It snowed two weeks ago in New York. Since then, the temperature has barely risen above freezing – a temperature science naturally dictates is necessary to melt snow and ice.
But science isn’t enough for some US political critics, however, who have instead blamed Zohran Mamdani, New York’s new socialist mayor, for the snow not having melted and still clogging up some of the city’s streets.
The New York Post, the rightwing tabloid and a frequent Mamdani critic, has led the charge. This week the newspaper claimed that “slushy streets” were “ruining travel for everyone”.
“New Yorkers are feeling left out in the cold more than a week after fierce Winter Storm Fern dumped over a foot of snow on the city – and left behind iceberg-sized snow piles blocking roadways, bike lanes, sidewalks and parking spots,” the Post said.
The newspaper found and interviewed several people who blamed Mamdani for the fact snow was on the ground, including one man who complained that he had fallen off his bicycle due to ice.
Kelly Jane Torrance, the New York Post’s editor-at-large, went on Sky News Australia on Thursday to double down on the criticism. “It’s just incredible how badly he has mismanaged his very first snowstorm,” Torrance said.
“The snow is still here. A lot of it. It’s … we’ve got record cold temperatures really in the next day or so,” she added. The mayor of New York has little power over the temperature of the city.
Calling Mamdani “pro-criminal”, Torrance suggested that New York is “facing this possible breakdown in public order”.
On Monday, the New York police department reported that January, Mamdani’s first month in office, saw record low crime figures for New York, with the fewest murders, shootings, and shooting victims in the city’s history.
The snow-related criticism spread among social media users. On Threads, a user called @lowerdeckmike, who has regularly posted content criticizing Mamdani, posted a picture of some snow and wrote: “More than a week after 11 o ches [inches] of snow fell on Manhattan. It’s still all on the ground.”
Michael Rapaport, an actor who in 2001 appeared in Dr Doolittle 2 and now hosts a podcast, has been a frequent critic of Mamdani.
On Monday, Rapaport posted a video of him walking around New York and wrote: “A week after the snowstorm and this is what we got Zoron the Shoveler! Filthy black snow, garbage soup, ice rinks on every corner, cars buried like fossils. People slipping, breaking ankles, nobody shoveling, nobody salting, nobody doing SH*T.”
Rapaport added: “This is New York City. Three minutes from the mayor’s house. Start spreading the news… this place is a dirty snow covered dump. Clean it the f*** up Mayor!”
The message did not serve as the rallying cry that Rapaport might have hoped.
“What’s up with the trend of every influencer republican jumping on mamdani for the snow piling up? Real NYers know whenever it snows nyc looks like this… duhhh way before Zohran,” one person responded to his post.
Another wrote: “If you pooped your pants would you blame the Mayor??”
It didn’t deter Rapaport. On Thursday he posted a video showing snow on a New York street.
“I need to know who’s responsible for the dog doo doo,” Rapaport said, as he trained his camera on what appeared to be dog feces. “Who’s responsible for the dirty, disgusting, sloppy snow 10 days since the storm?”
Rapaport, 55, added: “Why is every step off the curb risking your life?”
Debra Messing, the Will & Grace actor who posted Islamophobic content about Mamdani during his mayoral campaign, was also upset.
“The streets are a disaster. It hasn’t snowed in 5 days and the streets still haven’t been cleared,” she wrote on social media.
“I’ve lived here for 15 years (this go around) and this has never happened. The plows have always worked around the clock to get the city back to working.”
In fact, the past 15 years have seen other mayors criticized for their response to the snow. Bill de Blasio was accused of neglecting the wealthy Upper East Side in the wake of a storm in 2014, instead giving Brooklyn and Queens snow-plowing priority, while his predecessor Michael Bloomberg faced scrutiny when some streets went unplowed for days following 20in of snow.
On Friday, Mamdani told Hot 97 the issue is “not just the snowstorm, but the cold front”.
“Typically after snow falls in New York City we’ll have the temperatures rise, we’ll have the sun assist with melting the snow. Instead what we’ve seen is the snow becoming harder, it turning into ice,” the mayor explained.
He said 2,500 sanitation workers were working 12-hour shifts to remove snow and collect garbage.
“It’s going to continue until every single street is clean and clear in this city, because that’s what New Yorkers deserve.”