Mamdani Ripped For Tone-Deaf Victory Lap Over Outbreak: ‘We’re Left To Die’
New York City socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s team is under heavy fire this week for another scandal.
Mamdani’s team is trying to claim victory over a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that has already claimed seven lives, even as five patients remain hospitalized and questions mount about the city’s delayed and incomplete response.
Health Department officials held a virtual news conference and issued a press release announcing that the 14-day incubation window for new cases had closed, with no fresh symptoms emerging.
They insisted the cooling tower responsible for spreading the Legionella bacteria had been neutralized through disinfection efforts and that the ZIP codes 10028, 10075, and 10128 no longer carried an elevated risk.
Yet the announcement landed amid ongoing suffering and mounting evidence of bureaucratic shortcomings that left residents feeling neglected during the sweltering July weeks when the disease took hold.
Upper East Side NYCHA resident Saundrea Coleman voiced the frustration shared by many in the neighborhood.
“We just feel like we’re just left to die,” she said.
Coleman accused the mayor and his administration of being “absent” while fear of exposure hung over the community.
Locals complained that basic outreach was missing, with little effort made to distribute information or station personnel in building lobbies during the peak of the crisis.
City records underscore the lapses.
In the three affected ZIP codes, officials inspected just one building in May and issued no summonses.
June saw zero inspections and zero fines for potentially contaminated cooling towers as temperatures rose and the outbreak gained momentum.
Of the roughly 160 buildings in the zone, only half have undergone full inspections to date.
When reporters pressed Deputy Commissioner for Environmental Health Corrine Schiff on the gap, she replied: “Our inspection work is citywide. I can’t confirm what you have here in terms of the cluster area, but the work that we do in our routine work is citywide.”
It came one day after the seventh death was confirmed, with five New Yorkers still in critical condition.
Officials privately acknowledged the final death toll could climb as high as the 12 fatalities recorded in the city’s worst previous Legionnaires’ outbreak in 2015.
Last year’s cluster in Harlem, which killed five, had already put the administration on notice, yet community board president Valerie Mason argued the latest response remained sluggish until local pressure forced more aggressive disinfection.
“First of all, there are seven people dead,” Mason said.
“There is no victory lap to be taken here or patting on the back. I am disgusted by this press release, ‘put a medal on me’ attitude. There is no applause warranted here,” Mason added.
Mason noted that the impacted ZIP codes encompass Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, making the detachment all the more striking.
While health officials celebrated the apparent end of new exposures, Mamdani himself was elsewhere.
Rather than meeting with affected residents or overseeing the recovery effort, the mayor spent Friday morning in the Bronx staging a photo opportunity on the staircase made famous by the 2019 film “Joker.”
Further scrutiny fell on the administration’s $54 million Office of Mass Engagement, created under Mamdani.
Residents and elected officials said the office was nowhere to be found when practical communication was most needed.
Coleman observed: “I don’t think they’re engaging en masse, to be honest. This is the summer. You need to have new people out here. They can be in buildings. Just go and build the lobbies and just give out literature. Come out.”
City Councilman Phil Wong (D-Queens) was blunt in his assessment.
“It’s becoming clear that the Office of Mass Engagement is more interested in political messaging than public engagement,” Wong said.
“Governing and keeping New Yorkers informed during a public health emergency is very different from producing cute campaign-style videos, and this office has been MIA when people actually need it.” Wong added.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who had previously pressed the administration for faster action, struck a measured note.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who had previously pressed the administration for faster action, struck a measured note.
“While I’m pleased by the news that the exposure period has ended, my thoughts remain with the five residents still hospitalized and those for whom it may take weeks or months to recover,” Menin said in a statement.
She's Been Arrested — Secretary of State Marco Rubio Gives The Order To Go as ICE Arrests Sister of Top Cuban Regime...
Secretary of State Marco Rubio Orders ICE Arrest of Adys Lastres Morera, Sister of Sanctioned Cuban Regime Official, Citing National Security Threat
New York City, New York — Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last week that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested Adys Lastres Morera in Florida. She is the sister of Ania Guillermina Lastres, a high-ranking official in Cuba’s communist regime.
Lastres Morera was taken into ICE custody and will remain detained pending deportation proceedings. Rubio personally revoked her lawful permanent resident status, determining that her presence in the United States posed a threat to American foreign policy interests.
She entered the country as a lawful permanent resident on January 13, 2023, during the Biden administration.
Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, stated that family members of repressive regimes and other adversaries will no longer receive a free pass to live in the United States.
“For far too long, the family members of terrorist organizations, repressive anti-American regimes, and other bad actors who would threaten the national security of the United States have been given a free pass to enjoy the privileges of living in the United States,” he said in a statement.
“Past Administrations have permitted the families of Cuban military elites, Iranian terrorists, and other reprehensible organizations to enjoy lavish lifestyles in our country funded by stolen blood-money, while the people they repress at home suffer in increasingly dire circumstances.”
“No longer. Under President Trump, we are removing from our country the family members of IRGC terrorists and Cuban regime elites.”
“Let me be very clear: if you threaten the national security of the United States, there will be nowhere on this earth — much less in our country — that you and your cronies can live lavishly.”
“We will find you, and we will hold you accountable.”
On X, Rubio added that Lastres Morera had been managing real estate assets in Florida while aiding Cuba’s regime.
“Adys Lastres Morera is the sister of the Executive President of GAESA, the Cuban military-controlled financial conglomerate that steals millions in aid for the Cuban people at the behest of the regime.”
“Morera was managing real estate assets and living in Florida, while also aiding Havana’s communist regime, until I terminated her permanent resident status.”
“I am pleased to announce that today, she was arrested and is now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
“There will be nowhere on this Earth – much less in our country – where foreign nationals who threaten our national security can live lavishly.”
ICE Homeland Security Investigations confirmed that her presence posed potential serious adverse foreign policy consequences.
“Adys Lastres Morera’s presence in the United States has potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for our nation, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has determined that she is removable under the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act,” said HSI acting Executive Associate Director John Condon.
“Allowing Lastres Morera to remain in the country would send a signal that Cuban regime-affiliated networks could continue to access the U.S.’s financial, educational and social institutions — but that is not the case.”
“HSI will continue to investigate those with ties to our nation’s adversaries and take appropriate actions to neutralize threats against our homeland.”
Ania Guillermina Lastres serves as president of Grupo de Administración Empresarial (GAESA), the military-controlled conglomerate that dominates approximately 70 percent of Cuba’s economy. The entity is accused of controlling tourism, remittances, and the Cuban doctor program, while holding up to $20 billion in illicit overseas funds.
The arrest reflects the Trump administration’s broader policy of tightening immigration enforcement against individuals linked to adversarial foreign governments.
