Who are Zohran Mamdani’s supporters?
One political commentator called them “the coalition of the in-between.”
While Andrew Cuomo won votes from both New York’s poorest and wealthiest, Mamdani was sent to Gracie Mansion by the ballots of middle-income renters, political strategist Michael Lange noted.
But on housing policy specifically, New York’s mayor seems to be catering to two specific groups: YIMBYs and socialists. This is on display in his housing plan, which nods to YIMBY pet issues like permitting reform and rezonings, as well as ideas out of the socialist/tenants’ rights space, like community land trusts.
These two political constituencies haven’t always seen eye-to-eye. YIMBYs are often pragmatists — left-of-center wonks happy to work within the capitalist system. Leaders in the tenants movement are often much more inspired by alternative economic systems and theories of civil disobedience.
But when the mayor announced his housing plan, on stage among others were Annemarie Gray, who heads the YIMBYist Open New York, and Sumathy Kumar, who leads the tenant group Housing Justice 4 All.
The conversation around housing used to be a binary, Mamdani said at the press conference. “Do you believe in building? Or do you believe [in] fighting for tenants?” he said. “For a long time, the two were framed as mutually exclusive.”
How does the mayor get away with uniting them? He’s helped by the cultural ascendance of YIMBYism. Now even DSA types say the city needs more housing supply, even if they sneer at people who first promoted that idea.
And YIMBYs care mostly about new housing. They’re less concerned with who owns older housing, leaving the tenant movement able to wrest those units out of landlord hands.
“The way they’re managing the coalition is they’re saying we’re going to do market liberalism for new housing, and we’re going to do fairly aggressive socialism for old housing,” said Alex Armlovich, a housing program officer at Coefficient Giving and former member of the Rent Guidelines Board. “That’s how they’re kind of holding everything together.”
But just how solid is this “YIMBY Socialist” coalition?
“I think the rubber will hit the road when more rezonings are next,” said Samuel Stein, housing policy analyst at Community Service Society, who referred to the current moment as a “détente.” If the rezonings target working-class neighborhoods of people of color, relations could be strained, he said.
Open New York’s Gray took a more optimistic tone.
“What feels politically possible and the coalitions that can be built now — there are so many opportunities that just didn’t quite exist from where housing politics were even just a couple of years ago,” she said.
What we’re thinking about: I’m interested in how rabbinical courts handle real estate and business disputes. Have you taken your case to a beth din? Tell me about it at lilah.burke@therealdeal.com.
A thing you learned: The Knicks playoff performance that sent them to the championship is expected to generate at least $145 million in revenue, Seaport Research Partners analyst David Joyce told Front Office Sports. Because tickets are the biggest revenue driver the team could have made even more money if they didn’t sweep the 76ers and Cavaliers.
Elsewhere…
— There were more than 57,000 vacant, rent-stabilized apartments in New York in 2025, an increase of 8,000 from 2024, according to a document from the state that Rent Guidelines Board member Arpit Gupta posted to Twitter. Some of those could be units in newly constructed buildings that have yet to be leased up, a state official wrote in the document. But landlords and brokers say low legal rents make it impossible to renovate and rent out some units.
— A group of 29 New York City City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the city’s district attorneys and administrative judges calling for an investigation into the circumstances that led to a woman who was nine months pregnant giving birth in a Brooklyn courtroom last month, reports City & State. “This horrific and degrading incident is the result of a series of systemic failures that reinforced conditions which put the people of New York needlessly in harm’s way,” the letter said.
Closing time
Residential: The most expensive residential sale recorded Friday was $24 million for 50 West 66th Street, 40N. The new construction unit on the Upper West Side is 3,400 square feet. Developer Extell sold the condo.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial transaction was $203 million for 132-142 West 27th Street. The Chelsea development was once a 120-foot-wide parking lot primed for development. It last traded in 2013 for $35 million. Innside Ventures LLC is listed as the buyer.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $22 million for 344 West 72nd Street, Unit PHE. The Upper West Side co-op is 6,000 square feet. It last sold on the market for $7.5 million in 2021. Corcoran’s Kathy Murray has the listing.
Breaking Ground: The largest new building permit filed was for a proposed 198,437-square-foot, 15-story, mixed-use building at 530 Utica Avenue in East Flatbush. Shay Alster of GF55 Architects is the applicant of record.
— Joseph Jungermann
