Jimmy McMillan
With the city’s mayoral race still nearly two years off, you probably thought you wouldn’t be hearing too much from the “Rent Is 2 Damn High” impresario Jimmy McMillan. Alas, just as national politics took the spotlight, the New York Observer reported McMillan filed suit against the New York State Board of Elections and accused its officials of being biased against his party by repeatedly trying to keep the word “damn” off the ballot. [more]
From left: St. Mark's Bookshop, a Brooklyn bodega, Brooklyn BP Marty Markowitz, Stuy Town and Jimmy McMillan
Some of the most powerless New Yorkers are tenants of buildings in limbo because of a recent sale or foreclosure. Some work fruitlessly to disrupt the free market system real estate developers fancy. Either way, the Village Voice released its list of the “100 Most Powerless New Yorkers,” and considering the city’s relationship with the real estate industry, its little surprise that real estate-related stories have a significant presence on the list. [more]
Jimmy McMillan, the “Rent is Too Damn High” former gubernatorial candidate, is being kicked out of his rent-controlled apartment on St. Marks Place in the East Village, the New York Post reported. McMillan claims he pays $872.96 per month for the apartment, which he moved into in the late 1970s.
“I’ve been here since 1977, and they want more money!” McMillan said. “It’s about ‘My Rent is Too Damn Low.’”
McMillan is now mounting a legal battle to keep the apartment.
“Maybe the landlord doesn’t know, but he can’t bulldog me because I know the law,” McMillan said. “I told [my attorney] to file a counter-claim for $70,000.”
The case is now pending in Housing Court. [more]
Lest we begin to forget about Jimmy McMillan, the gloved, “Rent Is Too Damn High Party” crusader, filmmaker Aaron Fisher-Cohen has just released the trailer for his upcoming documentary about the aspiring politician, entitled “DAMN!” The feature-length film, which, according to the Observer, will play Aug. 12 through 19 at Cinema Village on East 12th Street, is “about what happens to someone who sees success overnight in the viral age,” Fisher-Cohen said. McMillan told The Real Deal earlier this year that he didn’t believe his 15 minutes of fame were up yet. Looks like he was right. [NYO] [more]
It was around 6:30 p.m. on a Friday at The Real Deal’s Chelsea headquarters, and while everyone was still blogging away on the fourth floor, Jimmy McMillan, of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, was apparently milling around on the street below when publisher Amir Korangy recognized his now-iconic visage and kidnapped — er, asked, him to come upstairs to meet the staff. An obliging McMillan not only shook everyone’s ungloved hands, but also delightfully agreed to sit down later for an on-camera chat (clips above) about his presidential ambitions. Today — the day McMillan plans to head to Washington, D.C. to officially announce the start of his 2012 presidential campaign — we present Candidate McMillan, in a slightly abridged version of our conversation.
So what’s with the beard?
All the older black guys had this thing, they all cut their hair low. Everybody looked the same, everybody looked like Martin Luther King. And then all the younger guys wanna look like Michael Jordan — they all cut their hair bald. I said, “I don’t wanna look like nobody! I wanna create my own identity, my own look.” Now everybody walks around looking like me. I got ladies doing Halloween looking like Jimmy McMillan.
How did you settle on the “Rent Is Too Damn High” slogan?
At first, the Rent Is Too Damn High Party was called the Fed Up Party. The Fed Up Party wasn’t working. I had to carefully change the name to make the name effective. As a karate teacher, my job is not to hit you in places it’s not gonna hurt you. I hit you in places where you can feel the impact of my blows. Hit you across the neck, bam!… The same impact, the same thing, applies to helping people understand what went wrong in this country.
What did go wrong, in your mind?
People in New York don’t seem to understand economics. They’ve graduated from college. Dummies! They got the best of jobs on Wall Street. Idiots!… You’ve got the professors in the colleges teaching them this nonsense in the economy.
You studied economics?
Yeah, I’m a street hawk. I taught myself. I taught myself because everyone else has been wrong… We are continuing to fall into a deficit because the president don’t know that the party he is a part of is using him to do what they have been doing effectively.
Wait, you think the Democrats have been effective? And aren’t you a registered Democrat?
I changed my registration [from the Democratic Party] the first of the year. The Rent Is Too Damn High Party can still be a party in your city, town, or county. We can run it for statewide office anywhere in America, and that is what we are gonna do. But in the meantime, I’m gonna make an announcement to run [for president] under one of the existing parties… And they are all dumb. I am gonna be their worst nightmare.
How so?
You’re talking to education. You’re talking to the Professor of Street Knowledge, and that is me. I’m here to help people get it right… We are in a world of silliness where people still can’t afford to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Do you think you have a chance to win in 2012?
