Real estate runs New York. Disgraced mayor Eric Adams says “I am real estate,” while homelessness levels and rents hit record highs month after month. Landlord profits are up 12 percent over the last year, but our living conditions are not improving.
Andrew Cuomo is landlords’ favorite candidate and the only serious contender running against a rent freeze. He has a long record of blocking tenant-protection regulations and ensuring that his real estate donors are earning huge returns on their investments. This election season, the real estate industry is pouring money into a campaign to elect the disgraced former governor, with the industry group New York Apartment Association dropping more than $2.5 million into a Cuomo-aligned Super PAC in the final weeks of the race.
Other high-profile real estate donors include Douglas Durst of the Durst Organization, whose family is worth $8 billion, and Douglas Eisenberg of A&E Real Estate, who’s currently being sued by the city for hundreds of open code violations. Former mayor Michael Bloomberg — who raised rent 33 percent on rent-stabilized apartments while in office — just dumped $8.3 million into Cuomo’s campaign.
The industry is panicking because tenants are getting organized, and we are the majority of New York City. Despite his money and dynastic name recognition, Cuomo is sweating at the unexpected success of Zohran Mamdani, a young, democratic socialist state assemblymember who has put tenants at the center of his campaign with a pledge to freeze the rent. As Mamdani has surged in popularity, the industry has taken out full-page anti-rent-freeze ads in the New York Times, with a dubious claim that raising rents will actually make housing more affordable. Real estate’s unprecedented spending has ensured that New York City voters see as many as three pro-Cuomo ads a minute while watching the nightly news.
That’s what this election is about: a tenant majority, versus an…
Auteur: Cea Weaver
