Rich moms of Manhattan go to WAR: Innocent comment plunges gilded zip code into anarchy… and everyone’s looking over their shoulder

Parents in one of Manhattan’s richest ZIP codes are at a breaking point.

Mothers are whispering about danger, arguing in private Facebook forums and wondering aloud whether the city they built their lives around is slipping toward the chaos they thought had been left behind.

Now, they are going to war with each other.

What began as a handful of rattled posts has spiraled into a full-blown panic inside the Upper East Side’s biggest mom groups.

Members are threatening to flee, families are turning on each other and lifelong New Yorkers are admitting, often for the first time, that they no longer feel safe in the place they once called home – and it’s all because Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was elected as the new mayor.

The mayoral vote in the neighborhood – the home of Gossip Girl and where houses cost an average of $1.6million – was so divisive that one side of a street would vote for Mamdani, and the other would vote for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Inside the closed Facebook groups Moms of the Upper East Side (MUES) and UES Mommas, with a combined membership of nearly 80,000 parents, the arguments have become so fierce that some say they barely recognize the community they once relied on.

Threads have exploded into all-out brawls over safety, policing, taxes and whether their children should be taking the subway.

Longtime friendships have fractured, and moderators have pleaded for calm as feeds fill up with posts from parents accusing each other of overreacting, fearmongering or refusing to face what they believe is a brewing crisis.

Upper East Side mom and single mother Robin Reiter (pictured), 49, has a 13-year-old son and has lived in New York for the last 23 years. She is an active member of both MUES and UES Mommas Facebook groups

The actions of some prompted the groups’ moderators to create ‘Anonymous Posting Rules’ that stated: ‘You may not attack or threaten other members while anonymous (or ever.)’ 

Robin Reiter, 49, an Upper East Side mom and active member of both Facebook groups, told the Daily Mail that an article in New York Magazine poured gasoline on the fire by portraying the mothers as hysterical after Mamdani won the election.

Many Upper East Side residents voted for Andrew Cuomo, partly because he positioned himself as supporting Israel and partly because of his tough-on-crime agenda. Still, despite Cuomo’s potential for a comeback, Mamdani won by a margin of 181,056 votes.

New York Magazine highlighted the explosive reaction from the Cuomo supporters, with some moms expressing fear and shock over Mamdani’s socialist and progressive views. 

In contrast, others in the group hit back, labelling some of the moms as racist and Islamophobic.

In the comments section under the New York Magazine story, one reader expressed how they love ‘when useless, obnoxious rich people get their panties in a bunch.’ 

They went on to say that ‘these are people who are far more worried about their status and what it says about them than the actual raising of their children. They have nannies for that.’

Also in the comments section, a reader who identified herself as ‘another Jewish mother’ accused Reiter of ‘bigotry’ and ‘fear mongering,’ and then told her, ‘as a mother, you should be ashamed of yourself.’

‘There is no antisemitism,’ the woman wrote. ‘Not supporting the state of Israel is not antisemitic. Your quoted statements that Mamdani wants Jews dead are totally delusional, and your message here is disingenuous.’

What began as a handful of rattled posts has spiraled into a full-blown panic inside the Upper East Side’s biggest mom groups

Pictured: Some of the backlash Reiter received after expressing her concerns about some of Mamadani’s policies 

She told the Daily Mail she felt that she was ‘reduced to a zip code’ and people were not hearing what she was saying

Reiter said she has a ‘thick skin’ but was very ‘sad’ with the responses that were posted

Reiter told the Daily Mail the piece was not an accurate portrayal of the community. 

‘Many felt that they were misrepresented as this kind of privileged, catty group of whiny complainers, like, “Oh my gosh, you’re going to have to give up your nannies,” and, “Oh my gosh, you’re going to have to give up your six-bedroom apartments,” and that’s really not what it is at all.

‘I’m a single mom who works very long hours to pay for my kid, so [that] I could live here because it is a safe neighborhood and it has great schools.’

Reiter, who is Jewish, said the collective fear of anti-Semitism and Mamdani’s socialist and progressive views is not a meltdown or hysteria.  

‘We’re moms who are generally afraid for what’s going to happen.’

Reiter said the infighting and chaos broke out in the Facebook group after Mamdani’s win, but added that most backlash came from the public after the New York Magazine piece. Though she describes herself as having a ‘pretty thick skin,’ she said she found the overall responses ‘sad.’

‘I was reduced to a zip code instead of what I was saying,’ she told the Daily Mail. 

‘It’s honestly unbelievable that speaking openly about the rise of anti-Semitism in New York – something very real, very visible, and very frightening – had led to strangers calling me “privileged,” “racist” and “Islamophobic.”‘

In October 2023 – the month of the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas – the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force recorded a 214 percent increase in anti-Jewish incidents compared to the same month in 2022 (69 and 22 incidents, respectively).

Reiter told the Daily Mail she has ‘seen a dramatic rise in antisemitism… This neighborhood is really targeted heavily, and we’re afraid. We have kids here and it’s a scary time for us.’

Reiter said ‘None of [the backlash] reflects what I actually said. It reflects people’s need to shove me into whatever caricature makes it easier for them to ignore the issue. Reducing me to a zip code is not activism – it’s cowardice.’

She said that anyone who disagrees with her perspective is welcome to ‘debate my words.’ 

But, she added, ‘attacking my neighborhood, my character and my motives only proves the point: This city has become so toxic that people would rather weaponize labels than face reality.

