Ever since the day I first saw him I knew this was a man who can fill a hole
How shit are the streets in the US? Everyone in the comments are bitching about their holes.
It depends. Northern roads go through a lot of freezing and thawing, water leaks into the cracks, freezes, expands, breaks up the roadway, cars/trucks roll over them and breaks it up more, and the next thing you know there’s a rim denting hole in the road. You can patch them all day long, and others will open up right next to them.
Down south, where it’s warmer, the roads last much better. I’m in Florida, and the roads are generally pretty great, and when people visit America, most of them go to Florida, so that’s what they know.
Just to be clear, I am not defending or praising the Florida government which is probably the most corrupt state government in the nation. The roads are good because the weather is good, not because of the government. They suck.
wow, its almost like socialism can benefit society.
I mean this really isn’t socialism this is just basic general government work and somebody actually pushing for the people that do the work that they’re being paid to do already.
So true. Governments have lost sight that they exist to serve the people. They are a collectivist solution to managing large projects the population needs. You can take many approaches to that, but that is the fundamental reason we have them.
Otherwise, we don’t need them and wouldn’t choose to have them.
It was more alluding to the fact that he is a socialist and his interest is in bettering the city rather then enriching himself.
Every good Mayor does this. There is nothing unique or ultra special about him doing his job.
I agree that a good mayor does stuff like this. But with the state of american politics in general, and NYC in particular, this kind of behavior is far from the norm. Otherwise this post wouldn’t get any traction.
This is exactly the norm. New York politicans are always doing bursts of road maintance and bragging and trying to outdo the previous one. I checked the last 15 years and found every single mayor did this. Not all of them filled in more than the previous which is why there is stats like Filled in X by X date or filled in X in a single day or filled in X over the term.
I like Mamdami but I also like living in reality I also think presenting this as Mamdami is the first guy to fill in potholes completely undermines peoples trust in the government. I am happy to be shown im wrong and that this is exceptional but from what I see its nothing more than a good headline.
No ones saying he’s first guy to fill potholes…
No people are actually acting like hes the first guy to fill potholes. There are so many comments saying “omg why could not one else do this” “omg a government actually working for people”. I am correcting the record to show governments do this
At the very least it is evidence that socialists can govern at least as well as capitalists.
I mean honestly that’s just kind of a dumb take. Regardless of him being socialist or not the fact is he’s just doing his job.
Sure, but there a shit ton of people who say that because he’s a socialist, everything will go to hell. It’s important to counter that argument with facts that show otherwise.
In the entire fucking rest of the world Mamdani would just be viewed as a boring centrist bureaucrat that does their job. But “spending money on public infrastructure” is somehow seen as radical left socialism in the US.
I mean we have many countries that prove that aspect we don’t need some dude in New York to prove or disprove that we also have many failed leaders that have failed at that very task as well in the socialist world.
Agreed, and also agreed that Mamdani wouldn’t even be called a socialist in most of the world. But in the American context, everything I said is true. I’m sorry that we’re so distorted from reality that we have to have conversations like these.
Almost like the propaganda about government workers being inefficient and lazy is capitalist propaganda if the socialist politicians are the ones driving efficiently making government work.
🫡poop
Crazy what not settling for less when it comes to public office will do for you for once.
Sure sure sure, but did the government make any profit from doing this?
Business owners whose vehicles now need less repair and maintenance: “This is unacceptable“
“Garmin GPS announces next update to bring back missing potholes by playing bang.mp3 without any user input destination needed…”
But it was the sound of that specific pothole! How else am I gonna know which pothole is which? Please send help, I’ve been lost in traffic for 4 hours!
Suspension and tire shops across NYC are sobbing
There’s a corner gas episode where the small town gets upset after a pothole is filled because it helps reduce the speed of traffic and a speed bump is too fancy
YES!! I LOVE CORNER GAS
An incredible pull, but hell yea I see you.
it’s been over a decade since I’ve seen any of that show and I can picture a whole bunch of scenes from that episode in my head
not because I actually remember them, just because the characters and plot are that identifiable
good show
The movie blew my fucking mind…
They were a couple a whole time? 🤣🤣
Dude spoilers!
