stretch, infuriating users. The plows are essential, of course, especially for emergency vehicles. But in a city where most trips are taken by foot, these daily perils matter.
The City and the mayor noticed — and in the second storm, it focused on making sure more than just the street was passable. Mamdani’s travel ban expedited plowing. City workers prioritized bus stops and shelters.
In the first storm, the city likely waited too long to call on and pay New Yorkers to shovel. Earlier alerts in this week’s blizzard raised the headcount (and pay) to over a thousand New Yorkers signing up to help. In the first storm, complaints came in that heating centers were insufficient or ill-positioned. This time, more than double were deployed. In the second, emergency workers, paid $30 an hour, cleared sidewalks and intersections and bike lanes all across the city.
The second time around, Lyft, which manages and operates Citi Bike, didn’t delay in digging out docks. And later, the mayor said the city has begun geotagging bus stops and crosswalks to monitor their conditions in future storms. As the saying goes: Don’t waste a crisis.
Perhaps most significant was Mamdani’s change of course on encampment policies. When he came into office, he said encampment sweeps clearing homeless people off the streets and into services would be a thing of the past, and paused the policy. Then, when people tragically died in the cold — at least 20 of them over 18 days — Mamdani reminded New Yorkers that none of them technically had been in encampments.
But still, it didn’t dull the pain; many of the dead had still been unhoused and likely would've been helped by more aggressive policies bringing them indoors. So before the second storm, Mamdani shifted his encampment policies, taking up a more proactive posture to get people out of the elements. After cutting 311 queue times, his administration also started directing people to call 911 for faster responses. (It’s early, but thus far, no street deaths have been reported after storm two.) An honest responsiveness shows a new administration willing to think smartly on its feet.
Mamdani’s habits as a communicator are also evolving in ways that seem to serve him well. In the election, he changed the paradigm of how politicians in New York communicate with people. His remarkable rise was fueled, in large part, by his uncanny ability to distill complex issues into catchy clips — and look like he was having the most fun of anyone doing it. His transition and first few weeks in office followed the same playbook: an endless reel of appearances practically everywhere you looked.
The snowstorms flipped this script. For the first time, Mamdani had to use that platform to translate potentially life-or-death information to New Yorkers in real-time — a serious vibe shift for an otherwise fuzzy presence.
He didn’t skip a beat: he often spoke directly to New Yorkers, touting his now-signature black jacket; he somehow spoke with every TV anchor, radio station and influencer I follow (my friends elsewhere noticed and messaged, too); and he FaceTimed a student to announce a snow day. Mamdani should also take to heart the truism that the message can get away from you fast: Many New Yorkers saw it as a stumble when he failed to forcefully condemn the pelting by snowball of cops in Washington Square Park.
During an emergency, mayors are often talking to people who either didn’t vote, or at least didn’t vote for them. Clear and present communications with a feedback loop is critical to making sure New Yorkers feel seen and heard. In the words of a famous former mayor: “How’m I doin’?”
It’s too early to parse what lasting effect the storms will have on Mamdani, if any — whether it will cement him as a man who can manage as opposed to a naive guy with big ambitions. The next tough choice, and the next, and the next, will shape that perception. Navigating a snowstorm requires a different skill set than, say, negotiating a tough budget. But the city is actually seeing him grow in office. Mark the line on the doorframe and expect him to get taller soon.