Justin's Guide to New York

The Real Deal published a piece this week arguing that tenant rights are deterring investment and prolonging vacancies in New York City. The article features a landlord attorney with a sympathetic anecdote about one rent-stabilized tenant who is allegedly holding up repairs to a dangerous stairwell. It quotes a developer explaining that good cause eviction now adds years to his renovation timeline.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani made a lot of promises on the campaign trail, but freezing rent for about a million stabilized-apartment tenants was the one that stuck. He's been in office a few months now, and he's moving fast. The real estate industry is nervous, tenant groups are cautiously optimistic, and everyone is waiting on a board vote that could reshape how rent works in this city for years to come.

A new housing lottery is underway for Ruby Square, a 12-story development in Jamaica, Queens. Designed by Perkins Eastman and developed by BRP Companies, it includes 614 units, of which 185 are slated as “affordable” under the city’s Housing Connect program. But when you dig into the numbers (especially what people actually make in New York) the term “affordable” begins to look like a bait-and-switch.

Since the passage of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA), landlords and politicians have been crying about lost profits, burdensome regulations, and supposed threats to the market. The narrative is always the same: they claim they can’t afford to maintain buildings anymore, that the new laws are “punishing” owners, and that the city will collapse if they can’t raise rents to whatever level they choose.

Zohran Mamdani, a progressive state assemblyman from Queens, has shaken up New York City’s political and real estate landscapes with his insurgent mayoral campaign focused on housing justice. His proposals—ranging from freezing rents on over a million apartments to overhauling the city’s property tax system—have drawn fierce support from tenant advocates and deep resistance from landlords, developers, and the political establishment. As the city grapples with a worsening affordability crisis, Mamdani’s candidacy has become a flashpoint in the debate over who gets to shape New York’s future—and at what cost. Zohran Mamdani is an Astoria‑based Queens state assemblyman and housing advocate who entered the mayoral race with a strong focus on affordability. With years of experience as a foreclosure prevention counselor, he attributes his platform to efforts assisting low‑income homeowners in Queens stay in their homes, a history that motivates his housing agenda . Central to Mamdani’s pl...