Federal Judge Blocks Mamdani Housing Sale Meddling

Socialist, pro-jihad New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani just hit a much-needed roadblock in his efforts to interfere with property sales.

Mayor Mamdani openly promised to intervene regardless of his legal power to do so and trample the property rights of landlords to ensure “affordable housing,” which really means derelict housing that taxpayers pay for. Only a few days into his term in office, Mamdami tried to intervene in the sale of thousands of “rent-stabilized” properties. A federal judge told him to hit the road.

It is unfortunately true in America now that housing is a difficult market for almost everybody, but most problems do not require more government meddling as a solution. In fact, Mamdani’s socialist plans would just exacerbate the problem and trample constitutional rights at the same time. New York needs lower costs, not government overreach, but since Mamdani is certainly going to drive up prices in the Big Apple, don’t expect the housing problem to improve.

Fox Business reported that bankruptcy Judge David Jones rejected Mamdani’s intrusive effort last week.

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From Fox:

Mamdani's administration had sought to slow the sale of the properties after tenants complained that the seller, Pinnacle Group, had poorly maintained the properties and were concerned that the prospective buyer, Summit Properties USA, would have similar issues.

Mamdani's administration attempted to intervene on the basis of being a creditor to Pinnacle. The company owes the city over $12 million in unpaid fines, according to Gothamist.

I think we can all agree that both the seller company and the New York government have problems — hence the sale.

Leila Bozorg, who is Mamdani’s deputy mayor for housing, is still determined to launch another bid to insert the city government in the midst of the sale. “We will continue to fight to ensure any owner of this portfolio makes necessary repairs to bring the buildings up to code and respects the rent stabilization regulations,” she lectured.

What makes this so particularly ironic is that Mamdani is currently in a scandal over touting a site riddled with code violations. He introduced his Housing Preservation and Development Department (HPD) commissioner, Dina Levy, at a building meant to exemplify his vision of “affordable housing.” But it turns out the building has a rat infestation, is practically falling to pieces, and has no fewer than 194 code violations, as my colleague Matt Margolis reported.

Mamdani and his ilk aren’t worried about code violations in the “rent-stabilized” housing — they just want to stomp on property rights. Typical socialist behavior — babble about helping the people while actually spreading misery and tyranny.

Mamdani also sparked controversy related to housing by choosing for his Office to Protect Tenants the racist Cea Weaver, who called home ownership a “weapon of white supremacy.” Weaver also asserted property is a “collective good,” Fox noted.

All of which is to say that Zohran Mamdani and his various housing officials are not the solution to any housing crisis. In fact, they are part of the problem.

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