Hes delivering something alright.
Mamdani closed the ferry to the main viewing area morning of the US Navy parade.
He made it significantly more difficult than usual for the Navy to obtain permits.
He put up barricades that misdirected crowds.
He threatened to coopt a Naval event with his political rhetoric forcing the Navy to cancel.
He stalked a sailor and engineered a joke to catch him laughing for his own propaganda.
He used the Navy’s own safety culture against them to keep warships far from the crowds.
He promised to promote events then did nothing to promote them.
He did favors for local media in exchange for them underplaying the event.
These are all facts from multiple sources from O5 all the way up to admirals. But they aren’t the most grievous facts, those I cannot write without official confirmation or at least a source willing to speak on background.
And he did it all via numerous NYC departments and representatives as a distributed attack while claiming he himself was supporting the Navy.
He is in full rebellion against the federal government, the US military and the Republic for which it stands.
And worse: he’s smart and was highly effective at sabotaging the event which was originally planned to be the biggest Naval Parade in 50 years.
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One quick example of the treachery:
The main viewing area was Governors Island. The city sold tickets to the main stage. It quickly sold out.
Governors Island was once the USCG’s most important base. It’s a jewel of a property right off the tip of Manhattan. Sadly, Clinton closed the base and W donated the land to NYC.
I’m told that part of that massive land donation worth tens of billions of dollars was allowing federal military access in the future.
There was a minor storm the night before the parade, and Mamdani ordered the ferry that services the island closed.
The storm was good luck for Mamdani, but that’s irrelevant: sources within NY DOT tell me someone close to the mayor was looking for mechanical or safety reasons to close it regardless.
And the ferry system is operated by teams of extremely capable sailors and marine engineers that are fully budgeted for emergencies and fully integrated into the hazardous weather response system.
There is also a small ferry line that services the island. It has nowhere near the capacity to handle a sellout crowd.
I did not buy tickets (I was given access), but a friend who did told me the city informed him of the closure and said nothing about the alternative.
I told him to check the small ferry, and after a long line, he made it to the island and reported back with pictures of thin crowds.
I went to the Navy’s official free viewing area at the battery instead. Despite being a short walk from the Governor’s Island ferry, that alternative was not suggested to the paid ticket holders.
Only a few hundred people showed up and zero effort was made to move the stage or audio/visual equipment to the alternate location.
But they apparently did “try”. Or at least that was the excuse given to delay the start of the parade for hours in the blistering heat causing the small crowd who did show up to disperse.
Again, I was at the primary alternate location and witnessed zero efforts to “try” anything.
That small ferry line? It operates like the subway: several small boats running a fixed loop.
So when questioned, Mamdani can deny fault by saying several ferries “remained operational” to the island.
But the capacity was not there to handle the crowd, and the poor communication kept most people away anyway and the city absolutely has the ability to set up stages and equipment in an alternative location but made no effort.