Mamdani Appoints Tenant Advocate, Steps Into Landlord’s Bankruptcy

Newly inaugurated New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent his first day in office focused on housing, naming key players and setting new policies in his efforts to strengthen housing access and affordability across New York City.

In one of the first executive orders of his tenure, Mamdani pledged to revitalize the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, which is “a central coordinating body to defend tenants’ rights, stand up to landlords, and ensure city agencies act swiftly on behalf of renters facing unsafe or illegal conditions,” according to a release from the new administration.

According to the executive order, the office was formed in 2019, but was subsequently “defunded and deprioritized.” 

In order to re-establish and revitalize the office, Mamdani named tenant advocate Cea Weaver as the office’s new director.  

“Today, on the first day of this new administration, on the day where so many rent payments are due, we will not wait to deliver action. We will stand up on behalf of the tenants of this city,” Mamdani said in the release. “You cannot hold landlords who violate the law to account unless you have a proven principled and tireless fighter at the helm. That is why I am proud today to announce my friend Cea Weaver as the director of the newly reinvigorated Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.” 

The release noted that Weaver currently serves as the executive director for Housing Justice For All, a statewide tenants and housing rights coalition, and for the New York State Tenant Bloc. In these roles, she played a pivotal role in “securing passage of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019,” described by the administration as “landmark legislation that closed loopholes allowing landlords to dramatically raise rents and deregulate rent-stabilized apartments.”

“I am humbled and honored to join Mayor Mamdani’s administration, and to stand with him on his very first day in office as he makes clear where his priorities lie: with the millions of tenants in New York City who have been mistreated for too long by negligent landlords,” Weaver said in the release. “This newly revitalized office marks a new era of standing up for tenants and fighting for safe, stable and affordable homes.” 

As it happens, area landlords might describe her primary achievement to date a bit differently, possibly with some choice four-letter words thrown in for effect.

Commercial Observer reported in January 2025 that the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 “pretty much removed incentives for landlords to upgrade their housing stock,” and that since 2019 “the market value of rent-stabilized buildings has plunged dramatically,” citing investment sales brokerage Ariel Property Advisors in noting a decline in market value of “between 35 and 60 percent from highs in 2017 and 2018.”

The announcement of the office’s revival and Weaver’s appointment were just the beginning.

In what Mamdani aides made a point of describing as “the first major action of his administration,” Mamdani announced that the mayor’s office would be intervening in the bankruptcy proceedings against Pinnacle Group, which CO reported a major update on earlier this week with the news that Summit Properties had agreed to buy part of Pinnacle’s portfolio, including more than 5,000 housing units, for $451.3 million. 

The mayor’s release notes that as the landlord for 83 apartment buildings across the city, Pinnacle has been “responsible for more than 5,000 housing violations and 14,000 complaints.” 

(The city’s release actually referred to Pinnacle Realty, not Pinnacle Group. CO believes this was an error, as Pinnacle Realty seems to be a separate, most likely unrelated brokerage that focuses mainly on commercial listings in the outer boroughs. The city did not respond to a request for clarification.)    

“New York City will take action to seek immediate relief and improve living conditions for Pinnacle tenants, an unprecedented step on behalf of renters living in some of the city’s most neglected buildings,” the mayor’s office said in the release.

In announcing that the mayor’s corporation counsel nominee, Steve Banks, would take “precedent-setting action” in bankruptcy court to protect renters, the release noted that “the mayor is a creditor and interested party” in the Pinnacle case, as “the city is owed money that Pinnacle never paid.”

To drive home his dedication to the case, the mayor made the announcement and signed the executive orders in one of the Pinnacle-owned buildings the administration alleges has fallen into neglect, noting in the release that Mamdani toured an apartment there that had “broken walls, torn flooring and a failure to provide heat.”         

In other housing-related news, Mamdani signed executive orders establishing two new task forces. 

The LIFT (Land Inventory Fast Track) Task Force will “leverage city-owned land to accelerate housing development, increase supply, and drive down costs,” in part by identifying city-owned parcels that could be used for new housing development. This task force will be overseen by Leila Bozorg, the city’s deputy mayor for housing and planning.

The SPEED (Streamlining Procedures to Expedite Equitable Development) Task Force will “identify and remove bureaucratic and permitting barriers that drive up costs and slow housing construction and lease-up.” Bozorg will head this along with Julia Kerson, the deputy mayor of operations appointed on Dec. 31.

The mayor’s first-day actions and announcements did as much as possible to show that the Mamdani administration’s focus was centered on housing affordability and livability before all else, as Mamdani indicated it would be throughout his campaign.

“Today’s executive orders signal this administration’s clear-eyed focus on standing up for and addressing housing quality for tenants, aggressively taking on the bureaucracy that hampers housing access, and leveraging city-owned properties to increase our supply of affordable housing,” said Bozorg. “Cea Weaver is a powerhouse for tenants’ rights — winning major victories for tenants across the city and state — and I’m excited to see the innovation she brings to this new role.”

In related news, Mamdani also appointed Mike Flynn as commissioner of the city’s Department of Transportation. 

Flynn has several decades of experience in dealing with the city’s transportation issues via the public and private sectors, including “nearly a decade at the New York City Department of Transportation, where he held senior leadership roles including director of capital planning and project initiation,” according to the announcement. More recently, Flynn led the New York office of TYLin City Solutions (formerly Sam Schwartz Engineering).

“Our city deserves a Department of Transportation commissioner that recognizes the critical role that street infrastructure, road design and excellent public transportation play in making this city an affordable, safe and dignified home for millions,” Mamdani said in a statement. “That is the leadership I see in Mike Flynn, who has spent decades improving the way we walk and ride through our city — and will continue this work in City Hall.”

Also announced this week were Ahmed Tigani, who has served as acting commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development since March 2025, as the city’s buildings commissioner; and Emmy Liss, the former COO of the city Education Department’s early childhood division who played a major role in helping then-Mayor Bill de Blasio roll out the city’s free pre-K program, as director of the city’s child care office, which means she will no doubt be pivotal in the development of Mamdani’s much-desired free child care initiative. 

Pinnacle Group declined to comment.

Larry Getlen can be reached at lgetlen@commercialobserver.com.