Mamdani vows to update immigrant map after backlash for omitting Little Italy, Jewish communities
Mamdani faulted the previous administration for the omissions and defended the map as not being a complete list because it identified only 30 immigrant communities across the five boroughs.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Friday he will update a new immigrant community map that failed to include Jewish communities and the iconic Little Italy neighborhood, following backlash over the omission.
Mamdani, a Muslin, attributed the omissions to the previous administration and defended the "New York City Immigrant Enclaves” map as not being a definitive list because it identified only 30 immigrant communities across the five boroughs.
“This map was originally created by the prior administration in 2023, and when we inherited it, we added a few additional neighborhoods,” Mamdani, also a democratic-socialist, said at an unrelated press conference.
“It’s clearly not an exhaustive list of the more than 200 ethnic enclaves that call our city home," he continued. "We’re going to be making additional changes in the future to reflect that … including Little Italy."
The comment comes after the New York City Council’s Italian Caucus accused the Mamdani administration of “erasing” Italian-Americans, calling the map “incomplete at best and insulting at worst," according to the New York Post.
Mamdani's claim that the map was created by former New York City Mayor Eric Adams' administration was also inaccurate because it created detailed illustrations for the city's annual Immigrant Heritage Week, not a map of communities.
Criticism of the map also gained traction on social media for also failing to include Jewish and Irish communities, and is part of the city's Neighborhood Passport campaign tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, according to Fox News.
Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.