Ep 175 Weekly Roundup: Mamdani Comes for the Landlords

New York's communist mayor is ready to seize the means of production, starting with those capitalist rotors, the landlords.

And like Lenin and Trotsky, I mean pre-ice pick Trotsky, Comrade Mamdani will not be handing the properties to the proletariat laboring under the chains of capitalism, but to the party in the form of New York City's empire of NGO non-profits that do for America... what the Bolsheviks did for Russia.

Last week, Mayor Mondani pledged a crackdown on bad landlords, saying the city will transfer ownership to, quote, responsible stewards, including community land trusts and nonprofit NGOs.

He also announced a plan to blow $100 billion New York does not have on 200,000 units of public housing, while simultaneously canceling it by imposing rent control on even more private units.

Note, New York City is already running a $12 billion deficit, so they're going to need a lot more taxes in case you're thinking of trading your Upper West Side condo above the dog therapist for some Miami heat.

Now, to be fair, Zoran told New York voters he would do this.

In an interview during COVID, he said his end goal is, quote, seizing the means of production.

Later, adding that socialism will work this time because, quote, we will bring in the best and brightest to deliver it.

Note, this is standard, non-working socialism.

The Soviets used an army of PhDs to centrally plan.

Oddly enough, the people still starved.

So the background is Zoran largely won his election on housing because New York is one of the most expensive cities in the U.S., in fact, in the world.

The median one-bedroom rent in New York City just hit $4,700 a month.

That kind of price should pull condo developers like a moth to flame.

Instead, New York housing units have been growing at just half.

the rate of population growth for 50 years.

Thanks to the precise anti-landlord measures on which Zoran is going all in.

So union mandates, climate mandates, licensing hell, touch a wire or a pipe and you're looking at months of permits.

Heaven help you if you renovate without a check to Tony Sprenu.

all with rent control to make sure landlords cannot make a dime for all the hassle.

This has left roughly 50,000 New York apartments empty and rotting, despite a vacancy rate of 1.4%.

Now, Mamdani could have done what Javier Millet did in Buenos Aires, getting rid of all the red tape, which slashed rents by two-thirds and doubled housing stock on the market.

Instead, Mamdani is sending code enforcement to seize the means of production.

This will obviously make New York housing worse.

What landlord is going to take the risk? That drives up prices beyond $4,700 a month.