Mayor Zohran Mamdani: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all for being here. It is a pleasure to stand here alongside incredible members of our administration, our City Councilmember Shekar Krishnan, and tenants and those who have been fighting for them. In our great city, certain words carry specific associations. When New Yorkers hear Broadway, they think of talent, creativity. When they hear dollar slice, they may think of 2 Bros [Pizza] and the beautiful past that the cost-of-living crisis has stolen from us.
And for too many New Yorkers, when they hear the words A&E real estate, they think of mistreatment and neglect, violations and appalling living conditions. Thousands of our neighbors live in rent-stabilized units managed by A&E, and thousands of our neighbors contend with daily misery as a result.
For years, A&E has operated with callous disregard for those residing in its properties, racking up over 140,000 total violations, including 35,000 in the last year alone. This is not just a failure to serve those to whom it holds an obligation. It is overt cruelty to tens of thousands of New Yorkers. City Hall will not sit idly by and accept this illegality, nor will we allow bad actors to continue to harass tenants with impunity.
Today, I am proud to stand here alongside our Housing Preservation and Development commissioner, Dina Levy, deputy mayor for Housing and Planning, Leila Bozorg, and director of the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants, Cea Weaver, to announce that New York City has come to a settlement with A&E Realty regarding 14 buildings across three boroughs.
This settlement will require A&E to not only pay $2.1 million in restitution, it will impose injunctions preventing them from harassing their tenants and compelling them to correct more than 4,000 building code violations across these 14 buildings. Thank you for all of your work in bringing today and making it possible.
Thank you [to] all of you who have been doing this work for far too long without seeing these kinds of results. Because while this settlement covers 14 buildings, I also want to make very clear we are aware of issues across the entirety of A&E Realty's portfolio and we will continue to monitor their conduct. 4,000 building code violations is hard to put into perspective. It is a big number and, frankly, a bureaucratic term.
But if you understand it as thousands of children unable to sleep because the heat is off and they're shivering too hard, if you understand it as dozens of elevators out of order, if you understand it as hundreds of apartments festering with mold, then you understand that the action we are taking today is not only one of good governance, it's one of a moral imperative. This is the kind of progress that for too long has not been prioritized by our city government.
And I want to make clear that this is what I want New Yorkers to expect from our administration every single day. On my first day in office, I announced that we were revitalizing the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants. I said then what we are following through today. If your landlord does not responsibly steward your home, [the] city government will step in. [The] city government has real power to protect the millions of tenants across the city.
And let today be evidence that we are not afraid to use it. But we do not wish to lead this work on our own or to go after bad landlords without the people of New York City informing [us of] the decisions we make or the abuses that we prioritize. And that is why we announced that we will be holding a Rental Ripoff Hearing in each of the five boroughs within the first 100 days of our administration.
These are hearings where HPD will work closely with the Department of Buildings, the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and the newly created Office of Mass Engagement to listen to New Yorkers' needs, ending the days of them being considered the preferably unheard, and ensuring that their perspectives are then used to devise not just strategies, but also policies.
If this is truly the beginning of a new era, then let it be one defined by a City Hall that is unafraid to take on those who would harass and mistreat New Yorkers and that governs with the people's needs as its North Star. Thank you so much. I'm excited to announce Commissioner Dina Levy will join me next.
Commissioner Dina Levy, Department of Housing Preservation and Development: Good afternoon. So, today we are announcing that the suffering endured by the 750 tenants across 14 buildings owned by A&E Real Estate will finally come to an end. Their demands for basic services and rights for which they pay rent every month will no longer be denied. HPD's litigation against A&E has produced a settlement that will lead to the correction of more than 4,000 housing code violations across this portfolio.
It will enforce long overdue court-ordered repairs and impose $2.1 million in civil penalties and will include binding injunctions that will prohibit further tenant harassment and require sustained compliance moving forward from this landlord. In other words, we are holding A&E accountable.
