Where’s Little Italy? Mamdani’s immigrant enclave map sparks backlash

New York City without the Italians, Jews, and Irish?

Well, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “immigrant enclaves” map seems to think so.

‘Mamdani’s City Hall can find room for every fashionable progressive constituency, but somehow it cannot find Little Italy.’

Detailing 30 immigrant enclave communities across the five boroughs, the map is catching harsh criticism for excluding one of the city’s original “Little” — Little Italy.

Among the enclaves included are Chinatown in Manhattan, Little Egypt in Queens, and Little Haiti in Brooklyn.

“They were able to get a Little Bhod-Tibet in there, but what about the original ‘Little neighborhood,’ Little Italy?” Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) told the New York Post.

“And what about areas like Woodlawn, in the Bronx, which are home to plenty of Irish immigrants? Do the Irish and Italians not count for the mayor’s office?” she continued.

In a statement from the Italian American Civil Rights League, President Mike Crispi blasted Mamdani for “erasing” Little Italy.

“This is not a clerical error. This is cultural erasure. Little Italy is sacred ground. It is where Italian immigrants came with nothing, worked like hell, opened shops, raised families, built churches, fed the city, and helped make New York what it is.”

“Mamdani’s City Hall can find room for every fashionable progressive constituency, but somehow it cannot find Little Italy,” Crispi added.

The league’s X account continued, “Italian Americans BUILT NEW YORK CITY. Not third world Ugandans. We stand AGAINST COMMUNISTS!”

Yet, this isn’t the first time the Italian-American community and Mamdani have been at odds with each other. During last year’s mayoral race, Mamdani faced intense backlash after an X post from 2020 resurfaced showing him giving the middle finger to a statue of Christopher Columbus. The post was captioned, “Take it down.”

RELATED: Mamdani smears America in unhinged address ahead of July 4: ‘We sell our elections to the highest bidder’

Fatih Aktas/Anadolu/Getty Images

The map received additional criticism for leaving out neighborhoods home to large Jewish populations.

“The Mayor’s Office made a map of NYC’s immigrant enclaves: Little Africa, Little Poland, Little Palestine. But they just couldn’t figure out how to represent 11% of the city. Couldn’t decipher where the Jews are from. Asked everyone. Huge riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma,” writer Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt said on X.

Former Republican candidate for Los Angeles mayor Spencer Pratt chimed in, calling the mayor’s actions “deliberate subversion” in a post to X.

“Leaving out the Italian, Jewish, and Irish enclaves in NYC is like leaving out Mexican and Persian enclaves in LA,” Pratt said. “It’s not an ‘oopsie!’ This is deliberate subversion. The communist must erase your history so he can demolish your home and make it his own.”

A spokeswoman from City Hall defended the map in a statement, saying it “highlights neighborhoods in New York City that have substantial foreign-born populations from regions and countries around the world.”

“It does not highlight religious groups,” she added. “Little Odessa, which is featured in the map, has a substantial Jewish population.”

“We are planning to add more neighborhoods in the upcoming months.”

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