New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has ignited a firestorm after releasing a map of immigrant enclaves that excluded the city’s Little Italy and historic Little Ireland neighborhoods.
The democratic socialist’s office unveiled a map identifying 30 immigrant enclaves across the Big Apple’s five boroughs, including Koreatown, Little Palestine in Brooklyn, Little Bangladesh in Queens and Little Africa in Staten Island.
Little Italy, the iconic stretch around Mulberry Street and long considered one of Manhattan’s most recognizable neighborhoods, was missing from the design.
Furious replies followed, with one X comment reading: ‘This aggression will not stand, man. New York isn’t New York without the Italian heritage that brought it to life and BUILT IT.’
‘Pissing off the Italians in New York may just be the dumbest thing he’s done yet,’ another said.
A third critic wrote: ‘Has he not seen The Sopranos? What the hell is he thinking?’
Also absent was Little Ireland, the tiny Irish enclave spanning across Woodlawn and Yonkers, where Gaelic football jerseys are as much a part of daily life as Yankees caps.
‘The Irish also built it. Just saying. Mamdani is scum,’ one comment added.
The map, reportedly released in May and sourced from the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, pinpoints three dozen immigrant neighborhoods and the subway lines serving each one, according to JNS News.
A City Hall spokesman told the New York Post that it was designed to help tourists explore the Big Apple’s vibrant cultural communities, but acknowledged it was not a complete list of ‘all the rich diversity across the city.’
But the map was thrust back into the spotlight Wednesday after writer Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt resurfaced it on X.
‘The Mayor’s Office made a map of NYC’s immigrant enclaves: Little Africa, Little Poland, Little Palestine,’ Chizhik-Goldschmidt wrote.
‘But they just couldn’t figure out how to represent 11 percent of the city,’ she added. ‘Couldn’t decipher where the Jews are from.’
‘Huge riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.’
Italian-Americans slammed Mamdani for leaving out the city’s ‘original Little,’ where generations of Italian immigrants first put down roots in the late 19th century.
At its peak, the community housed about 10,000 Italian immigrants escaping severe poverty, failed crops and natural disasters – the majority coming from Southern Italy and Sicily.