Salon Bolshevik Mamdani Taken to Task for Living In ‘Rent-Stabilized’ Apartment

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Zohran Mamdani is the son of millionaire parents. His mother, Mira Nair, is a well-known movie director. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a Columbia University professor. His parents own property in New York City, as well as in a sprawling family compound in Buziga Hill, Kampala, the poshest neighborhood in all of Uganda, where their neighbors include one of Uganda’s richest men, the near-billionaire Godfrey Kirumira. Zohran Mamdani has for years been living in a rent-stabilized apartment. And though he now makes $142,000 a year as a New York State Assemblyman, he shamelessly continues to live in that apartment. More on this salon Bolshevik who is occupying a rent-stabilized apartment that ought to go instead to someone less wealthy and more deserving, can be found here: “Andrew Cuomo Calls on Socialist Zohran Mamdani to ‘Move Out’ of His Rent Stabilized Apartment,” by Elizabeth Weibel, Breitbart, August 8, 2025:

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) called for wealthy New York City mayoral candidate Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani to “move out” of his rent stabilized apartment, noting that someone else probably needs it more.

In a post on X, Cuomo pointed out that Mamdani and his wife are wealthy, have had weddings on three continents, and that together they “likely make well over $200,000.” Cuomo added that although Mamdani is a “rich person,” he and his wife pay $2,300 a month for an apartment in Astoria, which “should be housing for someone who needs it.”

Cuomo’s post included a video from a Democrat mayoral primary debate in which Mamdani shared that he was paying $2,300 for a one bedroom in Astoria. During the debate, Cuomo, who has launched an independent run to be the next mayor of NYC, revealed that he paid $7,800.

“Somewhere last night in New York City, a single mother and her children slept at a homeless shelter because you, assemblyman @ZohranKMamdani are occupying her rent controlled apartment, Cuomo wrote. “You grew up rich and married an even wealthier woman. You’ve had weddings on 3 continents. You own property in LGTBQIA+ murderous Uganda. You make $142,000 a year plus stipends, and your wife works too, meaning you together likely make well over $200,000. No matter which way you cut it: Zohran Mamdani is a rich person. You are actually very rich.”

“Yet you and your wife pay $2,300 a month, as you have bragged, for a nice apartment in Astoria,” Cuomo continued. “That should be housing for someone who needs it. We are in the middle of a historic affordability crisis. Millions of low income New Yorkers need this apartment and an apartment like it. Yet your apartment remains rented to rich people who don’t need it.”

“Today, I am calling on you to move out immediately and give your affordable housing back to an unhoused family who need it,” Cuomo continued. “Leaders must show moral clarity. Time to move out.”

Mamdani has no intention of moving out, unless it be to Gracie Mansion, the Mayor’s house. He’s got a good deal going, having moved into his current apartment when he was earning only $47,000 a year, but then he failed to voluntarily move out from his rent-controlled apartment, as decency dictates, when he started earning $142,00 a year as a New York State Assemblyman.

Cuomo’s comments came in response to another post sharing comments Mamdani made during an interview in February with The New York Editorial Board. During the interview, Mamdani confirmed that he lived in “rent-stabilized housing.”

When asked if he needed a rent freeze, Mamdani stated that if he was “able to put in a rent freeze,” he would not be living in a rent-stabilized apartment, but rather “on the Upper East Side, in a new apartment.”

“I think what we should be fighting for is the vast majority of people who are living in those apartments,” Mamdani stated during the interview. “If I was able to put in a rent freeze, I wouldn’t be in a rent-stabilized apartment. I would actually be on the Upper East Side, in a new apartment.”

Mamdani continued to explain when he moved into his apartment, he was earning $47,000 a year and “working as a foreclosure prevention housing counselor for Chhaya CDC in Richmond Hill and Jackson Heights,” adding that he had been searching for an apartment he “could afford” on his own.

Really? He’s been looking all over for an apartment he “could afford” on his earnings and those of his wife, that surely amount to at least $200,000 a year, with $142,000 going to Zohran alone, but can’t find anything anywhere in New York City that they can afford? Or is it that he’s pretending to search, while continuing to enjoy the benefit of living in a rent-controlled apartment at the rock-bottom price — for NYC — of $2,300 a month?

“I found that in this apartment,” Mamdani continued:”I didn’t know it was rent-stabilized. I found it through StreetEasy. In that time since, I’ve become an Assembly member and I’m now able to pay for that apartment and able to also move out of that apartment and I plan on doing so. I don’t plan on living in that apartment for perpetuity.”

Really? How plausible is his claim that he didn’t know the apartment he had found was “rent-stabilized” when every description of such properties must include that information? And he tells us that he is “now able to move out of that apartment,” and promises that “I plan on doing so.” Why not do it now? What’s holding him back? “I plan to do so” (move out of the apartment) is not an acceptable answer.

Could it be that he’s determined to hold onto that rent-controlled apartment for as long as he can get away with it? Where are all those democratic socialists who should be protesting this well-off man’s abuse of the rent-control system?

A self-proclaimed democratic socialist and paladin for the poor, this hypocrite with a six-figure income and millionaire parents, has refused long after he started to make his $142,000 salary to move out of his rent-controlled apartment. How many poor and middle-class people in New York City, who badly need such housing, will forgive this well-off grifter for holding onto this apartment, instead of doing the decent thing, and moving into an apartment where he and his wife will pay the market rate? Have you no shame, Zohran?