From granting kids the joy of a real snow day to helping property owners clear sidewalks, Mayor Zohran Mamdani tackled the city’s first blizzard in nearly a decade by incorporating lessons he says city officials learned from last month’s storm.
“We took a hard look at everything that worked, and started it from the first day of this blizzard response,” Mamdani said during a press conference on Monday, adding, “we’re always looking to hold ourselves to a standard of excellence.”
His remarks suggest the mayor is intent on avoiding some of the criticism he received from his first snowstorm last month. The deaths of at least 26 New Yorkers raised questions about whether his administration did enough to bring vulnerable residents indoors during the storm and the prolonged cold stretch that followed.
During a City Council hearing earlier this month, City Council Speaker Julie Menin said the deaths “were not inevitable” and cited gaps in outreach and services.
As of early Monday afternoon, city officials knew of no deaths from the blizzard, and forecasts weren’t calling for the same sort of bitter cold that followed January’s storm. This week’s storm — which has dropped two feet of snow in some neighborhoods — paralyzed much of the city with disruptions in mass transit and air travel. The mayor imposed a travel ban for all non-essential vehicles beginning on Sunday night and lasting through noon on Monday.
Many elected officials, including Menin, had yet to publicly weigh in on the mayor’s performance, although City Comptroller Mark Levine was among those who noted that sanitation crews had cleared much of the city according to an online tracker.
The mayor on Sunday announced 24 warming centers would open for the blizzard, not including mobile units. That’s more than double the number of warming facilities that were opened ahead of last month’s snowstorm.
In response to complaints over uncleared crosswalks and bus stops last month, the city began shoveling pedestrian areas “far sooner than previous storms,” acting sanitation commissioner Javier Lojan said. As part of that work, the city has been shoveling sidewalks, normally the responsibility of property owners. Workers began clearing bus stops on Sunday night as the snow was still coming down.
By Monday morning, the city’s department of sanitation had employed 800 shovelers, according to city officials. Citing the historic nature of the blizzard, the mayor said that the city would increase the hourly pay from $19 to $30.
Janno Lieber, the head of the MTA, praised the mayor during the press conference for the city’s attention to clearing bus stops, calling it a “big step.”
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards criticized the mayor for not being more aggressive in forcing homeless New Yorkers indoors during last month’s snowstorm. On Monday he said he was planning to speak with community members to assess the city’s performance during the blizzard.
But he didn’t hold back in questioning the mayor’s decision to reopen public schools tomorrow.
“Please cancel school tomorrow as well,” Richards said on X. “I can’t deal with yall acting crazy!”