Deadly extended cold snap proves early challenge for Mamdani

Another New Yorker died outside, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Saturday, bringing the total number of individuals who have died outdoors since a frigid cold front set in over the city last week to 14.

The deaths have not been all ruled to be caused by exposure to the freezing temperatures, but preliminary findings suggest hypothermia played a role in eight of those cases, Mamdani said Saturday at an unrelated press conference. Deaths from exposure to cold are not new: 29 deaths in 2023 (the latest summary available) and 52 deaths in 2022 were attributed to exposure to excessive natural cold, according to city health department data.

“This is one of the longest, most sustained cold stretches our city has endured in years,” Mamdani said. “And it is showing no signs of abating.”

While Mamdani has received some praise for his immediate response to a major snowstorm last weekend, the extended cold front is posing a continuing challenge early in his term. With power outages depriving homes of heat in parts of the city, and mounds of snow blocking access to some bus stops and sidewalks, Mamdani is not just receiving criticism from predictable critics, but some pressure from progressive allies. 

In a social media post on Saturday morning, Council Member Chi Ossé noted continued power outages in Bed-Stuy that have left some homes without power and heat. In the video, Ossé said he was “calling on the mayor as well as the mayoral administration to step in” by relocating families to hotels paid for by the city. 

Asked about that on Saturday, Mamdani said that he has been coordinating with Ossé’s office. He did not comment when asked if he was surprised that Ossé made a public call for his support given Ossé was a close ally throughout Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. They have more recently been at electoral politics odds, as Mamdani advocated against New York City Democratic Socialist of America endorsing Ossé in a primary against Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. (DSA declined to endorse Ossé, and he did not run.)

In a post later on Saturday, Ossé wrote that the mayor’s office had been “very helpful” and provided two warming buses and opened a nearby school as a warming center. Ossé said he had been in touch with the president of ConEdison who told him power was expected to resume by 6 p.m.

Despite snow melting efforts, stubbornly frozen mounds of snow and ice continue to block bus lanes, bike lanes, crosswalks and bus stops. Council Member Shahana Hanif, another progressive ally of Mamdani’s, said in a post that she planned to hold an oversight hearing on “snow removal at bus entrances, crosswalks, and sidewalk accessibility.” Hanif was recently named the chair of the council’s Committee on Disabilities.

The Mamdani administration has provided near daily updates on its response to the weather at unrelated press conferences over the past week. On Saturday, Mamdani said that the city would mobilize additional workers to clear snow this weekend. 

He said outreach workers will continue to scour the city for people living outside in need of shelter and encouraged New Yorkers to check on their neighbors. He said since this Code Blue went into effect on Jan. 19, 860 people have been placed in shelters. Sixteen people were “involuntarily transported” to shelter. He said 17 additional ambulettes have been deployed to pick people up off the streets, and a new additional “low-barrier shelter site” had been opened to get people out of the cold.