This outcome is the result of deliberate and sustained enforcement by HPD's Anti-Harassment Unit, a team that exists for one reason, to protect tenants when landlords repeatedly refuse to comply with the law. I would like to acknowledge Paul Gdanski, Bryan Daly, and Tawanda Hamilton, who are members of our Anti-Harassment Unit and whose work led to this settlement. But it is also a testament to the tenants' fortitude who got organized, working with the groups here today, Communities Resist and AHTP, somewhere here, and who organized despite the legitimate fear of retaliation. HPD acted swiftly and deliberately in this case, and still we know that for the tenants of these buildings who have long suffered at the hands of these landlords, this relief could not have come soon enough.
Since its creation six years ago, the HPD Anti-Harassment Unit has secured millions of dollars in judgments, held some of the city's worst landlords accountable, and even put a landlord in jail. Twice, actually. The settlement announced today with A&E represents HPD's largest settlement in the history of the unit. But this is not our only tool, and it is not where our work will end.
Through the Alternative Enforcement Program, we will intervene in the city's most distressed buildings, step in to make critical repairs when owners fail to do so, and charge those expenses back to those landlords, and we will use our Emergency Repair Program to intervene and correct the most hazardous violations.
And when tenants' health and safety are placed at risk, we will use our 7A administrative proceedings to remove the buildings from the owner's control and install responsive management. These are serious enforcement tools, and we will use them intentionally. And when landlords persistently fail to comply with the law, we will not hesitate to act.
Under Mayor Mamdani's leadership, this administration will provide unwavering support when it comes to strong, diligent enforcement. We will continue to give our teams the authority, the resources, and the backing they need to hold negligent landlords accountable and protect tenants across the city, in every borough, and in every neighborhood.
We will not look away when disrepair is used as a form to harass, intimidate, or displace tenants. And we will be very clear. Safe [and] livable housing is not a luxury. It is not a favor. It is an absolute right. Thank you. It is my pleasure to now introduce Councilmember Krishnan.
Councilmember Shekar Krishnan: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm New York City Councilmember Shekar Krishnan, representing this district here in Jackson Heights. And it is an honor to be here today with Mayor Mamdani, Commissioner Levy, City Hall, and so many advocates and tenants like Diana, who will speak in a bit, who have been fighting this fight for so long against such a reprehensible landlord.
Now, as a former tenant lawyer myself, before I entered the City Council, I've always said that tenants' rights are not worth more than the paper they're written on if they're not enforced in reality. Here we are today, thanks to Mayor Mamdani and his administration, showing what enforcement looks like, holding a landlord accountable for the violations of basic housing rights and civil rights.
In a community like Jackson Heights, a community of immigrants, street vendors who feed so many New Yorkers across the city, taxi drivers who drive so many New Yorkers around the city, immigrants who push this city forward every single day. But for far too long, they've had to deal with a landlord in A&E that owns 17 buildings here across the portfolio, across the city. The most buildings that A&E owns is right here in Jackson Heights. 17 buildings with over 2,000 violations alone in Jackson Heights.
We have rallied together with the tenants, with organizations for months and years over basic conditions, a lack of heat and hot water, termites eating through the walls, bathroom floors collapsing, no heat or hot water. And on top of that, an elevator that still does not work at 81st Street where Diana lives.
But today, we are showing that together, with HPD, with the mayoral administration, with organizations like my former organization, Communities Resist, providing legal services, and AHTP with all the tenants at the front of that fight, that we will hold landlords accountable in the city and send the message loud and clear that when they violate civil rights and basic rights of tenants, we will go after them because every tenant deserves signified housing in this city.
[Speaks in Spanish.]
And now it is my honor to call up a fighter, a luchadora who has lived in an A&E building for many years and can tell you the conditions that she has had to and still has to live through. We are calling up Diana De La Pava.
Diana De La Pava: Hello everybody. My name is Diana De La Pava. I have lived in the building on 81st Street for over 13 years with my daughter. It's a rent-stabilized apartment here in Jackson Heights. Our building is located 35-64 81st Street and it has another side, also a different address, but it's one same building. An A&E Real Estate which is owned by Douglas Eisenberg is operating through an LLC called 80-01 37th Avenue which is headed by the officers Brian Garland and Margaret Brunn.