Fucking socialist, wasting money on things people need.
I know you’re joking, but it is so depressing that this is EXACTLY how so many government officials think and how so many constituents have been brainwashed to think.
and, equally if not more depressingly, governments can make waaay more money by TAXING THE FUCKING RICH!
The typical conservative response to that is “but then they’ll take their businesses elsewhere and now you get nothing.”
The typical conservative response also fails to even consider just how difficult, expensive, and risky it is to move a large business to an entirely new region. Real estate has to be purchased and sold, employees have to be relocated or replaced, logistics have to be established in the new region, valuable business connections and contracts will have to be severed, and for brick and mortar businesses, the competitive landscape will be different.
Also, New York is a market of 5+ million people. They won’t ignore that because of high taxes.
YUUUUP
Car infrastructure doesn’t need to make a profit don’t you know? Its just public transport that needs be a net gain for the city
Ah, you must be one of those people that needs posts to end in “/s” to get the joke.
Haha I think you might be the person who needs the /s. I was just continuing the sarcasm but making an adjacent sarcastic point
I don’t need the
/sI need the
dIf this comment is implying an /s then you got me lol
no, you can see it right there at the end:
/s/s
I’m just trying to fit in.
if this about cars, only the most libertarian would question, if we’re talking about trains tho…
Or also did 20 diff pockets get filled as well??
Who’s going to pay the workers to put the pothokes back?
New York Mayors love to brag about filling pot holes. https://hoodline.com/2025/01/new-york-city-celebrates-500-000-potholes-fixed-under-mayor-adams-leadership-aims-to-enhance-roadway-safety/
So it was a PR stunt that fixed more potholes than the DOT usually does in a week, and it further established credibility that socialists can perform at least as well as the best capitalists.
I’ll be interested to see how Mamdani’s longer term infrastructure plans work out.
So it was a PR stunt that fixed more potholes than the DOT usually does in a week
No. DOT usually does bursts where they fix a lot of potholes then the mayor articles such as the above. They always hone in on a weird framing of the stat. This is potholes fixed in a single day. Others do potholes fixed total or over a period of time, average pothole fix time etc.
further established credibility that socialists can perform at least as well as the best capitalist
Sure but this was never a concern. Its not that we(socialism haters) think they can use a government department to fix an issue. Its that we think they will interject the government into industries it has no business running and then will lead to inefficient run industry. I dont think Mamdami will do that or anything close to it.
New campaign slogan:
Zohran, he’ll fill all your holes.
I wish those movies were still funny today. They were so great in their time.
They aged terribly
I’m so glad someone finally had the bravery and moral courage to take on the scourge of…Austin Powers movies. Truly this is the cause of our time.
Yeah, agreed on all counts 😕
I find the first one aged better than the rest. I still laughed out loud after watching it recently. The later movies, not so much.
Good to know. Thanks for the heads up.
Agree, the first one has aged like fine milk (opinions differ of if its spoiled or turned to cheese) and the opening bit of the second film where they had a real budget for a split second.
The part there thats aged well is of all the actors cast in the parody opening, Danny Devito is the only one who isnt problamatic.
Can you share examples?
I don’t remotely remember the one i saw.
Well, just off the top of my head, from very old memories, there’s tons of sexual assault. Also lots of making fun of fat people and people with different bodies in general. I’m sure there’s a lot more.
Isn’t the whole point that it’s riffing off the sexual misconduct in the bond movies? Also, Its been a while, but I recall Austin always being overtly consensual as a contrast to the Bond series
Yes, that’s the satire. Which is lost on folks who did not grow up with the old bond movies, instead tossing it in the “boomer humor” category without understanding that the reason it was funny to the last generation was because it played off stuff from the previous generation.
Time moves on. Like a poster above us said, the movies aged badly because the comedy isn’t timeless, say like Who’s On First.
Sexual assault like this?
Someone else mentioned that it’s actually pretty consensual. I assumed it wasn’t, but I guess I must be wrong. Again, it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen them. I know that consent wasn’t the big talking point then that it is now, so I just thought they’d have fucked it up. It’s good to see they didn’t totally.
