“Let’s start by not paying next quarter’s property taxes. We’ll drive this city fucking bankrupt!” he shouted in the video posted Tuesday. “The minute we don’t pay your property taxes, New York City is going to fucking crumble.”
“You can’t exclude us all,” he said.
“If you destroy us, we can destroy the damn city,” he concluded.
In the video, Lopes holds up a poster released this week by Mamdani’s government announcing dates for five “rent ripoff” hearings, inviting tenants to speak about their experiences renting in the city. The image read ‘New Yorkers vs. Bad Landlords’ to call to action a boxing match.
Landlord groups were not amused by the images.
“By framing his ‘rent ripoff’ hearings as a prize fight between tenants and landlords, it becomes disturbingly clear that this new mayor’s housing policies will be driven by big politics, circus-like slogans and us-versus-them divisions,” Ann Korchak, chairman of the Small Property Owners of New York, said in a statement.
“Show trials can be good theater, but they don’t solve the problems,” Anthony Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association, said in a statement.
Lopes echoed these sentiments, but with more f-bombs.
“What do you think you’re going to accomplish that HPD hasn’t accomplished?” he asked, holding the poster in his hand, referring to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
He also questioned why the government isn’t including NYCHA in the hearings. (Public Advocate Jumaane Williams last month named the city’s public housing authority as the city’s worst landlord, although it was not on his official list.)
When asked Friday, Lopes said he is serious about pushing for owners to withhold property taxes, compared to when tenants stop paying rent to force landlords to make repairs. He said he is consulting with lawyers about carrying out the threat.
It is unclear how many others would follow him in such a protest. Korchak said that while small property owners are “frustrated by the vitriol against landlords,” withholding property tax payments would “cause more financial damage and suffering” for the owners. She thinks a more constructive route would be pushing the state to change the 2019 rental laws.
Lopes heads HL Dynasty, which owns and operates 1.2 million square feet of real estate in New York and Florida, according to the company’s website. Lopes recently launched a landlord group called Gotham Housing Alliance, inspired by his longtime love of Batman (in videos, Batman figurines can be seen on his desk, and in at least one video, a life-size Caped Crusader statue appears in the background). Lopes noted in a phone call Friday that Batman’s goal is to “bring the city back to normal.”
The video has a bombastic style that is also seen in his other videos on social media, where he speaks directly into the camera. Lopes has complained about other city policies in these videos, including the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA).
“If a poster about ‘bad landlords’ strikes a chord, it’s worth asking why. Our focus is not on rhetoric, but on results,” a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement. “We’re committed to working with everyone who is committed to providing safe, stable housing and helping us build a city that everyday New Yorkers can actually afford.”
Tenant advocates say the “rent rip-off” video proves the need for the hearings.
“Hit dogs holler,” said Charlie Dulik, director of tenant advocacy at Housing Conservation Coordinators. “His anger at tenants being given a simple opportunity to speak out about the conditions they are suffering shows exactly why these hearings are necessary.”
The first hearing is scheduled for February 26 in downtown Brooklyn. In one of his first acts as mayor, Zohran Mamdani signed an executive order establishing the hearings to give tenants a chance to speak out about “abusive, deceptive or unscrupulous practices by landlords.” The executive order also lists property managers and landlords as potential speakers.
Within 90 days of the final hearing, scheduled for April 7, city agencies must issue a joint report outlining common themes raised during the hearings and recommending policies and other changes to address them.
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