Zohran keeping real estate oligarchy?

Mayor-Elect Mamdani Must Not Turn NYC’s Economy Over to the Real Estate Oligarchy!

As New York City prepares for a new era with Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, one decision will define whether his administration delivers on its promise of affordability and justice—or collapses under the same real estate–driven policies that have strangled our economy for more than a decade. That decision is whether Mamdani hands the future of the city’s small businesses and working families to Maria Torres-Springer.

If Mamdani empowers Torres-Springer—whose record shows unwavering loyalty to the real estate oligarchy—his administration will begin with a fatal mistake. For years, Torres-Springer used her influence inside City Hall to protect the interests of the most powerful landlords while New York’s small business crisis deepened, empty storefronts spread across neighborhoods, and immigrant-owned generational businesses were pushed out by skyrocketing rents. At precisely the moment when New Yorkers need a clean break, giving her the keys to economic policy would ensure the continuation of a system that has failed everyone except the city’s largest property owners.

The Department of Small Business Services (SBS) was created to safeguard the backbone of our local economy—small businesses that employ most New Yorkers, anchor communities, and fuel job opportunities for immigrants and working families. Instead, for more than a decade, SBS has served as a political firewall for the real estate lobby, blocking hearings, suppressing real solutions, and helping ensure that the Jobs Survival Act—legislation supported by virtually every mom-and-pop owner—never reaches a vote. Under Torres-Springer’s watch, SBS became an agency that did nothing to stop, or even acknowledge, the mass evictions that forced 1,700 to 1,900 businesses to close every month during the peak years of the crisis. It was on her watch that New York became the only major American city with a full-blown empty-store blight epidemic.

And yet, during the mayoral campaign, Mamdani called Torres-Springer “one of the best and brightest” and praised her “excellence in public service.” Whether through political inexperience or the deliberate pressure of lobbyists, this embrace contradicts everything Mamdani told voters—that he would challenge oligarchic power, reject the old political machines, and deliver economic justice to working families. A candidate who ran on ending landlord domination cannot begin governing by elevating the very architect of that domination.

This is not about ideology. It is about reality. No progressive vision for affordability, thriving neighborhoods, or expanded opportunity can survive if New York’s commercial rent crisis continues unchecked. Without structural reforms to the commercial lease renewal process, the city will remain trapped in a destructive cycle: beloved businesses pushed out after decades, storefronts sitting vacant for years, neighborhoods losing jobs and culture, and working families paying the ultimate price in higher costs and fewer local services.

If Mamdani truly intends to break with past administrations—which handed control of the city’s economic machinery to REBNY and its allies—then he must appoint a truly independent Commissioner of Small Business Services. Someone who understands firsthand what it means to sign a lease, make payroll, build community trust, and struggle through the predatory tactics of speculative landlords. Someone with no ties to political donors, real estate interests, or the revolving door of “nonprofit partners” funded by those same interests. Someone committed to restoring the American Dream for the city’s entrepreneurs rather than presiding over its demise.

There is room in any administration for policy experts with establishment résumés. But there must be at least one institution—SBS—where the needs of working families outweigh the demands of real estate portfolios. Torres-Springer’s record disqualifies her from that role. Her presence signals continuity where New Yorkers voted overwhelmingly for change.

Mayor-elect Mamdani won because he promised to take on the forces that delivered an affordability crisis to every household in the city. Now he faces his first real test: Will he govern for the people who believed in that promise—or for the real estate oligarchy that has controlled City Hall for too long?

New York’s small businesses, immigrant entrepreneurs, workers, and entire communities cannot afford another administration that mistakes lobby talking points for economic policy. The city needs a leader who understands that protecting our mom-and-pops is not optional—it is indispensable to rebuilding a fair, thriving, and inclusive New York.

The choice is clear. If Mamdani wants to deliver on his mandate and avoid a historic failure, he must reject the illusion of “expertise” propped up by the same interests responsible for our crises—and appoint an independent SBS Commissioner who will finally stand with the people who keep this city alive.