There's a corner gas episode where the small town gets upset after a pothole is filled because it helps reduce the speed of traffic and a speed bump is too fancy

Since Mayor Mamdani took office, NYC DOT has fixed more than 50,000 potholes, with an average response time of around two days. Additional pothole blitzes are planned for later this spring. NYC DOT will resurface 1,150 miles of roadway this year, ensuring our streets remain safe for all New Yorkers.

Daaaaaamn. That is some actual work being done. And all it took was electing a socialist. Let that be the lesson.

Im just gonna leave this here

Yeah, agreed on all counts 😕

EDIT: See Aatube's comment below for the NYT article link. It's real.

Okay, makes sense; from the press release:

“NYC DOT crews stepped up yesterday to fill almost a week's worth of potholes in a single day,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Flynn. “Now that the streets have thawed from a historic winter, we've ramped up our pothole-filling efforts and are beginning to fully repave streets across the five boroughs. This year, we'll repave more than 1,100 lane miles of streets — the best way to help ensure our streets are safe and smooth for all New Yorkers.”

Left with no other data (I'm not thrilled Novara treated this press release totally uncritically), I'm forced to assume they mean "average potholes per week per year", which is a completely bullshit metric to compare against that you'd only use as an empty boast. A day with just under 7x the efficiency of an average day of the year isn't all that exceptional when the day is a spring thaw right after a winter that made an exceptional amount of potholes. Pothole filling is not and will never be even close to evenly distributed.

It's still very good to be taking care of potholes, but Novara seemingly took a standard press release about fixing potholes and turned it into how Mamdani is revolutionizing NYC.

All that aside: what are your thoughts on the article seemingly fabricating a quote from The New York Times?

Oh, this is not thorough. But I appreciate your appreciation.

1/5 that or so, based on the article

Who's going to pay the workers to put the pothokes back?

I think that's called a governor

Zohran the Hole Destroyer.

The pot hole that Governor Kathy Hochul filled once she was elected to took office was finally issuing cannabis stores and farms licenses to grow and sell two years after weed was legalized in New York State, after Cuomo refused to, that corrupt, ass-grabbing jerk.

And thank you very much for providing me the incredibly rare opportunity to use that pun. I’ve been sitting on that for so very long.

Of course.

Actual uplifting news and it's something Zohran Mamdani did. Sucks that this guy isn't eligible for the presidency.

Paying workers is easy. I'm interested where did he divert funds from.

An incredible pull, but hell yea I see you.

City council slush fund?

Usually there's a suitcase full of money politicians are supposed to take to the bank before flipping on everything they ran on. Maybe he didn't get the memo?

Gracie mansion has $100 bills and gold Krugerrands just lying around in massive piles

Ok well carry on finding the negative in every shred of positive news then

I had to read this like 4 times before I got it lmao that’s pretty good

Here's a press release from the piece of shit who was in office previously, Eric Adams, celebrating the 500,000th filled pothole of his tenure. Mamdani assumed office January 1, so at 82 days, he's advertising ~610 potholes fixed per day in a winter that's produced an abnormally high amount of potholes.

Adams' press released was published January 29, 2025, and he assumed office January 1, 2022, or 1124 days. This means Adams was advertising ~445 potholes filled per day, which is 73% the amount Mamdani advertises here. Once you account for the fact that Adams' average was across three years rather than just "from the middle of winter to spring" – meaning that on average there were fewer potholes available to fix per day than Mamdani's timespan – the difference, while not exactly clear, is negligible. Even accounting for the fact that Mamdani just assumed office and may have some inertia, these aren't even close to earth-shaking numbers.

You can also see that this kind of pothole dick-measuring contest is extremely typical for NYC mayors – and god, fuck Eric Adams. If I wouldn't slobber Adams for basically these same numbers, I'm not going to slobber Mamdani either.

