Kulaks Beware: Mamdani Orders Public Hearings To Shame “Ripoff” NYC Landlords
We have seen this movie before. Mamdani has identified a class of property owners supposedly ripping off the masses, and now he is targeting them. In the Soviet days they were called Kulaks. In NYC under Mamdani, landlords are the new Kulaks.
He’s only been in office for a few days, but NYC Red-Green (Marxist-Islamist) Mayor Zoran Mandami is quickly advancing his agenda. In addition to rescinding prior executive orders against antisemitism, declaring during his inaugural address that collectivism must prevail over individualism, and reacting with fury to Maduro’s capture, Mandami is moving against the landlords.
He announced the initiative on X:
Too many New Yorkers are getting ripped off—paying obscene rents for apartments that fail basic health and safety standards. When tenants speak up, landlords threaten eviction. That ends now. Today we launched a citywide crackdown on rental ripoffs, like landlord neglect and outrageous fees.
We’ll be holding Rental Ripoff hearings in every borough of the city. We’ll be sharing tools to protect tenants from unscrupulous practices and hearing your experiences with abusive landlords. Details to come at: nyc.gov/rentalripoff
We’ll be holding Rental Ripoff hearings in every borough of the city.
We’ll be sharing tools to protect tenants from unscrupulous practices and hearing your experiences with abusive landlords.
Details to come at: https://t.co/uQ1AwBRoUI
— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) January 4, 2026
The tribunals also were posted on the NYC official website, Mayor Mamdani Announces Formation of “Rental Ripoff” Hearings
“Rental Ripoff” hearings in all five boroughs will offer New Yorkers a microphone to share poor conditions, unconscionable business practices that City will act on
NEW YORK, NY — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani today signed an executive order directing the Department of Housing Preservation & Development, the Department of Buildings, the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, in coordination with the new Office of Mass Engagement, to hold “Rental Ripoff” hearings across the five boroughs within the first 100 days of the administration. At these hearings, working New Yorkers will be able to speak about the challenges they face – from poor building conditions to hidden fees on rent payments. Following these hearings, the Mamdani administration will publish a summary and report detailing common themes and areas of opportunity, and the testimony shared at these hearings will directly inform policy interventions to take on these ripoff tactics. Details about the hearings will be available at nyc.gov/RentalRipoff.
In the first week of his Administration, Mayor Mamdani is already making it clear that tenants in New York City have a champion in City Hall. On day one, he passed an executive order rebuilding the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants and appointed Cea Weaver—who was instrumental in the passage of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019—to lead it.
“There is no economic justice without safe, quality, affordable housing New Yorkers can live in. This is not just about building new housing, it’s also about enforcing the laws in existing housing,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su. “Through the Rental Ripoff hearings, City Hall will not only be listening, we will take action to ensure that the law is followed without exception and that New Yorkers know their rights when it comes to the often hidden or deceptive fees associated with the hunt for housing.”
“For too long, tenants have been ripped off without recourse or protection. Our Rental Ripoff hearings will give working people across the five boroughs a microphone to highlight the challenges they face and make New York City government a truly participatory endeavor,” said Cea Weaver, Director of the Mayor’s Office of to Protect Tenants. “By hearing from New Yorkers about the challenges they have faced, we can bring a truly comprehensive approach to address the shoddy conditions, hidden fees, and other ripoffs that have persisted until now.”
“Amid an affordability crisis crushing millions of working New Yorkers, tenants are being burdened by excessive and hidden fees — from amenity fees to processing fees. This administration will make sure every New Yorker knows their rights and knows they have a champion in city government who will not back down from the fight to make this city more affordable, fair, and just,” said Sam Levine, Commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.
(Added)
Mamdani’s newly appointed tenant advocate director thinks home ownership and private property is white supremacy pic.twitter.com/eIHPSGzRet
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 5, 2026
Mamdani has identified a class of property owners supposedly ripping off the masses, and now he is targeting them. In the Soviet days they were called Kulaks.
I’ve been writing about Kulaks since the first month of Legal Insurrection in October 2008, What If The People Say “No” – Lessons From Forced Collectivization and dozens of times since then.
In NYC under Mamdani, Kulaks are called landlords.
We know how this will end. The housing situation will become even worse because landlords will walk away from unprofitable properties, and there is zero incentive to purchase or expand rental units when you have been targeted by a heartless politicized bureaucracy.
We have seen this movie before.
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Comments
Well, the Stalinization of New York didn’t take long to start
Here’s hoping Mamdani is Stalin’s Trotsky.
Stalinization + Islamicization = totalitarian dystopia.
It’s not like he hid the ball. People voted for it so when they can’t find a place to live because the landlords all bailed they will blame..Trump I guess.
Here they are,
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c., &c.
His staff said they are going to change your relationship with private property and real estate.
Or as Heinlein and Mencken warned: NYC is about to experience some “bad luck” good and hard.
