New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), appears to be favoring neighborhoods that voted for him when deciding where to distribute improvement efforts, according to one New York City Councilman.
Even more, a 2025 NYC election map — overlaid with Mamdani’s First 100 Days map by using AI — makes it possible to compare the locations of projects with the voting demographics of the neighborhoods. While Mamdani has engaged in a number of projects across the city, the map focuses on physical improvement projects, including roadwork, housing improvements, and public transportation improvements.
The map suggests that Mamdani’s choice of physical improvement project locations favors areas that supported his candidacy over former Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo. At least one New York City Councilmember the Daily Caller spoke with directly accused the mayor’s office of playing favorites based on political support.
“Let’s be honest, communities like mine have been paying the price for years because we refused to fall in line behind politicians like Bill de Blasio and now Zohran Mamdani,” Democrat New York City Councilman Phil Wong of Queens told the Daily Caller. “We continue to watch taxpayer dollars disproportionately flow into neighborhoods that overwhelmingly support the mayor.”
“New Yorkers deserve a mayor who serves the entire city, not someone who treats public spending as a reward for political loyalty,” said Wong.
In Queens, there appear to be around seven or eight projects in or near Mamdani voting areas versus only one or two in or near Cuomo voting areas.
Elsewhere, in the Borough of Brooklyn, there is one project in the southern part of the borough, which voted more heavily for Andrew Cuomo in the 2025 election. Meanwhile, Staten Island has very few projects compared to the rest of the city, and is also a less supportive area for Mamdani. Northern Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx all heavily supported Mamdani in 2025, and also see the highest concentration of projects.
NYC.gov First 100 Days map, filtered for physical improvement projects, overlaid with the 2025 mayoral election map, via AI. Green represents Andrew Cu,omo and blue represents Zohran Mamdani.
Mamdani recently touted his successful “pothole blitz” by going to Staten Island to fill the “100,000th pothole of the year” in a statement on X. However, many of the replies underlined the realities of living in New York. Manhattan Mingle on X said, “Mamdani is very calculated in how he allots his time and budgeted over-edited social media marketing shorts.”
The mayor’s press office and the NYC Department of Transportation communications department have not responded to requests for comment.
“It’s not a surprise that these projects are in areas that voted heavily for Zohran. A lot of what he promised during the campaign revolved around public transit, low-income housing, and street redesigns for bike lanes. Frankly, districts like mine have very little interest in any of that, so as far as I’m concerned, he can keep his projects far away from us,” Republican Councilwoman Vickie Paladino of Queens told the Daily Caller. “It’s not that we don’t have infrastructure needs here — we do — but I have very little faith in this administration to follow through on anything beneficial for districts like mine.”
Councilwoman Inna Vernikov declined to comment.
Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella condemned the manner of distribution of funds within the city during a March 17 press conference, saying, “We’re getting the short end of the stick here.” Fossella highlighted the “$2 billion deal” signed by the Department of Homelessness.
“They’re increasing spending on things that the people of Staten Island just don’t support.”
Fossella previously condemned Mamdani’s administration for reallocating Staten Island city crews to Brooklyn during a large snowstorm. The press conference took place in front of a large pile of snow, “just one of the many, many spots across Staten Island that we can show you.”
Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella has not responded to requests for additional comment as of publication.
City Council members Joann Ariola, David Carr, Kevin Riley, Virginia Maloney, Frank Morano, and Council Speaker Julie Menin have not responded to requests for comment.