By: Jared Evan
Many powerful politicians in New York State did not attend the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual banquet last week and many speculate it is because they are scared of upsetting Working Families Party members and socialist former bartender Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
REBNY’s Annual Banquet is New York City’s largest real estate networking event, providing a unique and invaluable opportunity to share space with top owners, developers, brokers and major city officials in one room.
The event brings together over 2000 people and this year Daniel Tishman, Diane Ramirez, Carol Kellermann, Helena Durst, Bernard Warren, Ira Fishman, and Alex Bernstein were honored for their contributions to New York real estate.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, state Attorney General Letitia James, Council Speaker Corey Johnson and city Comptroller Scott Stringer all have attended in the past but were absent this year, according to the N.Y Post.
The N.Y Post reported: “amid continuing pressure from the left wing — including the Working Families Party and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens-Bronx) — to not accept campaign cash tied to the real-estate industry and other wealthy interests, the pols have all recently been no-shows” sources said.
In other words, high level political figures in New York City, were more concerned with the far left, radical fringe in New York City than New York real estate, which has been slumping since the new rent regulations and other strict requirements on buildings .
The Heritage foundation recently concluded in an article that : “The city’s recently amended rent-stabilization laws strip many property owners of all meaningful property rights and give them nothing in exchange—all to advance what Mayor Bill de Blasio calls the “socialistic impulse” to have the city government “determine every single plot of land [and] how development would proceed… In short, New York has turned private property into government-run subsidized housing without footing the bill, or in any other way compensating owners for using their private property as a public subsidy”
“Some politicians are treating the real-estate industry like a toxic chemical,’’ said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf. “It’s because of pressure from the Left. It’s left-wing populism”, the N.Y Post reported Sheinkopf saying .
Another source who attended the event said the no-show pols “don’t want to be seen as close to real estate.”
Senator Chuck Schumer was one of the high-profile Democrats who did attend.
“It is my goal to be the first New Yorker ever to be the majority leader in the Senate of the United States. And if I get that office, I’m going to tell you two things: We will get Gateway [the Amtrak Hudson River tunnel project] built, and we are going to restore the full deduction of state and local taxes,” Schumer said to thunderous applause, the Post reported.
