Perhaps more than anything else, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been associated with his now-famous "freeze the rent" pledge for rent-stabilized units in the Big Apple.
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Mamdani → associate → Apple
Throughout his campaign, Mamdani made bold promises, such as claiming: "As mayor, I'll freeze the rent every year I'm in office.
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I → make → office
In June of this year, some six months after Mamdani took office, the mayor's promised rent freeze finally came to fruition.
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freeze → take → fruition
But while Mamdani has already taken a victory lap for his accomplishment, the celebration may have been premature.
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celebration → take → accomplishment
In July, a group of landlords launched a lawsuit challenging the rent freeze, arguing it was a prejudged and arbitrary outcome from the independent regulatory body—the Rent Guidelines Board—which is legally required to consider a set of factors when deciding NYC rent increases.
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which → launch → increases
To understand the lawsuit, one first has to understand the backdrop of how NYC's rent-stabilized market works.
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market → understand → backdrop
Despite Mamdani's campaign bluster, the ultimate decision over whether to freeze—or increase—rents on stabilized units in NYC belongs to the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB).
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decision → freeze → Board
This nine-member panel traditionally includes two members representing landlord interests, two members representing tenant interests, and five "public members" who are ostensibly supposed to be neutral.
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who → include → interests
The RGB votes each year on whether to allow landlords of stabilized units in the city to raise their rents, and if so, by how much.
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landlords → vote → how
By voting through a 0 percent increase, the board can "freeze" the rent—something which, prior to Mamdani, had only been done three times since the RGB's inception in 1969.
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which → vote → 1969
While the RGB has the ultimate authority to decide whether to freeze or increase rent, it cannot do so in a vacuum.
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it → have → vacuum
Under the law, the board is required to consider "the economic condition of the residential real estate industry" in NYC, which includes looking at factors such as real estate taxes, sewer and water rates, gross operating costs for landlords, interest rates for financing, housing supply and vacancy rates, cost of living data, and more.
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which → require → living
The problem is that, under Mamdani, it appears that the board disregarded these factors rather than earnestly considering them.
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board → appear → them
If anything, the RGB's own data suggest that landlord operating costs are presently spiking for buildings with rent-stabilized units—increasing by 5.3 percent this year, alongside a projected 4.1 percent increase next year.
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costs → suggest → increase
That would suggest the need for a rent increase, not a rent freeze.
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That → suggest → increase
As the lawsuits notes: "According to the Board staff's own Price Index of Operating Costs report…expenses across all relevant data points were up this cycle: fuel up 11.0 percent, insurance up 10.5 percent, maintenance up 6.0 percent, utilities up 5.6 percent, administrative costs up 4.8 percent, and taxes up 2.6 percent."
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fuel → note → points
Even in areas where the RGB predicted future decreases in operating costs over the coming year—such as a 1.7 percent projected decline in utility costs—actual on-the-ground evidence pointed the other direction.
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evidence → predict → direction
Just 15 days before the RGB's final vote to freeze the rent, the NYC Water Board voted for a 6 percent increase in water and sewer charges for the coming year.
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Board → freeze → year
Further, while the board's topline data suggested a net operating income increase for rent-stabilized landlords of 6.2 percent across the city—which would suggest landlords are making good money on their rent-stabilized units—the dataset was so flawed as to be almost entirely irrelevant.
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dataset → suggest → units
The RGB data includes all buildings with at least one rent-stabilized unit.
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data → include → unit
An NYC building with 99 market-rate units and one rent-stabilized unit would be included in the net operating income dataset.
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building → stabilize → dataset
Once this reality—along with inflation—was factored in, the net operating income for rent-stabilized units hovers closer to zero or one percent (and was actually negative in the Bronx).
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income → factor → Bronx
Despite this evidence, the RGB plowed ahead with its rent freeze.
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RGB → plow → freeze
Six of the nine members were appointed by Mamdani, and Mamdani declared during his campaign that he would only appoint Board members who "understand that landlords are doing just fine."
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landlords → appoint → members
Several of those people, predictably, had explicitly taken anti-landlord stances prior to being appointed, such as one claiming in 2023 that "landlords have indisputably been wildly overcompensated over the last 31 years."
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landlords → take → years
Another said in 2021 that "we don't need to prioritize 'mom and pop landlords' either."
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we → say → landlords
Once elected, Mamdani created the so-called Office of Mass Engagement (OME), which was charged with boosting participation in local governance.
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which → elect → governance
As part of OME, the Mamdani administration created Organize NYC, which was tasked with canvassing to drum up attendance at the RGB hearings in the months prior to the rent freeze.
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which → create → freeze
Reports from one of the canvassers suggested that former Mamdani campaign aides—and current OME staffers—were part of the canvassing effort and that the canvassing list only targeted tenants at rent-stabilized units (and zero landlords).
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list → suggest → units
Just hours before the RGB's final vote on the rent freeze, board member Chrstina Smyth—a holdover appointee from former mayor Eric Adams—resigned in protest.
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Smyth → resign → protest
"This rebuilt board was required to deliver a rent freeze," she said.
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she → rebuild → freeze
According to Smyth, she repeatedly asked the Board to explain their methodology, but "those questions went unanswered."
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questions → accord → methodology
Rather than retain its role as a "fact-finding body," Smyth argued that the Board "has become a body that starts with an answer and vibe codes its way backward to justify it."
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that → retain → it
The landlords' lawsuit asks the courts to hold that the RGB's rent freeze decision is arbitrary and capricious under state administrative law.
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decision → ask → law
(The Manhattan Institute, where I work, has also backed an intervention in the case, arguing that the board's seemingly predetermined rent freeze decision violated the due process of law.)
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decision → work → law
Last month, the judge overseeing the case ordered the Mamdani administration to hand over all emails and text messages between City Hall officials and the RGB.
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judge → oversee → officials
The city was given five days to produce the messages, which appear to show communications between Mamdani administration officials and members of the board in the months leading up to the rent freeze (although no direct orders from Mamdani officials to freeze the rent).
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which → give → rent
Mamdani's open championing of a rent freeze may have helped him get elected.
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him → help → freeze
But it also may cost him in the long run.
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it → cost → run
Under the law, the RGB has the authority to freeze the rent, but it needs to do so via an actual independent decision, not vibe code theater or a predetermined outcome.
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it → have → decision
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