{"id":190243,"date":"2026-04-08T23:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T23:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/190243\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T23:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T23:42:10","slug":"oddball-nyc-tenant-advocate-cea-weaver-has-mamdani-as-her-phone-wallpaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/190243\/","title":{"rendered":"Oddball NYC \u2018tenant advocate\u2019 Cea Weaver has Mamdani as her phone wallpaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

City Hall\u2019s radical tenant advocate Cea Weaver<\/a> has a picture of her boss, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as her phone wallpaper, she weirdly revealed in a glowing magazine piece.<\/p>\n

The odd moment came as Weaver, the director for the Mayor\u2019s Office to Protect Tenants, sat down with New York Magazine in March ahead of one of the new administration\u2019s \u201cRental Ripoff\u201d hearings, where tenants can sound off on their landlords.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s \u201chousing czar,\u201d who has faced a whirlwind of backlash <\/a>over her controversial social media posts, showed off her work phone\u2019s background to the writer \u2014 and provided a bizarre reason for it, according to the story published Monday.<\/p>\n

Cea Weaver, the director for the Mayor\u2019s Office to Protect Tenants, revealed in a New York Magazine that she has Mayor Mamdani\u2019s picture as her work phone wallpaper. Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n

Weaver said she uses Mamdani as her phone background to help her differentiate between her personal and work cells. Robert Mecea<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seated at little desks in a classroom at a Queens high school and she shows me her work phone\u2019s backdrop, which is a photo of Mamdani,\u201d it reads,<\/a> \u201cnot out of professional devotion but so she can tell the otherwise identical devices apart by having her boss\u2019s face looking back at her when she picks one up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weaver, 37, has long had a chummy relationship with Hizzoner, her 34-year-old Democratic Socialist of America comrade, dating back to his first job in elected office as a Queens state Assembly member.<\/p>\n

The glossy publication even detailed Weaver was still adjusting to calling Mamdani \u201cthe mayor\u201d \u2014 instead of by his first name.<\/p>\n

But the longtime activist helped contribute to a groundswell of backlash against City Hall at the start of Mamdani\u2019s mayoralty when her past social media posts resurfaced, revealing her extreme positions on housing and private property.<\/p>\n

Weaver seen crying in public after her comments calling home ownership a \u201cweapon of white supremacy\u201d resurfaced. Gregory P. Mango<\/p>\n

Weaver listening to Mamdani speak at a press conference in Jackson Heights, Queens on Jan. 16, 2026. James Messerschmidt for NY Post<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn resident once branded homeownership a \u201cweapon of white supremacy\u201d and called on the government to \u201cseize private property,\u201d as well as numerous other eyebrow-raising remarks.<\/a><\/p>\n

The NY Mag article touched on Weaver\u2019s far-left views, painting her as a victim of a media \u201ccircus\u201d and even referring to her as a \u201cPost punching bag\u201d in its headline.<\/p>\n

Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not how I would say things today,\u201d she told the mag of the past inflammatory posts, while saying the press coverage was \u201cat a level of intensity that was new.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York Magazine referred to Weaver as a \u201cPost punching bag.\u201d<\/p>\n

The profile mostly detailed Weaver\u2019s new role as an advocate for renters and her background as a housing organizer \u2014 dubbing her a \u201cminor celebrity of the New York left\u201d before she took the government gig.<\/p>\n

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The magazine described how one tenant who saw Weaver at the March \u201cRental Ripoff\u201d hearing inside the the Academy of American Studies in Long Island City was starstruck. <\/p>\n

The person \u201cgushes at first sight,\u201d the piece details, also noting that an event volunteer requested a selfie with her and another attendee told Weaver \u201cI\u2019m excited to see you. The housing czar!\u201d<\/p>\n

Weaver speaking at a \u201cRental Ripoff\u201d hearing in Brooklyn on Feb. 26, 2026. Michael Nagle for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tenant-organizing stuff is not something that we\u2019re doing because it\u2019s nice,\u201d Weaver told the mag.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing this because it literally makes our work better and more efficient and more possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City Hall\u2019s radical tenant advocate Cea Weaver has a picture of her boss, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[42273,57,9,2409,56,63,65,64,7978,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-190243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-cea-weaver","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-magazine","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-tenants","17":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}