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the Staten Island,
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters,
God blessed America for me.
And in the first version Guthie included two very pointed verses:
Was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: Private Property,
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing —
God blessed America for me.
One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office I saw my people —
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if
God blessed America for me.
The South Bronx of the 1970’s is where this is headed.
There’s a video on YouTube called The Bronx is Burning from 1972:
https://youtu.be/ygF3NJvy3bY?si=jAztgC0Gue7vpJVJ
The difference between then and now is that today the FDNY is led by a DEI hire that would choose chiffon if she were asked to dress a hydrant.
If you have seen that lesbian DEI hire you would no the hydrants were not in line for chiffon. Flannel maybe but not chiffon
They will create an even worse housing market with these nutty policies then use it as the excuse to go even further claiming the ‘market’ failed and govt must step in.
So the government of NY can step in.
Just the term “Rental Ripoff Hearings” tells us everything we need to know.
“Bring the guilty party in, and we’ll give them a fair hearing, then execute them.”
I think people forget that the landlord owns the property, and has some say in who gets to live there, and how much they can charge in rent to make a profit. After all, renting property isn’t cheap.
In the first week of his Administration, Mayor Mamdani is already making it clear that tenants in New York City have a champion in City Hall
I wonder who that is?
If you are in the residential rental business, it is time to get out of it; if not already too late. Either dispose of the real estate or use it for something else.
Subotai Bahadur
Wrap it in enough selective encumbernace, real property becomes a kind of wealth that works only for the juiced in.
Interesting “unexpected consequence” of all these justice policies, that.
Odds of him trying to bring Trump into this?
Trump Tower?
100%
Oddly, they haven’t yet established the general “People’s Republic of New York Pricing pre-approval ministry” for real-estate, rents, purchases, loans, consumer pricing, food, homestead lawn n garden, and I assume yard sales. Tho, the local overlords certainly proclaim what they prices ought to be piecemeal.
Myself, I wanna know where to get my prices pre-approved. I’m not in a position to spin-up a social network to generate cash several times the infraction, just to stay out of jail pre-trial. I’d end up in a cell w/ my spare housewares rotting in the rain.
No yard sales for you! It’s almost like the chilling effect splash damage was the point.
Zhivago. One of the few, great anti-communist films made by hollywood – before it went all-communist.
Forgive me if my memory has decayed, but I believe this was a case of Hollywood bringing a smash hit book to the screen like “Gone With The Wind,” In those days, the MO was to represent the book as faithfully as possible, within the constraints of time, cast size, budget, and effects — not to use the book as an AI seed text for a narcissistic producer and director to tell an entirely different tale of their choosing. It was an anti-communist tale because it was an anti-communist book. This would never happen today.
Hollywood was ALWAYS red.
If I was a landlord I would subpoena Mamdani to get the documents he and his henchmen created to hatch this scheme, and call all of them as witnesses. If they want show trials, let’s make it a hell of a show.
Subpoena how? In what way would you be in litigation with him, or otherwise in a position to make any demands of him? Why would you be entitled to receive these documents, and in what context would you be calling witnesses?
Wow, you are fucking denser than usual, Milhouse.
Does NYC receive Federal housing funds? There’s your legal right to subpoena documents and compel testimony at hearings.
One wonders if these “public hearings” will employ Sharia law…..combined with all the legal acumen of the persecution squads aimed at PRESIDENT Trump…..
Next he will require all loans to NY prols to be without interest as per the Koran. The gov has approved call to prayer at 5AM, noon and 6 PM as I understand it. Obama should move to NYC to hear this most beautiful expression of submission with suppression of the dhimmis. The pogroms are starting.
The lawsuits alone will probably drive the city into bankruptcy.
I’m sure tenants will be fully objective in their assessments and not at all interested in exploiting political grift for their own freebies.
If you’ve watched any court shows you know what I’m talking about. The loudest complaints come from the squatters that refuse to pay and use every excuse in the book to justify doing so.
Any tenant like that will surely be Section 8.
I remember a Halloween episode of The Simpsons… with a Bronson character saying “I want to die”…..instead of a death wish for criminals. Well, NYC wants to die… they just don’t know or care. When all live in slums, there will be equity…. good and hard. Watch NYC levy a departure tax much like the Germans did to Jews wanting to leave in the mid-30’s. .. which was essentially… everything.
Will they also have hearings about tenants and squatters that abuse the system to never pay anyone anything for apartments often while destroying the property of the land lords.
No, they are the chosen people
Not the Jews!!!
The jerk isn’t wasting any time, is he?
Hopefully, reasonable people will come to realize that he really is a disaster.
As always, the people who look to him as a daddy who will save them and protect them.. they will be burned the hardest and they will never learn the lesson.
I’ve seen several stories making the case that Mamdani will not last a year as mayor. He will alienate so many people with his communist schemes he will be forced from office.
