New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined Brooklyn’s Columbus Day Parade invitation and never answered Queens organizers, a move Italian American residents called a slap in the face to their community.
The Mayor’s Office told Brooklyn organizers on Thursday that Mamdani would not attend their annual Columbus Day Parade along 18th Avenue in Bensonhurst. Organizers had sent the invitation weeks earlier. The New York Post reported that Queens parade leaders in Astoria said they never received any reply at all.
Sources also indicated Mamdani was unlikely to appear at the larger Monday parade along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The pattern left Italian American leaders and residents questioning whether their new mayor intends to show up for every community he now represents.
Council Speaker Julie Menin, a moderate Democrat who has repeatedly clashed with Mamdani over his agenda, served as grand marshal at the Brooklyn event. The mayor stayed away.
The Federation of Italian American Organizations of Brooklyn runs the Bensonhurst parade. Members said the Mayor’s Office confirmed the decline on Thursday after the invitation went out weeks before. Carlo Scissura, vice chairman of the group, declined to dwell on the snub and instead focused on the celebration itself.
Scissura stated the group’s position clearly.
"We are proud and excited to host our annual parade, a powerful celebration of Italian American heritage, pride and culture."
In Queens, the annual Columbus Day Parade in Astoria wrapped up near the Columbus statue by Astoria Boulevard. Angie Markham, executive director of FAIO of Queens, said the mayor’s absence would not sink the event. She still made plain how the community sees the broader pressure on its one day of recognition.
"People wanna change history. It is what it is. This is the day we chose to [honor] Italian heritage. The Spanish have a whole month. The blacks have a whole month. We have one day. Leave us alone!"
Markham added that Mamdani’s no-show “isn’t gonna make or break the event for me.” Jerry Iannece, a criminal court judge and parade chairman, called the disdain for Columbus from Mamdani and other far-left politicians “misguided.” He noted that “there’s a lot of people who want to revise history.”
The Columbus Citizens Foundation, which runs the Fifth Avenue parade, had invited Mamdani. Foundation president Christopher Loiacono and other leaders did not return messages. The foundation itself had already drawn heat from other Italian American groups simply for extending the invitation.
On the ground in Brooklyn, the reaction was blunt. Albert Esposito, a 72-year-old retired school teacher, put the disappointment in plain terms.
"It’s very disappointing because we elected him the mayor, and he is supposed to be representing everybody."
Paul DeSpirito, 53, who runs a neighborhood Italian sandwich and catering business, went further.
"It’s a slap in the face to the Italian American community."
One man who asked to stay anonymous said he was glad the mayor stayed away and offered a sharper verdict: “F, k you! He wouldn’t be welcomed.” The Mayor’s Office did not immediately return messages seeking comment on the snubs.
Mamdani has faced sharp pushback before when his statements landed outside progressive lanes, including when Maher branded him tone deaf over an Oct. 7 tribute that turned into criticism of Israel.
The parade absences did not arrive in a vacuum. In 2020, the same year Mamdani successfully ran to represent the Astoria neighborhood in the state Assembly, he posted on social media an image of a hand giving the middle finger to the Christopher Columbus statue in Astoria. The caption read “Take it down.”
That post resurfaced during last year’s mayoral race and again drew anger. The Washington Examiner reported the June 2020 X post from his account showed the middle finger directed at the statue with the same removal demand, igniting fresh Italian American backlash once it circulated widely.
In July, Mamdani’s administration released a city map of immigrant enclaves that left Little Italy off the list. He insisted the list wasn’t “exhaustive” and said future versions would be amended to include it. The omission still landed as another slight to a community that has deep roots in the city.
Those earlier episodes track with other moments when Mamdani refused to soften contested claims, much as when he stood firm on an Israel ‘genocide’ charge after October 7 backlash.
Columbus Day remains the single day Italian American groups in New York set aside to honor their heritage. Brooklyn held its parade on Saturday. Queens finished near the same Astoria statue Mamdani once targeted. Manhattan’s larger Fifth Avenue march was set for Monday. The mayor declined one invitation, ignored another, and appeared set to skip the third.
No public explanation came from City Hall for the decisions. Organizers and residents filled the silence themselves. They elected a mayor who is supposed to represent everybody. Instead they watched him skip the parades that mark their history while past posts and map choices already suggested discomfort with the symbols those communities still defend.
The same progressive instincts that produced the 2020 statue post and the Little Italy map omission now show up in empty reviewing stands. Italian American New Yorkers notice when the mayor finds time for other priorities and none for their day. Similar friction has followed Mamdani when an Israeli U.N. envoy blasted him for turning an Oct. 7 anniversary into an anti-Israel attack.
Markham’s point lands hardest: other groups receive months of recognition. Italian Americans get one day and are told to accept efforts to erase or rebrand it. A mayor who declines the invitations and leaves organizers without even a courtesy reply tells that community exactly where it ranks.
Mamdani’s record on contested foreign-policy rhetoric has produced its own string of rebukes, including when he urged the U.S. to join the ICC and enforce a warrant against Israel’s prime minister. The Columbus Day absences fit the same habit of picking sides and leaving traditional constituencies outside the tent.
New York’s Italian American neighborhoods still turn out for their parades. They still defend the statues and the day. Their mayor has now made clear, through declines, silence, and earlier gestures, that he will not stand with them on the route.
A city works when its mayor shows up for every community that built it, not only the ones that match his politics.
