Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants landlords to talk to their tenants. He’s going to talk to them first.
That’s the push behind the administration’s newest campaign from its Office of Mass Engagement, which the mayor launched just days into his term. The campaign title is straightforward: Talk to Tenants.
OME will be going building-to-building in the five boroughs to “knock on doors to inform tenants of their right to organize and connect residents with resources and organizing trainings,” according to a release. Volunteers will be targeting renters in properties with “chronic housing violations” to “advocate for safer, healthier homes.”
The takeaway here is that Mamdani has seemingly turned OME and at least part of its $53 million budget into a tenant organizing arm of the city government. This new initiative isn’t the first time the new OME has targeted tenants. The office’s previous campaign was to get tenants to turn out to Rent Guidelines Board hearings. (OME emphasized it would not encourage any particular viewpoint, although its choice to only target tenants for outreach was noticed.)
Over the next few months, OME will also host workshops for renters to learn about how to start tenant unions and “how collective action can improve conditions in their buildings.”
Renters are a key Mamdani constituency and a majority of New York’s population. It’s not difficult to imagine this new initiative spurring tenants to organize tenant associations and work with advocacy groups, subsequently becoming politically mobilized toward supporting the mayor and his policy goals.
Using public money toward tenant organizing isn’t totally unheard of. The city’s Partners in Preservation program has received $15 million over three years to support tenant organizations like the Met Council on Housing. The Anti-Harassment Tenant Protection program has similarly funded legal services and organizing support for renters.
Elsewhere in the city, the mayor has not been shy about getting his face out there. He appears on the street-side LinkNYC kiosks, despite the fact that elected officials are prohibited from appearing in public service announcements. (The city isn’t paying for the ad time on LinkNYC, sidestepping the regulations, City & State reported.)
The first few months of Mamdani’s post-election performance were characterized by a focus on listening, of which the Rental Ripoff hearings and Mamdani’s Marina Abramović-like art installation were emblematic.
It’s time to stop listening, the mayor seems to be saying, and start moving.
What we’re thinking about: AI firm Anthropic doubled its New York office space earlier this month. Where are those additional employees buying or renting? Send tips to my colleague jacob.indursky@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: Beyond its well-known urban planning remit, the Department of City Planning is also a kids’ book publisher. The agency released a new edition of “The ABCs of City Planning,” a children’s book introducing kids to urban planning concepts including sustainability, micromobility, and neighborhood planning. The Tuesday release marks the first update of the book since it was first released in 1937.
— Spencer Davis
Elsewhere…
— As New Yorkers learned that a fourth person died in connection with the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on the Upper East Side, The City Reporter revealed that more than a third of positions in the health department dedicated to testing New York City’s water supply for the Legionella bacteria are unfilled. Though the health department has prioritized hiring, onboarding and training new water ecologists following a deadly outbreak of the disease in Harlem last summer, only 35 are currently on staff, up from 30 last October, but far below the approved headcount of 56.
— JetBlue won an auction to take over LaGuardia Airport’s historic Marine Air Terminal after the gate was abandoned earlier this year when Spirit Airlines went bankrupt, reports Gothamist. The Art Deco style terminal has been in use since it was built in 1940 after Mayor Fiorello La Guardia commissioned the renovation of North Beach Airport, now known as now LaGuardia Airport, in 1937.
— New York City Emergency Management issued a tornado watch for all five boroughs Tuesday through 9 p.m. as New Yorkers were hit with the second thunderstorm in the past week.
— Spencer Davis
Closing time
Residential: The most expensive residential sale recorded Tuesday was $14.8 million for a 4,962-square-foot sponsor-sale condominium at The Henry, 211 West 84th Street. Alexa Lambert, Alison Black and Shelton Smith with Compass had the listing.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial transaction was $16.65 million for a 23,000-square-foot apartment building at 312 Bowery in Noho. Marcus & Millichap represented Bremen House, Inc in the sale to Allied Realty & Development.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $7.2 million for a 3,023-square-foot condominium at 15 East 69th Street in Lenox Hill. The Kanbar Kopel Team at Compass has the listing.
— Matthew Elo