By The New York Post Editorial Board
City Council Speaker Julie Menin has it entirely right: “These New Yorkers should be alive today” — and the city needs an official, independent inquiry into who decided what, and when and why, as Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration allowed 18 people to die in this month’s arctic-cold temps.
The city Medical Examiner says at least 15 died of hypothermia
We’re still learning the names and stories of those who perished, though at least some actually had city-provided shelter but nonetheless stayed outdoors as city workers either didn’t find them or didn’t force them to get indoors.
Tuesday’s council hearing revealed that 250 were left outside because “the person has refused services from the mobile outreach response team.”
The mayor keeps pretending that he has no choice — that no policy was changed from the Eric Adams administration, and state law doesn’t allow involuntary removal unless the person faces an imminent deadly threat.
In fact, Adams (with senior adviser Diane Savino taking point) got that law changed specifically to allow getting vulnerable New Yorkers in from the cold (and other life-threatening situations).
That new law OKs action even when the homeless are not yet in imminent danger, as long as the physical danger is real; it targets specifically those souls so troubled that they can’t recognize and meet their own basic needs.
By definition, staying on the street during a Code Blue emergency qualifies as real danger — and insisting on it counts as unable to recognize your real needs.
It is Mamdani’s choice to leave them out there anyway.
“To those who feel more comfortable on the streets . . . I implore you to come inside,” urged the mayor last Friday — even as he insisted that forcing the homeless off frozen, wind-chilled streets should be a “last resort.”
It’s not just that Mamdani’s cruel “last resort” policy leaves first responders and outreach workers in despair because their “hands are tied” because they can only “implore.”
It’s also this: How much time have they spent “imploring” when they could instead have been seeking out more people to bring in?
That’s key context for other stats from 311 calls: Nothing happened as a result of 96% of the calls made to homeless services during the cold snap; in 72% of cases city workers couldn’t even find the person the tipster was referring to.
Mamdani plainly thinks he can wash his hands of all this; two of the officials he sent to answer the City Council’s questions on Tuesday, Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol and Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park, are on their way out the door — yet they were following his policies, which he refuses to change or even own up to.
How about some real accountability: New Yorkers must know exactly what orders the mayor sent down, or if someone else on his team is the actual decision-maker.
The City Council’s power here seems limited to requiring testimony and subpoenaing documents; the Legislature is controlled by Mamdani’s far-left allies; the governor is desperate for his support in her re-election year — and Mayor Bill de Blasio proved how helpless the city Department of Investigation is when it comes to investigating the big boss.
Maybe the billions in federal funding for city services gives Congress or the Justice Department the standing to get to the bottom of this disgrace; it seems like New York government either can’t, or won’t.
Mayor Mamdani has hit a new low by dodging blame for homeless cold deaths https://t.co/B2nSVChPnM pic.twitter.com/IVdxEGmnQ3
— NY Post Opinion (@NYPostOpinion) February 11, 2026
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