Mayor Zohran Mamdani snubbed New York City’s Italian American community Saturday, skipping Brooklyn’s annual Columbus Day Parade while organizers of a similar celebration in Queens said he never even responded to their invitation.

The Federation of Italian American Organizations of Brooklyn organizes the parade along 18th Avenue in Bensonhurst. Members said the Mayor’s Office confirmed Thursday that Mamdani had declined an invitation sent several weeks earlier.

The Brooklyn organizers at least received an answer. Leaders of the annual Queens Columbus Day Parade in Astoria said the mayor left them hanging as their event concluded Saturday near the Columbus statue by Astoria Boulevard.

That location carries some history involving Mamdani. A 2020 social media post showed the Ugandan-born politician flipping the bird to the same Christopher Columbus statue and including the caption, “Take it down.”

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Mamdani is also unlikely to attend the larger Columbus Day Parade in Manhattan on Monday, according to sources. That event is organized by the Columbus Citizens Foundation and travels along Fifth Avenue.

The foundation faced criticism from other Italian American groups after trying to extend an olive branch to Mamdani with an invitation. The outreach came despite the socialist mayor’s rocky past with Italian Americans.

Christopher Loiacono, president of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, and other leaders of the organization did not return messages. The Mayor’s Office also did not immediately respond to messages regarding the parade absences.

Angie Markham, executive director of the Federation of Italian American Organizations of Queens, said Mamdani’s absence from the Astoria parade “isn’t gonna make or break the event for me.”

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“People wanna change history,” Markham said. “It is what it is. This is the day we chose to [honor] Italian heritage. The Spanish have a whole month. The blacks have a whole month. We have one day. Leave us alone!”

Jerry Iannece, a criminal court judge and parade chairman, called the disdain Mamdani and other far-left politicians have shown toward Columbus “misguided.” Iannece added that “there’s a lot of people who want to rewrite history.”

Carlo Scissura, vice chairman of the Federation of Italian American Organizations of Brooklyn, declined to discuss Mamdani’s decision to skip the Bensonhurst parade. Instead, he emphasized the organization’s pride in the celebration.

“We are proud and excited to host our annual parade, a powerful celebration of Italian American heritage, pride and culture,” Scissura said.

Several Brooklyn parade patrons were upset by the mayor’s absence, though they were not surprised. Albert Esposito, a 72-year-old retired school teacher, said Mamdani should represent all New Yorkers.

“It’s very disappointing because we elected him the mayor, and he is supposed to be representing everybody,” Esposito said. Paul DeSpirito, 53, who operates a neighborhood Italian sandwich and catering business, called it “a slap in the face to the Italian American community.”

Some attendees were pleased that Mamdani stayed away. One unidentified man said the mayor would not have been welcomed at the Brooklyn celebration.

The latest friction follows criticism Mamdani received in July after his administration omitted Little Italy and other ethnic neighborhoods from a newly released city map of immigrant enclaves. Little Italy is a nationally recognized historic district.

Mamdani said the list was not “exhaustive” and that future versions would be changed to include Little Italy. Still, his tensions with Italian Americans extend to the 2020 Columbus statue post, which surfaced during last year’s mayoral race.

Mamdani successfully ran in 2020 to represent the Astoria neighborhood in the state Assembly. On Saturday, Council Speaker Julie Menin, a moderate Democrat who has repeatedly clashed with Mamdani over his far-left agenda, served as grand marshal at the Brooklyn parade.

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