Andrew Cuomo asked his rival in New York City mayoral campaign Zohran Mamdani to evacuate his rent-stable apartment, while pushing for a long-term proposal that would ban other middle-class tenants from entering most of the city’s housing.
“I’m calling on you to move out immediately,” Cuomo Widely viewed social media posts This weekend, Mamdani was taken over as a “very rich man” and occupied an apartment that would otherwise be available to homeless families.
The attack line has attracted tens of millions of online views and has resumed a long debate about who should enter New York’s highly sought-after rental stable unit, which accounts for about 40% of the city’s rent and is currently open to all earners.
It also illustrates the length of rhetoric that Cuomo is willing to give as he bids for the mayor Mamdani, a democratic socialist Mamdani Beat him easily On the Democratic primary, the platform centers on affordability and frozen rents for stable units.
Mamdani, who earns $143,000 a year as a state legislator, said he pays $2,300 a month for a one-bedroom apartment in Queens, who he shares his life with his wife — what Cuomo calls “disgusting.”
By comparison, Cuomo, a multimillionaire who previously served as state governor, spent about $8,000 a month on an apartment in Midtown Manhattan, moved from Westchester County, a wealthy suburb. Last year.
Cuomo, 67, has been in recent weeks Millennial Internet And repeatedly mention the opponent’s “privilege”. Mamdani’s mother is a successful independent film producer and his father is a professor at Columbia University.
Cuomo took it a step further on Monday, releasing a formal proposal that he called the Zohran’s Law, forbidding landlords from renting vacant rent-stabilized units to “wealthy tenants” and defined as those who pay less than 30% of their income to existing rent.
Rent regulations plan to have about 1 million apartments each year that limit the amount of rent landlords can raise, not including any income limits at present – rivals have long struggled to change.
Although families with stable average rents earn $60,000 a year, it is not uncommon for middle- or high-income New Yorkers to live in units, sometimes renting several thousand dollars a month.
But Cuomo’s idea has sparked quick suspicion among some housing experts, who noted that by definition, cap would mean that new tenants of all rent-stable units would give up a large portion of their income.
“The idea that we should just have people living in apartments they can’t afford is to fail,” said Ellen Davidson, a housing attorney for the Legal Aid Association. “This is not a proposal for the housing market or anyone who knows anything about New York City.”
The New York Real Estate Commission, a landlord group whose members support Cuomo’s main support in primary schools, did not respond to inquiries about whether they support the proposal. But in an email, the group’s president James Whelan said that “the benefits of rent regulations are not targeted” and some form of means testing should be considered.
Under state law, hiking on units with stable rents is determined by the designated board of directors rather than the landlord.
“Rent stability has never been tested because it is not an affordable housing plan, it is a plan for neighborhood stability,” said housing lawyer Davidson, who added that the proposal could raise a “nightmare of bureaucracy.”
“Super wealthy and privileged people should not take advantage of the programs for assistants working for New Yorkers,” Cuomo movement spokesman Rich Azzopardi said in a text message, adding that the income threshold standards would fall under the same system as other programs for low-income housing in the city.
Mamdani’s spokesman Dora Pekec said the proposal proved Cuomo was both desperate and lost contact.
She added: “While Cuomo is concerned only with the well-being of his Republican donors, Zoran believes that the city’s job is to ensure a dignified life, not to determine who deserves it.”
