NYC Council leaders are demanding Mayor Zohran Mamdani pump another $46 million into fixing the Big Apple’s pothole problem.
Speaker Julie Menin, Minority Leader David Carr (R-Staten Island) and Majority Leader Shaun Abreu (D-Manhattan) fired off a letter Tuesday to Mamdani and city Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn requesting the city increase its annual road-resurfacing target by another 200 lane miles – bringing it to 1,350 for the fiscal year beginning in July.
“To put it bluntly, it’s been a winter from hell. Especially for our roads,” the trio wrote in the letter obtained by The Post.
“Long stretches of sub-freezing temperatures and record-breaking snowfall, including one of the worst blizzards in our history, have taken their toll on New York City’s streets.”
The request comes as the Mamdani administration is already crying poverty during ongoing budget negotiations with the City Council, claiming it needs to close a $5.4 billion budget gap and deliver the mayor’s radical socialist policy agenda he campaigned on.
The pols estimate resurfacing each additional lane mile will cost $230,000 — bringing the overall bill to $46 million.
The pothole crisis is already deadly: a 46-year-old man was killed March 9 after his stand-up scooter struck a crater on Liberty Avenue in Ozone Park, Queens.
New Yorkers have made over 11,300 pothole complaints this year through March 10, a staggering 33% surge from the same period in 2025, according to a Post analysis of 311 data.
“NYC DOT continues to meet or exceed its annual paving goal of 1,100 lane miles—enough to stretch from New York City to Miami,” said its spokesperson Mona Bruno. “We will continue to work with the City Council to align priorities and resources to deliver for all New Yorkers.”
The DOT has said road-repair staffing is at an all-time high, totaling 976 as of Feb. 27, compared to 864 in 2019 before the pandemic. Last weekend, it began a “citywide pothole repair blitz” with more than 80 DOT crews filling thousands of potholes on selected days.
