New York's new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, promised to lower housing prices in New York.
He apparently intends to do it the same way Stalin collectivized farming in Ukraine in 1933.
In his first week, he's promised to start holding "Rental Ripoff" sessions in the first couple of months of his regime.
Mamdani announces New York City to have “rental rip-off hearings”! And so it begins my friends, today it’s socialism, tomorrow communism, soon to be sharia law
— Dennis Michael Lynch (@TrustDML) January 5, 2026
pic.twitter.com/l6fhsZ4GnO
New Yorkers will be able to lament about their rental woes – from hidden fees, retaliation, discrimination, illegal eviction and deplorable building conditions – during Mamdani’s first 100 days in office, according to an executive order signed by the mayor on Sunday.
The “rental ripoff” hearings will also include tenant organizations, social services agencies, advocacy organizations and legal service providers, as well as landlords and property managers.
Some landlords accused Mamdani of demonizing them by holding the “rental ripoff” hearings.
It seems like it might be...one-sided?
The mayor's office said New Yorkers will be able to testify about their biggest challenges as renters, from shoddy building conditions to hidden fees, during hearings in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.
"Too many New Yorkers have been forced to pay more for less -- living in unsafe, unconscionable, and unaffordable housing. 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," Mamdani said during a news conference at 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in the Bronx.
So, big public hearings where people vent their collective spleens about landlords?
Where have we seen that before?
We have been here before: "Struggle sessions" - public shaming of 'class enemies" in Maoist China https://t.co/McevyXGOWT pic.twitter.com/00XD9mQt0S
— Nashville Tea Party (@NashvilleTea) January 5, 2026
On August 19th, 1936, the first of the Moscow Trials was convened. It was a show trial that Stalin used to purge party leadership. All 16 defendants were convicted, sentenced to death, and executed in Lubyanka prison. pic.twitter.com/gzWACUqoTK
— Today In Socialism (@2dayinsocialism) August 19, 2025
I'm not the only one who's noticed:
Mamdani’s “rental ripoff” hearings look to be show trials to shame landlords rather than events to surface good policy ideas. I get that the mayor is focused on affordability, but I bet some real estate people will see the hearings as anti-Semitic. https://t.co/epXubUFecE
— Erik Engquist (@erik_engquist) January 6, 2026
Naturally, some housing is more equal than others: Mamdani is apparently exempting city public housing...:
Notice how they never talk about NYCHA being poorly maintained. The worst slums in the city are run by the government. But you never hear them talk about that.
— Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (@VickieforNYC) January 6, 2026
Because they don't actually care about improving anything at all, they're interested in developing a pretense for… https://t.co/540o9yw3Lo
Turns out the city may be not only the most favored landlord in the Big Apple, but perhaps the worst, the one most deserving of being excoriated:
This is spot on. If @NYCMayor Mamdani cared about NYC housing for the poor, the first thing he would do is fix the 180,000 NYCHA apartments rather than first focus on seizing private property.
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) January 6, 2026
NYC’s track record for managing and maintaining housing is extremely poor. From… https://t.co/FqUEiEfhkY
So just to make sure we're clear - Mamdani and his lieutenants want to make all housing into city-run housing, and the city is the worst landlord in town.
And they're going to do it by trying to make it look like that's exactly what people are begging for.
I mean, it's not like the smart people - including New Yorkers who remember the city's last bout of utopianism - didn't try to warn them.
