Mamdani rent freeze scheme ripped as ‘theater’ by landlord rep — as she resigns in protest hours before vote
A landlord rep on the city’s Rent Guidelines Board resigned just hours before the group is scheduled to vote on a rent freeze.
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Christina Smyth, the board’s sole landlord representative, sent out a scathing letter of resignation to the group Thursday morning, claiming it had “stopped being a fact-finding body,” the New York Daily News first reported.
“This rebuilt board was required to deliver a rent freeze. Everything since has been theater,” she wrote.
Smyth, a real estate attorney and law firm owner, slammed Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s hand-picked board — on which he appointed six of the nine members — for turning a blind eye to rising building and insurance costs for landlords.
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“I asked why the data showing rising costs and falling net income was not reflected in the board’s direction to its members. Those questions went unanswered,” she said.
A signature promise of Hizzoner’s mayoral campaign was to “Freeze the Rent” on the city’s rent-stabilized housing stock.
“This year’s RGB order was decided last year on the campaign trail,” she wrote, adding, “This rebuilt board was required to deliver a rent freeze.”
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