{"id":88154,"date":"2026-01-03T14:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T14:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/88154\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T14:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T14:08:08","slug":"staten-island-fired-up-for-nyc-secession-by-zohran-mamdani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/88154\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Island fired up for NYC secession by Zohran Mamdani"},"content":{"rendered":"

Secession fever is reigniting among fearful Staten Islanders who refuse to believe freshly inaugurated\u00a0Mayor Mamdani<\/a>\u2019s promises to the forgotten borough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the bright-eyed Democratic Socialist attempted to woo Staten Islanders during a mid-December visit, it only seemed to intensify unrest in the borough that gave him the least support in the November election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cStaten Island does not embrace\u00a0the socialist model<\/a>,\u201d Borough President Vito Fossella told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zohran Mamdani attempted to woo Staten Islanders during a mid-December visit. Paul Martinka for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people feel that their priorities are not being addressed, they have every right to consider breaking away from the city and going in their own direction with their own destiny in their hands.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Staten Island first attempted to secede from the city in the 1990s, when a massive study was undertaken and a ballot referendum passed with the support of 65% of Island residents. But the effort was shot down in Albany.<\/p>\n

The borough\u2019s discontent with the city has simmered over the years, and Fossella created a fund for a new secession study in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A City of Staten Island, with its 493,000 residents, would be bigger than Miami or Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s far-left leadership\u00a0<\/a>has triggered renewed urgency in the city\u2019s least-populous and most conservative borough.<\/p>\n

He only visited the Island a handful of times during his campaign \u2014 and was often greeted with hostility from distrusting residents.<\/p>\n

While sitting down with\u00a0Advance\/SILive.com<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Shaw-na\u00e9\u2018s House, a renowned restaurant in Stapleton, Mamdani addressed his unpopularity, vowing to prioritize locals\u2019 concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among the strongest voices in the recent bid to flee the city is Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo. Michael McWeeney<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the moment to show Staten Islanders that their concerns will be front of mind in our administration and that we\u2019re actually going to deliver on those concerns,\u201d he claimed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But said demands \u2014 such as slowing the roll on \u201cCity of Yes\u201d initiatives \u2014 conflict with his campaign promise of more affordable housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He went on to ensure that Staten Islanders reaped the benefits of his proposed \u201cfast and free\u201d bus service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking directly on the idea of secession, the mayor asserted, \u201cI think of Staten Island as a critical part of New York City. You cannot tell the story of five boroughs\u00a0without the story of Staten Island<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He also visited Masjid Un Noor, the borough\u2019s oldest mosque, in Mariners Harbor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we speak of Staten Island as an obligation in our politics, it is in fact an opportunity in our politics,\u201d he told the crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite his warm remarks about the borough where only about 23% of voters cast their ballots in his favor, right-wing locals made it clear that they will not be letting their guard down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cB.S. This guy hates Staten Island. This borough will always get screwed over by City Hall,\u201d one infuriated social media user reached.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concerns of Staten Islanders are the farthest things from his mind. Home taxes are too high, the Island is overcrowded,\u201d another echoed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cStaten Island does not embrace\u00a0the socialist model,\u201d Borough President Vito Fossella told The Post. LP Media<\/p>\n

\u201cStop the City of Yes and realize Staten Island is not like other boroughs and cannot be made like them. Staten Islanders need to fight him if he does wrong. They must get out and protest, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fossella said there is no formal petition or referendum in circulation, but would support anything in the borough\u2019s best interest \u2014 whether that means working side by side with Mamdani or giving him the cold shoulder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among the strongest voices in the recent bid to flee the city is Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo, who has been leading the\u00a0renewed charge for the borough\u2019s city exit<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMandani has absolutely opened the floodgates to have this conversation again,\u201d Pirozzolo told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In November, Pirozzolo read aloud his Staten Island Independence Declaration to inspire another secession attempt to a crowd of about 60 people. Dozens of attendees signed this declaration.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Secession fever is reigniting among fearful Staten Islanders who refuse to believe freshly inaugurated\u00a0Mayor Mamdani\u2019s promises to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[57,9,24,63,134,136,135,58,4384,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-88154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-metro","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-staten-island","13":"tag-staten-island-headlines","14":"tag-staten-island-news","15":"tag-us-news","16":"tag-vito-fossella","17":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}