‘Imagine being more outraged by my apartment than by anti-Semitism. That tells me everything I need to know.’

Their fears were sparked by the city’s newly elected leadership and what many mothers in the community believe will be a return to the ’80s – a dangerous era in New York when the crack epidemic surged and violent crimes and homelessness were rampant.

One of Mamdani’s proposals is the creation of a Department of Community Safety – a preventative approach to addressing many of the public safety issues facing New Yorkers – aimed at ‘fill[ing] the gaps’ of existing services.

However, the proposals haven’t made Reiter, who has lived in the city for the last 23 years, feel any safer. Instead, they have caused her to consider moving away from the life she has built for herself and her 13-year-old son.

‘My son has a great group of friends [in NYC], and I have a successful business, and it’s heartbreaking to feel like I have to leave, even when I don’t want to leave,’ she told the Daily Mail.

Her son travels on public transportation, and will begin taking the subway by himself next year when he starts high school. She said talk of replacing police officers with social workers in some situations is alarming.

During the Democratic mayoral primary on June 24, Reiter said she and a friend traveled to 120th Street in Harlem and stood near a polling station to warn community members about what she believes are the risks of democratic socialism.

‘We were trying to educate voters… and [explain] why Cuomo was the better choice for New York City,’ she said.

While some have told Reiter she is getting carried away in her efforts, she disagrees.

Pictured: Reiter standing near a polling station in Harlem handing out pamphlets during the Democratic mayoral primary in June. ‘We were trying to educate voters… and [explain] why Cuomo was the better choice for New York City,’ she told Daily Mail 

‘It’s infuriating when people try to sort of downplay it and make us seem like, “Well, you’re overreacting, you’re being neurotic, you’re going to be fine, you survived [former mayor Bill] De Blasio.”

‘Yes, I survived De Blasio’s policies, but that’s not what this is about. That’s not why [some people] want to leave. We want to leave because we don’t feel safe as Jews.’

She said the most alarming issue has been the new Mayor’s refusal to condemn the phrase ‘Globalize the Intifada.’ She called it ‘terrifying’ and ‘very telling about who he is.’

While the phrase has been widely seen as a call to violence against Jews, Mamdani has stated that he had seen it as a rallying cry for Palestinian human rights. In a July meeting with New York City business leaders, the mayor-elect said he understood the fear it could cause, and claimed he would discourage its use in the future, two meeting attendees told CNN.

Another Upper East Side mom, Jill K, 50, told the Daily Mail that she shares Reiter’s concerns and volunteered for Andrew Cuomo’s campaign out of fear. 

Jill K said she doesn’t believe Mamdani ‘has the city’s best interest’ at heart, and claims ‘his policies are not good for New York.’

She raised the concern of Mamdani’s lack of political experience compared to Cuomo, and said his change of stance on defunding the police led her to believe he ‘is making a lot of false promises.’ She also questioned his refusal to denounce Hamas, and said he does not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

Throughout his campaign, Mamdani has held the position that he supported Israel as ‘a state with equal rights’ for all citizens, rather than one with any sort of ‘hierarchy’ based on religion, race or other factors.

Jill K’s 23-year-old son disagrees with her. He told the Daily Mail that he voted for Mamdani because he supports his anti-billionaire stance. ‘I like that he wants to give people who are struggling more resources,’ he said.

And much like her son, there are many Upper East Siders who are not panicking. 

Sixty-two-year-old entrepreneur Liz G, who left the Upper East Side after September 11, 2001, is now planning to return. She is unfazed by the new mayor.

‘What are people so afraid of?’ Liz G asked. She describes herself as a ‘Depublican’ and a ‘Remocrat,’ and says the new Mayor speaks to young people crushed by debt and locked out of home ownership. ‘He is an educated man. Educated people will be open to hearing what you have to say if they are truly intelligent.’

But others say the anxiety is real, and based on factors other than anti-Semitism. Lisa N, 52, a stay-at-home mom, told the Daily Mail that she thought for sure Mamdani would lose the race until early vote counts rolled in.  

‘I couldn’t stop talking about it and my husband kept telling me there is nothing I can do. I was devastated.’ When she checked the Facebook groups, she saw dozens of other mothers raging.

Zohran Mamdani (pictured), 34, will be the first Muslim and South Asian Mayor of New York City 

‘That was me to a T,’ she said. 

‘Nothing is free,’ she said, referencing Mamdani’s proposed policies to reduce costs for New Yorkers. ‘Free buses. Free this. Free that.’ 

Lisa N also called him ‘soft on crime’ and said she is afraid the city will slide backward, becoming ‘like it was back in the ’80s.’

She also questioned how someone can become mayor after just seven years of US citizenship.

The 34-year-old Mamdani was born in Uganda and lived in South Africa before moving to New York City at age seven with his parents. He officially became a naturalized citizen in 2018. Mamdani will be the first Muslim mayor of New York City, and the youngest person to hold the office.

‘[Mamdani] is not who I see running the finance capital of the world. I don’t know if he can make all these decisions,’ Lisa N told the Daily Mail.

‘I hate that he is living in a $2,000 a month apartment and making $160,000 a year. (The New York Times reported that Mamdani’s current salary as a state assemblyman is $142,000 a year.) That, for me, makes me think he is a fraud. I am not confident with him running the city. The whole thing is a mess, and it’s scary.’