New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has drawn sharp backlash after publishing a map of immigrant communities that left out the city’s Little Italy and historic Little Ireland neighborhoods.
The democratic socialist mayor’s office released the map highlighting 30 immigrant enclaves across the Big Apple’s five boroughs, among them Koreatown, Little Palestine in Brooklyn, Little Bangladesh in Queens and Little Africa on Staten Island.
But Little Italy — the famed Mulberry Street area long regarded as one of Manhattan’s most instantly recognizable cultural districts — was nowhere to be found on the graphic.
The omission quickly triggered angry responses online, including one X user who wrote: ‘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 commenter posted.
A third detractor added: ‘Has he not seen The Sopranos? What the hell is he thinking?’
The map also failed to include Little Ireland, the small Irish community stretching through Woodlawn and Yonkers, where Gaelic football shirts are nearly as common a sight as Yankees caps.
‘The Irish also built it. Just saying. Mamdani is scum,’ another response read.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing backlash for a new map highlighting the city’s ‘immigrant enclaves’
According to JNS News, the city’s official marketing group created a ‘neighborhood passport,’ which includes a ‘cultural map’ on hand in libraries for tourists ahead of the World Cup
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.
Little Italy, around Mulberry Street, has long been considered one of Manhattan’s most recognizable neighborhoods
At its peak, Little Italy housed about 10,000 Italian immigrants escaping severe poverty, failed crops and natural disasters
Joseph Scelsa, founder of the Italian-American Museum on Mulberry Street, called the exclusion of Little Italy a ‘terrible mistake,’ adding ‘to respect one is to respect all,’ according to The New York Post.
‘Italian-Americans are still a major population in New York City. To not recognize where Italian-Americans came from and settled is a terrible mistake,’ Scelsa said.
‘I don’t understand why Little Italy isn’t included. I hope it’s an oversight.’
The Italian American Civil Rights League (IACRL) also responded with its own statement on X, reiterating that it ‘stands against communists.’
The organization accused Mamdani of trying to ‘erase Italian Americans’ by denying the 2026 Unity Day permit and leaving the neighborhood off the map.
‘Italian Americans BUILT NEW YORK CITY. Not third world Ugandans,’ the caption read.
In the lengthy statement, IACRL President Mike Crispi said: ‘This is not a clerical error. This is cultural erasure.’
‘Little Italy is sacred ground. It is where Italian immigrants came with nothing, worked like hell, opened shops, raised families, built churches, fed the city, and helped make New York what it is,’ he added.
‘Walk down Mulberry Street and you see everything Mamdani’s map refused to see.’
Hundreds on X voiced their agreement. ‘This is outrageous and unacceptable. I stand completely with the Italian community of NYC and NYS!’ one read.
Another said: ‘That’s so sad. Italians are some of the hardest working individuals!! America wouldn’t be what it is without them!!’
‘I’ll say this – the Italian Mafia would have never allowed this to happen,’ a third added.
One chimed in: ‘Now Mamdani really is in for trouble now. Of all the nationalities in NYC to piss off, the last ones you want to be on their bad side is the Italians. Dumb move. Real dumb.’
‘This is unacceptable. Little Italy NYC is not just a local icon, but part of a greater American iconography. The good news is Mamdani will be gone in a few years, but Little Italy will remain,’ wrote another.
Republican Queens Councilwoman Joann Ariola told the Post that the map’s design was a ‘major flub’ by the mayor’s office.
‘They were able to get a Little Bhod-Tibet in there, but what about the original “Little neighborhood,” Little Italy?’ she said.
Also absent from the map was Little Ireland, the tiny Irish enclave spanning across Woodlawn and Yonkers
Joseph Scelsa, founder of the Italian-American Museum on Mulberry Street, called the exclusion of Little Italy a ‘terrible mistake’
‘And what about areas like Woodlawn, in the Bronx, which are home to plenty of Irish immigrants? Do the Irish and Italians not count for the Mayor’s office?’
Ariola’s backlash referenced Little Ireland, named after the millions of Irish immigrants who fled mass starvation during the potato famine of 1845–1852. By 1855, more than 25 percent of Manhattan’s population was Irish-born.
Former city council chief of staff Kevin McCabe accused the map of shamefully erasing generations of New Yorkers descended from Irish immigrants.
‘I guess they never heard of Woodlawn or Sunnyside but that’s OK, the Irish are everywhere, the way it’s supposed to be,’ McCabe told the Post.
‘The British Empire at the height of its powers couldn’t cancel the Irish, I’m not too worried about a couple of ill-informed bureaucrats,’ he added.
Others criticized Mamdani for leaving out neighborhoods like Brooklyn’s Borough Park, which is home to one of the world’s largest Orthodox Jewish communities outside Israel.
A City Hall spokesman told the Post that the map was never intended to show religious enclaves, but rather ‘highlight neighborhoods that have substantial foreign-born populations from regions and countries around the world.’
‘It does not highlight religious groups,’ they reiterated.
Little Ireland is named after the millions of Irish immigrants who fled mass starvation during the potato famine of 1845–1852
City Hall said that the map was never intended to to show religious enclaves
Today, the neighborhood has just 1,200 Italian Americans, and by the 2010 census, no one living in the three-block area had been born in Italy.
The number of Irish immigrants still living in Woodlawn remains unclear, but New York City is home to roughly 376,000 Irish Americans.
The spokesman added: ‘The immigrant enclave series began during the Eric Adams’ administration, and we are planning to add more neighborhoods in the upcoming months.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to Mamdani’s office for further comment.
