Zohran Mamdani Administration

Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed longtime housing activist Cea Weaver to lead the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants despite resurfaced social‑media posts in which she described homeownership as a “weapon of white supremacy” and advocated treating property as a collective good, drawing criticism from federal officials and editorial boards. Mamdani defended Weaver as a principled tenant advocate and said the administration knew of the posts, while Assemblyman Kalman Yeger and other City Council members say the council signaled in 2021 it would not have confirmed her earlier nomination to the City Planning Commission, which was withdrawn.

Cea Weaver, appointed Jan. 1 by Mayor Mamdani to lead the revived Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, is facing renewed scrutiny after a September 2021 "Bad Faith" podcast in which she said "White, middle-class homeowners are a huge problem" for the renter-justice movement and argued homeownership should be "undermined" to provide stability in other ways. She also deleted a 2019 X post calling private property—especially homeownership—"a weapon of White supremacy," and has since told Spectrum News NY1 she regrets "some" of her past rhetoric while saying she will focus on addressing racial inequalities and ensuring safe, affordable housing; former Mayor Eric Adams publicly condemned her language.