First move will be passing rental-broker bill Nov. 13

Nov 8, 2024, 7:00 AM

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• Kathryn Brenzel

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Eight years ago, Donald Trump’s election enraged and energized New York’s progressives, who took control of the state Senate and slashed rent growth in rent-stabilized housing.

Now, history could repeat itself, in a slightly different form.

A week after Trump’s election to a second term, the City Council is expected to vote on a bill that aims to save tenants thousands of dollars on broker fees when they lease apartments.

Shortly before Election Day, Council members were given copies of the measure to review, indicating approval is imminent. The bill was likely to be approved next week regardless of who won the White House, but progressives can point to its passage as proof to their constituents that they are responding to Trump’s victory.

“The FARE Act is a powerful example of how Progressives are taking on the real economic struggles everyday people face, like being price gouged on rent and broker fees,” Council member Sandy Nurse, co-chair of the Council’s Progressive Caucus, said in a statement.

“While moderate and right-wing politicians play their game of divide and distract, blaming immigrants, trans people, and progressives for the struggles of the working class, this bill does the real work.”

“It’s time the moderate wing of the Democratic Party stop playing it safe and lean into populist platforms like the FARE Act that brings people together by meeting their real, urgent needs,” she continued.

In New York City, Trump lost to Vice President Kamala Harris by 37 percentage points, according to unofficial election results. He had lost to Biden by 54 points four years ago and by 63 points to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump gained ground in Chinese and Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn, Hispanic communities in the Bronx and Queens, and Chinese and South Asian neighborhoods in Queens, the New York Times reported.

“He didn’t do that badly in New York,” said political consultant George Artz. “The margins were not great.”

Democrats saw their edge slip, albeit slightly, in other races too. The party kept its majorities in the state legislature, but lost its supermajority — a veto-proof majority — in the Senate, according to City & State.

Democratic incumbents largely held onto seats in competitive races, and Democrats flipped three House seats, but in Brooklyn, Republican Steven Chan defeated Democratic state Sen. Iwen Chu.

Having the potential in both the Senate and Assembly to override a governor’s veto gave Democrats more leverage to push progressive policies, even without ever overriding a veto by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The 2019 rent reform, which restricted the ways that landlords can increase rents on stabilized apartments, was progressives’ most significant real estate victory in ages. After years of trying to pass good cause eviction, they succeeded this year, but changes to the legislation prompted the city chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America to say the industry “effectively defeated it by watering it down.”