They’re hitting a couple of potholes.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul coincidentally each patted themselves on the again for filling in potholes Mondays — drawing scorn for celebrating doing the fundamentals of their jobs.
The sometimes-strained allies independently held overlapping occasions within the Massive Apple and Albany to spotlight their respective efforts to deal with the road scourges after the brutal winter’s freeze-thaw cycle left roads extra pockmarked than ordinary.
Mamdani even donned a hardhat on Staten Island to assist fill town’s 100,000th pothole since he took workplace Jan. 1 — however his self-congratulatory picture op left many unimpressed, particularly Forgotten Borough pols who didn’t get an invitation to the occasion.
“Taking credit score for filling potholes is like taking credit score for altering a lightbulb. It’s what you’re imagined to do,” scoffed Councilman Frank Morano (R-Staten Island).
Morano stated Staten Island’s West Shore Expressway was notably savaged by the winter — and famous native and state officers have but to discover a extra everlasting resolution to the perennial drawback.
“The issue is we’re patching the identical roads again and again as an alternative of fixing them correctly,” he stated.
“I wrote to the state DOT [Department of Transportation] asking for a full repaving of that lane and didn’t even get the courtesy of a reply.”
The worst winter to hit New York in years — together with back-to-back winter storms that dumped ft of snow over the Massive Apple — left motorists on edge having to take care of chewed up roads.
New York Metropolis denizens made roughly 32,000 pothole complaints because the New 12 months, based on 311 information – about 3 times as many as the identical span in 2025 and a document spike.
Mamdani, underneath fireplace for his mixed-bag response to the winter storms, presided over three weekend “pothole blitzes” throughout March that had metropolis transportation employees rising early to clean out the streets.
“For weeks, DOT crews have been out earlier than dawn, filling potholes and making our streets safer and extra accessible,” Mamdani stated in an announcement.
“That is the often-invisible work that retains our metropolis transferring, and it’s precisely what New Yorkers deserve: a authorities that not solely hears their considerations, however delivers options massive and small.”
Likewise, Hochul introduced {that a} state effort will fill in 44,000 potholes this week out of a deliberate 175,000 throughout April.
The governor stated by the tip of 2026 she hopes to beat the state’s document of 1.3 million potholes crammed in a yr.
Her press staff spotlighted the lofty objective by releasing a cheeky, grindhouse movie-style poster depicting a crazed-looking Hochul steamrolling a street with the title: “Kathy Hochul: Pothole Killer.”
Even Alfonse D’Amato, the Republican politician dubbed “Senator Pothole” for specializing in small issues whereas within the US Senate, stated the twin pothole bulletins by Mamdani and Hochul have been ridiculous.
D’Amato, who was the City of Hempstead supervisor earlier than turning into a senator, claimed he by no means held a pothole press convention, regardless of incomes his nickname.
“It’s all BS. It’s a waste of time,” D’Amato instructed The Publish. “And that is coming from ‘Senator Pothole’ himself!”
The concentrate on repaving potholes is simply a short-term repair — and rebuilding roads is the one method to sustain with upkeep in the long term, stated Brian Sampson, president of the Empire State chapter of the Related Builders and Contractors.
However that comes with distinctive issues in New York Metropolis due to its in depth underground infrastructure, he stated.
“Filling a pothole is only a momentary resolution that by no means does something to deal with the core structural points which might be current in our present infrastructure,” he stated.
“To essentially repair New York Metropolis roads, individuals must get very snug with lengthy sustained disruptions and visitors patterns. And to a politician, I simply don’t know when you’re keen to tackle these complications.”
Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella agreed the higher, long-term resolution is extra funds to repave miles of roads.
Till then, “There are nonetheless a bunch of potholes that must be crammed,” he stated.
“It’s like a whack-a-mole.”
— Extra reporting by Nicole Rosenthal
