On Housing, All New York Politicians Are Socialists
Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory in the New York Democratic Mayoral Primary on Tuesday puts the self-proclaimed socialist one step closer to enacting his far-ranging left-wing agenda.
At the top of the candidate’s list, as Reason‘s Liz Wolfe covered this morning, is his call to freeze rents on New York’s roughly one million rent-stabilized housing units.
Relative to free market orthodoxy, a rent freeze is indeed an extreme policy proposal. In New York politics, it’s a solidly mainstream idea.
Mamdani’s socialism has gotten a lot of attention, thanks in no small part to his aggressively charismatic social media presence. But when it comes to housing policy, everyone in New York is effectively a socialist, even the allegedly sane, centrist candidates running against Mamdani.
When then-Mayor Bill de Blasio called for a rent freeze back in April 2020, a loud supporter of the idea was then-Brooklyn Borough President (and current Mayor) Eric Adams, who’ll face off against Mamdani in the general election.
We need a rent freeze.
I am calling on the Rent Guidelines Board to freeze rents for all regulated apartments. I’m also asking the State to allow New Yorkers to pay rent with their security deposit. I want to see them act quickly.
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) April 10, 2020
The city’s mayor-appointed Rent Guidelines Board obliged and voted in June
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