Greater than that. I’ve tapped into Obama’s base… when I give my speech [today], they’re not gonna run against me. This is going to be the most powerful speech you’ve ever seen.
What do you think about your possible contenders, like Donald Trump?
Donald Trump is my dawg. Donald Trump, don’t be surprised if you get a call from me. I don’t have your number, so I’m looking for you to contact me. But I’m gonna put it in [the] universe: I think you’d make an excellent vice [president].
Any others on the short list for VP?
Donald Trump — that was my first thought. And then the second one [that] came into mind was Michael Bloomberg. The third person [that] came into mind was Mitt Romney. And Newt Gingrich. I used to bodyguard for Mel Hall of the New York Yankees, and my job was to take the attention off of Mel Hall. Their job would be to take the attention off of me — off of the comedy thing. I realize what is going on.
What will you do if elected?
I’m gonna waive all debt. I’m gonna pardon all debt of American citizens.
How?
You pardon it. As president, I can do that. I can pardon all debt. Because the deficit is too damn high… I wanna stand over America and look down and say one thing: “Daddy’s home.”
Speaking of fathers, how many children do you have?
I have a son. I have a daughter, too. My daughter has spinal dystrophy — she’s deformed. And coming out of the war, my son right now is laid off. He has unemployment right now and I just told him, “you just hold on, because Daddy’s putting himself in a position to do what Daddy [will] do for his kids.”
What do you say to people who think your 15 minutes of fame are almost up?
They’re wrong. [If the] Rent Is Too Damn High forever, Jimmy McMillan got fame forever! I brought it to the surface. Now they’re starting to use the word “damn” on TV commercials. Look what I have done! This is what 15 minutes of fame has brought you: down the avenue of stupidity!
The Rent is Too Damn High party founder and one-time gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan was parodied on the Weekend Update on “Saturday Night Live.” In the video above, Kenan Thompson, in the voice of McMillan, says he is running for president of New York in 3012, but that he won’t live in the White House, because “the rent is too damn high.” If elected, he pledged to live on a seventh-floor walk-up in Baltimore and to commute to the White House on rollerskates. McMillan also said that he was running as a Republican, with his election platform to be “The Deficit is Too Damn High.” [more]
For New York City real estate, 2010 in many ways marked a return to normalcy after the tumultuous aftermath of the financial crisis. As the ubiquitous real estate appraiser and Miller Samuel CEO Jonathan Miller put it: “it was a year of a sense of relief.” City home prices stopped their freefall and sales activity improved considerably from the post-Lehman doldrums. Stalled condominium projects like the Sheffield and 1 Rector Park re-started sales. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim bought Tamir Sapir’s Fifth Avenue townhouse, the Duke Semans mansion, for $44 million. As the unspoken taboo on ostentatious spending faded, a number of high-end residential properties changed hands at the end of the year, including Brooke Astor’s 14-room duplex at 778 Park Avenue, which finally sold after two years on the market (albeit for a significant discount from its original asking price). Japanese retailer Uniqlo snagged 89,000 square feet at 666 Fifth Avenue’s former Brooks Brothers space for a record $300 million, demonstrating that retail is still thriving along the posh shopping corridor.
But the economic downturn continued to make its presence felt. The office market remained uneven and troubled lender iStar Financial fought to stave off bankruptcy amid lingering fears of a double-dip recession.
Here are The Real Deal staff’s picks for the stories that most altered the New York City real estate landscape in 2010, in alphabetical order. [more]
“DAMN!” — a documentary about Jimmy McMillan and his “Rent is Too Damn High” bid for governor of New York — is being produced by filmmakers Aaron Fisher-Cohen and Kristian Almgren and is set to premiere in March. “This is why the people in this state and all across America don’t have anything,” McMillan says in the teaser above from Gothamist. “Rent is too damn high — it’s not a joke; it’s serious… People are hurting,” he adds. In the movie, McMillan says that he represents the voice of the people and that he speaks for “the anger of the people and the frustration of the people.” He also thanks everyone for supporting him. “Yes, we can do this, we can win it,” he says. “I appreciate you all showing me crazy love.” [more]
Founder and de facto spokesperson of the “Rent is Too Damn High Party,” Jimmy McMillan, is hopping mad at the Board of Elections, which he says intentionally omitted the “damn” from his organization’s name on ballots in two separate elections in the last four years, according to the New York Post. McMillan has filed a $350 million suit against the board, claiming that by omitting the four-letter potty-mouth adjective from his group’s name the board “stripped [the party] from the ballot” and “really broke our party up.” [more]