Yeah, it’s pretty nice for 1997.
There’s also the fact that half the ‘jokes’ were just a scene going on longer than you’d expect.
I think a lot of the body shaming jokes don’t land not because we are uptight PC wokies, but because when you don’t stigmatise something, it loses its social power. Oh that person has a mole? So what? The boomer humour was ‘oh, it’s bad to have a mole, but you should never say anything about it!’ when you don’t believe either of those statements there is no joke, and the scene goes on for like 5 minutes…
I wonder what will be considered horrible in 5-10 years from now? What awful thing we are doing now that we are unaware of?
I’m afraid in 5-10 years, the pendulum might swing back to jokes like “How many Jews fit in a Volkswagen?”
Zohran the Hole Destroyer.
You thought Trump’s weird enthusiasm for the guy couldn’t get weirder. Just wait.
I need more of this guy. This and the snow is all I heard.
Turns out you can improve both public transit and driving! It was sort of being implied by haters that driving was going to get way worse under him IIRC.
Can my city borrow Mamdani for a couple months?
This guy seems like he’s off to a great start.
And who would have thought paying people to provide services would work? I’m shocked!
He’s young enough that, once he’s done in NYC, he could go off and be mayor of several other cities afterward.
I think that’s called a governor
The pot hole that Governor Kathy Hochul filled once she was elected to office was finally issuing cannabis licenses to legal weed stores two years after weed was legalized in New York State.
Thank you very much for providing me the incredibly rare opportunity to use that pun
I had to read this like 4 times before I got it lmao that’s pretty good
By himself? That’s quite a work ethic.
Immigrant took my jerb which I would never do.
He’s used to fill holes since college days
Mamdaddy
Great things happen when the wealthy pay their fair share.
This is exactly why they never want us to see it happen.
They’re gonna pay one way or the other.
We don’t want cake.
We can have revolution AND cake!
No thanks, cake makes you soft. BRING ME PIE!!!
Now do Blackburn, Lancashire.
I think they’ve been through several rounds of repaving since 1967.
I think that might be slightly out of Mamdani’s jurisdiction…
Are there also 8000 to fill? You may need to count them all.
Sounds like they need to invite Wanksy round for a visit
It looks like a promo for a new Law & Order spinoff.
I mean, I do legitimately wonder how he did this when other administrations didn’t or couldn’t. Would like an insider perspective. Like, did he just pay tons and tons of OT? Did he order the potholes filled quickly, even if they didn’t meet the normal standard for quality? Did he crack the whip and say “fuck your union rules!” Or were past administrations just this corrupt/lazy/incompetent?
I’m sure his fanboys will say “obviously it’s the last one - he’s not a corrupt capitalist pig”, or something. And I’m open to that explaination. But I’d like, yaknow, some actual statements from people who were actually involved.
EDIT 2: See Aatube’s comment below for the NYT article link. It’s real.
I mean, I do legitimately wonder how he did this when other administrations didn’t or couldn’t.
I suspect the article is overselling it (the comparison, not the raw pothole number), and they don’t source basically anything they’re saying, so it’s hard to definitively call them on that. NYC had a winter that created an abnormal number of potholes, and this article (using an uncited figure) says: “the same number that would usually take New York’s Department of Transport (DOT) a week.” But is that for filling potholes directly after winter? Is it for the rate of potholes per week averaged across the year (which would be a completely invalid comparison)? I guess I could try digging it up, but Novara Media clearly didn’t give enough of a shit when they said it.
I think it’s cool regardless.
Donate one hour’s wage per month—or whatever you can afford—today.
Dunno, Novara; maybe when you decide to learn how hyperlinks work.
EDIT: I tried to follow one breadcrumb to the NYT using this quote from the article: “According to the New York Times, the incident signaled early on that Mamdani was raring to take on “long ignored street improvements – the kind of meat-and-potatoes issue that some previous mayors have struggled to deliver on”.”.
I can’t find that quote, even trying several different verbatim excerpts from the quote (but the full quote should be findable anyway). Thaaaaaaaat’s really fucking questionable. I could be missing something. @return2ozma@lemmy.world, your thoughts?
