Mamdani Meets with Landlord ‘Frenemy,’ Finds Surprising Alignment on Housing Issues

Fresh off a raucous celebration marking his first 100 days in office, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani met with a former New York State assemblyman turned landlord advocate and current “frenemy,” Kenny Burgos, inside City Hall on Monday to discuss Mr. Mamdani’s ongoing efforts to address both the affordability crisis and housing shortage in New York City.The two men, who have known each other since 2021 when Mr. Burgos, a Democrat, was a state assemblyman in the Bronx, met to discuss Mr. Mamdani’s ongoing efforts to solidify tenant protections and speed up development of affordable housing.While Mr. Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, has made a political punching bag out of the landlords that Mr. Burgos — as New York Apartment Association CEO — now represents, the two spent much of the meeting discussing issues where they were surprisingly aligned: property taxes, insurance, scaffolding, and an improved cost of living. “I’m hoping this is the beginning of some more fruitful conversations in an attempt to achieve what we both want, which is improved housing and more affordability for the city of New York,” Mr. Burgos tells the Sun.Mr. Burgos praised Mr. Mamdani’s tireless work ethic — he estimates the mayor has worked every single one of his first 100 days in office — and his ability to learn and understand “what it means to run housing in this city.”That includes “what property owners — private, non-profit, and the city itself — are up against when it comes to the cost of operating housing, and the difficulties that owners face,” Mr. Burgos tells the Sun.Mr. Mamdani’s controversial “tenant tsar,” Cea Weaver, who earned notoriety for calling homeownership a “weapon of white supremacy,” was also in attendance at Monday’s meeting with the Mayor and Mr. Burgos. The three found common ground on one issue frequently raised during Mr. Mamdani’s “Rental Ripoff Hearings,” namely, the difficulty both tenants and owners face when dealing with the New York City Housing Preservation & Development. Owners often struggle to cure violations due to limited access to their tenants’ apartments.Mr. Mamdani launched the city’s first-ever “Rental Ripoff Hearings” immediately after taking office in January, saying they would “actually hold landlords accountable when they don’t follow the law.”“People think that because owners own the building, they can just go into the apartment whenever they want. They need a tenant to grant access,” Mr. Burgos tells The Sun. Tenants, meanwhile, are frustrated by their own experiences trying to schedule appointments with HPD officials to resolve housing-related issues.“If something does come out of those rental ripoff hearings, that’s one of the things where the Mayor and the city can really work towards a system that gives tenants clear communication and information of when they can expect HPD to show up, and also works with owner and tenants to make sure owners can have access so they can cure violations that come about,” he adds.Both Messrs. Burgos and Mamdani were once seatmates in the New York State assembly and quickly bonded over “meals, memes, and hip hop,” as Mr. Burgos told The Times. The two also celebrated the legalization of recreational marijuana in the state by curating a marijuana-themed playlist on Spotify.Since becoming the New York Apartment Association CEO in 2024, an organization that donated $2.5 million to former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s unsuccessful mayoral campaign, Mr. Burgos has cemented his role as Mr. Mamdani’s “frenemy.”In celebrating his first 100 days in office, Mr. Mamdani boasted of standing with tenants, going after bad landlords, and “started to move the machinery of government at the speed this moment demands.”Earlier on Monday, Mr. Mamdani visited New York City Housing Court to meet with Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas, saying the experience “will stay with me for a long time.”“Families on the brink of losing their homes. Tenants navigating unsafe conditions, harassment, and uncertainty, searching for justice in an overwhelming system,” he wrote on X.Mr. Burgos said he is part of a task force assembled by Chief Judge Zayas to offer the property owners’ perspective, alongside the tenant experience, and why “it’s such a failure for all parties.”“We all want the same thing, and so as long as the mayor and the administration operate more collaboratively, then I’m hopeful we can, to some extent, fix housing,” Mr. Burgos tells The Sun.

Mamdani Meets with Landlord ‘Frenemy,’ Finds Surprising Alignment on Housing Issues

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