Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a city-backed map of New York's immigrant neighborhoods that managed to include Little Palestine, Little Yemen, and Little Bhod-Tibet while completely forgetting that Little Italy exists. In a city where you can't walk three blocks without tripping over a pizzeria, that takes effort.
The map, titled "New York City Immigrant Enclaves," lists 30 neighborhoods across the five boroughs. It covers Koreatown in Manhattan, Little Pakistan in Brooklyn, Little Guyana in Queens, and Little Mexico in Staten Island, among others. What it does not cover, as Trending Politics reported, are Little Italy, Irish enclaves like Woodlawn and Sunnyside, and Borough Park, one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities outside Israel. You know, just a few minor footnotes in the history of New York City immigration.
Councilwoman Joann Ariola, a Queens Republican, was not amused. "They were able to get a Little Bhod-Tibet in there, but what about the original 'Little neighborhood,' Little Italy?" Ariola told The Post. "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?"
Joseph Scelsa, founder of the Italian-American Museum on Mulberry Street, called the exclusion a "terrible mistake." "To respect one is to respect all," he said. "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. I don't understand why Little Italy isn't included. I hope it's an oversight."
The Irish community was equally unimpressed, though perhaps more characteristically unbothered. Kevin McCabe, a former City Council chief of staff, offered this gem: "I guess they never heard of Woodlawn or Sunnyside but that's OK, the Irish are everywhere, the way it's supposed to be. 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."
The omission of Jewish neighborhoods drew particularly sharp criticism. Writer Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt posted on X: "The Mayor's Office made a map of NYC's immigrant enclaves: Little Africa, Little Poland, Little Palestine. But they just couldn't figure out how to represent 11% of the city. Couldn't decipher where the Jews are from. Huge riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."
State Assemblyman Kalman Yeger, who represents heavily Orthodox Jewish southern Brooklyn, was more blunt: "Mr. Mamdani's erasing Jews is an essential part of his brand. No surprise."
City Hall responded by saying the map was meant to highlight neighborhoods with "substantial foreign-born populations from regions and countries around the world" and was not intended to cover religious enclaves. Which is a fascinating explanation when you consider that Little Italy is not exactly a church.
The map apparently went up in May, meaning it took a couple of months for people to notice. Once they did, the reaction was predictable. In a city literally constructed by waves of immigrants from every corner of the globe, creating an "immigrant enclaves" map that somehow misses the Italians, the Irish, and the Jews is the kind of selective memory that would be impressive if it weren't so insulting.
Read more breaking news stories at: Trending Politics News
