Why Mamdani failed Pete Davidsons challenge

Again proving you can’t take all the Staten Island out of a Staten Islander, comedian Pete Davidson brought the crowd alive on Jimmy Kimmel’s show the other night by calling on Mayor Zohran Mamdani to fix the “f—ing BQE.”He wasn’t griping about Mamdani in particular, but rather slamming the same thing countless motorists see, especially in blue states: “The BQE has been under construction since before I was born.And here’s my problem with it”: “They’re never doing anything.“Someone’s just standing there eating a sandwich or on the phone, and there’s all these cones around.”We won’t get into why public projects of all kinds in these parts always cost more and take far longer than they should, but highway roadwork .

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um, road “work” ..

.is a particularly galling example, and good on Pete for calling it out.And while the mess long predates this mayor, it’s the kind of thing he could look at addressing if he’s at all serious about showing the value of “sewer socialism.”Sadly, Mamdani’s instant reaction as Kimmel’s next guest was what you’d expect from any politician: After Jimmy relayed Pete’s request, the mayor bragged about .

.. throwing money at the problem.“We’re gonna be putting [out] a multibillion-dollar plan to actually repair the part the city owns,” Mamdani said, meaning the $4 billion in work to be done on the BQE stretch from Atlantic Avenue to Sand Street.That won’t start before 2030 (because government) and will drag on for a decade; Kimmel then translated: “So you’re saying Pete’s daughter will also be complaining about this.”Funny because it’s so painfully true — except it doesn’t have to be that way, if New York can ever elect politicians willing to fight to change it, so that government works for the people and not the other way around....