They get no respect.
Traditional immigrant groups that built the Big Apple are being shoved aside by City Hall, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman told reporters from the heart of Italian culture in the Bronx.
Speaking on Arthur Avenue, Blakeman said Italian, Irish, Polish, Jewish and German communities are “being left behind” by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani — who sparked controversy by leaving the city’s two Little Italy neighborhoods off an immigrant enclave map released over the summer.
“I do think there is an attack on the immigrants that built this county, that buit this state and built this city,” the Nassau County executive said. “I think they’re being left behind by this current administration here in New York City and the governor.
“They don’t recognize the achievements that those immigrants made,” Blakeman said.
Mamdani’s “New York City Immigrant Enclaves” map identified 30 immigrant communities marked with flags across the five boroughs — but omitted Little Italy, one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.
A red-faced Mamdani said the city would be making “additional changes” to the botched map in future, “including Little Italy.” He even tried to blame former Mayor Eric Adams for the blunder.
But the damage was done, with critics, including the City Council Italian Caucus, calling the map “incomplete at best and insulting at worst” in July.
Blakeman said Sunday Italian-American New Yorkers and other entrenched immigrant groups in the five boroughs are being disrespected — something he won’t do if elected governor.
“They were left off the immigrant tourists map,” he told reporters. “Not one Little Italy but two, the one on Arthur Avenue here and the one on Mott and Mulberry streets in Lower Manhattan.”
Blakeman also defended Christopher Columbus, the controversial explorer who has become the target of lefty protests in recent years — including Mamdani.
A 2020 tweet posted by the then state lawmaker resurfaced last year, showing Mamdani flipping off a statue of Columbus in Astoria, with the words: “Take it down.”
“I’ll say one thing, when I’m governor there will be no taking down of Christopher Columbus statues,” Blakeman said Sunday. “That won’t happen.”
Officials at City Hall did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
