Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial pick for tenant advocate, Cea Weaver, once admitted that pushing for rent control was just the “first step” in her plan to destroy the free housing market and move toward “full social housing.”
Videos of Weaver’s past statements have gone viral on social media since Mamdani chose the 37-year-old to lead the city’s Office to Protect Tenants.
“We decided that fighting for rent control was a strategic and critical first step in the fight for full social housing,” she said in a newly surfaced clip. “So, a lot of times people ask, ‘Why are we fighting for rent control when we have NYCHA? We should be fighting to save public housing.’ We decided that through a program like rent control, we are able to directly challenge the logic of unfettered profit in the real estate market. Umm, and we are able to directly challenge housing as a wealth-building tool and, through regulation, strike a blow to the entire real estate industry at once.”
She continued, “And so, the beauty of rent stabilization and rent control is that it weakens the speculative value of the real estate asset. The value is no longer based on what the landlord is able to get, but rather it’s based on a state public board deciding how much rent is going up. And yes, that board is controlled by the real estate industry, and yes, there could be a better way to regulate it. But the idea is that we could weaken the entire industry at once through a strong rent control campaign, and that would strengthen our ability to do things, like fight for social housing.”
Cea Weaver says the quiet part out loud….
“We decided that fighting for rent control was a strategic and critical first step in the fight for full social housing…
We decided that through a program like rent control, we are able to directly challenge the logic of unfettered… pic.twitter.com/R8fo9rsBCW
— Michelle Tandler (@michelletandler) January 14, 2026
Her agenda is terrifying, and it’s coming to New York.
The New York Post has more:
The startling comments drew frightened backlash on social media.
“How many New Yorkers (or Americans for that matter) want to support policies that weaken the speculative value of real estate?” one critic asked.
“No one with two brain cells to rub together is going to invest in properties that lose money, and have them just be taken over by the state. It’s a lose/lose/LOSE scenario,” another warned.
“Serious question: How is this constitutional?” one X user asked.
Others, meanwhile, ripped her ideas as “amateur” and signaled her thinking showed an “incredible disconnect from how basic economics work.”
“I’ve never witnessed anyone so arrogantly discuss the destruction of the American dream,” one critic raged.
Another chimed in, adding: “This is communism, striking a blow on the real estate market…”
“Forcing landlords to accept below-market rents indefinitely plus mandatory lease renewals plus severe limits on eviction is a classic taking. This is essentially a permanent physical occupation by tenants the owner can’t remove, plus confiscation of the core bundle of property rights,” one X user griped. “Property rights aren’t optional just because the cause is popular.”
Good luck, New York City, you voted for this.
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