Zohran Mamdani Gets 8,000 Potholes Filled in a Single Day

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pothole purge saw nearly 8,000 craters filled in a single day – the same number that would usually take New York’s Department of Transport (DOT) a week.

At 6am Saturday, 80 crews headed out to attack the Big Apple’s roads, following on from a similar mission the weekend before.

Pothole complaints are at a record high in New York this year after a harsh winter which adversely affected the city’s aging infrastructure. 

Earlier this month, Queens resident Jaikarran Seenarian was killed after his electric scooter hit a pothole, sending him flying.

“In a single day, [crews will] fill thousands of potholes that pop up every year as spring arrives and our city streets begin to thaw,” said Mamdani, ahead of the first blitz. 

“Safe, accessible streets are a basic promise of city government, and after a historically brutal winter, I’m incredibly grateful to the DOT teams who are not wasting a moment of time in delivering the street improvements we need.”

One of the first jobs Mamdani took on in January was repairing a bump on the foot of Williamsburg Bridge, a hazard notorious for felling cyclists.

According to the New York Times, the incident signaled early on that Mamdani was raring to take on “long ignored street improvements – the kind of meat-and-potatoes issue that some previous mayors have struggled to deliver on”.

Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.