US EditionMamdani launches 'Organize NYC' to mobilize renters to speak out at Rent Guidelines Board hearings
City Hall will train volunteers to boost testimony from rent-stabilized tenants and landlords before a late-June decision on whether to raise or freeze rents.
- On Wednesday, Mayor Mamdani Zohran announced his newly created Office of Mass Engagement will launch volunteer outreach to inform tenants and landlords about upcoming Rent Guidelines Board hearings.
- Only 400 New Yorkers—or 0.02% of those impacted—testified last year for decisions affecting more than 2 million residents, prompting Mamdani to call the process a "failure of civic engagement."
- Facing rising costs, New York Apartment Association CEO Kenny Burgos argues owners lack funds for repairs, stating: "The only lever they can pull is a reduction in repairs and maintenance that these buildings desperately need."
- City Hall will train volunteers and provide a script to maintain neutrality, with Office of Mass Engagement commissioner Tascha Van Auken stating: "We are not telling people how or what to say."
- Citizens Union executive director Grace Rauh called the guardrails a "good start," while New York City Corporation Counsel Steven Banks emphasized the effort focuses on "civic engagement and people participating.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Mamdani shares video of keffiyeh-clad door knocker, raising questions, hackles of Jewish New Yorkers
A keffiyeh worn by someone featured prominently in a New York City public service announcement that Mayor Zohran Mamdani released on Wednesday is raising questions and hackles among Jewish New Yorkers.Two young workers from the mayor’s office of mass engagement, identified as Tascha and Mohamed, are shown in the video knocking at Gracie Mansion, the mayoral home.Mamdani opens the door and asks them to tell him more about testifying at the June h…
Mamdani ad promoting Rent Guidelines Board features city employee wearing a keffiyeh
A version of this piece first ran as part of the New York Jewish Week’s daily newsletter, rounding up the latest on politics, culture, food and what’s new with Jews in the city. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. Diners at Israeli restaurant harassed by protesters Pro-Palestinian protesters shouted “Bomb Israel” and called customers “pedophiles” earlier this month outside Motek, an Israeli eatery in Flatiron, reports The New York Post. Vide…
Mask-Off Mayor: Mamdani Pushes Pro-Palestinian Imagery In New NYC Ad
A video from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office shows a man and a woman from the Office of Mass Engagement asking people to testify at the rent guideline board hearings. The man, named “Mohammed,” wears a keffiyeh, which is popularly seen as fealty to the Palestinian Arab cause.The video shows them knocking at the door of a home and Mamdani answering, saying, “Tell me more.”New York, let's get organized.In a city of over 8 million, just…
Critics blast Zohran Mamdani’s new government initiative as political lobbying for rent freeze
Mayor Zohran Mamdani launched a taxpayer-funded campaign Wednesday that critics bashed as a gambit to badger an independent board to freeze the rent for about 2 million tenants.
Mayor Mamdani Unleashes Door-Knocking Campaign To Advance Rent Freeze
The mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, who got elected in part by mobilizing a campaign army of volunteer door-knockers, now wants to replicate the same tactic to achieve his promise to "freeze the rent." At an April 29, 2026 press event, Mamdani asked New Yorkers to sign up at organize.NYC.gov to help gin up testimony at hearings of the Rent Guidelines Board, which by law annually sets rent rates in the city’s approximately 1 million rent-contr…
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