New York City's socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani squeaked into office with barely half the vote back in 2025, promising to basically make everything free for New Yorkers. Turns out, promising stuff is significantly easier than actually doing stuff. Who could have possibly predicted that?
As Conservative Brief reported, a massive homeless encampment stretching blocks along Manhattan's West Side is still very much alive and well, even after Mamdani's dramatic seven day ultimatum to get it cleared. The deadline came and went on Monday like a New Year's resolution at a gym. The vagrants are literally cheering.
One encampment resident, a 40 year old man named Liam who traveled all the way from Washington state, praised the mayor for having "more of the human aspect" and for not "clumping everyone together." Liam told the New York Post he believes Mamdani asks himself, "Would I be happy with this if it's me on the street?" Which is a lovely philosophical exercise, but the people who actually live in nearby apartments might have a different set of philosophical questions.
When the Post reached out to City Hall for comment on why the deadline evaporated into thin air, they got absolutely nothing. Radio silence. The sound of crickets doing spoken word poetry.
Post reporters who visited Monday found the sprawling tent city stretching from West 34th Street all the way up to at least West 49th Street was largely intact. Only a handful of makeshift structures had been taken down, including one across from the Intrepid Museum, because nothing says "welcome to America" like a tourist attraction surrounded by sidewalk shelters. Sanitation crews and a few cops were spotted doing cleanup work at a pace best described as "glacial."
This snail speed effort stands in hilarious contrast to Mamdani's own stated policy of giving outreach workers seven days before the NYPD steps in with enforcement. Plenty of tents remained standing near West 44th, 47th, and 49th streets between 11th and 12th avenues. Some residents said their belongings were hauled away, while others were still comfortably camped out.
The Post initially reported on these growing encampments earlier this month, alleging drug activity, prostitution, and storage of stolen merchandise at various locations. Local residents and business owners have been complaining about trash filled camps creating safety and quality of life nightmares for the neighborhood and tourists alike. Critics point out that the NYPD was initially hamstrung from intervening because of Mamdani's approach to the crisis.
Last week, the mayor said the city would take action but conveniently forgot to mention when the job would actually be finished. Meanwhile, in completely unrelated "what is this administration doing" news, the U.S. State Department recently blocked a planned meeting between a top Mamdani official and Iran's ambassador to the United Nations. Ana Maria Archila, commissioner of the Mayor's Office for International Affairs, had been scheduled to sit down with Iran's permanent U.N. representative before the Trump administration pulled the plug.
So to recap: the streets look like a campground, the deadlines are decorative, and City Hall is trying to chat with Iran. Just another totally normal week in Mamdani's New York.
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