New York City mayoral candidates join forces to call out Andrew Cuomo's housing record
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Four Democratic candidates running to be New York City's next mayor joined forces Friday morning to call out former Gov. Andrew Cuomo on his housing record.
"Andrew Cuomo could not give a rat's (expletive) about the lives or future or housing justice for every single New Yorker," NYC Mayoral candidate Brad Lander said.
They joined tenant advocates near City Hall to blame Cuomo for allegedly creating the city's affordability crisis and blasted his ability to fix it.
"We are standing united today. Cuomo is bad for housing now and he was bad for housing in the past," said mayoral candidate Sen Zellnor Myrie.
"In his final year as governor, New York City lost 66,000 rent-stabilized apartments and that isn't right," City Council speaker Adrienne Adams said.
Zohran Mamdani said: "He does not have an answer for how he could make the city more affordable, when he has worked arm in arm with those who have made millions from its inequality."
Queens assemblyman Zohran Mamdani wants a four-year rent freeze on stabilized apartments.
Others want more tenant representation on the Rent Guidelines Board.
Cuomo proposes aggressive efforts to preserve buildings and to build new ones. The centerpiece of his housing plan-that included several spelling and grammatical errors.
"We must defeat Eric Adams' second term. And initially it was Eric Adams carrying that threat and now it's Andrew Cuomo, because that's what he's running for. The same agenda, the same donors, the same corruption," Mamdani said.
It comes after Mayor Eric Adams called out the Cuomo campaign for allegedly using artificial intelligence to create a housing plan which mirrors his own.
"It appears that they're going to do 500,000 new homes in the next 10 years. Did you hear that from somewhere? From me. That's our plan!" Adams said.
"What the left is trying to do is to make it a case of 'Cuomo's too far to the right and therefore you shouldn't vote for him,' which is a dumb strategy. Ultimately, the Adams argument has better value over time because it positions Adams as the guy with ideas and Cuomo as the guy with an empty head that needs AI to fill it," political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said.
Cuomo's team has denied the allegations. A spokesperson released a statement:
"Governor Cuomo has a decades-long record of fighting for tenant rights and protecting renters. As governor he created a tenant protection unit to fight for renters and crack down on bad actors, as well has launched a comprehensive program to finance 100,000 affordable housing units and 6,000 supportive housing units across New York, as Housing and Urban Development Secretary under President Clinton he took over and turned around the Chicago Housing Authority and under Mayor Dinkins helped create a model for fighting homelessness that was replicated around the nation. New Yorkers know he's the candidate with the experience and the record to help fix what's broken in this city and they are not going to be swayed by this gaslighting from far left political operatives and a clown car of career politicians with no vision or achievements of their own."
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