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   From: noreply@mixmin.net   
      
   NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is standing behind a   
   newly-appointed housing official as she faces backlash for years-old   
   social media posts, including messages that called for the seizure of   
   private property and linked homeownership to white supremacy.   
      
   Cea Weaver, a longtime tenant activist, was tapped by the Democrat last   
   week to serve as executive director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect   
   Tenants. The mayor has vowed to expand and empower the office to take   
   “unprecedented” steps against negligent landlords.   
      
   But in a sign of the high-level scrutiny on Mamdani’s administration,   
   Weaver’s since-deleted posts have sparked condemnations from officials   
   in the U.S. Department of Justice and the editorial board of The   
   Washington Post.   
      
   The posts, which were circulated on social media in recent days by   
   critics of Mamdani, included calls to treat private property as a   
   “collective good” and to “impoverish the (asterisk)white(asterisk)   
   middle class.” A tweet sent in 2017 described homeownership as “a weapon   
   of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building public policy.’”   
      
   Eric Adams, the city’s former mayor and a fellow Democrat, said the   
   remarks showed “extreme privilege and total detachment from reality.”   
      
   Asked about the controversy on Wednesday, Mamdani did not address the   
   substance of Weaver’s posts but defended her record of “standing up for   
   tenants across the city and state.”   
      
   Weaver said in an interview with a local TV station that some of the   
   messages were “regretful” and “not something I would say today.”   
      
      
   “I want to make sure that everybody has a safe and affordable place to   
   live, whether they rent or own, and that is something I’m laser-focused   
   on in this new role,” she added.   
      
   The discussion comes after Mamdani last month accepted the resignation   
   of another official, Catherine Almonte Da Costa, after the   
   Anti-Defamation League shared social media posts she made over a decade   
   ago that featured antisemitic tropes.   
      
   While Mamdani had said he was unaware of Da Costa’s messages, Weaver’s   
   past social media posts were known to the administration, according to a   
   mayoral spokesperson, Dora Pekec.   
      
   Weaver previously led the Housing Justice for All coalition, which was   
   widely credited with helping to convince state lawmakers to pass a   
   sweeping package of tenant protections in 2019.   
      
   As leader of the city’s tenant protection office, she would play a key   
   role in achieving one of Mamdani’s most polarizing campaign pledges:   
   identifying negligent landlords and forcing them to negotiate the sale   
   of their properties to the city if they are unable to pay fines for   
   violations.   
      
   The “public stewardship” proposal has drawn consternation from landlord   
   groups and skepticism from others in city government.   
      
   But the early days of his administration have brought signs that the new   
   mayor is not backing off on the idea.   
      
   In a press conference immediately following his inauguration last week,   
   Mamdani said the city would take “precedent-setting” action against the   
   owner of a Brooklyn apartment building that owed the city money and was   
   currently in bankruptcy proceedings.   
      
   He then announced Weaver’s appointment, drawing loud cheers from the   
   members of a tenants union gathered in the building’s lobby.   
      
   “It is going to be challenging,” Weaver acknowledged. “New York is home   
   to some of the most valuable real estate in the world. Everything about   
   New York politics is about that fact.”   
      
   https://apnews.com/article/zohran-mamdani-nyc-housing-official-social-med   
   ia-54b04c0df38ef6d0374e99ecb02a4040   
      
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