A&E purchased our building on September 30th, 2021. The previous owners were not great, but A&E has made it a routine to ignore us and not repair things and not fix them intentionally. Before anything else, I want to say how grateful I am, how grateful we are that we're here today with Mayor Zohran, with Shekar Krishnan and the new leadership for HPD.
The fact that the mayor has been standing with tenants only 16 days into his administration sends a powerful message, that this city is ready to listen and act early, not years later. That matters to us. Since July 2024, the elevator in my building has been out of service for 12 months out of the 18 months that have passed.
Often broken for weeks or even months at a time, these failures effectively imprison elderly and disabled tenants in their own homes. People are not inconvenienced, they are trapped. Mariela, a 35-year-old wheelchair user, has been confined to the second floor for months. Her health has deteriorated severely and continues to do so. I have reached out to management and originally I reached out to politicians because of Mariela, because I was concerned for her.
During one of these elevator outages, Alberto Quintero, an 84-year-old resident who lived on the fourth floor, died during a heat wave while the elevator was out of service. Just days earlier, Alberto had told me that the broken elevator was going to kill him, and I just didn't pay attention. I thought he was being silly. I told him not to worry. His death was not a coincidence. It was the predictable result of ignoring known dangerous conditions.
Because of Alberto's death, we organized, [and] we reached out to Councilmember Shekar, who connected us with Communities Resist, also known as CoRe. With their legal support, we sued A&E Real Estate to stop living under inhumane conditions driven by financially motivated neglect. In July 2025, residents and our councilmember and CoRe held a press conference together.
The very next day, the elevators were suddenly repaired, including the one on 81st and 80th Street, two elevators, and the two elevators at this building were also broken. Magically, they were able to fix it the following day. So, even that management kept telling us earlier that they did not have the parts, that the elevator company had said that, and that's why the four elevators were broken.
So, this is not about broken machinery. It's about neglect, indifference, and lives treated as disposable, until public pressure makes inaction inconvenient. At the same time, every winter, we live with chronic heat failures. A&E Real Estate routinely shuts off our heat overnight, forcing tenants to sleep in freezing apartments. These shutdowns happen during night hours when HPD inspections are not typically conducted, allowing violations to go undocumented.
Leaks go unfixed for months, soaking ceilings and walls until mold spreads through entire apartments. After cleaning services were cut in the building, when A&E purchased the building, infestation followed. We are full of roaches, mice, and bedbugs, turning what should be safe homes into hazards. This is not neglect caused by lack of knowledge. It is neglect sustained by timing, loopholes, and the assumption that tenants will endure what would never be tolerated elsewhere.
For tenants in rent-stabilized apartments like mine, this kind of neglect functions as harassment, pushing people out so landlords can raise rents. That context matters. A&E Real Estate documents problems, but their property manager, Michael Nelson, refuses to approve repairs. Our superintendent [gets] sent to take photos, and now I made it a habit to take a photo of the superintendent taking photos so I know how much BS they are working on. And then nothing happens.
In April 2023, I filed a 311 complaint about a live electrical outlet next to a water valve in my kitchen. HPD inspected. The landlord, Michael Nelson, the manager, promised to come and have an electrician and a plumber fix the problem. That never happened. And he refused to walk farther into my apartment because there were bedbugs. And there were bedbugs because they stopped cleaning.
So it has been a nightmare. It's a vicious circle. So almost three years later, I'm still living with the water main next to the outlet, and I have been told that it is extremely possible that a fire could happen. This is not a communication failure. It's a business model for A&E. Our building has nearly 600 HPD violations, including 149 Class C, immediately hazardous violations.
This is not a lack of information. It's a lack of urgency, and we believe that can change. Enforcement alone is not enough. HPD services requests without follow-through do not fix buildings, as we have experienced. We need coordinated action between the Mayor's Office, HPD, and Communities Resist, and us. We're encouraged by the potential synergy between the new HPD leadership and Mayor Mamdanis’ team and Communities Resist.
