It seems the solution was left for another time.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani made an early exit from his headline event on Friday, which was meant to celebrate his 100th day in office. He left behind a sanitation crew to tackle illegal dumping in The Bronx, after initially promising he would personally “fix” the issue.
During a high-profile photo opportunity, complete with performances by the Bronx GEMS dance and cheer group, Mamdani highlighted a trash-filled vacant lot in Soundview. This location was showcased as the winner of a “Municipal Madness” competition, modeled after March Madness, featuring 16 citywide “fixes.”
The contest, which engaged nearly 22,000 New Yorkers, had the promise that the Mayor would personally address only one selected issue. However, Mamdani departed just 15 minutes after the press event commenced.
“I guess when all you have is a smile, all you can do is flash it and leave,” remarked a seasoned Democratic strategist.
The somewhat anticlimactic gathering concluded a week of self-praise from Mamdani and his City Hall team, reflecting on a mixed record of achievements during his initial 100 days as New York City’s mayor.
The avid TikTokker mayor promoted the “Municipal Madness” bracket in one of his many flashy social media clips aimed at supporters. He billed it as the first competition of city fixes, with tasks ranging from replacing missing litter baskets in Bushwick to resurfacing a basketball court in Morrisania.
Cleaning up illegal dumping in Soundview won the contest, but Mamdani promised all 16 would eventually be fixed by city workers.
In a nod to public services-focused “sewer socialism,” Mamdani deemed the approach “pothole politics.”
“Delivering public goods, coupled with public excellence. No problem too big, no task too small,” he said.
“Because New Yorkers cannot trust City Hall to deliver on something as transformative as universal child care if they don’t see City Hall delivering on the smallest problems in their lives.”
After making the remarks, Mamdani donned a yellow vest and got to work with city Department of Sanitation workers cleaning up the cans, bottles and construction material dumped near Seward and Bolton avenues.
At one point, the mayor picked up a Rhode Island license plate that had been dumped and said, “You can’t come here from Rhode Island and illegally dump your license plate.”
Mamdani then abruptly left — while sanitation workers stuck around to finish the job.
He had said he could only stay “for the first quarter,” but didn’t have an event on his public schedule until roughly four hours later.
But many New Yorkers weren’t buying Mamdani’s dog-and-pony show, which included Scrappy, the cutesy composting mascot for the sanitation department.
“So running NYC has become a gameshow to you?” one X user posted.
“It’s always just a photo op with this dude,” one griped. “(Always) with the weird a– mascots and s–t.”
At least one prominent Bronx pol, however, did appreciate the cleanup.
“I agree, illegal dumping and dirty streets makes me mad,” Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, who wasn’t invited to the event, posted on X.
“We deserve clean streets in Soundview, across the Bronx and in our City! Clean Streets are Safe Streets! Let’s keep going.”
While the event unfolded on Mamdani’s actual 100th day, he planned to hold a massive event Sunday in Queens to deliver an address and fully celebrate the symbolic occasion.
The mayor’s senior spokeswoman Dora Pekec sidestepped The Post’s question about the early departure.
“The Mayor was proud to stand alongside the hardworking people of DSNY to kick off an all-day cleaning blitz to address illegal dumping across Soundview,” she said in a statement.
“The Mayor remains grateful for the dedicated city workers who work every day to keep our city moving always and especially during these last 100 days –from removing the 24 million pounds of waste New Yorkers set out every single day to filling over 100,000 potholes following historic winter storms.”
