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.

  • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
    39·
    4 days ago

    EDIT 2: See Aatube’s comment below for the NYT article link. It’s real.

    I mean, I do legitimately wonder how he did this when other administrations didn’t or couldn’t.

    I suspect the article is overselling it (the comparison, not the raw pothole number), and they don’t source basically anything they’re saying, so it’s hard to definitively call them on that. NYC had a winter that created an abnormal number of potholes, and this article (using an uncited figure) says: “the same number that would usually take New York’s Department of Transport (DOT) a week.” But is that for filling potholes directly after winter? Is it for the rate of potholes per week averaged across the year (which would be a completely invalid comparison)? I guess I could try digging it up, but Novara Media clearly didn’t give enough of a shit when they said it.

    I think it’s cool regardless.

    Donate one hour’s wage per month—or whatever you can afford—today.

    Dunno, Novara; maybe when you decide to learn how hyperlinks work.

    EDIT: I tried to follow one breadcrumb to the NYT using this quote from the article: “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”.”.

    I can’t find that quote, even trying several different verbatim excerpts from the quote (but the full quote should be findable anyway). Thaaaaaaaat’s really fucking questionable. I could be missing something. @return2ozma@lemmy.world, your thoughts?

      • ChicoSuave@lemmy.worldEnglish
        35·
        4 days ago

        Since Mayor Mamdani took office, NYC DOT has fixed more than 50,000 potholes, with an average response time of around two days. Additional pothole blitzes are planned for later this spring. NYC DOT will resurface 1,150 miles of roadway this year, ensuring our streets remain safe for all New Yorkers.

        Daaaaaamn. That is some actual work being done. And all it took was electing a socialist. Let that be the lesson.

        • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
          30·
          4 days ago

          Here’s a press release from the piece of shit who was in office previously, Eric Adams, celebrating the 500,000th filled pothole of his tenure. Mamdani assumed office January 1, so at 82 days, he’s advertising ~610 potholes fixed per day in a winter that’s produced an abnormally high amount of potholes.

          Adams’ press released was published January 29, 2025, and he assumed office January 1, 2022, or 1124 days. This means Adams was advertising ~445 potholes filled per day, which is 73% the amount Mamdani advertises here. Once you account for the fact that Adams’ average was across three years rather than just “from the middle of winter to spring” – meaning that on average there were fewer potholes available to fix per day than Mamdani’s timespan – the difference, while not exactly clear, is negligible. Even accounting for the fact that Mamdani just assumed office and may have some inertia, these aren’t even close to earth-shaking numbers.

          You can also see that this kind of pothole dick-measuring contest is extremely typical for NYC mayors – and god, fuck Eric Adams. If I wouldn’t slobber Adams for basically these same numbers, I’m not going to slobber Mamdani either.

          Edit: Something else I totally forgot to address is response time; per the Adams press release (I’m taking it uncritically, but I’m also taking the Mamdani PR uncritically; sue me):

          New pothole complaints to 311 are closed in an average of approximately 1.8 days — more than a full day faster than the de Blasio administration’s average of 3.4 days and more than twice as fast as Bloomberg administration’s average of 4.4 days.

          Meanwhile, Mamdani’s press release states:

          NYC DOT has fixed more than 50,000 potholes, with an average response time of around two days. [I’ll assume this is response to a 311 complaint.]

          And just like before, the difference in the nature of their tenure means I can’t in good faith give Adams the point based on the raw number; obviously the average response time across three years with four seasons each could have fewer hurdles on average than “middle of winter to spring”, where everything’s cold as fuck and frozen and snowing.

          • Cris_Citrus@piefed.zipEnglish
            11·
            4 days ago

            I appreciate you sitting through all of this for our benefit :)

            I wanna see mamdani be successful but I’m wary of putting politicians up on a pedestal as our saviors and hope, as I’m learning from my elder leftists that thats gone wrong a lot of times before 😅

            Still rooting for him though :)

      • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
        51·
        4 days ago

        EDIT: See Aatube’s comment below for the NYT article link. It’s real.

        Okay, makes sense; from the press release:

        “NYC DOT crews stepped up yesterday to fill almost a week’s worth of potholes in a single day,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Flynn. “Now that the streets have thawed from a historic winter, we’ve ramped up our pothole-filling efforts and are beginning to fully repave streets across the five boroughs. This year, we’ll repave more than 1,100 lane miles of streets — the best way to help ensure our streets are safe and smooth for all New Yorkers.”

        Left with no other data (I’m not thrilled Novara treated this press release totally uncritically), I’m forced to assume they mean “average potholes per week per year”, which is a completely bullshit metric to compare against that you’d only use as an empty boast. A day with just under 7x the efficiency of an average day of the year isn’t all that exceptional when the day is a spring thaw right after a winter that made an exceptional amount of potholes. Pothole filling is not and will never be even close to evenly distributed.

        It’s still very good to be taking care of potholes, but Novara seemingly took a standard press release about fixing potholes and turned it into how Mamdani is revolutionizing NYC.

        All that aside: what are your thoughts on the article seemingly fabricating a quote from The New York Times?