New York City’s Democrat Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a far-left progressive who ran on an openly socialist platform, has warned that city authorities will move to begin confiscating private property from landlords who fail to comply with housing regulations.
The announcement is raising fresh alarm over government overreach and the erosion of property rights in America’s largest city.
“We want to make it clear to everyone in this city that no one is above the law,” Mamdani said during remarks in Jackson Heights.
“If you are a landlord violating the law, then this administration will hold you to account.”
The mayor made the comments while announcing a $2.1 million settlement with A&E Real Estate, a company that owns 14 buildings across Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, housing roughly 750 tenants.
City Signals Willingness to Take Over Buildings
When pressed by reporters on why the city did not simply take control of the properties, Mamdani made clear that seizure remains on the table.
“The intended outcome is safety and well-being for tenants,” Mamdani said.
“That is what we are driven toward.”
Under the settlement, A&E Real Estate must pay $2.1 million in fines, repair roughly 4,000 housing code violations, and comply with an injunction barring tenant harassment.
Housing Commissioner Dina Levy escalated the warning further, stating that when tenants’ health and safety are deemed at risk, the city will move to strip owners of control entirely.
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Levy said, will “use 7A administrative proceedings to remove the buildings from the owner’s control and install responsive management.”
Radical Ideology Surfaces Inside City Hall
The announcement comes amid growing scrutiny of Mamdani’s inner circle.
As Slay News previously reported, resurfaced social media posts from the city’s new “property tsar” sparked outrage after revealing explicit calls for seizing private property and branding homeownership as “white supremacy.”
According to the New York Post, the posts were written by Cea Weaver, the newly appointed director of the city’s Office to Protect Tenants.
“Seize private property!” Weaver wrote on June 13, 2018.
A year later, she declared:
“Private property including any kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy.”
Weaver also urged supporters to “Elect more communists” and posted inflammatory commentary following the death of George Floyd, including the claim:
“The Police Are Just People The State Sanctions To Murder W[ith] Immunity.”
WATCH:
Weaver is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and previously served as a campaign coordinator for Housing Justice For All.
She advised Mamdani’s campaign before being elevated to a senior role inside City Hall.
Freeze Rents, Expand State Power
Mamdani himself has publicly called to “seize the means of production” and has pledged to freeze rent on one million rent-regulated apartments across the city, an unprecedented intervention into the housing market that critics warn will further drive disinvestment and shortages.
He has also signed an executive order establishing so-called “Rental Ripoff” hearings across all five boroughs within his first 100 days in office.
“Too many New Yorkers have been forced to pay more for less—living in unsafe, unconscionable, and unaffordable housing,” Mamdani said.
“Under my administration, that ends.
“Today’s executive order is the first step towards giving New Yorkers a voice in addressing the housing crisis that is pricing them out of our city.”
For critics, the message is clear that, under NYC’s new mayor, private property rights are no longer guaranteed.
Far-left socialist policies, once confined to activist rhetoric, are now rapidly becoming official city policy.
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