Call in the Feds to Investigate Lawless Mamdani

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is weaponizing the apparatus of city government to crush landlords and seize their property, violating state law, the U.S. Constitution and fundamental fairness.

If you’re not a landlord, you may think this doesn’t affect you — but think again.

Landlords are just the first: Anyone who owns anything is in this socialist mayor’s crosshairs.

He ignores the limits of government power and his duty to govern for all the people.

As evidence of the danger ahead, see Mamdani’s new Office of Worker Power, announced on Labor Day.

It’s a first-in-the-nation municipal initiative to push unionization on private-sector workers — and to launch labor-law investigations of nonunionized workplaces, whether there have been complaints or not.

Businesses large and small should take a close look at the mayor’s anti-landlord actions — because they’re next.

Mamdani unveiled his Block by Block housing initiative on May 26, calling it a “sweeping blueprint to tackle New York City’s deepening housing crisis.”

But most of the “plan” called for hyperaggressive code enforcement against “negligent” property owners.

Weeks later, Hizzoner and his newly created Office of Mass Engagement — his taxpayer-funded $53 million staff of information ministers — launched his “Talk to the Tenants” campaign, sending armies of Democratic Socialists of America volunteers door to door, mobilizing tenants to organize against their landlords.

Says Office of Mass Engagement head Tascha Van Auken, “By knocking on doors and connecting tenants with organizing resources, we’re helping New Yorkers build the collective power to hold negligent landlords accountable.”

And elect more democratic socialists, of course.

This is the DSA version of Tammany Hall, the political machine that saw William “Boss” Tweed turn the city’s police and fire departments into political armies.

It was illegal then, and it’s still wrong today: Tweed was convicted of stealing taxpayers’ money and died in jail.

In Mamdani’s version, his Office of Mass Engagement is masterminding a surge in tenant complaints to trigger court action against landlords.

In April, Hizzoner dressed up as a Housing Preservation and Development inspector (no kidding) to create a social media post pushing tenants to call 311 with complaints — legitimate or not.

“No issue is too small,” he boasted, suggesting renters could alert the city to issues as minor as a tiny crack in the plaster, or a flowerpot in the corner of another tenant’s fire escape.

(Somebody should tell the mayor it’s illegal to call in false complaints, or to encourage others to do so.)

Mamdani’s dirty tricks are working, legal or not: Complaints are surging compared to last year.

Clogged toilets are up 500% — and not because of contaminated lettuce.

When a tenant calls 311, HPD contacts the owner; if it isn’t remedied promptly — and a flood of complaints will make that harder — the city sends an inspector who can issue a violation.

Violations trigger court action. That’s the goal.

Hizzoner’s Block by Block housing blueprint states, “We will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers” and transfer ownership to “responsible stewards.”

In other words, outright confiscation, violating the Takings Clause of the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.

On Aug. 30, Mamdani announced his new Housing Court Fast Track, expediting court access for tenants only, not landlords.

This one-sided access violates landlords’ due process rights, as well as their constitutional right to equal protection under the law.

About 80% of housing court cases relate to unpaid rent, and landlords must wait up to 50 days for a court date to try to collect.

Mamdani offers them no relief.

But tenants in buildings with city-defined “hazardous conditions” are guaranteed immediate access.

Courts have repeatedly ruled that landlords and tenants should have equal access to justice.

When New Jersey’s Gloucester Township tried to give tenants but not landlords access to appeals courts in the late 1980s, a state court struck the arrangement down as a violation of the building owners’ rights.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that New York City could not adopt a COVID-19-era eviction moratorium without giving landlords a chance to challenge tenants’ claims of financial hardship.

Under the Constitution, justice must be even-handed.

But Mamdani has no interest in governing in an even-handed way.

He’s brushed off questions about property owners who struggle to afford the cost of fixing endless violations: “If a landlord is not able to follow the law,” he said with a sniff, “then they should not be a landlord of that property.”

He plainly doesn’t want to be a mayor for all the people — tenants and landlords, workers and employers.

Don’t just stand by as Mamdani twists the law to pummel landlords: You’re next.

It’s time to demand legal action, starting with a call for a Justice Department investigation into these unconstitutional tactics.

Bring in the feds.

Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and Chairman & Founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths at www.hospitalinfection.org. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.