Working together through joint inspections, shared data, real case tracking, repair deadlines, and court enforcement tied to city oversight. Coordination matters because landlords exploit gaps between agencies. Tenants fall through cracks. Data gets buried, cases stall, and efficient and effective systems must replace chaos. We're not asking for favors. We're demanding a concrete structure, a task force with real power, public timelines and consequences for noncompliance. Our lives depend on it.
A&E Real Estate must fix the conditions. HPD must be empowered to enforce. City leadership must ensure that the system works. We're ready to work together so no one has to live with mold, vermin, or fear, or be pushed out of their home because a landlord refuses to do [the] basics. We recognize and appreciate Mayor Mamdanis' commitment to moving beyond talk and to real working solutions for New York residents. Thank you so much.
Question: I'm just curious how aggressive you're telling your various deputies you have gathered here to deploy the threat of taking buildings. We know there was a warrant issued, I believe it was in 2024, for the arrest of a landlord. How aggressive are you guys going to get in this new administration?
Mayor Mamdani: We want to make it clear to everyone in this city that no one is above the law, and that if you are a landlord violating the law, then this administration will hold you to account and will do so because we've just heard of what the consequences are of that inaction. We are quite literally talking about the conditions that determine the day-to-day health or lack thereof of New Yorkers.
And too often, these experiences are distilled into statistics that we become numb to. And I am heartened by the incredible work we're already seeing on day 16 of our administration from those within our HPD, our deputy mayor for Housing and Planning, our executive director of the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants, to take this seriously because we've just heard what years of not doing so has looked like.
Question: Well, it's a building that you're describing this badly, that residents described this badly. Why didn't you guys try to just take the building? I'm trying to see where the line is in your administration.
Mayor Mamdani: The intended outcome is safety and well-being for tenants. That's what we are driven towards. And so we today are announcing a multimillion-dollar settlement with this landlord to actually rectify these violations. That is what we want to see. If a landlord cannot get to that settlement, [and] continues to operate outside of the law, then we will hold them to account in additional ways.
Question: So I just got a question about this comptroller report from this morning. We were talking about this, that big $12 billion budget gap. And you said something that you repeated from the state around the time– you said with the State of the State address, you said, “We believe raising taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and corporations will be necessary.” Say, you know, partners in Albany don't want to play ball with you like that. Do you have a plan B if you could talk about the specifics of what that plan B would look like?
Mayor Mamdani: I will continue to make it clear to our partners in Albany, the importance of something that they already know and champion on a day-to-day basis, which is the wellbeing of this city and its fiscal health. And we cannot have it such that a New Yorker would go to sleep on a Friday and wonder if on a Saturday, their basic services will be in doubt.
And we have long said that what we are inheriting is not just an administration in the prior one that exhibited incredible fiscal mismanagement, but also a decades-long effort from former Governor Cuomo to pilfer from city coffers at each and every turn.
And what that has left this city with is as described by the comptroller, not only a fiscal hole, but frankly, a relationship between city and state where the city contributes 54.5 percent of the state's tax revenues but only receives 40.5 percent in return. And this is the beginning of the budget processes. We will continue to make the case. What we will always make clear is that it's the health and wellbeing of New Yorkers that we're advocating for.
[Crosstalk.]
Question: I have a question and a follow-up. First, just a simple factual question about what's currently happening in New York City. And to be clear, I'm not asking whether there've been conversations or what you've been clear about.
Currently, simply yes or no, are cyclists who would have been ticketed, given a traffic ticket under Eric Adams, being criminally summoned, yes or no? And if you can't say yes or no, why can't you just say yes or no?
Mayor Mamdani: This is one of the focuses of the work that we are doing is living up to the commitment that I've made where a cyclist should not be facing a criminal summons, they should be facing a civil summons. And here on day 16, it's one of the things that we're gonna follow up on.
Question: But are they facing currently– has any person been ticketed where they wouldn't have, excuse me, criminally summoned where they wouldn't have been otherwise? Can I just get that very basic factual fact?
Mayor Mamdani: I can follow up with you.
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