Not all mayors are good at handling snow, and cities like Chicago and New York are falling victim to it.
Officials issue winter storm warning as snow threat increases
Officials across the U.S. are issuing warnings as a major winter storm threatens to bring snow, ice and dangerous cold.
NEW YORK — Snowstorms sometimes disappoint big city mayors, but more often they destroy them. And when New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani takes office on a freezing New Year’s Day, he must lead the city through what is expected to be the biggest snowstorm in years.
More than half of the United States is facing a winter storm over the weekend. As of now, the forecast is for at least a foot of snow to accumulate in New York City starting Sunday, January 25th.
“A snowstorm is to a mayor what foreign policy is to a president,” said Mitchell L. Moss, a professor of urban policy at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service and a former adviser to New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. “It’s the stage where the mayor reigns in New York City.”
New Yorkers will be watching to see how the 34-year-old reacts as an early test of his managerial talents. Even if he’s not in their neighborhood, they’ll think of him when they see the sidewalks, roads, bike lanes, and trains around town.
Mamdani, a millennial, is considered too young to lead the country’s largest city and its vast government, political experts told USA TODAY.
“There have been some high-profile failures,” says Robin Nagle, resident anthropologist at the New York Department of Sanitation. “It’s often an early test for a new mayor.”
On Friday morning, Mamdani gave weather updates on the Weather Channel and popular hip-hop station Hot 97. Mamdani told an emergency management briefing that he will remain as health commissioner and that his agency is tasked with “transforming it into the largest snow removal operation in the country.”
To the dismay of some New Yorkers who would rather go sledding than sit in class, he excluded snow days for the city’s 1 million public school students, citing state law’s rules regarding school days. If it snows and students are unable to attend school, remote classes will be held.
According to the mayor, one student found his wife, Rama Duwaj’s email address and told her about the snow day.
Snowstorms have plagued mayors throughout history.
Not all mayors have excelled in the snow, and they are paying a price.
In Chicago, the 1979 snowstorm derailed Mayor Michael Bilandic’s re-election bid as the city struggled to cope with more than 20 inches of snow.
In New York, Moss said, Mayor John Lindsay’s lax response to the 1969 snowstorm was notable. The storm left more than a dozen people dead, left roads clear of snow for up to a week, and jeopardized Mr. Lindsay’s re-election later that year.
But other winter events troubled more mayors.
In 2010, Mr. Bloomberg’s private jet reportedly landed in Bermuda the day before a snowstorm, but returned just a day later. The vice mayor, who was also out of town because of the snowstorm, later resigned, citing the city’s slow response, The New York Times reported.
In January 2014, a month after Mayor Bill de Blasio took office, wealthy Manhattan residents on the Upper East Side accused Brooklyn progressives of failing to properly salt their sidewalks.
Esther Fuchs, a professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a former advisor to Bloomberg, said snow is second only to crime in people’s impressions of city government. As a quality of life issue, when people look out their windows and doors, snow falls across all races, classes, and genders.
“Did that snowplow come through your town? Everyone remembers it,” Fuchs said. “This is an intuitive question that really informs people’s perceptions of the effectiveness of mayoral government and the effectiveness of city government in general.”
The city’s real response will come from the roughly 2,000 sanitation workers who will be working 12-hour shifts starting Saturday evening and throughout the snowstorm. Garbage trucks are equipped with snow removal, salt treatment and even snow melting capabilities, according to a city news release.
Sanitation personnel need to be prepared for winter events. Nagle, the anthropologist, cited a phrase familiar to sanitation workers. “When it snows, it becomes property of the department.”
Preparing for winter storms begins in the summer, said Nagle, who wrote a book about city sanitation workers. The Sanitation Department begins inventorying equipment, training and licensing new employees, and practicing routes on a warm September night.
Ultimately, the city’s response is under the direction of the mayor. But the forecast could change, such as with storms elsewhere or less snowfall than expected, in which case the mayor could be accused of wasting taxpayers’ money by forcing staff to work overtime or salting streets.
“Being mayor in this situation is potentially a losing proposition,” Nagle said. “On the other hand, it could also be a great victory.”
Mamdani has one thing in mind. The snowstorm is expected to arrive Sunday, by which time most people will be home. But the next day, people have to go out for work in the busy city.
Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Contact us via email (emcuevas1@usatoday.com) or Signal (emcuevas.01).
