NYC man tags Mamdani over 2 potholes before work — both get filled by the time he clocked out. What's your mayor doing?

Mamdani has been called a “sewer socialist” for his focus on making small quality-of-life changes that make the lives of his constituents better. And the mayor, for his part, isn’t letting a clever alliteration distract him from his goal.

“We have showcased a new kind of approach to governing in our city. Pothole politics. Delivering public goods coupled with public excellence,” Mamdani said in a speech on April 10. “Because New Yorkers cannot trust City Hall to deliver on something as transformative as universal childcare if they don’t see City Hall delivering on the smallest problems in their lives.”

Making change, one pothole at a time

As CNN reports, @swiperdm isn’t the only New Yorker tagging Mamdani to ask for fixes. In fact, asking Mamdani for help with small problems in the neighborhood has become a social media trend in the Big Apple.

And it’s working. Those who tag Mamdani in their posts are finding their problems fixed in no time, and the mayor’s ratings are climbing because of it. The Siena Research Institute’s recent poll found that 69% of New Yorker respondents approved of him.

By April 6, Mamdani’s Department of Transportation (DOT) team had filled 100,000 potholes, setting a pace that hadn’t been matched in 11 years. Those repairs were sorely needed; a brutal winter had left roads in rough shape and Mamdani responded with an alacrity that some may consider unusual for government work.

“There is always more work to be done,” said Mamdani in an interview with City and State NY. “If we want to win the faith of New Yorkers with the most transformational ideas, we have to deliver on the very things that they’ve seen unaddressed for weeks, months and years.”

Of course, there are ways to ask for street fixes that don’t involve tagging the mayor on social media. New Yorkers can make complaints about potholes or cave-ins using the NYC311 website.

Supplementing NYC’s needs with wealth taxes

Fixing New Yorkers’ problems comes with a price tag, and Mamdani started with the deck stacked against him in the form of an inherited $12 billion budget deficit. The mayor, however, was able to balance that budget by day 132 in office.

But not everyone liked how he did it.

Mamdani’s budget came with a controversial pied-à-terre tax, which taxes secondary residences in New York City that are valued at $5 million or more. The tax was designed to close the gap between the 2.2 million New Yorkers who live in poverty and those rich enough to own an extra home in one of the most expensive housing markets in the world.

Many of the wealthy folks who own second houses in NYC weren’t happy.

“Mamdani’s making it really clear: New York doesn’t welcome success,” said Citadel LLC founder Ken Griffin during the Milken Institute’s 2026 Global Conference. Griffin’s second residence in NYC was called out directly by Mamdani in the mayor’s post announcing the tax.