After marching in the Lunar New Year Parade, every future parade decision carries political weight
He Said He Would Not March. Then He Did.
During the general election campaign, Zohran Mamdani was asked about New York City’s endless parade calendar, a civic tradition so politically loaded that mayors have started wars over which events they attend and which they skip. His answer was refreshingly candid. He had not thought much about parades, he said. He would be too busy governing. He might skip many of them. Street safety advocates, transit riders, and housing justice activists loved this answer. It sounded like a man who had his priorities straight. Then he became mayor and marched in the Lunar New Year Parade.
Why the Lunar New Year Decision Matters
Mamdani’s decision to step off at the Lunar New Year Parade was a pragmatic acknowledgment that governing New York City requires showing up in communities you want to represent. He won the mayoralty in part by appealing to constituencies that prior mayors had taken for granted or overlooked: young voters, South Asian New Yorkers, Muslim New Yorkers, working-class outer borough residents who depended on buses rather than cars. Many of those constituencies have their own parades, their own community celebrations, their own expectations about whether the mayor of New York City considers their cultural life worth attending. Showing up at the Lunar New Year Parade was showing up for the Asian American communities that have been part of Mamdani’s coalition from his days as a state assemblymember in Astoria.
The History of Parade Politics in New York
As Gothamist documented, parade politics have long presented mayors with a tightrope to walk. Fiorello La Guardia was a fixture at certain parades but drew a firm line at police parades. Ed Koch proposed a parade to address racial divisions and then walked it back within 24 hours after a tepid reception. Rudy Giuliani refused to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 1999 after the Ancient Order of Hibernians barred the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization from participating, a position that earned him praise from some communities and criticism from others. Bill de Blasio made headlines by marching in the West Indian American Day Parade the same year he first ran for mayor and continued attending throughout his tenure. Eric Adams was a regular parade presence and used them as community engagement tools. Each mayor’s parade calculus reveals something about their theory of political coalition and community respect.
What the Decision Now Unlocks and What It Risks
By marching in the Lunar New Year Parade, Mamdani has opened a door he cannot close. Every future parade that he attends will establish a precedent. Every future parade that he skips will invite the question: why did you show up for them and not for us? The political risks run in both directions. Attending too many parades signals to critics that the mayor is performing community engagement rather than governing. Skipping the wrong parade signals to a community that their culture and their constituency does not rank. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the Puerto Rican Day Parade, the Salute to Israel Parade, the India Day Parade, the West Indian American Day Parade, the Dominican Day Parade, the Muslim Day Parade: each carries its own politics, its own gatekeepers, and its own expectations. Some have internal political conflicts over which organizations and causes are welcome to march.
The Governing Tension
The deeper tension in Mamdani’s parade evolution is between the candidate who ran on governing priorities and the mayor who governs a city of communities, each of which uses visibility in civic rituals as a measure of respect and inclusion. There is no clean resolution to this tension. The Gotham Center for New York City History has written extensively about how parade politics have functioned as proxies for larger questions of who belongs in New York and whose New York counts. For a mayor who ran on the idea that every New York belongs, every parade decision carries that weight.
