Lefty comrades rushed to defend Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s radical tenant advocate Cea Weaver, claiming New York City was “lucky” to have her, while taking aim at the real estate industry.
The newly minted director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants received a boost from fellow Democratic Socialists of America members and other top Mamdani allies amid the firestorm over her unearthed explosive social media posts, including dubbing home ownership “a weapon of white supremacy.”
“The real estate industry is panicking because they know we are in a new era where organized tenants and workers have power,” the city’s DSA chapter posted on X Wednesday.
“This will not deter us. We beat back real estate’s attacks in November, and we will continue to organize and fight for tenants across the city,” it added, in an apparent reference to Mamdani’s election victory.
The far-left political organization, of which Mamdani is a devout member, also claimed the criticism directed at Weaver was just a “desperate right-wing attack.”
A top advisor for Mamdani on the campaign trail, Morris Katz, said in an X post residents were “lucky to have her serving in city government.”
“Cea Weaver has worked tirelessly to address the housing crisis, protect tenants from bad landlords, and to win a city where no one has to choose between a roof over their head or staying in the place they love,” he argued.
Weaver, 37, was tapped to the top City Hall position last week, leading to Mamdani’s first major crisis of his week-old tenure as her past extreme views on housing and private property surfaces, leading to a warning from the Trump administration and calls for the mayor to can her.
“There is no such thing as a ‘good’ gentrifier, only people who are actively working on projects to dismantle white supremacy and capitalism and people who aren’t,” she posted in July 2018, according to an archived post.
A few months later, she wrote: “Impoverish the *white* middle class. Homeownership is racist/failed public policy.”
In an 2021 online forum, she said, “our goal is to have housing actually be worthless to some degree.”
Weaver has called some of her past remarks “regrettable” while Mamdani has repeatedly stood by her, saying twice this week that she was the right person to lead the tenant protection office and praising her past work on housing advocacy.
And the support for Weaver from his progressive backers and advisers indicate Mamdani isn’t likely to turn on her.
Weaver was chatting on the phone and even flashed a smile as she walked from her Crown Heights, Brooklyn apartment Thursday morning. At one point, someone walking besides her attempted to block Weaver’s face being captured by a photographer.
Her demeanor was a sharp departure from the day before when she broke down in tears when confronted by reporters.
Some state lawmakers also publicly backed Weaver, calling her a “proven tenant champion” and “relentless but respectful advocate.”
State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx) said on X he’s worked with Weaver for years and described her as the “real deal.”
“She is a trusted & proven tenant champion who is extremely qualified for the job. I’m not surprised that big real estate is pulling out all the stops to smear her,” he wrote. “Screw em. I stand w tenants & I stand w Cea.”
State Assemblyman Robert Carroll (D-Brooklyn) credited Weaver for helping pass the state’s 2019 Tenant Protection Act that bolstered renters’ rights.
“She has always been a relentless but respectful advocate. We have had dozens of interactions, and she has always been thoughtful and poised,” he posted on X, claiming critics were “cherry-picking old tweets” of Weaver’s.
State Assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest (D-Bronx) also said Weaver’s advocacy has helped thousands of people live in safe and affordable housing.
“I guess that makes some people upset but they can back all the way off,” she wrote on X.
Weaver attended Bryn Mawr College — a private college in Pennsylvania where tuition now costs as much as $88,000 per year — and then went to New York University.
Her mom owns a Nashville pad worth $1.6 million and is a professor at the prestigious Vanderbilt University, records show.
— Additional reporting by Vaughn Golden and Craig McCarthy
Read the full article here