Patriot Brief

  • What Happened: About 80,000 New Yorkers called 311 in January reporting no heat or hot water during frigid temperatures, the highest monthly total on record.
  • Why It Matters: Tenants are suffering in freezing conditions with some going weeks without heat while socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani has failed to respond to the crisis.
  • Bottom Line: The city has logged over 215,000 heat complaints since October while NYCHA faces a $78 billion repair backlog and City Hall offers empty promises.

New York City is freezing, and socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani is nowhere to be found.

Tens of thousands of New Yorkers made desperate calls to 311 last month, reporting no heat and no hot water during temperatures that dropped below ten degrees. About 80,000 residents called in January alone, the highest monthly total on record. And tenants throughout the city are blaming Mamdani for failing to do anything about it.

"We've had over 40 days of no hot water over the last 11 months. And we're now on day eight or nine straight of no hot water," Williamsburg tenant Alex Hughes told the New York Post. "I had to walk 15 minutes in the snow and ice to a friend's house so I could shower."

In Astoria, Queens, 31-year-old Nicole Pavez said the heat in her building goes out almost every night. She is forced to bundle up inside and dress her dog in sweaters just to survive the cold.

Public housing tenant Malik Williams, 27, said his apartment at the Lehman Houses was without heat for most of January. He had to boil water on the stove "just to keep the house warm."

The city has logged more than 215,000 heat complaints to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development since October 1. That is a massive increase from the 187,000 complaints during the same period the previous year.

So what is Mamdani doing about it? Absolutely nothing. While New Yorkers freeze in their homes, the socialist mayor has been busy touting the appointment of housing activist Cea Weaver as the city's new tenant protection czar. Weaver has spent her career arguing for stronger tenant protections and less reliance on private ownership models. Meanwhile, heating failures are mounting across both private buildings and public housing.

The New York City Housing Authority, which manages one of the nation's largest public housing systems, claims they run a 24-hour heat desk and emergency response system. They say they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on upgrades to heating infrastructure in recent years. But NYCHA faces an estimated $78 billion repair backlog, and the results speak for themselves. People are freezing.

Mamdani has been called before the City Council to answer for the city's pathetic emergency response. Lawmakers are asking if the socialist mayor has done enough to protect tenants as heat complaints reach record highs. The answer is obvious. He has not.

City Hall's Deputy Press Secretary of Housing, Matt Rauschenbach, told the outlet the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants is "taking a long, hard look at the Housing Maintenance Code and how it's enforced." Translation: They are doing nothing and hoping the weather gets warmer.

This is what socialism looks like. Empty promises, massive bureaucracy, billions in backlogs, and people suffering in their own homes. New Yorkers voted for this, and now they are paying the price in freezing apartments with no hot water.

Mamdani can appoint all the czars he wants. Meanwhile, his constituents are boiling water on stoves just to stay warm.