Actor Robert Davi, known for his role in “Die Hard,” publicly criticised New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday after a city-produced map highlighting immigrant communities was found to have excluded Little Italy.
The map, titled “New York City Immigrant Enclaves,” resurfaced on social media this week after users noted that it left out Little Italy along with historically Jewish and Irish neighbourhoods, even as it highlighted 30 other immigrant communities across the five boroughs. Following backlash from Italian-American groups, city officials said the map would be updated to include Little Italy.
Davi, who was born in Astoria, Queens, posted a video on X sharply criticising the mayor, calling him a “jerk” over the omission and saying he hoped the mayor would be shown contempt by Italian and Irish New Yorkers. He urged the mayor to “respect the city” and the communities that helped build it.
The 75-year-old actor, whose grandparents emigrated from Sicily and Naples, spoke about his family’s immigrant background, noting that his grandfather served in World War I, was wounded multiple times, and contributed to building New York City as an Italian immigrant.
Davi, who described Mamdani as a “leftist Marxist Communist,” went further, suggesting the mayor should leave the country and arguing immigrants should spend considerable time immersed in America, particularly those coming from nations with markedly different political philosophies.
Responding to the controversy during an unrelated press conference on Friday, Mamdani defended the map, explaining that it had originally been created by the previous administration in 2023. He said his administration had added a handful of additional neighbourhoods since inheriting it, acknowledged it does not represent an exhaustive account of the city’s more than 200 ethnic communities, and confirmed further updates — including the addition of Little Italy — are forthcoming.
Historical data from the Library of Congress shows that more than four million Italians immigrated to the United States between the 1880s and 1924, with roughly a third settling in New York City.