Since Mayor Mamdani took office, NYC DOT has fixed more than 50,000 potholes, with an average response time of around two days. Additional pothole blitzes are planned for later this spring. NYC DOT will resurface 1,150 miles of roadway this year, ensuring our streets remain safe for all New Yorkers.
Daaaaaamn. That is some actual work being done. And all it took was electing a socialist. Let that be the lesson.
deleted by creator
I appreciate you sitting through all of this for our benefit :)
I wanna see mamdani be successful but I’m wary of putting politicians up on a pedestal as our saviors and hope, as I’m learning from my elder leftists that thats gone wrong a lot of times before 😅
Still rooting for him though :)
Okay, makes sense; from the press release:
“NYC DOT crews stepped up yesterday to fill almost a week’s worth of potholes in a single day,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Flynn. “Now that the streets have thawed from a historic winter, we’ve ramped up our pothole-filling efforts and are beginning to fully repave streets across the five boroughs. This year, we’ll repave more than 1,100 lane miles of streets — the best way to help ensure our streets are safe and smooth for all New Yorkers.”
Left with no other data (I’m not thrilled Novara treated this press release totally uncritically), I’m forced to assume they mean “average potholes per week per year”, which is a completely bullshit metric to compare against that you’d only use as an empty boast. A day with just under 7x the efficiency of a given other day in the year isn’t all that exceptional when the day is a spring thaw right after a winter that made an exceptional amount of potholes. It’s still very good to be taking care of potholes, but Novara seemingly took a standard press release about fixing potholes and turned it into how Mamdani is revolutionizing NYC.
All that aside: what are your thoughts on the article seemingly fabricating a quote from The New York Times?
It’s right here.
When you’re trying to find a quote, try wrapping the literal quoted text in quotation marks and searching to get exact matches: https://www.google.com/search?q=“long+ignored+street+improvements+–+the+kind+of+meat-and-potatoes+issue+that+some+previous+mayors+have+struggled+to+deliver+on”
Oh, thanks! I did search it in quotes. It just didn’t show up for some reason. I guess Bing just doesn’t like this one for some reason (an example substring I chose):
Super my bad. Amended my comments. Very heavily appreciated. I should’ve tried another search engine to be safe.
I appreciate your thoroughness!
Oh, this is not thorough. But I appreciate your appreciation.
The question is, how many potholes do they usually fill in a day? For all we know they fill 8000 potholes every spring, but just don’t advertise it. That being said, letting the people know what you do for them is important.
1/5 that or so, based on the article
He’s got John Henry on the payroll.
It’s possible they’re all fresh new potholes. The reason there’s more of them is the trend from cars to SUVs.
The first part makes sense. But I think an especially harsh winter would be more the culprit than SUVs. Not that they don’t cause more damage - but the number of SUVs in a city doesnt double in a single year and cause a noticeable increase in potholes. We would expect a gradual increase in pothole development that would only be noticeable with statistical analysis over several uyears.
You’re totally right. I didn’t know it was such a big jump. I assumed this was one of those cases where every administration gets to claim something is the “biggest ever” because the thing they’re bragging about tends to grow steadily with population and/or inflation.
I mean, totally possible. But it looks like he just got a lucky break with the weather this year, lol
local government does its job
“But how is that even possible?”
I mean, my question was how it managed to do its job better than previous administrations.
Analysis elsewhere in the thread appears to indicate that none of my hypotheses were actually the most likely scenario. Instead, (and I’m embarassed I didn’t think of this) the most obvious hypothesis is that the DOT is filling potholes at a completely normal rate, and there are just a lot of potholes available to fill. They are comparing filling potholes on the pothole-filling-est day of the year after a harsh winter, versus an average week after average winters in previous administrations.
So, as always, the null hypothesis when a politician says something should be “it’s spin”
But I’d like, yaknow, some actual statements from people who were actually involved.
He said, asking on Lemmy, where none of those people are likely to exist.
Sure. But a future article or other news source or maybe a former mayor’s aide’s twitter account might have more info, and maybe someone here knows about that
Im just gonna leave this here
