Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman on Friday accused New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of intentionally excluding Little Italy from a city map highlighting immigrant enclaves. The map, titled “New York City Immigrant Enclaves,” features 30 areas across the five boroughs, including Koreatown in Manhattan, Little Pakistan in Brooklyn, and Little Yemen in the Bronx.
Blakeman, who also serves as Nassau County executive, stated at an event in the neighborhood that the omission was part of a pattern by Mamdani to disrespect immigrant communities that have contributed to the city's history. He specifically mentioned Little Odessa in Brooklyn and areas like Astoria and Hell's Kitchen, historically associated with Greek and Irish Americans respectively, as also being left off the map.
"I think it was intentional that not only the Little Italy here, down in Lower Manhattan on Mulberry Street, was left off as an important immigration point, but also Little Odessa in Brooklyn, and Astoria, where the Greek Americans came from, Hell’s Kitchen, where the Irish Americans came from," Blakeman said.
He further cited other instances, including Mamdani's cancellation of the traditional Puerto Rican Day breakfast, skipping the Israel Day parade, and not attending the installation of New York's new archbishop. "So you put this all together, and it’s not one thing. It’s a pattern," Blakeman asserted.
Mike Crispi, president of the Italian American Civil Rights League, addressed a crowd of about 100 people, stating that the map's oversight insulted Italian Americans across the tri-state area, not just those in Manhattan's Little Italy. "On Arthur Avenue, and Staten Island, and Howard Beach, and Queens, Italian Americans aren’t just here in Little Italy. They are all over the tri-state area, and Italian Americans have contributed so much to this great city, and we are not going to let people take our city away from us and rob it of its identity," Crispi said.
Earlier in July, Mamdani attributed the map's oversight to the prior administration, stating that the map was originally created in 2023 by the previous administration and that his office had added a few neighborhoods. He acknowledged that the list was not exhaustive, with over 200 ethnic enclaves in the city, and promised that Little Italy would be included in future revisions.
"This map was originally created by the prior administration in 2023, and when we inherited it, we added a few additional neighborhoods," Mamdani said. "It’s clearly not an exhaustive list of the more than 200 ethnic enclaves. We’re going to be making additional changes in the future to reflect that… including Little Italy."
The event where Blakeman spoke was sponsored by Turning Point USA. At its conclusion, artist Sergio Furmari unveiled a statue of Charlie Kirk, which he plans to display in Times Square on September 10, the one-year anniversary of Kirk's assassination.