By The New York Post Editorial Board
The No. 1 job of a mayor, above everything else, is to keep his or her city functioning.
Yet with people dying on the cold streets of New York and trash building up in parts of the city, New York is by no means functioning. Not even close.
The snow and frigid temps have tested Gotham’s socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani and, alas, he has not risen to the occasion. Rather, he’s left the city a mess.
Everest-size mountains of garbage have popped up. Unremoved snow, ice and road salt have damaged Con Edison electrical equipment, contributing to power outages.
Most horrifically, 16 people have died on the street — 13 from hypothermia.
Chalk that up to a perverse ideology on the homeless or simple mismanagement, but either way, it represents tragic, unforgivable failure.
There’s more: Mamdani’s Upper East Side neighbors were beyond livid that his Gracie Mansion home was somehow trash-free while snowy, 8-foot garbage heaps went untouched on their streets.
Across the five boroughs, sidewalk curb cuts are only now getting cleared, more than a week after a major snowfall.
Failure to remove melting snow from atop Con Ed equipment is likely one reason 1,900 Park Slope residents have been without power.
Con Ed reported that uncleared snow slowed power restoration in parts of Brooklyn and Queens.
New Yorkers have been clocking Big Apple chief executives’ responses to snow emergencies ever since Mayor John Lindsay’s disastrous mishandling of the Great ’69 Blizzard.
They won’t give Mamdani a pass, no matter his appeal.
Though his top goal might be converting New York into a socialist paradise (and slamming Israel), his troops still need to pick up the garbage and clear the snow.
Nor will his glib, on-camera smiles and social-media savvy substitute for managerial competence and the execution of core city services.
Yes, Mamdani has still 1,428 days to get his act together and prove he can keep the city functioning.
But here’s some free advice: New Yorkers are renowned for their lack of patience. Better get moving.
Eight-foot piles of rat-infested trash are choking the streets around Gracie Mansion — which has gotten kid-glove shoveling treatment as Mayor Zohran Mamdani crows he can’t “imagine how it could get better’’ in the city. pic.twitter.com/0gm8Iakp56
— New York Post (@nypost) February 1, 2026
Mayor Mamdani is failing at his core job: keeping NYC FUNCTIONING https://t.co/QVq72M3EkY pic.twitter.com/9JND0pjElL
— NY Post Opinion (@NYPostOpinion) February 3, 2026