In the runup to his election, Mamdani vowed to discontinue the sweeps of homeless encampments (City).
the grim toll of homeless deaths, now 16 and counting, has already shattered any illusion of a honeymoon. This is Mamdani’s baptism by tragedy, the 34-year-old nepo baby’s abrupt introduction to reality. The mirror tells the story: the crisis exposes his arrogance.
For forty years, every mayor understood the same hard truth — when temperatures drop, the city must act. Following Ed Koch’s lead, administrations required the homeless to take shelter or moved them indoors when they could not decide for themselves. As former mayor Rudy Giuliani put it: “The policy of NYC before, during, and after I was Mayor was to remove homeless from the streets when it approached freezing. The incumbent Mayor has changed that policy.”