Four days before one of the biggest winter storms in years arrived in New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani met with top officials and tore up his schedule for the rest of the week. His first major management test was approaching, and the next few days were going to be all about snow.
Mamdani knew his response would be intensely scrutinized. In his meeting with top staffers that Wednesday, the mayor specifically mentioned to his team that his three immediate predecessors — Mayors Michael Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams — had all botched snowstorm responses because they were caught flat-footed and appeared aloof, a senior aide detailed. Mamdani’s press secretary, Joe Calvello, printed out old newspaper headlines detailing those failures and his colleagues hung them above their desks in the office. Bulletin board material for “motivation,” he said.
“Old-school locker room stuff,” Calvello said, adding: “Take notes from history. Simple as that. A lot of mayors have stumbled in their first big snow. And he made it clear that this wouldn’t be a test, but an opportunity. And then it was on us and workers across the city to step up to the plate like he was doing.”
A self-described democratic socialist seeking to enact a sprawling agenda, Mamdani is keenly aware that voters won’t believe he is capable of delivering on bigger promises if he fails at managing the nuts and bolts of city government. The storm was an early test — and provided him an opportunity to prove himself…