On March 1, 2021, when longtime tenant advocate Cea Weaver was forced to withdraw her nomination to the powerful New York City Planning Commission after receiving opposition from the real estate lobby for her progressive housing stances, the Real Deal, an industry trade publication, characterized it like this:
"Real estate, take heart: Cea Weaver, longtime antagonist of the industry, will not be spouting socialism on a City salary."
Now, nearly half a decade later, her opponents in the real estate industry are once again organizing against her. Except today, she is on a City salary. On his first day in office, at his very first press conference, Mayor Zohran Mamdani revived the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants and appointed Weaver to lead it. Her first task? Helping the City to intervene in the Pinnacle bankruptcy auction of 93 buildings of mostly rent-stabilized units, after tenants demanded a say on who buys their homes, fearing the long-neglected portfolio of more than 5,200 apartments might end up in the hands of another slumlord.
It's a big shift from the previous mayoral administration, headed by a man who once boasted "I am real estate" and who received millions in campaign donations from developers (and whose closest aide was indicted on charges that she took bribes from real estate investors).