Many of New York City’s mayors have reveled in the chance to lead a large procession up Fifth Avenue. Not Mayor Zohran Mamdani — he practically made skipping parades something of a campaign pledge.
“There are many parades that I would not be attending because I’d be focusing on the work of leading the city,” he said last year at a mayoral debate, as his opponents sought to characterize him as a shirker, who did not grasp the responsibilities of the role. “The mayor should be going to all parades,” Curtis Sliwa explained.
Over the weekend, Mr. Mamdani made good on his pledge, to the dismay of some Italian American New Yorkers and the organizers of the city’s Columbus Day parades, who are not accustomed of being snubbed by City Hall.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Mamdani said on Sunday that the mayor would not be marching on Monday in Manhattan’s Columbus Day parade, which has a long tradition of hosting mayors going back decades. City Hall’s press office declined to explain why, but said he intended to host an Italian American heritage reception at Gracie Mansion in the coming weeks. On Saturday, Mr. Mamdani also released a video celebrating Italian American Heritage Month, which runs through October.
Mr. Mamdani didn’t participate in the other smaller Columbus Day parades around the city over the weekend, according to a report in The New York Post.
“We welcome Mayor Mamdani at all our events and it’s unfortunate he can’t be here with us celebrating Italian American culture and the community — we look forward to welcoming him at future parades and hope he will join us in 2027,” the organizers of the Brooklyn Columbus Day parade said in a statement.
Since taking office in January, Mr. Mamdani has marched in a number of ethnic and cultural events, including parades celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and Lunar New Year, as well as ones celebrating the West Indian, Ecuadorean, L.G.B.T.Q., Puerto Rican, Dominican and Sikh communities, according to information from City Hall.
Mr. Mamdani did not participate in the Israel Day Parade in May, citing his opposition to the Israeli government. Its organizers said they believed he was the first mayor to skip it since its inception in 1964.
The Columbus Day parade, long a point of pride for Italian Americans, has been a source of controversy going back years. In the 1930s, those gathered often displayed support for the fascist regime in Italy, allied with Nazi Germany. Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia threatened to boycott the parade in 1935 if it was overtaken by fascists. Mr. Mamdani has called Mr. La Guardia, the son of immigrants from present-day Italy, the best mayor in the city’s history.
In more recent decades, the controversy has been over Columbus himself. Indigenous groups and other activists have rejected the narrative that Christopher Columbus, the Italian navigator, was a great explorer, saying he brought genocide and colonization in his wake.
But New York City mayors generally turn out for the parade in Manhattan, year after year. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg did, however, miss it in his first year in office, 2002, but out of pique, not politics. He had invited two actors from the HBO mob drama “The Sopranos” to march with him, leading the parade’s organizers — who felt “The Sopranos” denigrates Italians — to sue to keep the actors away from the parade.
Mr. Mamdani offered his view of Columbus in 2020, when he was running for the State Assembly. He posted a photo to social media of himself giving the middle finger to a Columbus statue under the caption “Take it down.” That message came amid a heated national debate over the removal of statues depicting a widening cast of historical figures, from Confederate generals to former United States presidents and others.
Some Italian Americans feel the mayor simply doesn’t appreciate their contributions to New York City. This summer, the city released a map entitled “New York City Immigrant Enclaves” that didn’t include Little Italy in Manhattan or in the Bronx, drawing an immediate rebuke from Italian American organizations and a promise from Mr. Mamdani to reissue the map to include “more than 200 ethnic communities.”
The snub comes at a sensitive time for Italian Americans in New York City.
They are still well represented among the city’s political class as was evident during the mayoral debate last year. Former governor Andrew M. Cuomo played up his Italian identity, and scolded Mr. Mamdani’s attitude toward statues of Columbus as a “disgraziato” — a disgraceful disregard. His other opponent, Mr. Sliwa, is of Italian descent on his mother’s side.
But their share of New York City’s population has dropped markedly, from nearly 14 percent of the city’s population in 1980 to under 6 percent today, according to data from the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at the City University of New York.
In his video celebrating Italian American Heritage month, the mayor, a democratic socialist, narrated how Italian laborers took on the “most grueling and dangerous work, including digging our city’s subway tunnels, building our bridges, and toiling in cramped sweat shops.” He lauded the early mutual aid societies of Italian immigrants and their contributions to left-wing politics. “Italian American history is New York City History,” he said.
But the video along with the planned gathering at Gracie Mansion did not seem to change many minds.
“I see it as a P.R. charade, of him trying to appease all factions,” said Michael Crispi, the head of the Italian American Civil Rights League, which fights against the cultural erasure of Italians in New York City. “He has contempt for Italian Americans,” he said at another point in an interview.
Mr. Crispi said he was glad the mayor wouldn’t be marching on Monday, and he condemned the parade’s organizers for inviting him. “It was a weak gesture,” he said, noting that Mr. Mamdani had made his feelings toward the holiday known through his middle finger. “You’re begging for approval of this guy who should be apologizing to us.”
Joann Ariola, a member of the New York City Council, encouraged the mayor to stay away from Columbus Day celebrations. In a social media post, she also referenced the statue photo and the map.
“Why would he want to be there? said Ms. Ariola, who represents a district in southeastern Queens and is a member of the City Council’s Italian American caucus. “To get pictures and pretend he’s a paisan now? He should sit this one out.”
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