Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Cea Weaver, his pick to head the resurrected Office to Protect Tenants, are two peas in a progressive pod when it comes to housing.<\/p>\n
Mamdani has infamously promised to jack up property taxes <\/a>on \u201cwhiter neighborhoods\u201d; Weaver has been pilloried, and justly so, for calling homeownership a \u201cweapon of white supremacy<\/a>\u201d and seeking to \u201cimpoverish the \u2018white\u2019 middle class.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But Weaver\u2019s policy confusion goes deeper \u2014 and should spark concern about Mamdani\u2019s broader housing agenda.\u00a0<\/p>\n In resurfaced tweets, she railed against property ownership<\/a> as \u201can individualized good and not a collective good.\u201d<\/p>\n Private property and homeownership merely \u201cmasquerade as \u2018wealth building\u2019 public policy,\u201d she declared.<\/p>\n In other words, Weaver (and perhaps Mamdani) is signaling antagonism toward the private housing sector itself<\/a>.<\/p>\n In that light, it very much matters that the mayor is standing by Weaver<\/a> despite her inflammatory views.<\/p>\n He\u2019s even announced what amount to a series of show trials for landlords, in the form of \u201crental ripoff\u201d hearings<\/a> in all five boroughs.<\/p>\n He clearly fails to appreciate the extent to which private landlords are failing in New York as the result of public policies.<\/p>\n A key case in point: the estimated 50,000 rent-regulated apartments now vacant \u2014 held off the market \u2014 because the cost of bringing them up to housing code<\/a> is greater than the rent owners can collect.\u00a0<\/p>\n Renovating a vacant apartment can cost up to $600 per square foot, experts say \u2014 that\u2019s a $60,000 bill to bring a 1,000-square-foot apartment back to rentable condition, for critical costs like updated electrical wiring, new appliances and plumbing replacement.<\/p>\n But the state\u2019s 2019 rent-control statute, the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, sharply limits rent increases, even for major capital repairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n The problem here is public policy, not market failure.<\/p>\n If Mamdani really wants to boost the housing supply, he should follow the example of a fellow progresssive. \u00a0<\/p>\n Maura Healey, the Democratic governor of Massachusetts<\/a>, seems to be Mamdani\u2019s political soul mate.<\/p>\n She\u2019s the nation\u2019s first LGTBQ state chief executive and a fierce critic of \u201csystemic racism.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, America is burning,\u201d\u00a0 she said of the riots that followed the death of George Floyd. \u201cBut that\u2019s how forests grow.\u201d<\/p>\n She has opposed deporting any illegal immigrants, calling it\u00a0 \u201cintentionally cruel.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet she\u2019s broken ranks with her fellow leftists on a core housing policy: rent regulation.<\/p>\n With a ballot referendum in favor of statewide rent control looming, Healey last month just said no.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cRent control is not going to be the solution to how we get through this crisis,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to build more homes.\u201d <\/p>\n In other words, she\u2019s one leftist who understands supply and demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n The latter without the former leads to high prices \u2014 like the <\/a>$3,400 per month average one-bedroom rent in Boston.<\/p>\n Healey understands, as Mamdani apparently does not, that freezing the rent\u00a0inhibits new supply.<\/p>\n She knows the telling history of rent control in her state \u2014 and the benefits that followed the 1994 referendum that abolished it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prior to that statewide vote, three major Massachusetts communities had adopted rent control.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The result: poorly maintained buildings and a drop in housing stock.<\/p>\n Just as in Gotham today, properties were taken off the market while values fell.<\/p>\n By 1994, Boston had more than 10,000 vacant apartments, as overall rental housing stock fell\u00a0by 12%, per an <\/a>MIT study.<\/p>\n Healey fears a replay.<\/p>\n