As far as I know the only person who can remove him from office is the governor.
He could end up under so much pressure he leaves voluntarily.
If Mamdani loses his citizenship and gets deported, I doubt he’d be able to retain his mayoral office.
And Hocum is a coward
The idiots that voted this guy in will only vote for something worse if he is kicked out or leaves or whatever.
Useful idiots indeed.
This guy is gonna thrive in NYC, the more the city is destroyed the more these people will beg for him to bend them over.
The reason rent skyrocketed is because of the ridiculous abuse landlords had to put up with BECAUSE MUH COVID.
NY and several other states basically declared you couldn’t evict a tenant for ANY REASON for nearly THREE YEARS, no matter what they were doing. So a ton of renters became de facto squatters and openly refused to pay rent. And when it was finally over, the only thing that they got was the ability to finally evict the deadbeats. Landlords lost tens, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent.
Many of us predicted at the time that as soon as the so-called ‘eviction moratorium’ was over, rent was going to skyrocket and landlords were going to require huge deposits up front.
Now the left refuses to acknowledge that, and they’re screaming about the ‘evil landlords’ demanding 3-6 months rent up front.
My popcorn is popping…
NYC itself is the largest property owner, and it has been derelict in upkeep, particularly re NYCHA (NYC Housing Authority).
https://qns.com/2019/12/citys-worst-landlords-list-includes-five-property-owners-and-nycha/
This was from 2019, but I know I have seen a more recent article. I just can’t find it now.
Clearly a plot by counter-revolutionary agents. Let the struggle sessions commence!
Yoohoo Mommidaddi is going to fix everything!
Laughable. He obviously has never been to any kind of public hearing meeting involving a disgruntled public. His idea is DOA. An example of his total lack of experience of any kind other than being a failed rapper.
(Beer bottle clanks off lectern.) “You suck!”
Will he go after the intelligentsia concurrently with dekulakization? And confiscate University and College endowments?
The property owners should tell the commissars to stick it where the sun don’t shine. When the “inspectors” show up, show them the door.
Chairman Mao and the CCP led public hearings on landlords’ abuses, too, and then murdered them in large numbers, because they were “rich peasants” exploiting the masses. This does not end well.
So he’s doing show trials, name and shame? I assumed he was after the luxury properties because who wants an old run down property when you can have an upscale one. Why would the city want possession of a piece of junk? They can’t even keep their own city run buildings up to par.
Seems like renting is a two way street but I doubt that there will be trials for shitty tenants.
It will be a one way street. Tenants will be represented by the giverment, and the landlords will not be able to present a defense.
I thought the left was a “No Kings” kinda people, but I guess a dictator is OK.
There is nothing wrong with holding hearings. There’s nothing wrong with investigating the complaints and determine if they are valid. Landlords should also have a voice. There should be no predetermined judgments. I am surprised at the comments opposing this. I strongly oppose socialism, communism, etc., but I also oppose putting a hood over my head and claiming you see nothing. Schultz and Hogans Hero reference intended.
If you see Solomon when you look at Mamdani, you already have a hood over your head.
socialists dont run courts of law based on fairness
they run them based on how they affect the governments agenda
The landlord is already the guilty party. You are one f’kd up naive person.
“Rental Ripoff Hearings”
That name should tell you everything you choose to ignore.
Tenants already have laws they can pursue landlord tenant disputes. Communist show trials is not one of them.
Nowhere in the article does it say that a landlord has due process.
landlords: we cant afford to fix anything as we are under rent control
socialists:
we will lend you the money and when you cant pay that back either
we will have the legal right to take your property
Beheadings to follow
So basically he is telling NYC that the code enforcement division of the housing authority has failed miserably in enforcing the housing code. How are these hearings going to change that? Is it going to mean slumlords having to clean up property and bring it to code? Is it going to mean faster evictions against tenants who damage apartments and create squalor? Is it going to mean cooperating with other department for vital services such as rodent control?
I suspect not. Mainly because he will very likely find these slumlords he is railing against are some of the most influential people who likely contributed to his campaign coffers. Not that they are Socialist but because they like to hedge their bets.
And the sad truth is that even if the landlords returned all rental property into pristine affordable units sooner or later they would be faced with tenants who simply had not inkling of what living like a civilized human being meant.
There are residents/employees in restaurants in New York who don’t even know how to use a toilet. Let alone taking care of an apartment.
Why would any intelligent private sector person want to build any new housing now in NYC, particularly affordable housing? There are much easier ways to make money and the red states are welcoming. Where will the City get the money to build a lot of public housing? Constructions costs in NYC are astronomical. One group that will prosper are lawyers bringing lawsuits to challenger the Mayor for exceeding his powers, failing to provide due process., or for violating federal or state law.
As I recall, Ed Koch’s reaction the the other guy getting elected mayor, finally:
“The people have spoken; and they must be punished for it.”
God, he was just fun to have around.