NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told residents Saturday to show up at local sanitation garages with “paperwork” and identification if they want to help shovel snow ahead of the city’s first blizzard in nearly a decade. Voting in elections, according to Mamdani and his political allies, should require no such documentation.
The Democratic socialist held a press conference Saturday urging New Yorkers to sign up as emergency snow shovelers before a nor’easter forecast to dump 15 to 24 inches on the five boroughs starting Sunday morning.
“And for those who want to do more to help your neighbors and earn some extra cash, you too can become an Emergency Snow Shoveler,” Mamdani said. “Just show up to your local Sanitation Garage between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. tomorrow with your paperwork.”
Mamdani is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America’s New York chapter. The DSA has called voter ID requirements a “campaign to reverse the gains of the Civil Rights Movement and marginalize working-class Americans.” The organization has fought election integrity legislation across the country for years.
The mayor’s office did not address the apparent contradiction.
The emergency shoveler program has been a sore spot for Mamdani’s administration. The last major snowfall exposed critical shortages in the city’s emergency snow labor force, leaving sidewalks unplowed and streets impassable. Elderly residents were left struggling to navigate icy conditions. The New York Post reported at the time that the city had failed to recruit enough emergency workers.
Rather than announce staffing reforms or improved planning ahead of Sunday’s storm, City Hall is once again relying on last-minute public mobilization. Emergency shovelers are hired on a temporary basis by the Department of Sanitation, often with minimal notice as storms are already underway.
The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings across the city and much of the region from 6 a.m. Sunday through 6 p.m. Monday. Forecasters said winds could gust above 45 mph, with peak snowfall and the strongest conditions expected overnight Sunday into Monday. The storm is projected to affect the entire I-95 corridor from New York through New England, bringing coastal flooding, power disruptions, and near-zero visibility.
City officials have not explained why staffing levels were not increased after the last storm’s failures, or why emergency shovelers must again be recruited hours before severe weather hits.
Mamdani, who has pushed for expanded government control over housing, labor, and public services, framed the recruitment drive as an act of “neighborly solidarity.” Critics say it highlights the city’s inability to handle basic municipal functions without scrambling for day-of labor.
For now, New Yorkers who want to help dig out the city need to bring their ID. Those who want to help pick the next mayor do not.
