Last Thursday, New Yorkers gathered in a high school gymnasium in Downtown Brooklyn to attend the first of five “rental ripoff” hearings hosted by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration. The events, the administration has claimed, are intended to “offer New Yorkers a microphone to share poor conditions and unconscionable business practices.”
Thursday’s session was a microcosm of Mamdani’s tenure so far: towering rhetoric, little substance. The administration officials present assumed they knew both the problems and solutions, rendering alternative ideas irrelevant. There was little discussion of the onerous regulations keeping apartments empty or unbuilt (problems that will be worsened by freezing rents).
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Nevertheless, the hearings may be smart politics. Mamdani’s appearance of doing something will keep his socialist base energized, even as he struggles to get his ambitious agenda off the ground.
An animated crowd gathered outside the George Westinghouse High School in downtown Brooklyn, where the first hearing was held. The energy recalled Mamdani’s election rallies. Representatives of the Revolutionary Communists of America distributed fliers calling for the abolition of private ownership and a national general strike. (They also peddled newspapers for $5 a copy.) The NYS Tenant Bloc, a tenant union instrumental in Mamdani’s election, were also out in force, holding up signs calling for a rent freeze and chanting that “housing is a human right!”
The crowd inside was more institutional. Mainstream press filled the first rows. Standing around them were slickly dressed staffers, mostly young, from various city agencies. They manned boards on which the public could indicate their biggest grievances.
On one level, the event was about enabling New Yorkers to speak to city officials, with whom they were able to discuss their concerns in one-on-one sessions. The city says that these conversations will “directly inform policy changes to strengthen city policies to protect tenants.”
But one suspects that residents’ concerns will get heard only if they reinforce a certain narrative. That narrative was apparent in the keynote address from Cea Weaver, who directs the city Office to Protect Tenants. Weaver reiterated the administration’s goal of “focus[ing] on the production of affordable housing” and urged attendees to flag how they’re “being price gouged.”
A member of the press asked how many bad landlords—those with actual violations—there really were. Weaver’s response: “I don’t have that data off the top of my head right now.” Only 12 percent of city buildings have serious violations, according to the New York City Department for Housing Preservation and Development.
The other interface between residents and the city’s public servants took place at the aforementioned boards surrounding the room, at which attendees were handed stickers and asked to highlight how they were being “ripped off.” The choices were preselected: interest on back rent, fees for adding tenants, building services, credit checks and electronic payments, and “other.” It seemed more like a justification for an agenda than a brainstorming exercise.
In a statement that she provided me, Anne Korchak, president of the Small Property Owners of New York, said that she saw the proceedings as “City Hall-sponsored, anti-landlord events.” Her objection serves as a reminder that there are two sides to a market, and that tenants—not always in a position to buy—benefit from being able to rent in New York City. The city’s hostility to landlords can in turn yield less housing for rent—something already happening, with an estimated 50,000 rent-controlled apartments standing vacant.
Mamdani’s focus may not be policy, but politics. Much of the hearing was focused on encouraging tenant unionization. “The best and most empowered tenant is a tenant that’s a part of a tenant association,” Weaver said in her keynote. Incidentally, those unions helped get Mamdani elected.
Since taking office, Mamdani has struggled to balance the aggressive plans he offered his socialist base with the reality that his power and resources are finite. Rhetoric offers a solution to this conundrum. The “rental ripoff” hearings keep his coalition galvanized and project an image of a leader taking action. Meantime, his unworkable promises—like his tax hike, foiled by Governor Kathy Hochul—can be forgotten.
Mamdani could, of course, choose to let developers build and landlords charge a market-clearing rate. Short of that, New York can expect more events like the “rental ripoff” hearings in future.
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images