Mamdani Says He’s Sticking With New Tenant Rights Tsar Despite Her Past Remarks Calling Homeownership ‘Weapon of White Supremacy’

New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, says he’s standing behind his newly appointed director of the “revitalized” Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, Cea Weaver, who is facing intense backlash after social media posts from her now-deleted X account called home ownership “a weapon of white supremacy” and urged “massive government interventions to solve gentrification.” “We made the decision to have Cea Weaver serve as our executive director for the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, to build on the work that she has done to protect tenants across the city, and we were already seeing the results of that work,” Mr. Mamdani said Tuesday. On Monday night, writer Michelle Tandler posted a series of years-old posts from Ms. Weaver’s X account in which she called for efforts to “impoverish the white middle class” and endorsed using rent control as “a more effective way to shrink the value of real estate.”“I’m just not convinced that stopping development after development builds our movement or advances socialism like rent control does,” Ms. Weaver wrote in 2021.Ms. Weaver, who is white, also wondered in a 2019 X post, “why we keep procreating” after seeing a mob of “white boy children rapping Eminem very loud in Windsor Terrace.”Ms. Weaver has worked in the public eye for years, organizing tenants against New York City landlords. Ms. Weaver, who has never been shy about her far-left positions, has become a key figure in Mr. Mamdani’s war with the city’s landlords over the high cost of rent. Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Weaver argue that the cost of living must come down, while landlords argue that they cannot stay afloat and properly maintain apartments without charging rents that Ms. Weaver calls extortionate. It’s unlikely Mr. Mamdani and his team were unaware of her views when he made the appointment. The city’s public advocate, Jumane Williams, nominated Ms. Weaver to the New York City Planning Commission, but her nomination was withdrawn due to opposition from politicians like City Councilman Kalman Yeger, a Democrat.Whether Ms. Weaver will be pushed away this time remains unclear. In December, Director of Appointments Catherine Almonte Da Costa resigned from her role after decade-old antisemitic tweets from her X account, which she has since deleted, came to light. In those posts, Ms. Da Costa wrote, “Far Rockaway train is the Jew train,” “Money hungry Jews smh,” and “Working alongside these rich Jewish peeps.” “As the mother of Jewish children, I feel a profound sense of sadness and remorse at the harm these words have caused,” Ms. Da Costa said in a statement. She lasted just one day in the job. Her resignation forced New York Magazine to remove her from its cover photo of Mr. Mamdani and members of his administration. Mr. Mamdani’s transition team said it would hire an “independent firm” to improve its vetting process at the time, which a spokeswoman said was “unacceptable” and did not meet the Mayor’s standards.“I think it is up to Zohran Mamdani to decide whether or not her viewpoints are indicative of what his City Hall intends to do and how out of step that may certainly be with everyday New Yorkers,” the head of the New York Apartment Association, a lobbying group that represents the city’s property owners, Kenny Burgos, tells the Sun.Ms. Weaver’s progressive stance on housing rights has earned her support with some State Democrats, including Mr. Williams, when he unsuccessfully championed Ms. Weaver to serve on the City Planning Commission, calling her “an unwavering advocate for equity and justice on behalf of New Yorkers.”Ms. Weaver, then a campaign coordinator for the Housing Justice for All, said that, if confirmed, she would prioritize building housing in the city “to solve our affordability and homeless crisis,” and “plan for climate resiliency.” “Ultimately, when it comes to matters of land use in New York City, my goal is to ensure that public land and public resources are used for the public good,” Ms. Weaver said in a 2021 interview with The New York Post before Mr. Williams withdrew her nomination, calling it a “loss for all New Yorkers.” “Enough of us made clear we would not confirm her nomination and forced its withdrawal,” Mr. Yager wrote on X Monday. “Guess it’s easier to name a communist to a position that doesn’t require confirmation,” he added of Ms. Weaver’s new appointment. Mr. Yeger did not respond to questions from the Sun.Since joining the Mamdani administration on January 1, Ms. Weaver and Mr. Mamdani have moved quickly to intervene in the bankruptcy sale of a portfolio of more than 5,000 units, nearly all rent-stabilized, owned by the Pinnacle Group. The Pinnacle Group has argued in court documents that rent stabilization laws have prevented it from keeping pace with the rising costs of maintenance and interest rate adjustments, among other expenses.Ms. Weaver told the New York Times in a January 3 interview that it was “unfair” for the Pinnacle Group to blame the subpar conditions of their apartments on rent stabilization laws. She added that the company’s business model “relied on pushing people out of their homes and rent hikes that were untenable.”In a court filing on Monday, the Mamdani administration requested a delay for Pinnacle’s bankruptcy auction, originally slated for January 8, to allow the city to “evaluate sufficiently” the proposed sale to stalking-horse bidder Summit Gold and to “explore any potential alternatives.”However, in that same court filing, the Mamdani administration conceded that the proposed sale to Summit would “not lead to a supportable business” due to the “very low-averaging” rents that have been established by existing rent stabilization laws. Mr. Burgos tells the Sun that this was a “clear example of contradiction” by Mr. Mamdani, who had accused the Pinnacle of allowing the properties to fall into disrepair.“His administration made the argument in court that these buildings cannot function because the expenses exceed the current rents, and that any other owner would not be able to sustain them,” Mr. Burgos tells the Sun. “So which one is it?”

Mamdani Says He’s Sticking With New Tenant Rights Tsar Despite Her Past Remarks Calling Homeownership ‘Weapon of White Supremacy’

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