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Mamdani Meets a Second Snow Crisis With Enhanced Resolve—and a Little Luck

The mayor mobilized New York’s resources nimbly and creatively. Now, on to the budget

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani records a video alongside a snowbank.

Who says there are no do-overs in politics?

Less than a month after a historic snowstorm and cold spell first tested Zohran Mamdani’s administrative mettle, last weekend’s blizzard offered a second chance for New York’s 34-year-old mayor to demonstrate his ability to manage a weather crisis—a challenge that several of his predecessors have failed to meet. It also provided an encouraging indication of his dedication to learning on the job.

As faithful readers will recall, this observer gave the mayor an A- for his first encounter with Big Snow. The streets were cleared quickly and efficiently, but bus stops and crosswalks remained perilous for days. And as the death toll from the cold mounted, claims of an “all-of government” approach to the crisis began to ring hollow.

It’s true, as the mayor noted, that previous snowstorms have been followed in a few days by weather warm enough to melt the ice cliffs left in the wake of Department of Sanitation snowplows. And, so far at least, deaths from cold in the city aren’t out of line with historic levels. But they were still shockingly high for an administration whose top lawyer, Steven Banks, was (according to The New York Times) “the most successful social-services director in New York City history.” And when it emerged that seven people had died from hypothermia inside their own homes, the consequences of a failure to properly coordinate the city’s response became more evident.

As one veteran city official reminded me, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development maintains a data base of heat complaints. That should have made it easy to pinpoint repeat-offender landlords and buildings. Other city agencies are supposed to keep track of homebound New Yorkers, whether from illness, disability or old age, who are in need of assistance. That so many New Yorkers fell through the city’s safety net was a clear sign that changes were needed. Fortunately, someone at City Hall was paying attention.

Earlier this week, the city’s helpful online snow-plow tracker again made for encouraging reading. And this time the administration stirred much more quickly out of the laggard posture that needlessly jeopardized lives in the last storm. Mamdani officials were determined to bring people in out of the cold—even when they preferred to remain on the streets. The city also bumped the pay for temporary snow shovelers—the workers who clear crosswalks, bus stops, and the sidewalks beside city-owned property—to $30 an hour, which helped to quickly double the number signed on during last month’s snowstorm. And it appears that warmer weather this coming weekend may finally reduce New York’s snow-and-dogshit mountains to the mere messy molehills city residents are long accustomed to navigating........

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