Scott Stanford: We want to bring in Mayor Mamdani. Mayor, Scott Stanford, thanks for taking a few minutes this morning, sir.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Absolutely. Scott, how's it going?
Stanford: Good, my friend. Hey, listen, good thing there haven't been any major weather events during your term thus far.
Mayor Mamdani: We had a storm, and now we have a blizzard.
Stanford: Give me a general overall assessment first, how the city is faring with this crazy blizzard so far.
Mayor Mamdani: So, what we're seeing is we have about 2,600 hard-working men and women of DSNY who are working 12-hour shifts. And by 5:30 a.m. this morning, they had done a first plow of 99.3 percent of our city streets. Now, New Yorkers can actually follow along using a publicly accessible tool called PlowNYC. Now that was at 5:30 a.m., we've had a shift change since then. They are continuing because, as we know, the snow is continuing. And we've seen the peak of it around this moment, but it's going to keep going over the next few hours. It's why we have a travel ban in place until 12 p.m. And we know that, in addition to the snow, it's also these wind gusts of 40 to 60 miles an hour that combine to make these conditions so hazardous for drivers and for New Yorkers who are going outside, which is why we're asking everyone to stay indoors.
Stanford: Let's talk about that homeless outreach you're always talking about. Is it a large number of folks that had to be convinced to head to a shelter in the storm? Has the outreach team gotten a lot of resistance today?
Mayor Mamdani: So, we're seeing hundreds of outreach workers who have been out. Not just today, but frankly, in the days prior to lead up to this moment. And what they've been doing is connecting homeless New Yorkers with a wide variety of services. That means there's the possibility of repurposed schools - more than 10 that have been opened up as warming sites - of repurposed health and hospital centers that are warming spaces, as well as mobile clinics, [and] warming buses. And in addition to all of this, we've added about 100 additional beds at existing shelters, one in Upper Manhattan, to try everything we can to get people indoors.
Now, if someone makes the determination - a clinician - that a homeless New Yorker is a danger to themselves or to others, then state law allows us to involuntarily transport them indoors. However, otherwise, we're looking to connect these homeless New Yorkers with those services. In the prior storm and the aftermath, we conducted about 1,400 placements. We're looking to make as many as we can to keep people inside.
Stanford: I know you had asked - I think it was yesterday or the day before - you had asked residents to basically just cook while you're at home, you know, alleviate having delivery people out of the storm. Are they heeding those words last night and this morning, as far as you know?
Mayor Mamdani: So, what we actually saw is that DoorDash made the decision to pause their operation around 8:30 p.m., and that will continue, I think, through this morning. That's their own personal determination they've made as a company. However, this is part and parcel of a recognition of just how hazardous these conditions are, and I'm thankful for New Yorkers who have been keeping an eye out, frankly, not just for themselves, but for their neighbors and even for delivery workers, who would have to be working through this.
Stanford: The kids [are] loving your closing of the schools today. What was it that made you go with a complete closure instead of the remote learning? You know, why did you go full shutdown this time around?
Mayor Mamdani: So, what we have is we have a requirement from the state to provide 180 days of instruction. However, we believed that there were extenuating circumstances, both with the city's first blizzard in 10 years, combined with the fact that students and teachers were coming back from a week of being off. And so, that meant that they didn't all have the technology in advance of what would have otherwise been a remote learning day. We didn't believe it would actually be productive or conducive for something that would be helpful for our students. So, we applied for a waiver from the state, we were told that we would receive it, and we're incredibly thankful for that, which is why we have a snow day today.
Stanford: Mayor, speaking of which, when this thing dies down, are we going to see you out there throwing some snowballs around Central Park?
Mayor Mamdani: Last time I said if there wasn't going to be a snow day, I said anyone can throw a snowball at me, so I hope there'll be fewer this time around.
Stanford: Yeah, that's assault on a politician, I believe that they call it. Mayor Mamdani, thank you, good luck with the rest of the day, sir.
Mayor Mamdani: Real pleasure. Thank you, Scott.
