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New York City landlords are firing back at Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s director of Tenant Protection after comments calling property ownership \u201cwhite supremacist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cea Weaver, a high-ranking operative within the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), has faced repeated criticism for past social media posts attacking homeownership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is that for centuries, we have really treated property as an individualized good and not as a collective good,\u201d Weaver said in one video from 2021. She added that the transition to \u201cshared equity\u201d would target \u201cwhite families\u201d and \u201csome POC (people of color) families who are homeowners.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a social media post from 2019, she said \u201chomeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as \u2018wealth building\u2019 public policy,\u201d The Daily Wire previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n In response to Weaver\u2019s past comments, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon told<\/a> Fox News: \u201cCivil Rights Division of the DOJ is on high alert as to the radical agenda promised by Mayor Mamdani, much of which is at odds with our federal Constitutional and civil rights norms.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, NYC landlords are accusing Weaver of racism for ignoring immigrant property owners in the city.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that the true socialist views toward housing and taking housing away from people like myself is the racist element in this,\u201d Jan Lee, a third-generation Chinatown property owner and board member of the Small Property Owners of New York (SPONY), told Fox News Digital. \u201cI think when you start to lump all of us together and say that we\u2019re all the bad thing that\u2019s keeping people out of housing, that\u2019s racist. We\u2019re right out of the gate in this administration, starting off with extreme hostility for property owners.\u201d<\/p>\n Ann Korchak, board president of SPONY, called Weaver\u2019s comments \u201cinsulting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo say that it\u2019s racist to own property is an insult to every single immigrant who ever came here,\u201d Korchak said.<\/p>\n Weaver would be \u201cblown away by the diversity\u201d of NYC property owners, Korchak said.<\/p>\n \u201cNew York has a rich tradition of immigrants kind of reaching the American dream through property ownership,\u201d Korchak said. \u201cSo many of our members and others who don\u2019t even know that we exist came to America because they didn\u2019t have rights in wherever they came from.\u201d<\/p>\n Weaver recently led the first of five planned \u201cRental Ripoff Hearings\u201d intended to \u201cuncover policy recommendations that will more effectively and systematically protect tenants in their homes,\u201d The Daily Wire previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the meeting, Weaver said the mayor\u2019s office would use the feedback collected at the Rental Ripoff hearings to inform housing policy going forward.<\/p>\n Private landlords said the hearings are too one-sided.<\/p>\n \u201cThey should pull from a combination of tenants, landlords, financiers, developers, and economists,\u201d New York real estate broker Adam Frisch told The Daily Wire. \u201cEverybody looks at the situation with their own biases, and it\u2019s the role of the mayor to sit down with tenants and landlords and say I know you\u2019re both unhappy. Let\u2019s see what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n