New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani faced stinging criticism from Italian-American leaders after a city guide highlighting immigrant enclaves omitted Manhattan's Little Italy.

The stunning omission prompted accusations over why one of the city's most recognizable immigrant neighborhoods was excluded from an official cultural map.

The city's "New York City Immigrant Enclaves" guide identifies 30 neighborhoods across the five boroughs, including Koreatown in Manhattan, Little Pakistan in Brooklyn, and Little Yemen in the Bronx, but does not include Little Italy, the historic Lower Manhattan neighborhood that served as a gateway for generations of Italian immigrants beginning in the late 19th century.

Critics also pointed to the omission of prominent Irish and Jewish immigrant communities.

New York City is home to one of the nation's largest immigrant populations. More than one in three city residents are immigrants, according to the city's 2026 "Newest New Yorkers" report, which found that about 3.1 million foreign-born residents live across the five boroughs.

"This is not a clerical error. This is cultural erasure," Mike Crispi, president of the Italian American Civil Rights League, said in a statement.

"Little Italy is sacred ground. It is where Italian immigrants came with nothing, worked like hell, opened shops, raised families, built churches, fed the city, and helped make New York what it is."

Crispi also criticized the administration, saying, "Mamdani's City Hall can find room for every fashionable progressive constituency, but somehow it cannot find Little Italy."

He added, "Our culture is good enough for their photo ops, our food is good enough for their fundraisers, and our neighborhoods are good enough for tourism dollars, but when it comes time to recognize Italian Americans, they erase us."

The Italian American Civil Rights League called on the city to update the map, issue a public apology and include Little Italy in future heritage projects.

"Walk down Mulberry Street and you see everything Mamdani's map refused to see," Crispi said. "You see the flags, the saints, the food, the families, Baby John's Cannolis, John Viola's Red Sauce Studio, and the old-school Italian-American grit that built this city.

"Little Italy is not dead. Little Italy is not optional. Little Italy is New York."

Other critics also questioned why well-known Irish and Jewish immigrant neighborhoods were absent from the guide, arguing that the map overlooked communities that have played major roles in the city's history.

A City Hall spokesperson said the guide was never intended to catalog every ethnic or religious community, but instead "highlights neighborhoods in New York City that have substantial foreign-born populations from regions and countries around the world."

Officials said the immigrant enclave series began under former Mayor Eric Adams and that additional neighborhoods are expected to be added in the coming months.

Little Italy, centered along Mulberry Street in Lower Manhattan, has long been recognized as a symbol of Italian-American heritage, although its residential population has declined over the decades as many Italian-American families moved to other parts of New York City and surrounding suburbs.

The neighborhood remains a major tourist destination and hosts the annual Feast of San Gennaro, one of the city's best-known cultural festivals.