A second storm handled better, but the harder test — the budget — still looms
The Second Snow Test: A Better Performance
Less than a month after a historic January blizzard first tested Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administrative competence, a second major storm arrived in late February to offer a do-over. And by most accounts, the administration performed better the second time. The Nation’s D.D. Guttenplan, who had given Mamdani an A-minus for the first storm while noting persistent problems with bus stops and crosswalks, offered a more positive assessment of the February blizzard response. The city’s plow tracker showed encouraging progress. The administration moved more quickly to bring people in out of the cold — including those who preferred to remain on the streets. Pay for temporary snow shovelers was raised to $30 an hour, which helped double the workforce deployed during the first storm. And warmer weather arriving over the weekend promised to reduce the mountains of plowed snow that had become a defining image of the January crisis. Crucially, the deaths-from-cold numbers, while still troubling, showed improvement from the January storm, during which seven people died from hypothermia inside their own homes — a statistic that had raised serious questions about the administration’s coordination across city agencies.
Learning on the Job
The shift between storms was not accidental. After the January crisis, city officials identified specific failures: landlords with repeated heat complaints were not being tracked proactively, homebound residents were falling through safety net gaps between agencies, and the coordination between human services and emergency response was insufficient. Someone, Guttenplan noted, was paying attention. The second storm response reflected direct lessons learned from the first — a sign that the administration is capable of genuine self-correction, which is more than can be said for many city governments. Mamdani has raised the pay for emergency snow workers to $30 per hour, upgraded coordination with the Department of Sanitation, and expanded outreach to vulnerable populations. Business leaders quoted in Crain’s New York Business gave the mayor strong marks for his winter storm management by late February, a notable endorsement from a community that has had mixed feelings about his broader agenda.
The Budget Storm That’s Coming
But as Guttenplan observed, snowstorms are a small test. The real challenge — the one that will define the Mamdani mayoralty — is the budget. With a $5.4 billion gap to close, a governor who has declined to support a wealth tax, and a property tax option that threatens to alienate the working-class homeowners who form part of his coalition, Mamdani faces a fiscal test that no amount of good luck can fully solve. Guttenplan identified several strategic gaps in the mayor’s current approach. The 1,500-person rally in Albany — smaller than organizers had hoped — suggested that neither the mayor nor his troops are fully mobilized for the budget fight. The messaging around taxing the rich to fund universal services has not yet crystallized into a compelling public argument.
The Billionaires Are Organizing
Meanwhile, The Nation reported, New York’s wealthiest residents are not waiting passively. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s allies — including longtime Cuomo aide Steven Cohen, tech investor Bradley Tusk, and political consultant Phil Singer — are reportedly organizing to constrain or undermine the Mamdani agenda. Former City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who finished fifth in last year’s Democratic primary, appears to be positioning himself as a front man for this effort. The brief period of grudging acceptance among New York’s permanent government that had emerged as Mamdani’s electoral victory became clear is, by Guttenplan’s account, already eroding. Kathryn Wylde, who had brokered an uneasy peace between the business community and the incoming mayor, has retired from the Partnership for New York City. The forces arrayed against Mamdani’s agenda have deep pockets and long memories.
What Mamdani Must Do
Guttenplan’s prescription is specific. The mayor should build a broader coalition by making the case that universal childcare and free buses are good for every business whose workers and customers depend on those services — a message that could peel off some business support. He should bring in politically aligned former insiders — citing former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia as an example — to help commissioners identify genuine savings within departments. He should work with City Comptroller Brad Lander to build fiscal credibility for the budget that the current proposals lack. The Nation’s ongoing budget coverage provides a useful primer for anyone trying to follow the fiscal debate. And the NYC Independent Budget Office offers nonpartisan analysis of all major budget proposals.
The Historical Stakes
Guttenplan closed with a historical frame that is worth taking seriously. When left-wing governments fail, what follows is often not a moderate correction but a rightward lurch. The history of failed progressive experiments — in Greece, France, Britain, and elsewhere — suggests that disappointed hopes can fuel precisely the reaction and repression that progressives most fear. Mamdani has time. He has a mandate. He has a second-storm track record that suggests genuine capacity to govern. What he needs now is the fiscal creativity and political coalition-building to match his governing ambitions to the budget realities of the most expensive city in the United States. The snowstorms, he has mostly handled. The budget will require something harder: the willingness to build genuine power in Albany and tell an honest story about what things cost and who should pay.