Edit: Something else I totally forgot to address is response time; per the Adams press release (I'm taking it uncritically, but I'm also taking the Mamdani PR uncritically; sue me):

New pothole complaints to 311 are closed in an average of approximately 1.8 days — more than a full day faster than the de Blasio administration’s average of 3.4 days and more than twice as fast as Bloomberg administration’s average of 4.4 days.

Meanwhile, Mamdani's press release states:

NYC DOT has fixed more than 50,000 potholes, with an average response time of around two days. [I'll assume this is response to a 311 complaint.]

And just like before, the difference in the nature of their tenure means I can't in good faith give Adams the point based on the raw number; obviously the average response time across three years with four seasons each could have fewer hurdles on average than "middle of winter to spring", where everything's cold as fuck and frozen and snowing.

The movie blew my fucking mind...

They were a couple a whole time? 🤣🤣

They're not even really using it as a metric. They're just staying a fact and you're getting all worked up over nothing. The article even mentioned an electric scooter rider who died after they got launched off their vehicle after they hit a pothole: this could have easily happened to a cyclist.

You thought Trump's weird enthusiasm for the guy couldn't get weirder. Just wait.

and, equally if not more depressingly, governments can make waaay more money by TAXING THE FUCKING RICH!

it's been over a decade since I've seen any of that show and I can picture a whole bunch of scenes from that episode in my head

not because I actually remember them, just because the characters and plot are that identifiable

good show

Someone's disappointed about their unfilled holes.

Can he please fill the pot hole in my heart next?

Trump won't be eligible in next election and I'm certain that won't stop him from trying. Why can't we do the same?

Can you share examples?

I don't remotely remember the one i saw.

They need that money for the big interchanges they're going to put in for the 10s of people working at all the new data centers.

Or also did 20 diff pockets get filled as well??

YUUUUP

Politicians are supposed to be working for the betterment of all, not just the richest few. So..... Yes

The typical conservative response to that is "but then they'll take their businesses elsewhere and now you get nothing."

The typical conservative response also fails to even consider just how difficult, expensive, and risky it is to move a large business to an entirely new region. Real estate has to be purchased and sold, employees have to be relocated or replaced, logistics have to be established in the new region, valuable business connections and contracts will have to be severed, and for brick and mortar businesses, the competitive landscape will be different.

Great things happen when the wealthy pay their fair share.

This is exactly why they never want us to see it happen.

I'm so glad someone finally had the bravery and moral courage to take on the scourge of...Austin Powers movies. Truly this is the cause of our time.

...because Zohran Mamdani isnt already the president and isnt being supported by the richest men in the world and is actively being worked against.

But it was the sound of that specific pothole! How else am I gonna know which pothole is which? Please send help, I've been lost in traffic for 4 hours!

This should be in every Mayoral job-orientation handbook.

/s
I'm just trying to fit in.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/nyregion/mamdani-pothole-williamsburg-bridge-bump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.V1A.e_aT.Ra0vREoZDA0U&smid=url-share#:~:text=long-ignored street improvements — the kind of meat-and-potatoes issue that some previous mayors have struggled to deliver on

It's right here.

When you're trying to find a quote, try wrapping the literal quoted text in quotation marks and searching to get exact matches: https://www.google.com/search?q="long+ignored+street+improvements+–+the+kind+of+meat-and-potatoes+issue+that+some+previous+mayors+have+struggled+to+deliver+on"

Local weed babe still waiting to get filled.

Sidewalks and safe paths protected from distracted drivers as well, please.

Don't forget the bikes!

They're gonna pay one way or the other.

We don't want cake.

More holes filled in one day than Bonnie Blue.

The problem is, you see; hardly anyone reads books these days.

I have dozens of books (that warn exactly, with instructions) on how to avoid this exact situation.

Oh, thanks! I did search it in quotes. It just didn't show up for some reason. I guess Bing just doesn't like this one for some reason (an example substring I chose):

Super my bad. Amended my comments. Very heavily appreciated. I should've tried another search engine to be safe.