Tag Archives: New York City Council

The Camel’s Nose Under The Tent

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On Friday, Townhall posted an article about the “Community Opportunity for Purchase Act” (COPA) passed by the New York City Council.

The article reports:

The New York City Council has passed a measure that’s clearly laying the groundwork for the eventual government seizure of private property. The “Community Opportunity for Purchase Act” (COPA) requires some property owners to delay putting their properties on the open market for 90 days so “community land trusts” and nonprofits have an exclusive shot at buying them first.

The article quotes a New York Post article:

But the new legislation, which was recycled by progressive Brooklyn lawmaker Sandy Nurse earlier this year, is a watered-down version of a prior proposal that included a much larger number of properties.

Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) called the bill’s initial proposal an “attack on private real-estate ownership” in the five boroughs.

“We’re sliding headfirst into a communist dystopia where the government and their apparatchik developers own all the property, and the rest of us get forced into perpetual rentorship, and this legislation is helping to get us there even quicker,” Ariola said at the time.

The tweaks brought some real estate groups on board with the legislation.

The article notes:

It’s absolutely an attack on private real estate ownership. As of right now, this legislation impacts about 2,100 New York City buildings, down from 10,000 under the previous version of the bill. Former Mayor Eric Adams vetoed similar legislation before leaving office.

That’s still too many buildings, and I don’t think Mayor Mamdani will veto the bill.

The article reports:

The board president of the Small Property Owners of New York Ann Korchak told The New York Post that this is “just a foot in the door.”

“COPA, in any form, is a destructive housing policy for renters, owners, and affordable housing,” she said. “COPA will devalue buildings, forcing small often immigrant and multigenerational owners to sell their buildings for pennies on the dollar.”

That’s the entire point. The socialists who run New York City want to devalue property. They want government to own it all. They’re inching their way toward that goal.

I have a feeling the situation in New York City will get worse before it gets better.

The Value Of Private Property Rights

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In 2010, I wrote an article about the relationship between private property rights and poverty. The source of the article was a post by John Stossel at Townhall. The conclusion of the article was that enforcing property rights and the rule of law breeds prosperity. Unfortunately, New York City is on the verge of forgetting that principle.

On Monday, The Post Millennial reported:

The New York City Council has passed what has been called the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) that will force private building owners to offer up their property to nonprofits and government entities before they make any private sale, effectively causing massive delays in property sales and other regulatory hurdles in the Big Apple’s housing industry.

In the scenario that it is passed, NYC will have the largest COPA program in the country. The act forces landlords to offer their property to the city as well as nonprofits before the building can be sold on the public market. The lawmaker who sponsored the law, Council Member Sandy Nurse, claims that it will be a win for New Yorkers.

“Corporate interests and big real estate tried their hardest to block the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act with a misinformation and fear-mongering campaign, and they failed,” Nurse said about the law’s passage, per Pix 11. “Today marks the beginning of a new social housing era in New York City… COPA levels the playing field and makes it possible to preserve and create thousands of permanently affordable homes across our city.”

The act dictates that landlords must first tip off the government entities and nonprofits that qualify, and “may not take any action that will result in the sale of such covered property to a person other than” those entities. Then the owner must sit on that property for 25 days as it is up for sale to the nonprofits, which can submit a statement of interest.

According to JD Supra:

COPA applies to to Class A multiple dwellings with four or more dwelling units, subject to several important limitations and timing thresholds. Owner-occupied properties for residential purposes with five or fewer units are expressly excluded. (Let’s see how long that provision is honored.)

Beginning one year after the legislation’s anticipated 2027 effective date, COPA’s scope expands. Properties may qualify as a Covered Property based on hazardous or immediately hazardous housing violations, expiring affordability restrictions, or other criteria established by HPD through future rulemaking.

The law is billed as something that is going to create affordable housing. Actually, it will simply create chaos in the New York City real estate market.

This is a definite infringement on private property rights. I hope there is a lawsuit filed as soon as the Mayor signs the bill into law.

UPDATE: Mayor Adam’s vetoed the bill on New Year’s Eve. The City Council needs a two-thirds majority to override that veto.

Everyone Paying Attention Saw This Coming

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Breitbart reported yesterday that Democrats on the New York City Council are working to allow nearly a million non-citizen to vote in local city elections.

The article reports:

The plan, backed by 34 Democrats on the 51-member New York City Council, would allow non-citizens with green cards, visas, and work authorization to vote in city elections so long as they have resided in New York City for at least 30 consecutive days

The plan indicates that legal immigrants on green cards or an employment visa who have lived in New York City for at least a month would be able to vote for mayor, comptroller, public advocate borough presidents, council members, and changes to city policy.

Ydanis Rodriguez, a Democrat councilmember who represents the Washington Heights neighborhood in Manhattan, told NY1 that “we need to recognize the contributions of our immigrant brothers and sisters” by giving non-citizens city-wide voting rights.

“This is not about doing a favor to immigrants by allowing them to vote,” Rodriguez said. “If they pay their taxes, as I did when I had my green card, then they should have a right to elect their local leaders.”

The article concludes:

Councilman Joe Borelli, a Republican who represents Staten Island, said he believes “citizenship should matter and having someone reside here for 30 days and check some boxes shouldn’t entitle them to vote for the people who will tax us for the next generation.”

Democrats on the New York City Council attempted to pass the plan last year, seeking to give huge electoral power to the city’s 3.1 million foreign-born population — making up almost 40 percent of the total city population.

The majority of the city’s foreign-born population has arrived from the Dominican Republic, China, Mexico, Jamaica, Guyana, Ecuador, and Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Bangladesh, and India.

Is anyone actually surprised by this? When amnesty for the dreamers was being debated, the idea was floated to allow the dreamers to stay, but not give them voting rights. At that time it was mentioned that it would only be a matter of time before the Democrats (who assume all illegal aliens would be Democrat voters) would say that since they were working and paying taxes, the dreamers should be allowed to vote. What we are seeing in New York City is a preview of things to come.

It should probably be noted that all of the immigrants who built this country were not allowed to vote until they became citizens. They also were required to support themselves.