millennial internet-speak<\/a> and repeated references to his opponent\u2019s \u201cprivilege.\u201d Mamdani\u2019s mother is a successful independent filmmaker and his father is a Columbia University professor.<\/p>\nOn Monday, Cuomo went a step further, releasing a formal proposal, which he dubbed \u201cZohran\u2019s Law,\u201d barring landlords from leasing vacant rent stabilized units to \u201cwealthy tenants,\u201d defined as those who would pay less than 30% of their income toward the existing rent. <\/p>\n
The rent regulation program, which caps how much landlords can raise rent each year on roughly 1 million apartments, does not currently include any income restrictions \u2014 something opponents have long pushed to change. <\/p>\n
While the average rent stabilized household makes $60,000 annually, it is not uncommon for middle- or higher-income New Yorkers to live in the units, which sometimes rent for several thousand dollars per month. <\/p>\n
But Cuomo\u2019s idea drew swift skepticism from some housing experts, who noted the cap would, by definition, mean all new tenants of rent stabilized units would give up a substantial portion of their income.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea that we should only have people living in apartments they can\u2019t afford seems to be setting people up for failure,\u201d said Ellen Davidson, a housing attorney at The Legal Aid Society. \u201cIt\u2019s not a proposal from somebody who knows anything about the housing market or New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Real Estate Board of New York, a landlord group whose members overwhelmingly backed Cuomo in the primary, did not respond to an inquiry about whether they supported the proposal. But in an email, the group\u2019s president, James Whelan, said that the \u201cbenefits of rent regulation are not well targeted\u201d and that some form of means testing should be considered. <\/p>\n
Under state law, hikes on rent-stabilized units are decided by an appointed board, rather than landlords.<\/p>\n
\u201cRent stabilization has never been means tested because it\u2019s not an affordable housing program, it\u2019s a program about neighborhood stability,\u201d said Davidson, the housing attorney, adding that the proposal would likely present a \u201cbureaucratic nightmare.\u201d <\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Cuomo\u2019s campaign, Rich Azzopardi, said in a text message that \u201cthe ultra wealthy and privileged should not be taking advantage of a program meant to aide working New Yorkers,\u201d adding that the income threshold standards would fall under the same system that governs the city\u2019s other programs for low-income housing. <\/p>\n
Mamdani\u2019s spokesperson, Dora Pekec, said the proposal proved that Cuomo was both desperate and out of touch. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Cuomo cares only for the well-being of his Republican donors, Zohran believes city government\u2019s job is to guarantee a life of dignity, not determine who is worth one,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Andrew Cuomo is demanding that his opponent in New York City\u2019s mayoral race, Zohran…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":140580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5297,61307,90,83942,57,328,83941,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,80,83940,61,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-140579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-andrew-cuomo","10":"tag-dora-pekec","11":"tag-elections","12":"tag-ellen-davidson","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-government-regulations","15":"tag-james-whelan","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-newyork","19":"tag-newyorkcity","20":"tag-ny","21":"tag-nyc","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-rich-azzopardi","24":"tag-u-s-news","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-of-america","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-usa","31":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115017721156147442","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}