The models are aligning.
A massive winter storm is expected to drop up to 12 inches of snow on New York City Sunday into Monday, threatening to shut down parts of the five boroughs in what will be the biggest test of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration to date.
The mayor, who took office earlier this month, was asked about storm preparedness at an unrelated press conference Thursday morning. Regarding schools, he said, “We are working to do everything we can to keep our schools open.”
A day ago, Mamdani was questioned about the potential for school closures, given preliminary snow predictions for the city.
Asked if he’d consider an old-school snow day, meaning no school, rather than the remote learning the city pivoted to during the pandemic, Mamdani said, “I knew this moment would come.”
“We are taking every single precaution that we can,” he added. “Right now, the spectrum of possibilities is large. As that gets closer to the date, we’ll be able to share more about what New Yorkers should be looking for.
Then to the question that is top of mind for every student (and parent): “But what about the snow day?”
Mamdani laughed and said, “Well, that depends on what I’ve just said.”
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The nation’s largest school district ended its traditional snow day system when it began the 2022-23 school year. Rather than cancel school for the day, district officials implemented the remote learning system that the city developed and utilized throughout the pandemic.
It has not been without issue. Mandani has not said if he supports a remote learning day rather than a traditional snow day, but admitted Thursday that he’ll never forget his own snow day sledding adventure as a teenager — that ended in a trip to the hospital.
“We hit the jump so well that I ended up in the front, and then my friend landed on my head, and I got a concussion and went to the hospital. And I turned out mostly OK,” said Mamdani.
The mayor has pledged clear and regular communication to New Yorkers on storm prep and response.
“We take this seriously because it has serious consequences for New Yorkers’ lives,” Mamdani said.
The mayor, just three weeks into his term, is looking to avoid the slip-ups that previous administrations have had regarding snowstorms. That includes John Lindsay in 1969, who faced criticism for the length of time it took to plow out some areas, leading him to call his lack of preparations before the storm “a mistake.”
It also includes more recent examples, like Mayor Mike Bloomberg in 2007, whose Department of Transportation ticketed New Yorkers who literally couldn’t move their frozen cars. Bloomberg’s initial tone afterward struck some as cold.
“This was not a lot of snow, it was easy to move your car. I don’t like to get up early in the morning and have to do anything either, I’d like to sleep in too,” the then-mayor said.
In 2018, traffic got stuck for upwards of 10 hours from a storm. The de Blasio administration later acknowledged it hadn’t adequately stressed the urgency.
Mamdani appeared to be willing to accept the challenge.
“I think it is only right that New Yorkers judge their leaders by their ability to deliver for them in most day-to-day aspects of their life,” he said.
There will be 2,000 sanitation workers working 12-hour shifts over the weekend, along with 700 salt spreaders hitting the streets, the mayor said. He later said in a post on social media that the city would issue a Code Blue Thursday evening in an effort to get unhoused New Yorkers into shelters.
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